A third pond?

My apologies for my long absence from my blog. There wasn't much going on with the house and I needed a break. So...let's see what I need to catch you up on...

DH has been busy around the house. He has been trying to come up with a design for an outdoor light fixture that will not be annoyingly bright. He wants the lights to be directed up and then reflected back down as indirect light. Here is the start of what he has in mind...

The 4 lights will shine up and bounce light off a reflective surface that will be attached to the upper frame. Stay tuned for the end result...
A trench has been dug in the side yard from the end of the garage to the trees outside the pool fence. DH plans to run electrical wire to the trees and string up some decorative lights out there.
The Saturday before last we had a huge bonfire going. There were several trees that were taken down when the house was built that were left lying in the field behind the pool, plus some trees that fell in the remnants of a hurricane that passed through last September. We worked for 5-6 hours cutting up the trees and brush and burning it.
There are still a lot of trees that need to be cut up and burned, but at least we made some progress...
This past weekend (starting on Friday), we purchased and planted what seemed like a gazillion plants and trees. DH brought home a van load of plants on Wednesday and we brought home another van load on Friday. By Sunday evening, thanks to DH, they were all in the ground. I kept him supplied with diet Pepsi, removed all the tags from the plants, and watered them each day. Most of the plants went in the front of the house. We still need to buy and plant things near the pool and on the edges of the long section of our driveway.
When we moved last year, we got rid of our gas grill that was no longer in good shape. We decided to replace it with a charcoal grill and Saturday night we put it together...
It has a small propane tank that is used to ignite the charcoal. Once the charcoal is burning, the propane is turned off and the charcoal continues to burn. We cooked hamburgers on the grill last night and they were delicious! We haven't cooked over charcoal in so long, we'd forgotten how much better the food tastes! The container on the right side of the grill tilts out and holds a bag of charcoal...
So, this weekend we discovered a third "pond" on our property. The melted snow/rain that collected in the pool cover over the winter is about 2-3 feet deep and the bottom is covered in leaves. On Saturday I was out by the pool checking out the planter boxes...
and discovered all these TADPOLES in the water! There must be thousands of them! I also found 6 toads around the edge of the pool cover, popping their heads up out of the water every now and then for some air. DH is getting ready to drain the pool cover. I think I'll try to catch some of the tadpoles and transport them down to one of the ponds, otherwise they'll get pumped out with the pool cover water and die.
So, Tortellini had a great time outside while we were planting and watering the new trees and bushes. He wandered all around the front of the house and seemed to be having a wonderful time...
He didn't stay in the dirt and grass - he climbed up on the sidewalk and wandered around the driveway too...
Here is one of the flowers that I splurged on at Lowes this weekend. It is called a Lollipop Gerbera and the color is Watermelon. The actual colors are a bit deeper than the photo shows...
I wandered down by the ponds a couple of weeks ago and found some crocus, and some daffodils like this one...
And this butterfly...
And, wonder of wonders (!!!), I actually found the koi that we were told were in the ponds. We've never seen them in the two years that we've owned the property. There are both black and orange koi. Supposedly, the ponds were stocked with 1000 koi several years ago. I'm not sure how they survived after what I've read about the specialized care they need. The ponds don't even have a filtration system. You'll need to click on the photo to see the koi...
OK, on to the craft projects I've been working on...I embroidered this little dress for a friend's daughter...
And this little top with the furry bunny...
For a bridal shower, I embroidered napkins...
And made some placemats and napkins...
I made this necklace and earrings set...
And this one took forever to make!...
It was time for a new purse, so I made a Springtime one...
With lots of pockets on the inside...
Back in February I found a really good deal on a slightly used Pazzles Inspiration machine and have been experimenting with it. This was a card that I made for DD...
And I made cards like this for my mom and my MIL...
This is the inside of the Easter card...
And I learned how to make overlays - cutouts for photos. This one is for DD's fraternity, Kappa Kappa Psi...
This is an overlay that I made for my BIL. He hasn't seen it yet. My sister will be up visiting from TX next month and will take it back with her. The overlay is 12x12...
At the end of March, DH and I drove to Winchester, VA to hear DD play Bohuslav Martinu's Concerto for Oboe and Orchestra with the Shenandoah Conservatory's Symphony Orchestra. She was one of the "2009 Student Soloists Competition Winners"...
I had a run-in with a very large, very sharp knife just before Easter and ended up with 6 stitches, and a splint to keep me from bending my knuckle. This photo was taken several days after it happened, when the wound was to be left uncovered but I still needed the bandages to hold the splint on my finger. After almost 2 weeks the stitches came out, and it is now healing up well.
I leave you today with this sign which I see whenever I drive up to Slippery Rock University to pick up our DS - it makes me laugh...

