I met with a general contractor yesterday; our deck needs a major overhaul. It’s some 12 years old plus or minus two years. Several of the supporting joists have been repaired or replaced in the past ten years. The second law of thermodynamics seems to have its way with everything. Sigh.
I’m thinking the entire deck needs replacement. The concrete footings are probably fine. Some of the supporting framing is probably fine. I suspect that many of the joists need replacement. The aperture around the white Oak that arises from the deck needs redesign. The tree is outgrowing the space that it was allocated a decade ago. A couple of weeks ago, I removed part of the decking around the tree trunk to give it more room. The decking was girdling the tree – damndest thing since we have had so little rain this year.
The contractor surveyed the deck situation, took some pictures and measurements and then accompanied me to the backyard where I pointed out a couple of projects that needed attention to preserve the functionality of the backyard observatory. Some people are slaves to their fishing boats; I am enslaved to my telescopes. Pretty much the same thing, I think.
And this brings me back to Mulder who was first named News as a placeholder until my buddy DeFaro suggested the name Mulder. Mulder is a gray fox. In the past few weeks, since I opened up part of the decking around the Oak tree, we have seen him come up on the deck in the evening hours around 6PM. He scampers up on the deck and runs behind the tree only to disappear. He’s done this multiple times in the past two weeks. He’s descending under the deck by means of the opening that I created to provide the tree trunk some relief. Sneaky fox!
On a couple of occasions, Susan has seen him perform this Houdini-esque maneuver, and she had proclaimed that Mulder is a male fox. Susan is a retired Pediatrician with decades of clinical experience. She knows about these things, and I wouldn’t think to question her determination of Mulder’s sex.
The deck is going to be replaced, and I hope to die before it needs major attention again. I hope the same for the backyard observatory. I hope that after the deck is replaced, Mulder will return to establish a den for himself, his mate and their kits. All we can do is to do our best to stay the hell out of the way. I look forward to having the observatory remediated so that I can once again image the wonders of my light polluted night sky. Sigh.