Ottertail Country

Ottertail Country
Ottertail South

September 24, 2007

Happy birthday to you, happy bir............


Today is my birthday!! I'm glad it's near the end of September, as the weather is usually the best of the entire year. It's been a little hot and humid these last weeks, but it sounds like things will improve tomorrow. September is always an excellent time of year at The Lodge. Makes it hard to focus on the two-due list....



These leaves are on the big maple in the back yard. They are at eye level a couple of feet away from the deck. My favorite view.



The trees in the southwest corner of the yard are starting to kick in. This is the top of a younger hard maple. It always turns into a red-orange riot.



There's that back yard maple. Some of the top branches are bare, some bottom ones still green. Nice combination.



We had put sealer on the garage concrete in late August, and Saturday seemed like an excellent day to give it a second coat with the remaining sealer.



With that task done, I got going on finishing the refurbishing of an old snowmobile trailer that Peg has. I got the lights working and the safety chains put on. Ready to go.... On Sunday we went to Wausau Menards and got all the supplies for the siding on the garage. We also stopped at Rosie's apartment and picked up the remaining items of Bryn's to take back to Ogema. Bed frame, box spring, and a few small items. We also drove her car back to our place. She is getting by O.K. so far with bike and bus in Milwaukee.



Now it was time to make the dreaded climb to the top of the roof to see what the extent of the chimney repairs would be.....



Here is what I found. Looks like it will have to be rebuilt from the roof up, not just the top half..... hmmmm.... This blasted roof is STEEP! I had to come up with some way to deal with it. I got out the wooden extensions ladders, got a coil of big rope and started to put some walking assistants on the roof.



Here's the top foot and a half of chimney. The bricks were falling apart and falling off the chimney. News to you, eh Lucy??? Anyway, one section of ladder starts at the edge of the roof and is laying on the roof. It reaches part way up the roof, a rope is tied to it and the rope goes over the roof and is tied to the Festiva. Another ladder is laying on the next section of roof and reaches to the chimney base. It is held on the roof by a rope tied to it, which then goes over the top of the roof and is tied to the tractor.... I'll take some pix of this set-up next time I'm out with the camera.




Now if you were a chimney, or lightning rod... this is what you would see if you were gazing toward the west, mostly woods that way.





If you looked to the north, you would see the fields and Johnson's tree farm.



East is mostly woods after the field. The backyard maple is a little taller than the house.



The view to the south is of the... well the trees to the south. These views are a little different than I'm used to seeing. It is actually quite nice up there, once you get up those drastic slopes......

See youse guys later, I'm gonna birthday a little now.....





_____________Hey, fly that aeroplane, would ya???_____________

4 comments:

Anonymous said...

Love all the pictures. Great colors and I have worried about that chimney. Don't know how you can go up there. Years ago when we painted the house I was able to go up to the top of the upstairs windows and not any higher. Be very careful.

Mom

Anonymous said...

Nice Calo, very nice!!! And that's exactly the way I would probably fly that plane, only a lot more smoke and flames perhaps.

s.d.

Anonymous said...

I like the pics, they make me miss home. Happy birthday.
Booghost

yram said...

Hey....great pics. can't believe I never got up there as a kid.
Hope you had a good birthday. I know I had a good day on your birthday. heehee....