Not much building progress was made this year. Gary hurt his foot in February and later got blood clot that required surgery and a lengthy recovery. After he recovered from that, he fell and broke his hip. I did have a good deal of time to devote to the garden and really enjoy all the spring blooms.

Spring turned to summer. It seemed like an especially colorful summer with many beautiful blooms. Woody in the photo below is helping me tear out my water system. I decided to remove it as too many repairs are needed each spring. I actually find watering at the end of the day to be relaxing. I am also reducing and simplifying my garden areas. I created a monster and feel like I have to spend too much time weeding and trimming. This was also the last summer for the inflatable pool. The pool below was in it's third year and half way through the summer I gave up on trying to repair leaks and took it down. Next year will will get a more permanent pool.

I love my little barn kitchen. I frequently make smoothies here for lunch in the summer. 

I pair of Blue Birds built a nest in this birdhouse. We enjoyed watching them from the barn deck.

Olive lead the "Strut Your Mutt" pledge walk for Mitchell County Animal Rescue in August. She raised $1000 to help the animals at the shelter. I made the bandanas for all the pledge walkers and chaired the committee. The firs picture below is the old Penland postoffice, still in use and loved by many.

Below is my version of a barn quilt. I wanted one to put on the wall near the entrance to the wood shop. It's made of pressure treated lumber and quite heavy. The rusted saw blade is from Doug Sigler's wood shop.

Gary was ready to get back to work in September and did a lot of tractor work in preparation for a septic system for the barn. 

Ground bee nests become a big problem in late summer. I got stung six times while mowing and wow, did that hurt. I bundled up in a Tyvek suit to deal with the nest and actually wore this outfit in areas where I feared more nests. 

The indoor/outdoor rug on the barn porch was starting to look really shabby so I decided to paint it. It required quite a bit of paint but I was happy with the result, so it was worth the expense and time. It is so much easier to maintain now and if it get a big stain, red wine for example, I can just paint over it. 

This is our neighbor Diane with her giant zucchini. I love this picture but prefer, young, small, tender zucchini. 

Suddenly it was fall. I redid a lampshade on this old lamp that belonged to my mother. I used Modpodge to glue a layer of Kraft color tissue paper to the original shade. Then used pressed lace cap hydrangea leaves and blossoms with several more layer so Modpodge.

We decided we had better have that broken pine taken down before winter and possible Ice storms. It had to be taken down in pieces as it was leaning over the cabin. The two guys who did this were amazing. 

Continue to 2020