A Moat Would Have Been Really Cool

Oct 082012
 

The Postman’s creed goes “Neither rain nor snow, nor sleet nor dark of night shall stay these couriers from the swift completion of their appointed rounds.”

You can tweek that slightly and apply it to Rick and his merry band of helpers who have been working on the shed.

Saturday morning was cloudy, cold and uninviting, but that didn’t stop the crew from picking up from where they left off last weekend.

First order of business was to dig a trench (as opposed to a moat, which would have been really cool).  For this he enlisted our friend Keith (sorry for the butt shot).  It only took him a couple hours to complete his task and covered everything back up.  I couldn’t even tell that the ground had been disturbed!

It was also a day of heavy lifting, and since I was still sickly (cough… wheeze… hack) Willard came back for the back-breaking task.

Seriously, I could not have done this!

After all of the walls had been covered, it was time to walk the plank…

Carpenter style, that is.  Have I said how grateful I was that somebody else was there to help so I wouldn’t have had to climb up there?

By the end of the day, we had a roof on half of the structure.  I was one very happy person!

I was so happy that I didn’t even mind that nothing was accomplished Sunday.  Besides, even Rick deserves to take a day off.

 

Admitting My Fears

Oct 012012
 

The shed took on a huge transformation this past weekend.

It all started with getting the area above the deck ready for the roof.  What seems to be such a simple task requires a lot of prep work.

And I’m so glad that our friend Willard came over to help out.  Since I’m scared to death of using the saws, Rick had someone on the ground doing the cutting so he could spend time framing things together.  Also, I was really feeling like crap from the cold left by my grandkids last weekend (they share!!) and had no energy whatsoever.

As long as I’m admitting my fears, I might as well admit to my fear of heights, which is the total opposite of my loving husband who seems quite at ease 12 feet above the ground.

Oh, he tried to get me up there, but I made it clear that I was perfectly happy with the safety of ground firmly under my feet.

Although I have to admit he did have a spectacular view.

Come Saturday afternoon, everything was ready to get the roof trusses set.

Sunday was another beautiful, sunny day.  I, on the other hand, was sicker than a dog.  I was running a fever, my body ached and I had about as much energy as a sloth, so Rick had to go it alone on the project.

Turns out there wasn’t much I could have done anyway, unless I wanted to get up on the planking and nail trusses (nice try).

If I’ve said it once I’ve said it a million times:  the man is an artist when it comes to construction!

How did I get so lucky?

 

Game On!

Sep 262012
 

I went to the farm on Monday to check out how the sunflowers are progressing.  Status:  not ready yet.  There are some big heads and it doesn’t look like the birds have been attacking them too much, but they just haven’t started to dry out yet.

I’m suspecting it’s because we’ve had some good stretches of rain for these past couple weeks, so the seeds are still white instead of that nice grey/black color they’ll become.  According to the weather gods, there’s no rain in sight for our parts until next week, and the temps will be cooler so that should help push them along a little bit *crosses fingers*.

But while ours aren’t ready yet, a neighbor garden has some that are and I have been given permission to take what I want.  So I did.

This is actually the 3 bucket I’ve harvested from her garden.  There are 2 different varieties but I don’t suspect the birds will care much this winter, just as long as they have something to munch on (and I’m saving money by not buying from the store).

Since I had other things on my “to-do” list, I decided to just leave them in the bucket for the night and string them up another day.  Not wanting the squirrels to start hauling away my bounty (which they did before… little bastards), I decided to put them in the garage.  At least that was my intent.

Somewhere between setting them down outside the garage to open up the door and actually setting them in the garage, I got distracted.

5 hours later my brain remembered that I may not have gotten the bucket into the safety of the garage.  And it was right.

But I was too late.  The little terrorists had already struck.  They pilfered at least one of the heads, and had started munching away on the others.

If this is their calling card of what to expect this winter, all I can say is Game On!

 

 Older Entries  Newer Entries