Here Batty, Batty, Batty....

Well the Bat Barn is up. I borrowed a ladder from next door and fixed it to the South Side of the house this morning. As you can see I've included a picture, and I know what some of you are thinking - it's not very central....I know! Problem is, the house has a wooden frame. I needed to ensure the box was screwed into a stud. I located the stud (with my stud finder) and sadly it wasn't central to the window. A dilemma, do I put it central and then run the risk of it coming down during the next gale, or do I fit it properly and safeguard the habitat of our (not yet resident) flying furry friends. Well as you can see I decided to fit it properly and yes it does annoy me the fact that it isn't central. But that's life.
Smart though isn't it? It almost matches the house too. As soon as we have residents I'll let you know.
So what happened this week? Well on Wednesday the Cubs all met up at Laurie Park for a Tree Planting and litter collecting evening. Planted some tiny spruces around the park (if they survive I'll be amazed). We then had a section of Highway 2 to collect rubbish. It seemed to be mainly Tim Hortons coffee cups and beer bottles. However 6 bags of rubbish (and one thong!!) later, the highway was looking much neater.
Then yesterday they were enrolled in a 'Mosaic Stone' class at a local Stained Glass studio to make presents for Mothers Day (next weekend if you were wondering). Next door's children were also going so Jeanette drove them there and we picked them up. We took the opportunity of no kids, to go and price up gravel for the drive, and edging stones for the new raised beds. Also popped into Home Depot to get a new thermostat for the garage and a nozzle for the hose. No hosepipe bans here yet! Also went to Costco to grab a few essentials and then it was time for a quick bite to eat and collect the children. They really enjoyed it. The stones will be available to collect during the week. Has to be said, the weather yesterday wasn't great. They forecast isolated showers, but it was fairly persistent from lunchtime to bedtime! Good for the transplanted trees I suppose.
In contrast today was glorious and was spent doing things around the house. Deborah did loads in the front garden, pruning the bushes and weeding. I started doing the support posts for the decking trellis, but the flies got on my nerves, so I moved into the garage and started fitting a window. For some reason, the back hall has no window and consquently when you come in from the garage or the back door, it's like the black hole of Calcutta. Anyway I bought an attractive Octagonal window last weekend and fitted it today. It actually went in remarkably easily and lets a little ambient light in from the garage. Means we don't have to have the light on permanently. Just need to do some touching up on the garage side and it will all be done.
We took a quick trip to the local garden center to get some compost for the tubs. We're going to have a herb garden on the deck, just need to ensure Bella doesn't eat them. Hopefully she doesn't like mint. Talking of Bella, she went in to the vet on Thursday to be spayed. Everything went fine and although a little subdued for a couple of days, she is now back to her old self. The picture of her was taken this morning before the flies got too bad. The bandana was put on her by the vet's assistant who has taken a bit of a shine to her. She really is a lovely dog though with a fantastic nature. Matthew and Emma just adore her and make a lot of fuss of her. They even do poop scoops!
Matthew and Emma were asked to go and collect Dandelion heads from the garden this morning with a reward of 1 cent per flower. Didn't think they'd do as well as they did. They probably collected a good 500! As you may have gathered we have a bit of a dandelion problem and to make it worse, the use of weedkiller is forbidden. This is to prevent it getting into the groundwater and contaminating peoples' wells. We can use salt though...
So as you can see another eventful week. Hope you like the photos, the one below shows the Bat barn again and also the beautiful clear blue skies. Feel free to leave comments!