A big break from the cold

Wow, what a gorgeous day today. By 9 am, the temp was up to 25F in the shade, and the sun was shining. This afternoon, the temps hit above freezing (41F) for the first time in weeks.

Dan and I puttered about outside after lunch, shoveling snow off the new deck, and talking about an upcoming project, building a shade pergola for the deck.

A few days before Christmas we drove by a "good used stuff" shop, and saw two gorgeous 8' porch columns for sale in the parking lot. (Imagine the screeching of the brakes at that moment.) Fortunately, we were in the truck, so after a bit of dickering, the columns came home with us. They are in excellent shape, we were really lucky. We plan to use them as pictured to support the pergola. We'll run the joists from a ledger board attached to the shed wall to a stringer connecting the two columns. I hope this will provide some badly needed shade for the deck. We'd been debating the merits of a pergola versus a shade cloth, but finding these beautiful columns for a song made up our minds.

This morning, I was getting antsy to be outside, so I took Fishy for a long walk with my friend Karen. We got back to the house and Karen stopped for a snack (I'd made cranberry orange scones for breakfast) and some coffee. We had a good chat, then wandered about the yard, talking gardening and determining where to put the pizza oven this spring.

We decided it will need to be near the freestanding deck, a little way from the house. This way any smoke from starting it up will be well away from both our house and the neighbors house. We then went over to Karen's and determined where her pizza oven will go. We've decided we will build the two ovens together, sharing the work and our cement mixer, and learning from one another as we go. Only 37 days until spring!