7.13.2026

 Jim continues to work on the power washer.  He drained the oil yesterday and ordered more.  It came today so he finished up that job.

Rain coming down the copper valley sin the roof have created what looks like white streaks on the front of the house as well as some dark streaks on the trim underneath the overhang.  Jim sprayed it and quickly scrubbed it...

The power washer is working great - there are still some washers that Jim wants to replace.  But a light spray removed all evidence of the black streaks on the trim.  Repainting the front of the house is on the to do list for the summer but it was nice to see it cleaned up well.

Cleaning off the outside lights - birds sometimes like to sit on these...

Then Jim took the power washer up to the pavilion to give it a cleaning.  He first took down the empty bird nests...

There were a lot of nests...

Cleaning the floor...

Looks beautiful!

7.12 - High 82.4/Low 56.1
7.13 - High 86.3/Low 56

7.11.2026

These bucks must like it here on Angel as much as we do - they've been hanging around a lot.  This pair was around all morning, mostly resting!

Jim's new hardware for the power washer came in the mail today, so he got it all back together, including using the blasting cabinet to clean the spark plug tops...

Giving it a good cleaning...

Throwing some water on the trees...

Spraying the washer down after its cleaning soak...

 

High 79.8/Low 59.8

7.10.2026

This afternoon, we went back to playing in the woods, this time concentrating on chipping all the piles we made yesterday.  Getting started...

'This chipper eats big trunks without an issue - makes doing this fun!

This was the before picture of our piles...

Afterwards, everything looks clean and beautiful...

Then we went to the area to the west side of the house, deeper into the woods, where we were working yesterday.  As a reminder, this was our big pile of branches and trees that we accumulated...

All gone!  We spent about 1-1/2 hours chipping and that time makes a huge difference in how things look as well as making the woods healthier.

High 81.4/Low 69.1

 

7.9.2026

Iced coffee nearby and making sure that the chain saws are ready to go! 

Then it was back to the area in the woods we worked on yesterday so that Jim could cut up some of the trunks...

Getting ready to cut this tree...

Taking down this fallen tree...

Cutting into sections...

Looks so good - lots of chipping to do!

We moved over to first area we worked on yesterday.  Now that we got some cleaned out, we wanted to do a little more.  So this is the before...

Cutting a dead tree down...

The after shot - much cleaner!

A huge pile of chipping after this area clean up...

We really haven't gotten much rain at all lately, so Jim is diligent about watering our transplanted trees...

High 85.9/Low 62.9

7.8.2026

Yesterday was supposed to be a rainy day, and we did have some light rain in the morning, but it cleared up and was nice.  I ran errands in the morning, and Jim did some inside work, including taking apart the bathroom drain and giving it a good cleaning...

Today we both spent time on various phone calls, but in the afternoon we headed outside to play in the woods.  Jim hooked up the chipper and we went to clean up our piles...

Chipping...

Once that area was clean, we headed to the other section with the fallen trees from the winter.  We had done a lot of clean up and Jim still wants to cut the big trunks, but clean up first...

Chipping...

Looks so nice!

 

7.7 - High 71.8/Low 61
7.8 - High 82.5/Low 62.5

7.6.2026

Jim used the blasting cabinet to clean up the muffler heat shield and the exhaust exhauster - what a difference!

Then a coat of heat-resistant paint...

His new white light switch came in, so he switched that out...

Now it all looks so pretty!

High 72.1/Low 65.4

7.5.2026

This will be a nature post today!  Last night, this buck was in the yard and then we spotted it just being kind of chill in the triangle.  We looked later and he was still lying down but on the other side of the triangle.  We don't see bucks as often here, so it's always a fun sighting.

Our wildflower patch is looking pretty next to the auto bay.  We're just letting nature do its thing!

Then it was time to tame Mother Nature.  Jim had to do some grass cutting along the driveway.  He also did a little back dragging of the driveway once he put the bucket on the Bobcat.  Then we loaded up some trimming supplies and headed down to do some work at the end of the driveway.  Trimming around the drop box and rock wall...

Looks so much better!  He did both sides of the driveway and it makes a big difference.  

I pulled weeds from both sides of the middle rock walls and then Jim did the trimming...

Working on the other side...

High 83.1/Low 62.5