Maintenance

It seems to be the time of year for home maintenance projects.  Our next door neighbors (south) had a tree fall in a wind storm last fall, and today the final touches got done on the replacement landscaping.  The new tree is called a river birch, and it looks quite nice.  It happened during our November blogging marathon, so there's a pretty detailed record of it.  Not to be outdone, we had work going on here today, as well.  I no longer feel durable enough to wash all of our outside windows, especially the ones on the second floor.  I got started on the outside windows last year, and only managed to keep the ones washed on the side overlooking the lake.  Young men did the washing today.

We also had a problem with the railings on the stairway to the beach, as you may remember.  Here's a photo from a cold day in April..

And here's a photo taken after the repairs were finished today....

I did a little bit of self-maintenance in the form of a bike ride with the other retired professor this afternoon.  Nothing too ambitious -- mostly it was a ride over to the Park Township offices where she has a couple of garden plots that needed watering.  The wind was unfriendly, seemingly a headwind from three of the four directions that we rode.  But it was a lovely day to be outside, so no complaints.  Here are a couple of bonus photos from the walk I took down to the bottom of the hill to get a picture of the stairs...

We aren't quite caught up on the minor repairs around here -- but progress took place today.  Good enough.