And more wildlife...

...but this one wasn't very welcomed.

It's very rare these days for all of us to be sitting together in the dining room for dinner.  Last night we actually did; well, between clearing the table, getting drinks for the kids, opening a bottle of wine...  I think I sat down for about a total of two minutes when Mrs. Forest looks up at the corner of the dining room and says "What the $&*! is that!?"  My first thought, before even looking up, was "Probably a big spider."  Well, it could have been a big spider or at least a big furry tarantula.  Nope, it was a bat!

Yup, it was just hanging upside down on the wall.  So dinner ended early and we decided to retire (aka run) to the family room.  Actually, at first I thought "Wow, that's pretty kool," but quickly it went to "How the F am I going to get it out of the house!?"  I knew I needed a net but knew the kids' butterfly net wouldn't do.  I called a neighbor that I knew would have a pool net who just happens to be an ex police dectective, they get bat removal training - right?  All kidding aside, as I had assumed, he did have some experience with removing bats from a house.

He arrived within minutes with his pool net which was more shallow than I had hoped.  His response was that it wasn't a butterfly net and that all we needed was to trap it and kill it.  I wasn't into that idea, not because I'm Buddhist, but because I couldn't see how we were going to kill it without squashing it and getting blood and guts all over the place.  So I convinced him that I could trap it with the pool net and then go underneath with the butterfly net, sandwich the bat between nets and get it out of the house.

I imagined the thing taking off as I approached but it didn't.  I imagined it escaping when trying the sandwich move but it didn't.  I imagined it pooping on the floor, it did.  Other than that it went pretty smooth, though there were times when I was going to scream like a little girl!

My neighbor was the one to get it out and he took it to the street to let it free.  It seemed to have trouble with trying to fly away and it ended up crawling away instead.  I don't know if it was in shock or sick, I'm pretty sure we didn't hurt it.  Well, hopefully it's happier now and flying around eating mosquitos.  I know I am, happier, that is!

Of course I thought of pictures after the fact, maybe next time.  Just kidding Mrs. Forest.

More Wildlife

Pulled into the driveway this past Friday after work and noticed this young buck enjoying the yard.

Tree Update

More trees have been taken down!  Thanks again to Mr. H for all the invaluable help and tree experience. 

A total of 6 trees came down - 3 cedars, 1 dead dogwood and 2 fir or spruce.  Three were 15-20 ft tall and fairly easy to take down but the other three were 30-40 ft tall and took a little more effort.

We're not big advocates for taking down trees but our yard has just become too overgrown and the health of our house and surrounding trees are getting compromised.  Here are a few pictures of my favorites in the yard (maple & flowering dogwood).

Kitchen Update

Believe it or not, the kitchen island is almost done!  I haven't taken pictures of it lately but I do have some progress pictures.  Below are pictures of the sink install into the butcher block counter. 

It took awhile to layout the opening but the cutting went rather quickly.  I had thought that the cutting would be the most difficult part.  My past experience with cutting 3/4" plywood using my father's old Black & Decker jigsaw was not very encouraging.  Well let me tell you the Bosch jigsaw went through the 1-1/4" butcher block "Like BUTTA!"

Also, here's a picture of the working - yes working - dishwasher!

All that is left to do is to attach the back panels and toe kick to the island and install some drawer hardware!

And another giveaway!

One project closer is having another Skil giveaway - a 7-1/4" Skilsaw 

Deadline is today so head over to their site and enter!

Giveaway from One Project Closer.

One Project Closer is giving away a Skil Random Orbit sander.  Enter now as there's less then until the deadline!  This would be great for conditioning the new butcher block counter we are currently putting in.

Another project!

One of the fathers (Mr. H) from my daughter's 2nd grade class made me an offer I couldn't refuse.  He offered to come by to cut down trees and help clear up the overgrowth in the yard.  Now, the bathroom and kitchen are on the priority list as far as projects go but this offer I just couldn't pass up.  Especially since they just sold their house and would be leaving town in July!

Yesterday, we got started around 8 am.  Mrs. Forest and I wanted to take down a huge Mulberry that was leaning and had some fairly big dead branches, one of which had fallen a year or two ago.  We cleared the area around the Mulberry to gain access to the trunk and once we got a better look at the trunk we decided to clear more of the surrounding area and then decide if we still wanted to tree to come out.

Well 5-6 hrs later we cleared a lot more of the area than I had originally thought.  Mrs. Forest wanted the area cleared out anyway but I was amazed at the amount of work we got done.  We could have continued but I was dying and could keep up with Mr. H (who's 10 yrs older, by the way).

We ended up taking out a lot of small maples, small oaks, yews, pines and a bunch of other stuff (mostly of the poisonous variety).  The transformation is amazing and the pictures I took don't really show the size of the area we cleared.  Below is a before and after of the Mulberry.

Now I have a couple of huge piles for the wood chipper and about 2 seasons worth of leaves to clean up but it's all worth it.  Thank you Mr. H!