Sixteen years later...

Many of you asked what kind of damage can mice do.  Here is what happens when the snow melts.  You find that they have chewed all of the bark off of the trees.  They girdle it and the tree dies.  We were so thankful that we didn't lose any apple trees to blizzard Atlas, only to find that the mice girdled one.  You don't know the little buggers are under the snow until everything melts.  The apple tree below will survive, but I obviously need to find a bigger protector.  I haven't ventured into my orchard yet, but I see most of my shrubs are had.  All of the trees are protected with a wrap.

 Sixteen years ago we built our cabin.  Somehow in all the little things that need to be done, the upper deck railing didn't happen.  At first it wasn't a big thing.  When you build a house you get pretty used to wandering around high areas with no support.  We did most of the calking and staining and that required going to the peaks on scaffolding.  Then time goes by.  The older you get the more you realize you don't bounce.  This year our goal is to put a railing around the upper deck.  It took awhile to figure out how to attach some good solid posts.  My wonderful husband found some really strong supports.  Saturday we were brave and attached the support posts.  It is a long way down.  We were in such a hurry to put the supports up and see how the attachment system worked that we didn't stain them first.  Sometimes we put the cart before the horse.  My husband took some photos of me staining the posts.  I didn't take any photos of him attaching the posts, because I was holding his feet.  

Next week we will see if we can find the railings.  We have some log railing, but will use metal ones.  We don't want to lose the view.   I'm excited to get some chairs up there and maybe a yoga mat.  When we first moved in I used to do yoga up there under the stars.  Somewhere along time I decided it wasn't such a good idea.  

It was super warm and melted quite a bit today.  I cleaned the strawberry bed and raked what little showed.  I spread some marigold, black eyed Susan, and sunflower seeds in my planters.  Next week I will plant my seedlings. 

Do you have any home improvement projects you have been avoiding?  Have you planted any veggies yet?