My Backyard: February 2016

Lights!

We needed new lighting in the living room so I bought a brand new ceiling fan light kit and WOW was it bright!

This gives Mike ideas. We had bought another palm frond looking ceiling fan at a garage sale and had installed it in Mike's shop. He got busy and re-installed in our dining area to match the one in the living room. Nice.

Now he's a project in mind. It involves these metal fence posts that we dug out years ago and some major power tools.

He cut those posts to size and painted them white to match the lanai. He screwed them into the wall and installed our "old" ceiling from the dining area into the lanai.

Nice!

~~ Camera! ~~

Shrike!

Fence Flowers!

Blooming like crazy!

This mocking bird gave quite a show. He was just singing away and hopping up and down on the wire.

~~ Action! ~~

Not very exciting for action but it's a bowl of pinecones.

Yes, yes, it's a paint project. I had acquired this set of brightly colored bowls for cheap (read free) and I had an idea for a decorative project.

So I painted them to look like zinnias (kinda) and one that looks like an acorn.

The plant is an elephant ear. Cindy had sent me one a long time ago and it grew into this HUGE six foot plant. The original plant died but it had put out many babies. They never grew back. Every one of them got about this big and died but they still kept coming up. Maybe this time I can get one growing again.

Elby checking out the new area... and the new plant.

Um, Elby loves plants!!

And here's your action. She immediately, I mean like within 2 minutes, proceeded to eat the new plant.

BAD KITTY!

Aw, sad. It was so pretty. I've got to find a nice green, easy to grow plant that the cat won't tear to pieces.

Any ideas?

Another wood-built paint project at Low Roller Acres...

This is the Scrat House. Okay it's a squirrel house and we're hoping to get a whole family inside.

Dusty agrees. She's waiting expectantly for a squirrel to come down out of a tree. She is very patient.

Oh my! More Paint! When will I run out? The answer is:
NEVER!!!

The local Ace Hardware store was offering up an entire pint of custom color samples for only $1.99 each. Of course I took advantage. That little pint goes a LONG way at my house!

Mike had an idea, a vision, and he went to work building from the scraps of an older abandoned project.

At this point I didn't know what he had in mind.

Meanwhile, since it was such a beautiful Florida day, I went wandering around looking for something photogenic.

Aw, I found this dead butterfly lying on the ground, BUT
as soon as I took this picture he flew away!
Happy!

A giant yellow hibiscus blooming in the sky.

Mike has completed his project. It's a squirrel house! With windows!
He had taken apart an old window bird feeder I had and used them here.
Wow!

Look inside, it's a split level house.
Now it's my turn.
Paint!

Now while I was painting Mike borrowed the neighbors Mustang to do a little dirt work. He came riding home with Dusty in the bucket. He said she just jumped right in. I guess she truly is a farm dog!

So Mike got busy (having the time of his life) moving dirt. We've had this dump truck load of black sand sitting here for a long time. It's been there so long it's covered in weeds.