CANADIAN WHITE SPRUCE...OH YEAAAHHH!

We're still working on our Log Home and outside...so thought I would share some progress with you here.

Real "Log homes" are different than stick built in many ways, but one unique way is that about every twelve years the exterior needs to be stripped down and retreated with a water proof coating.

Our home is now twelve years old, of course and the former owner didn't do it...so it came to us.

Allen has most of the lower level done and the difference is 'astonishing' to say the least! We haven't decided if we want a clear coat, or if we want some sort of light stain included in the coating yet...but now I surely know why the logs used to build this home were named... Canadian White Spruce! I had no idea of how dark and awful the wood had become from the weather and dirt and moss and mold and all the things that affect natural wood anywhere. Check out the top half of the home compared with the lower half...wow huh?

Now that the wood is cleaned, it looks like they just hauled it all in yesterday and set it up! The home is looking very 'brand new', which is pretty unique for a twelve year old home anywhere.

The Gutters were clogged, and we have to clean the moss from the roof that formed over the winter...and guess what! We have twenty baby 'douglas fir' trees to plant...our first planting. We are going to get 100 more, mostly Doug Firs but also Redwood and another kind I forgot the name of for now!

WE also found out some new things about our ranch I didn't know before. We are the ONLY ranch out here "Licensed and Permitted" for a Timber Mill and we are the ONLY INDIVIDUAL OWNERS with this 'Permit' in Lincoln County. We could have semi-trucks coming in and out of here daily and no one could say a word. We also have a 50' easement on either side of the road on everyone elses land that allows us to clear any trees or brush that interferes with big semi trucks coming in and out of here...we can cut it down or cut it back.

Not everyone can appreciate how that made us smile, since we had those awful neighbors in Visalia with their tree hanging on our roof and pea looking pods always in our pool and then calling the police when we cut the part in our property off our roof. This was just too funny to find out. lol

We also found out that the former owner never milled the now 60 year old Douglas Fir Trees around the house and barns because he planned on them providing his total 'retirement'...now I have to find out what these large trees are really 'worth' to a timber mill...(since he said that) and I gotta tell ya, I haven't a 'clue'.

About twenty of the Alder Trees on the West Mountain Range (by the love shack to the property line for those who went there on the ATV's) were felled by the series of storms we had, so when Will gets home, he and Allen will probably go out and start cutting them up and bringing them back to season for next year.

...and it was 62 degrees today, and sunny for the past 4 or 5 days...with more sun to come (finally), and I saw evidence of 'spring' coming all over the place when we went on our Quad adventure yesterday...even in the little barrell shown above!

I saw two little forked horns right outside our first gate, and a good sized buck the other day...so I guess we'll be seeing a lot of little 'fawns' a few months down the road. One of the doe's has had twins every year for the past ten years...last year my son-in'law Jim was petting the horses that were here and they got spooked and 'hopped' up and away...he laughed like hell at that funny sight!

If the Global Warming local Scientist's predictions are right," our summers will be longer and hotter, and our winter's shorter and more severe"...and it has been on the 'more severe' winter side this year for certain...but in Oregon, a long 'hot' summer would look like 70 - 75 degrees...I can dig that for sure!