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

Winter Plant Removal

This weekend, is the weekend.  I'll be pulling in all of the porch plants, and finding homes for them throughout the house for the winter.  We've pulled them in twice for storms, and they consume the living room, and that is when they are all bunched up together sitting on tarps.  Now, I will try to find homes for them to spread out, and try to survive the winter.  I've not done a great job with this in the past.  I've lost or nearly lost plants due to the transition, or just due to being inside.  Not exactly sure which.  BUT THIS YEAR WILL BE DIFFERENT.  I will keep them ALL alive and healthy.  You heard it here first.  I'll also try to post where they all end up in the house.

AMW

Fall/Winter

Well, it's almost time to bring the plants in for the fall/winter.  It will be a sad day, as it will be really empty.  I think for the fall, I'll get some pumpkins to provide a little bit of color, and then try to find some nice big mums to round it out.  I've seen some nice ones, but they are so stinking expensive, I can't the sheer number I'd like to fill out the porch.  I guess some are better than none, though right?

Still no word on the gutters.  Can't wait to get the whole makeover complete!

AMW

Empty Porch

With the Nor 'Easter that blew threw this week, we decided once again to clear the plants off of the porch, and bring them inside.  Mostly because we didn't want the wind knocking them down, or even off of the porch.  This is the second time we had to do this (the 1st being for TS Hanna), and I don't like it.  It's not that I don't want to protect the plants I've worked so hard on, it's that the porch looks so.....  EMPTY.  I don't like it at all.  It's sad looking...

On the flip side , the inside of the house is bursting with color.  So it will be nice in the winter time when all the plants come in and find a home for the winter.  But still, judge for yourself...

AMW

Rain Barrel

A few months ago, I went to a Rain Barrel workshop. For the price of the workshop (which was VERY reasonable), we got a barrel, all the hardware, and the training to turn it into a working rain barrel. Complete with instruction on how to tie it into your gutter system at home, and start collecting rain water for your garden or plants. Now to me, this sounded like an AWESOME idea. I could not wait to get started.

The main problem I was facing, was that the gutters on the house were in bad shape, and in some instances had come off all together. I wasn't sure where I would be able to tie it in to our system where it would actually get water (as most of the gutters were clogged).

So it sat. On the side of the yard. Weeds growing around it, and just generally looking pathetic.

Now, new gutters are on the way (part of the makeover...) and the gutter company saw my rain barrel sitting in the weeds, and actually told me that they have incorporated rain barrels into several jobs. YEAH! Validation! But I didn't want my ugly rain barrel to become a focal point. I also didn't want to move the rain barrel to the back yard, because we all know, the plants are on the FRONT porch.

What to do? What to do?

I opted to PAINT my rain barrel. Some scoffed at the idea. And were skeptical that it would help. My hair-brained idea was to paint it red, a brick-red so it didn't stick out so bad.

And then paint brick lines on it, so it blended with the house. I thought it would be cute.

I cleaned out part of the flower bed (where the barrel was to reside) and got some retaining wall blocks to raise it up. I also put a LARGE paver on top of the blocks to provide a flat surface. Then I surrounded the area with small white landscape rock to polish it off just a bit.

As you can see, it ended up more on the "artsy" side of cute. But I certainly think it is MUCH better than the drab grey barrel that it started out at.

Stay tuned for a final update picture when the gutters get put on. (Incidentally,that's when the final makeover update for the house will happen as well...)

AMW