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Wow, over 3 months since my last post. When I started this blog I mentioned that I tend to work for several months on the model railroad, then get stuck and do nothing for several months. That's happened again, only this time there are a few differences.

First, I didn't hit a mental design block that made me stop working. In fact my next N scale tasks are all pretty straightforward -- complete the track on the middle tier of staging then move to the lower tier. In addition one of the last things I did on the N scale layout in early May was to buy the power cabinet -- so if nothing else I could get busy assembling that.

No my reason for stopping work on the N scale layout was that with May came warm weather, and with that came the annual spring outdoor maintenance. We live on a forested 1.66 acre lot with circa 500 pine trees, which in this area means 1) removal of pine-beetle infested trees (we had 5 this year), 2) general firewise clearance around the house, and 3) general outdoor maintenance (dead trees and branches, restaining kid's outdoor play structure, etc).

All that took a few weeks, and then I also tackled a long-standing task of removing the scrub oak from the lot -- about 10 condensed trailer-fulls of it in fact -- for better fire resistance and general upkeep. THAT took another few weeks.

And second, the OTHER big difference is that except for the distractions mentioned above, my biggest reason for stopping N scale work is that I'm now serious about the outdoor layout. Over the next few days I'll post about progress on that, including pictures. OK, it's not much to tell about yet in terms of trains, as the first major task is a waterfall, stream and pond. But it's progress.

(Oh, and there were other distractions as well. Son in hospital. 3 weeks travel out of country for job. Wife and Daughter testifying in Congress. You know, normal stuff. But now the momentum is strong.)