Happy Thanksgiving!

In the Adirondacks we've already had our share of frosts and even some slight snow. Still, it hasn't been that cold yet. Winter takes longer nowadays to reach full force.

The contracting work on the outside of our house is just about done. There's a little inside work, but that should be finished well before Christmas ... I hope. The last couple of months have been filled with outside work that absolutely had to be finished before the winter.

We got this thing called a footing drain put in around the house. Which necessitated my having to dig up and move any of the foundation plantings I hoped to save beforehand. My aging knees took it hard! I only wish I'd had the time and energy to move all of the plants. But how do you move 20 years of plantings in 2 weeks?

The contractor moved two giant hardy azaleas to a new spot for me. But I had to cut off the tops as the diminished roots wouldn't have been able to support six feet of foliage. I won't know if they survived the move till next spring.

We also switched from a single buried outside oil tank to two inside the basement. I learned that outside oil tanks can usually only be relied on for about 20 years. Ours was 25, so it was an accident waiting to happen.

When the contractors were done  with the foundation work, I gathered rocks from around the yard and scattered them under the drip line from the roof so the rain wouldn't pound down directly in a straight line through the sandy soil, but instead would scatter a bit after hitting the rocks. We don't do roof gutters in the Adirondacks because the heavy snows tend to rip them off the roof. Then I caulked and repainted the cinder block foundation to help protect it from the weather.

Over the weekends we went through the basement and threw out as much stuff as possible to make up for the space now taken by the new oil tanks. We would have continued painting outside, but the weather has gotten too cold for some of the paints. That work will be waiting for us in April when it starts to get warm again.

I am really REALLY ready for the Holidays!

May all of you have a very Happy Thanksgiving this week! May your blessings be greater than you can count. And may they stretch on into the New Year!