Drywall delivery

It's yet another awesome crane truck making an eye-popping delivery!! Thank you, GTS Interior Supply. Really fun to watch. The man controlling the crane is inside the house at this point, using a remote joystick to maneuver the crane very, very delicately so as not to smash the windows, slam into the roof eave, etc.

The sheetrock comes right through the window like this so that the men inside can "stack" it. This is a big deal since nobody relishes the thought of hauling sheetrock up a flight of stairs over and over... Having windows big enough to allow sheetrock stacking was a consideration in the design of this place.

And here it is - ready to go on the walls and ceiling indoors. Of course our insulation firm, C and F Insulation of Sequim, WA will be insulating before the walls get closed up with sheetrock.

Pepper, of course, has to do a thorough inspection of the new stuff to make sure it's free of vermin! No vermin found...

Yes, it was pretty cold that day so she's got her Dog-E-Designs winter coat on.

More Fun with Fungus

Amanita Muscaria - Common Name Fly Agaric

This amazing group of colorful mushrooms are right at home in the woods nearby. They are quite poisonous. The big ones are about 5" across.

Here is some info about these from MykoWeb:

Toxic. Contains ibotenic acid and muscimol. With its bright red, sometimes dinner plate-sized caps, Amanita muscaria is one of the most striking of all mushrooms. The white warts that adorn the cap, white gills, well developed ring and distinctive volva of concentric rings separate the Fly Agaric from all other red mushrooms.

It's called the fly agaric because in some regions little pieces of the mushroom are placed in milk to attract flies. The flies become inebriated and crash into walls and die.
- Tom Volk, Professor of Biology, University of Wisconsin in La Crosse, WI

Amanita muscaria was Tom's Fungus of the Month

Learn much more about Fungi's essential
contributions to humanity and to life on Earth!

Meteorology in Motion

The weather here is a constant dance in the Puget Sound Convergence Zone... Folks who love big fish and big trees love it this way!
Below: The low wintery sun through the trees cast a marbled shadow on the house. Behind is a very pregnant sky.

Below: A vivid frontal edge as the storm swirls in from the south. This particular rain storm was dubbed "The Fire Hose" by a TV weather man and it turned out to be true. 7 inches in 3 days - not too bad!

Below: As I have learned, any time I see fluffy white clouds in front of steely-blue colored clouds - get ready!!

Sourwood Update - Oxydendrum arboreum

I hope I can have many Sourwood trees here, if I can outfox the deer - look at it now!!

I thought it was pretty before... and now this succulent plummy merlot color to top off the season - WOW. This tree is from the Arbor Day Foundation. It's about a yard tall now, and was planted less than a year ago. I received it bare-root and planted it in February.


BELOW: Another favorite: Smoke Bush! (Cotinus coggygria) I have some little ones that were devastated mid-season by the deer but this one has been protected the whole time and look at the nice little show it's putting on! I have a total of four of these, and like the Sourwood, I hope to have a slew of them around here. Just a terrific shrub.


BELOW: Even Geranium "Rozanne" is getting into the act. The dying foliage is a nice mix of oranges, golds and plum tones made even prettier by a kiss of frost.