May 12th, 2009
Nearly three years later… I have finally started digging a spot for the outbuilding.

It doesn’t look like much but represents a real start to a long-delayed project.
Here are some of the rocks removed so far:

If field stones ever become a precious commodity, I’ll be set for life.
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September 19th, 2007
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September 10th, 2007
Her name is Holly – because she Hauls stuff. I hope our relationship is short and sweet.

Holly is a 1996 Ford F150, full-sized pickup truck. She’s got a 5L inline six-cylinder engine, 5-speed manual transmission, and 4-wheel drive. We don’t go out much – she’s a heavy drinker and I can’t afford the tab. But I make sure every trip is worthwhile.
Other vehicles I’ve run with:
- Yellow 1977 Honda Civic 4-speed – “Henry Honda”
- Yellow 1976 Honda Civic CVCC 5-speed hatchback – “Hank”
- Blue 1977 Honda Civic 4-speed
- Blue 1978 Honda Accord 5-speed hatchback
- Blue 1971 BMW 2002 4-speed sedan
- Black 1973 Mazda RX-3 coupe – rotary engine!
- Black 1985 Honda Civic 1500S 5-speed hatchback – “Hugo”
- Red 1986 Volkswagen Golf GTI 5-speed hatchback
- Red 1987 Volkswagen Golf GTI 16V 5-speed hatchback
- Silver 1984 Volkswagen Rabbit GTI 5-speed hatchback
- Green 1991 Honda Civic Si 5-speed hatchback
- Blue 1991 Subaru Legacy 5-speed AWD sedan – “Suzie”
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July 24th, 2007
Almost forgot: I photographed a bunch of new paintings by Cedar, Cindy, and Sandy.
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June 25th, 2007
There’s tons of work to be done but sometimes a person just isn’t in the mood. So this morning I took pictures of my CD collection. I’ll soon have to pack all this stuff away and might want to look at it.
Actually it’s not the entire collection, just the cases with readable spines – there are also many flat sleeves, CD-Rs, box sets, etc. Mostly good music but admittedly a few duds. Not sure why I keep those.
Warning: the collection page is quite large, about 2MB of images. Here is a sample of the “various artists” discs at the end:

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June 22nd, 2007
New paintings by deb, Greta, Christine, and Linda. Check it out.
Lunchtime… I like my sandwiches as tall as they are wide.

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June 13th, 2007
The fawn was gone on my last visit. I took pictures of his empty nest but they’re kind of boring compared to what flew in after:

The sun had already set, and the last bit of orange in the sky filtered through the trees to light the spot where the owl landed. I took a lot of photographs but none of them are very good. The conditions were just too difficult, with maximum tele, maximum lens opening, maximum ISO, near darkness, weak autofocus, aging eyes…
Anyway the owl behaved much the same as last time, following me around, hooting, and snapping his beak. I scanned the area for any sign of a nest or young, but I think he or she defends the entire woods. A second owl was returning calls and stayed at a distance.


In other news, a big maple tree fell over. I wasn’t there to hear it, but I’m betting it made a terrible noise. Two of me could barely reach around the base.

It smashed a big hemlock on the way down.

The entire trunk was split down the middle.

That’s my boot.
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June 10th, 2007
I finished taking Interior Photos today. It was difficult without a wide-angle lens – can’t get far enough back to provide a good view, especially for the smaller rooms. Bright windows were a problem also, especially in the basement. The house is well-lit but the human eye is much better than a camera at handling the contrast.

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June 7th, 2007
Yesterday I had a nice visit with a barred owl. It stayed in one area of the woods, hooting at me from different angles. Unfortunately I didn’t have my camera along so today I returned, expecting to find the owl defending its territory again.
There was no sign of the owl – but in almost the very same spot I found a young fawn. Had to pat myself on the back for not frightening the little thing.

Fawn’s mom was probably off somewhere gobbling up tasty plants. I thought the deer had eaten the only orchid along the stream, but this year there’s a bunch more just a few feet away.

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