We're back!

Hey Y'all,

Now that Larry's sister is home from the hospital, we're getting back to normal.

We've lost some time this trip, so re-roofing the pump house will be put off until next trip. In the meantime, Larry installed two security cameras on the outside of the house (facing the dock and up the driveway) and running network wires around it. Having a network cable plugged into our DVR box also allows us to order pay-per-view movies. I miss those. Having the two cameras allows us to see the lake and anybody who may visit by boat or by car when we're not here. We have cameras at both our MA and RI houses, and looking at live action there keeps us connected. We have missed being connected with SC when we're up North.

He is discovering wiring skills he didn't know he had, but is willing to explore. The problem with learning a new skill is the frustration quotient. He replaced both end connectors three times already on a very long cable, already stapled to the outside of the house and drilled through the concrete blocks at both ends. The cable still doesn't work, so he is researching the problem. We both checked the staple job, and don't see any cable breaks or nicks. He has no idea what the problem is. Therein lies the frustration.

We expect to head north next week. So, between now and then, Larry will replace the tub faucet in the recently fixed bathroom, and I'll get a new shower curtain for it. He'll finish the wiring job and finish filling in the septic trench with clay soil and rock (just a few more inches will do). That'll be enough for one week.

I raked many piles of pine straw that need to be picked up and dumped, plus one last section of lawn to rake. Lots of grass has died, so the raking is hard. I can only do sections at a time. I already bought lots of seed and fertilizer, though, so once I'm done raking, I'll spread those.

We had a huge rain storm last night that we discovered was attached to a tornado three miles away. I had a feeling about the tornado late in the afternoon from the high winds and colors of the sky and water. Very eery looking. I'm happy my intuition is working, but wasn't sure what we'd do if one hit us. Larry and I discussed where we'd sit in the house if it did. I thought our roof would remain attached since it is steel reinforced. Larry said it would be gone.

The weatherperson says no more rain for a week, so one last job for Larry will be to prime our sprinkler system and get it running, so we can water the new seed. We'll have to look for timers as well, so it can get watered while we're away.

It's time to start planning to leave. I am very conflicted about that. I miss my son and my pregnant daughter-in-law, my good friends and some of my siblings, and our new home in RI, but I don't want to leave here. Two months have flown by. It seems like we've only been here for our usual ten days. I'm happy we'll be able to look at the lake once we're gone.

We're on hold

Larry's sister had emergency surgery yesterday to reveal her cancer is back and has taken over. We will be spending much of our time at the hospital, so this blog will be on hold for a little while. Thanks for ready.

"Water, water everywhere..."

We bought a clean gallon plastic jug with a screw top (from KMart) to take the well-water sample that the SC Department of Health and Environment Control (SCDHEC) said they required on their web site. The site also said the chemical test for this sample cost $20. These people (along with Target, but that's another story) need to keep their web sites updated.

Once Larry removed the filters and tapped our sample, we realized how great our filters work. The water we presented for testing looked like chicken broth. If somebody handed me a glass of that and passed it off as water, I'd pour it in a plant before drinking it; just to be polite. The woman at the DHEC office said she couldn't use the container we brought. So, she pulled out a mailing kit from under her counter (Larry had to figure out how to open it) to retrieve the much smaller plastic bottle into which he had to pour our water. We did use the rest of the sample to water the beautiful blooming pink Red Bud trees outside their building. And, the test was $50! What's the point of using the internet for information, if the data is inaccurate? Update those web sites, people!

The site also said we'd receive our results in one to two weeks. Not so again! The multi-part form I completed at the DHEC office didn't offer us a "carbon" copy, so I asked the nice woman to make one for me. The form said it would take six to eight weeks. We won't be here then, so we won't know in this trip what kind of "proper" filtration/softening system we will need. Another annoyance. Oh well. We'll just have to deal with this in June.

