Raze low the roof beams, carpenter

Time goes by.

This is the erstwhile "bughouse" we constructed against the garage in 1986. A careful look at the above photo shows the little carved date sign in the upper middle - 1986. Elaborately built by an unskilled hand, we sought refuge from backyard mosquitoes in there and had a friendly environment.

The bughouse outlived its usefulness primarily when the commercial building next door rented to a day care center for emotionally-challenged kids, and built their playground directly west on the other side of our fence. Cacophony reigns when the screaming children are outside acting out their plights within a small pebbled confinement.

So we use the bughouse for storage of miscellany now.

In earlier days, when our children were growing up in the late 80's and 90's - pre-day care center - they had a fun time and a secret-ish play house, with imaginings they concocted that are unknown to us. Now in disrepair, the bughouse shows the ravages of time, with punctured screening, peeling paint, and during the months I was in the hospital with my heart trouble a tree fell and skinned off the rain gutter and part of the shake shingle roof, visible in the photo below.

The fallen windmill scupture that spun for years atop a 6 x 6 timber in the front side yard lies bent on the ground. But even though the blades are askew it still spins in the wind, a tribute to the balance and the bearings.

At this time of year, before the greening-up just starting, everything looks a little dismal.