Progress on the Shop Roof

The husband spent all day yesterday putting the plywood sheathing on the shop roof:

He lifted the stack of plywood with the forklift, then climbed up there on a ladder. Each time he pulled a piece of plywood off the stack and dropped it in place, I heard a loud BANG, which was rather disconcerting, but at least it let me know he hadn’t fallen off the roof. (Not that he would; he really does move like a cat up there.)

The view from the inside:

It’s a lot darker in there now.

I went out to the garden to weed while it was still fairly cool. I was over by the zucchini and cukes, which are on black plastic, and I could hear slithering underneath the plastic. I am sure there are a bunch of garter snakes in that area. I told them that they needed to make sure they got out of my way so I didn’t step on them. I would hate to smush one.

I am a bit worried about the raspberry patch, not because we won’t get any, but because the canes are loaded. I think the same thing happened there that happened to the grapes last year. I cut them back and they responded by becoming overachievers. We’ll know in another week or two.

I don’t like to be out in the sun for too long, so mid-morning, I went back into the house to clean and do some sewing. When I was over at Elysian’s house the other day, her son (he’s 5-1/2) informed me that he couldn’t use the race car pillowcase I made him for Christmas because it was flannel and it was too hot. I promised to make him a summer one. He’s currently very much into dinosaurs so I picked up a yard of some dino fabric at Joanns and ran one up. I’ve also got the strips for the scrap quilt finished and I’m ready to assemble the whole thing.

I’ve found a few escapees from the herb garden. The other night when I was cutting the grass, I ran over a large clump of oregano in the middle of the yard. I was suddenly craving pizza. The other day, I noticed this:

It’s a rogue columbine and it’s next to the porch.

The plants do what they want. Mostly I just watch.

The bears have not been back, at least not that we’re aware. I did see a picture of a young grizzly down at the fish hatchery. The fish hatchery is about a mile south of our church. The grizzly figured out it could sit on the dock and swipe rainbow trout from the spillway. I’m not sure how they’re going to manage that one.

And I found this in the yard:

It was in a patch of tall grass next to the porch. The husband was weed-whacking over there and uncovered it. The mama bird did come back to sit on it (I think it may be a northern junco). I am just not sure how we’re going to keep Lila and Rusty from discovering it. If I thought the mama would follow me, I would move it to the grass behind the chicken coop where the dogs can’t go.

The husband says that I cannot carry the weight of the natural world on my shoulders. When I wondered aloud what bird species nested in the grass, he said, “Extinct ones.”

Every year, I manage to violate the Prime Directive at least a couple of times. Why should this year be any different?

DD#1 and her boyfriend are coming for a visit this week. This is the boyfriend’s first trip to this part of Montana. He grew up in Alaska so I don’t think he’ll be freaked out by random bears wandering around.