Larry also discovered that a valve on the water pump was leaking. He used a wrench to close it, but it still leaked. This meant another trip to Home Depot. I wish we bought stock in this company years ago. We spend huge amounts of money here. Lowe's is our second best friend. I have also reacquainted us with the benefits of using the local hardware store. Unfortunately, remembering to use them requires more work than the huge chain stores. I'm not proud of this fact, it just is a fact. We had a wonderful experience with the local guys, though, so I'll try harder. Not only did they have bags of rock salt that my brother recommended we use to cover the septic pipe, thereby discouraging roots from growing before filling up the trench, but they were also very funny, helpful and made the experience more personal. We will definitely go back.

Larry replaced the valve and added another to make the tank easier to drain in the future. He really is a genius. He can do anything!

Stop and smell the flowers

It's been raining for two days here, but we are happy for the rest. Of course, rest is not all we do on rainy days...we shop! Larry replaced the shower curtain in our renovated bathroom with one of those curved hotel rods. What a difference it makes. And he installed a new Waterpik handshower. Next he'll replace the rusty spout. Our long-term plan for this bathroom is to expand it by about two feet and replace everything in it. The tub will also become a large shower. But, this won't happen until next year, so whatever we can do to make this room more user-friendly and pleasant to be in is "a good thing".

Today, we will buy a gas grill (we only have a huge charcoal grill, and that just takes way too long) and an umbrella to sit over our new glider on the dock. I bought a two-seater glider from the arts & crafts fair at the State Fairgrounds last weekend. It's made from recycled plastic and is really comfortable. Now it just needs some shade. And, I need more grass seed (Centipede seed is really expensive) and fertilizer. We bought pelletized lime last night.

This weekend, Larry will get the sprinkler system primed and working again, so I don't have to depend on the rain to water the yard and new seed. The system is fed from the lake. A couple of years ago, he replaced the motor and some of the heads. Now it works great. He'll also get his brother's boat trailer tires inflated, so Bill can launch the pontoon boat soon. I want to go touring and check out the island across the way: up close and personal-like. Can't wait to get out on the water again.

The Forsythia are beginning to bloom, and I suspect by the end of the week, they should be full and gorgeous. Camillias bloom all year. We have double and single-bloom red, pink and white Camillias. I just love them. We have not been here enough, so I have never planted blooming bulbs. Next fall, those daffodils will go in by the dozens. They are in bloom around town now, and I just love them. I'm told tulips don't do well down here, but daffodils love this climate and soil. Next spring will be amazing.

Every tree and shrub is in "bud" right now. I hope we get to see everything fill out with greenery before we leave at the end of the month. The Oak-Leaf Hydrangea's leaves are starting to hydrate and look healthy again. They have that lovely deep maroon and olive coloring now. It seems more and more leaves are being born on it too. It is a huge bush, and is just beautiful in full bloom.

Spring is my favorite time of year. I just love being here to begin this season of renewal, only to witness another new beginning when we land up north in a month. We are very blessed, and today, I am the happiest woman in the world.

More on the fauna of Lake Murray

Larry and I took a break from our respective projects yesterday to sit on the swing and drink some water. We heard a high-pitched cheeping and I saw a huge bird carrying something in its talons land on a pine tree limb above us. It was a Red-Tailed Hawk calling its mate for lunch. I didn't realize such a large bird could have such a little voice. It sounded like a chicky. But lo' and behold, along came its mate and they flew off together around the point to snack on the little bird or mouse (we couldn't tell exactly what it was) the first hawk caught. They were beautiful. The symphony of bird song is so relaxing. Working outside each day, I listen to it instead of my iPOD.

"Lord love a duck!" Right now, there are three ducks sitting high in another pine tree we can see from our living room window. They are in sillouette, so we can't tell what kind of ducks they are. I've never seen ducks sitting in a tree twenty-five feet off the ground. Who knew? They are flying from tree to tree. There must be a ducky mating ritual afoot. It is spring now, and we've seen lots of mating going on around here.

We've seen pairs of several kinds of ducks: Mallard and Bufflehead mostly. We've also seen Loons, Coots, Cormorants and lots of geese. They swim in groups mostly, but we have seen some lone birds calling for a mate. They swim along and dive for fish. Then they pop up again and dive some more. It's very entertaining. Blue Heron and Kingfisher perch on our dock, sometimes eating their catch of fish. They are beautiful birds.