Freshness guaranteed!

So, we decided to walk our property after church today to see if we might be able to find a tree suitable for use as a Christmas tree. We discovered that the ponds are partially frozen, but with the warmer weather today and tomorrow I bet the ice doesn't last long.
In a couple of different locations we found corn cobs. DH thinks that hunters put the corn out to attract the deer. We don't know if these are from this year or if they've been on here for a long time.
One of the trees down by the river has a large nest in the top - not sure what, if anything, lives there...
So, we found this tree which was growing too close to the hardwood tree and decided to see if the top of it would work as a Christmas tree...
DH decided that the chainsaw was the way to go...
Cutting down the tree (we think it's a blue spruce)...
TIMBER!!!!!
I can't believe that DH carried the tree by himself all the way up to the house! It was a heavy tree!
The tree was a bit sparse on one side so we put that side toward the door. The trunk is a bit crooked, so we had to tie it up to insure that it won't tip over.
There is a bit of a bare area on one side, but once we hang some of my longer ornaments in that space, it won't look so bad...
It does, however, look very funny from the side - it looks like half a tree!
Here is a shot of the river - I took 4 photos when we were down near the river, and stitched them together into a panoramic. Click on the photo to see it better...
And DH found another golf ball for DD while we were out looking for a tree!

So, we didn't have to buy a tree this year, we took down a tree that needed to come down so a nearby tree can grow, and the freshness of the tree is certainly guaranteed this year!

Brrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!

DD and I walked down to the ponds this morning to see if we could find any fish. I snapped a photo of the patio side of the house on our way down to the ponds...

This is the larger of the two ponds. We saw only one small fish and it didn't look like a koi. We've been told the pond was stocked with 1000 koi fish by our neighbor. I have yet to see anything that looks like a koi.
There are some very nice cattails at the pond however...
This is the smaller pond. There are lots of frogs in this pond. We can hear them jump in the pond as we walk around the edge, but they sure are hard to see!

We saw this wasp nest hanging by the back door. We have several of them near the front door also. I had never seen a tube-shaped nest before...
DH started a bonfire tonight to burn all the packing paper and boxes from our move. There was a lot to get rid of!
The pool is filled about half way now...
DD decided to go wading in the pool this afternoon. She said it felt pretty good. She swept some of the stones down to the deep end.
After dinner we loaded the car with DD's "stuff" so we can deliver it to her new college apartment tomorrow. Then DD decided it was time to go for a swim. She and I went in the pool and it was VERY COLD!! She made it all the way in first. It took me a while to work up the courage to get all the way in, but eventually I made it. Afterwards, I ran myself a nice hot bath to warm up!

DH has been working on getting the projector and screen up and working. Tonight we were able to watch some of the Olympics on the big screen. The screen is hidden up behind the valance when it's not in use.

The weather was just beautiful today and I opened all the downstairs windows, turned on the whole house fan, and let the breezes cool the house. It felt wonderful! The whole house fan really did a great job of drawing the heat up the stairs and out of the house, and it also drew the cooler breezes in from outdoors.