Sights and Sounds

So, the sights and sounds of the porch this weekend were quite busy.  Sometime during the day on Saturday, we saw a fire truck go racing by.  Not terribly unusual, since they are normally first responders in our area...  But when the second, and third, and fourth ones went by, we knew something was up.  D walked out on the porch, and looked down the street and saw big black bellowing smoke pouring into the air.  We threw on  coats, and walked down to see what was up...

What we found when we got there, though, was not a house on fire, but an RV.  A good size driving kind.  

It had been fully engulfed, and there was still a lot of smoke when we made our way there.  The firefighters were doing their best to keep the damage away from the house that the RV was parked in the driveway of.  From what we could see, it appeared that a shutter had melted, the corner of the roof was a little discolored (charred maybe?) and their city trash can was melted.  

The family appeared to be home, and were outside.  The firefighters went into the house a couple of times, and looked like they brought out two cats.  But all in all, it did not appear that the house sustained much damage.  
The street was blocked off for quite a while, and even when you though it was all out, there was still smoke coming from the RV.  I imagine there are a lot of things that could burn in there.  We don't recall ever seeing it parked there before, so it's possible someone was in town for the holiday.  I think a total of 5 engines, 2 rescue, and tons of support vehicles showed up.

As if that wasn't excitement enough, on Sunday night, we heard sirens again.  We looked out, and there was Rescue parked in front of our next door neighbor's house.  We ran out again, to find thick smoke blowing our way.  It was hard to tell if it was from our neighbor's house, or the one next to it.

Multiple fire vehicles again show up, and it was determined that an outside trash can had been on fire, and was extinguished without spreading any further.

Our neighbor asked the firefighters how many fires they were going to put out on LaSalle, and he answered, "Hopefully all of them!".  

Hopefully!

Sorry about the picture quality.  They are from the phone.  In all the excitement, we forgot to grab the regular camera.  I think enlarging the pics helps see the detail...

AMW

Weekend update

This weekend was really nice out, so we decided to put the plants out on the porch for a bit.  Got them out there, then watered them all with rain barrel water, and let them soak up the sun.  

I also repotted a couple spider plants that were getting out of control, and cut off some babies to root them as gifts.  

While at Trader Joe's on Saturday, we saw some beautiful mums, so I got two of those, and repotted them into larger pots.  The mums along with a couple of pumpkins, and two other plants (that I don't know what they are) are giving the porch just a splash of color for the winter.

As I was watering and messing with the plants, we had a visitor.  J saw me working, so pulled into the driveway to say hello.  It's always nice to have visitors to the porch!  

As she was leaving, we noticed a squirrel tucked into the window of the neighbor's house.  He was just kind of hanging on the inside of the frame.  I walked over, and he scurried out of the frame, and just hung onto the side of the brick.  He looked to be fairly young, and he was completely freaked out by me standing there watching him.  Almost completely frozen with fear.  Only after I started backing away, did he scamper off the side of the house, and into the yard.  

Sorry, no pictures.  I forgot to take the camera out there, and have since moved all the plants back inside.  I'll try to get out this week and take a couple of the "winter porch".

AMW

Halloween

Right now, there isn't a lot to talk about on this blog, because, well, the porch is empty.  And when it's empty, it's not someplace we go a lot.  

At the last minute, however, we decided to hand out candy for halloween.  So D ran across the street to the chain pharmacy, and bought some candy.  (On sale, she might add...)

I went out to tidy up, and in the swing, I found a dead bird.  Not sure if he/she flew there itself, and died, or maybe the neighbor cat left it there for us, as he frequents the porch, or someone else left it there.  So, after snapping a pic, I disposed of it.

Then, we sat about in the Adirondack chairs waiting for trick-or-treaters.  We had NO IDEA what kind of turnout we would get as we were one of the only houses with our light on, and our driveway is quite the hike from the street.

First group of kids arrived, and there were 4 or 5 of them.  The got their treats, and the older ones made sure that the younger ones all said thank you.   I thought that was really nice.  

The second group arrived, about 6 of them, and again, they were all thankful.  One thing we noticed, though, was that most of the kids (in both the first and second group) had backpacks instead of pillowcases, or pumpkins, or any other traditional item in which to gather candy.  Just thought it odd.

The final group (and yes, that was it) was our two little neighbor boys.  They hadn't planned on trick-or-treating the neighborhood, as they were going  a couple blocks away, but we had seen one earlier and told him to make sure he stopped by.  So they did.  Cute boys, I tell ya!

After sitting on the porch for another 45 minutes, with no one showing up, we finally called it a night at 7:00 p.m. and went inside.  Now we have a TON of halloween candy to eat....

It was fun.

AMW