Larry wants to make a Wood Duck box for our shore so we can attract them. We haven't seen any lately but the year after we bought this place is the only time we think we saw them. If it was Wood Ducks, they did something amazing we wish we could see again. A flock of hundreds of little ducks were swimming together. They hung out around our cove all season. The most amazing thing we saw was that when a predator bird flew overhead, the little ducks quickly swam together in a very large, tight circle and all flapped their wings simultaneously. We believe it was to fool the hawk or eagle into thinking they were one very large creature. It worked! We witnessed them doing this several times that season. It was great, but they have not returned. This is a huge lake, so maybe they are visiting each cove in turn. We hope they come back to ours. It was very cool.

There was a large, dinner-plate-size turtle, Larry calls a Cooter sunning on a fallen tree near the shore yesterday. I've seen them on that tree before. Sometimes several Cooters hang out on it. It is a fun site. As the weather gets warmer, we see little Cooter heads pop up in the water, only to disappear underwater and pop up elsewhere. We have fun counting the heads and keeping track of their numbers. The most we've seen in the water at a single sitting on the dock is eighteen. One spring when we had floating wood in the lake, we saw three Cooters getting friendly with one another. This is one horny place!

Once my brother-in-law gets his boat in the water, I want to pay a visit to Purple Martin Island. The Purple Martins nest there and return each year. People around here install gourd trees to attract them to their yards. The Martins eat mosquitoes, and are very handy to have around. This will be another project someday.

Spring is here, and the lake is alive with "randy" critters of all shapes and sizes. Love is all we need!

Nature at its most basic

A Jeff Foxworthy-esk saying of what's happening to me would be, "I might be a red neck if I sit and watch sparrows having sex and get excited about it." It's true!

I took the pups outside while I finished my cup of coffee and meandered towards our glider on the other side of Larry's brother's pontoon boat. Low and behold, I saw a rumble of flapping wings and rolling little bodies in the sand and dirt. I knew they were little birds, and I think they were Black-cap Chickadees or small sparrows. I couldn't tell if they were two males fighting to the death over territory or having sex. I ran into the house to get my zoom lens and asked Larry. He confirmed the latter. I've never seen birds having sex before, and got very excited (just in a general interest way, of course). Boy, how do I "backstroke" out of this one.

Anyway, I got my camera just knowing I'd miss it by the time I got back out there, but they had just moved to the other side of the boat. I snuck up on them and got a few shots off, but couldn't get close enough for details. Mattie Grace happened to see them at this point and ran over to check out the commotion. The birds didn't even notice her head just four inches above them; just staring. Within seconds, though, Mattie bumped their union. They both looked up startled, instantly separated and flew away. I missed getting this on camera, but I let out the loudest belly laugh. It was great entertainment. Does this make me a Red Neck or just a perv?

Oh, P.S.: Woody Woodpecker (a Pileated Woodpecker) came to visit. It's the first one we've seen in several years. He landed on a pine tree in the water, so the picture I got is in sillouette. His beautiful red crest doesn't show up very well. But he was a handsome guy.

A different water issue

An addendum to the septic project is that the concrete pad that once was in the outdoor shower surrounded the hot and cold water pipes that feed the house. Larry used his brother's "cutter" saw to free the pipes. Unfortunately, the saw jerked and he cut the cold-water pipe. No water in the house for a day.

But, he replaced the pipe with lovely copper and it's in better condition than he found it. Of course it is. Larry can do anything. Today he is unsoldering the hot-water pipe and replacing the pipe with more copper in addition to adding joints. He'll add a mixing hose to both "boiler drains", so I can connect the hose to it and get warm water to rinse the puppies outside. Jackson is turning into a country dawg and is getting filthy every day.

Compared to the projects Larry is taking on during this trip, redoing these pipes is minor and an easy fix. Thank goodness. His poor body needs a rest.