Deck Destruction

My arms and hips are so sore. We tore apart the deck this weekend. I must have unscrewed a million screws. We were using power tools. Dear Hubby has a nice collection of drills with screw driver bits. But they all weigh a bit, and when you 'lift, move, place, push, squeeze the trigger' a few hundred thousand times, the muscles revolt.

My hips hurt cos I helped haul all the old icky lumber away, and helped haul the new lumber from the truck to the deck location. Sheesh! It was heavy! I'm not supposed to carry anything over 10 pounds because of my back, but I find myself doing it anyway cos I feel totally guilty not helping in these situations. I know, I know----do I want some cheese with that whine.

We managed to get the upper deck rebuilt, except for the railing, yesterday. We're using treated wood for the foundation--like we should have the first time. It has a 50 year warranty against decay. And we're using Trex decking for the deck part. It's plastic, but it has a wood grain, a nice cedary color, and is guaranteed for 25 years not to split, warp, crack, rot, mold....and I'd like to see the carpenter ants try and chew on it! Hah! The best part, though, is the fact we don't have to stain it, paint it, or put weather protectant on it. HURRAY!!!!!

Saw a new bird on the bird feeder this morning. Can't find it in the book (Audubons book of North American Birds) but it sure is pretty. It left before I could get a good look at it's beak. If I could see the beak, I'll probably be able to identify it. It had a bright orange chest though.

Since I mixed black thistle seed in with the bird seed I'm seeing a lot more new birds. I've always been rather disappointed cos we don't have the birds my Dad has in Michigan. He has such colorful ones...bright red cardinals and whatnot. Ours looked so dull in comparison. I have since discovered we have bright ones too. They prefer black thistle seeds. I've seen the bright orange of the Rufous-sided Towhee, the gleaming yellow of the Yellow Tanager, and the red and purple of the various finches around here. And who knew we had so many varieties of chickadee?! Which reminds me--I have not seen any blue birds yet. I wonder where they are?

Have a great day.