More Brackets - More Critters

The Queen of Paint was very busy this weekend putting fresh coats of paint on the brackets we made last weekend.

Meanwhile, I finished framing the screen porch door and the sheathing around it.


I dont know what this big fella is but, obviously, he felt no threat from me. If anyone knows what this is or has ever seen one before, please let me know.

Speaking of being threatened, I was not terribly surprised to find this venomous female under a plank that had been laying on the ground for a couple of months.

I finished the bird-mouths for the brackets and managed to cut into a carpenter bee nest. Good thing this one was not at home.

I grabbed the old tarp that can be seen in the background of the first photo above to use as a cover over my tools and generator while painting the bird-mouth cuts. I was very pleased to see this little fellow come out from under it.

This is a Grey Rat snake and is the answer to my mouse problem. Notice the oval head shape and the round pupils. This distinguishes a non-venomous snake from the dangerous ones which have arrowhead shaped heads and vertical slit pupils.

Brackets Galore!

This was bracket building weekend.

And mowing weekend. That is when Carolyn scared up this little monster...



She had hundreds of baby spiders on her back. Every time one would fall off, she would use one of her legs to sweep it back on. I have no idea how she would even know.

A little ray of sunshine...

Finally a weekend of dryness. More mice.
Baby birds.
And baby Persimmon trees. I guess the rain was good for something.

Finally a little work was done. Carolyn stained the T-111 we are going to use inside the screened porch.

And I managed to get the bird-mouths cut and the brackets pre-drilled on one of the gable ends.

And between us we mowed about 2 acres of grass and brush with our trusty push mower.