Warm weather

 Finally, it got warm enough to get some exterior painting done.  I've been waiting all winter to get the rest of the house painted and that week finally arrived.  Candido sent a couple of guys out this week to work on finalizing exterior painting.  The hardest decision made all week was what color to paint the brackets over the windows seen in this photo.  I voted for brown but I acquiesced to Leah's recommendation to go with the light green trim color.  I thought the brown looked more masculine but she thought they'd stand out too much.

  

Also on the agenda this week was tapping a few what we hope are Maple trees.  Since posting this and another photo on Facebook I have received a flurry of comments concerning whether this was actually a Maple and how to identify them in winter.  No sap is flowing yet but I am thinking that the weather is not quite right.  It has to be freezing at night and warmer during the day to get the sap flowing.  I am pretty sure they are Maples but I guess I won't know until Spring.  Did you know it takes eight gallons of sap to produce one quart of maple syrup?  That's a lot of sap and a lot of boiling.

I also took some time off to go to New Orleans with Leah this week.  I got to eat a lot of good food, see my son and his girlfriend.  We stopped in Ocean Springs MS to see the art of Walter Anderson and his brothers pottery shop, Shearwater pottery.  The highlight of the trip was going to the Fair grounds racetrack to bet on the ponies.  I won a few races but since I only bet $2 per race did not win much.  We did walk out with more than when we walked in though.
Now it's back to the house where interior trim is being put in.  We recently got all interior doors installed as well as stair treads.   Baseboards and door trim is almost finished, so now I have a lot of detailed painting to do.