Building Furniture

Since I got my patio covered I decided to try my hand at building some patio furniture.  I ordered a couple of magazines on the subject and once I got them, I started on something rather small and easy.  I built this table in one morning following the instructions and it came out fairly well.

Since it came out nice, I decided to try something a little harder and built this bench.

It also came out nice.  I built this bench with treated lumber and I think I will take it down to the picnic area and chain it to a tree down there overlooking the river.  I will chain it because that area floods almost every time we get a heavy rain and hopefully that will keep it from washing away.  I will build another one for the patio and paint it white to match the table.

Then I really like the picture of this chair in the magazine and decided to try my luck with it.  It was a little more difficult because it called for miter cuts which are not hard except for a novice like me.  I bought some extra lumber in case I messed up and I needed it too but only for one piece.

It came out looking good but it is not very comfortable.  I think maybe I used too many slats in the seat and that made it too rigid and hard.  I will go today and see if I can’t find some cushions for it.

I am going to give this project a couple of days of rest this next week and then I might get busy again.

Rainbow

As most of you know, we haven’t gotten a lot of rain this year or last year for that matter.  It has been really dry and we are under restrictions for when and how much we can water our lawns, etc.  We got a nice shower the other night and it was nice being able to sit outside on my newly covered patio and listen to the rain and enjoy the fresh smell that only rain can bring to the air.

We have been hoping for rain for a long time and just a few days before we got our shower, we had some hope show up in the sky in the form of a rainbow.  We didn’t get any rain that day but it came a day or so later.

Wild Pigs

For those of you who have been following this blog for a long time, you will remember last year when we were trying to catch some wild pigs in a trap.  We went through  a lot of different ways of trying to set the trap and we didn’t catch anything but Jack one time and a couple of birds another time.  We finally just gave up and left the pigs alone.

We saw the pigs several times since then on walks and have heard and seen evidence of them running around the ranch.

This past week I was taking a morning walk and walked down towards the picnic area and lo and behold, there were two pigs in the trap.

 

I have never dealt with a pig before or any other wild animal so I didn’t know how to go about killing it and getting it ready for the butcher.   So we call a friend, Jerry Day and he came out and got the pigs ready for the meat market.  We took them down and now we have a lot of pork in the freezer.  Margaret and Jack are trying out the sausage tonight and I am going to try the pork chops.  I have heard that wild pigs are some mighty good eating.  I sure hope so.

Mystery Solved

I have finally solved the mystery of why the Squirrels around here are so active and playful.

Too much sugar water.

Patio, Bats and Moths

I am sorry that I haven’t written anything to the blog is so long but I have been busy getting a cover put on my patio.  I figured after almost 10 years, it was about time.  I finally got it finished yesterday with the final paint bush stroke and am now ready to get patio furniture and start enjoying it.  I will probably wait until Fall for the furniture when it all goes on sale.  I have a couple of tables and chairs so I am good until fall.

I installed four ceiling fans and also wired it for outdoor speakers so it will stay cool and you can listen to music outdoors.  I am really enjoying it so far.

I have also tried to build a bat house, hoping to attract Bats so maybe they can eat up all the Mosquitoes .  I got the plans off the internet and it was pretty simple.  Now we will see if the Bats will come.

I went out this morning and found this big guy hanging around.  It was about the size of a Bat but I don’t think he eats Mosquitoes.