Getting Close To Finishing At Karen's

We finally got the arbor put together and while we were at it, we did a few other things around the house too.

It was nice to see that Kylor was home and that he wanted to help out.

At this point, the forms have been taken off and he is putting the dirt that we took out of the holes around the concrete pads.

Next, we took the posts and placed them on the pads to see if we might have to trim the trees above the arbor. Yes, it's going to fit nicely without having to trim anything.

Here's a picture of Karen describing to Tony what the arbor will look like after the top section has been assembled and placed on the posts. And in case I hadn't mentioned it before (I have), Tony is Karen's boyfriend and believe me, he was a big help this weekend.

At one point, Karen and Kylor jumped in the canoe to enjoy a moment in Nature, so I handed my camera to Kylor so he could take some pictures. By what I could see from the following images, I think he did pretty well.

He got this nice shot of a Great Blue Heron in flight... I never thought of trying to get a picture like this from a rear perspective.

And he shows his artistic leanings too with this shot that demonstrates contrasting color, shading and vertical/horizontal elements.

Then he got this shot of a mother Muskovy duck and 12 (twelve!) ducklings following her in tight formation.

Well, it's back to business as Uncle Frank and I placed the upper sections, that he had previously repaired at home, on top of the posts.

With each of us on a ladder, the framework is coming together pretty quickly now.

Since Kylor was doing the photography, he realized he needed to step back a bit in order to show that Aunt Martha was out here with us too.

And here is the finished product. After all that work, it really does look nice.

Next, we removed the broken post for the mailbox out front and once again, I started mixing up some more concrete...

While I worked on the post, Uncle Frank cut some new pieces for the mailbox mounts.

And it all came together nicely. After this, Uncle Frank and Aunt Martha left for home, so Kylor 'spotted' me while I pulled some new wiring up in the attic for the luminaire section over the island in the kitchen. That's pretty much what we have done so far and I think that's about as much as we can do in preparation for the upcoming celebration.

Because ready or not, Thanksgiving is just around the corner...