Wet and Wriggling

Today was a tich bit damp, in fact so damp that when I got up this morning the little snow we did manage to accumulate in the past week was gone.  And good riddance I say.  The lake still had ice on it but sitting on the ice was about three or four inches of water.  So needless to say, all the snow which had accumulated over the ice is also gone.  The thermometer hovered around the 10 degree mark pretty much all day.  Yippee.  This is one Cannuckian who is appreciating not having a ton of winter to put up with.  Yet another benefit of not living in the mountains anymore.  Speaking of mountains I here tell from some of the folks I still keep in touch with back there that it has been very cold, and very much snow as of late.  Sucks to be them I guess. 

Today was mudding day for the ceiling in the kitchen.  Mudding drywall sucks.  Sanding dried mud sucks even more.  But it has to be done, and typically not by me, because how can I put this so you understand...oh yeah, because I suck at it.  So hubby did mudding, which he is good at.  Also the window and the door got some new framing for the inside, they both look so much better already that one has to wonder just how bad the whole place looked before we started this project.  The kitchen is all echoee with so much of it being gone.  It almost looks huge...almost.  I'm sure that illusion will change once the new cabinets go back in. 

On my walk in the rain today I took the opportunity to take out my cutter/hacker thingee (yes that is the technical term for it, google it) and cut out some annoying trees, branches, and shrubs in a couple of the areas I am trying to civilize.  That project is also starting to look much better already.  I am trying to hack away all the crappy alder trees so that the birch trees can grow without being overpowered.  The alders around here are like gigantic ugly weeds and seem to suck the life out of any other trees which do not have a tendency to act like alien pod things.  So anytime the weather permits and I can spend a little time grooming back there I do.  And although I haven't had much time lately the little I have gotten done has made a big difference. I have a picture I took a couple of days ago to show you the viewers of my new parklike area in the back forty.  You can see where I have been thinning out the area and where I haven't because the crap-assed alders are still skulking around on the ground (mocking me).