Lumbering along

The down side of living in Minnesota is once it gets warm, you can almost hear the clock ticking while you listen to the birds singing. This year has been unusually warm in flyover country, so I got an early start to thinking that I needed to get my outdoors projects done; winter's coming.

It was only yesterday, for example, that I pulled the famous "bench" out of the hangar and brought it back to its rightful summertime home on the front lawn. It felt like I'd waited until summer was half over to do it -- it was May 29, for crying out loud.

But this attitude can work for you, too. For example, this was the great then-six-year deck rebuilding project last summer.



And here it is this afternoon:



Last year:



Today:





I had actually gotten the railings up on the top tier before last winter came, but it was the discover of the amazing jumping talents of Luci the Blog Dog which got me motivated to finish the deck (I still have to do the top cap and I'm thinking of building in some "window boxes").

A few weeks ago, Carolie left for work and found Luci by the garage door, but we couldn't figure out how she got out from the fenced-in back yard. Carolie watched closely for a few days and then she revealed her trick. When she wanted to chase rabbits in the front yard, she went up to the deck and then jumped off ... and over a four-foot-high chain link fence located a good 4 or five feet from her departure point.

She'll need a Plan B, now.