Well, the first day all summer I have been home with no work at R and no deck project to work on, just my own chore list...
I spent part of the day mowing doing the weeds in my llama pasture lots, cleaning them up and making them much nicer to look at.
Then I also sprayed some roundup to kill off weeds and such around hard to reach areas for the mower..something I do a couple of times a summer.
Then I went down to our garden and did some major weeding and also pruning back some of the spreading gourd vines...I also picked some more cucumbers and a couple of zucchini. There is more stuff to pick in a couple of days, like beans and some more cukes and
some zucchini.
We have lots of tomatoes setting on the vines now and the peppers are starting to grow it looks like there will be lots to pick in a couple of weeks.
After all this I even worked up the driveway and did some grading with my blade to move some dirt into the potholes, and also replace the dirt washing out from some of the rains. I also had to drag some of the rough spots out with the drag that I have for the driveway.
Along with getting some gas for the mower and also stopping by Colette's to see if she had any problems with the heavy rain yesterday. It looks like their will be some projects to do at her house later this fall!
So needless to say a busy day here at home but it felt good to work on some of my project list!
Rainfall
Saturday August 6th, we awoke to a beautiful morning with some sunshine. We enjoyed coffee out on the deck, with the dogs and a nice visit, and talking about some projects around the farm now that I completed the deck project.
Crystalie, got ready to go to work and I unloaded the load of scrap lumber from the trailer I hauled home from the deck project completion. I then got ready to leave for the anniversary party back in the cities.
I headed over to brother-in-law Mitchell's house to return his saw, the clouds had moved in and the rumbling started. Just as I left Mitchell's it began to rain. I drove out of it south of Mille Lacs Lake. But it was pouring very heavily when I went by Wooden Nichols on highway 169.
It turns out yesterday morning we got 3.25 inches of rain. The dock on our lake is half submerged under water! This is the most rainfall we have gotten in one day for quite sometime.
Everything is very lush and green this summer due to all the rain!
Happy 25th Anniversary!
Happy 25th Anniversary to my brother Bill and his wife Kathy, they had a celebration party at their home yesterday in Prior Lake!
Yes this is the house where my deck project has been on going for the last 2 months, and I completed earlier this week. I attended the party on Saturday and got to enjoy the fruits of all of our labor, spending most of the day on the new pool deck, and taking a leisurely swim with friends and family.
It was a beautiful day and warm but not to hot, and a nice breeze at times. They had a great Bucca Pasta buffet with salads and of course later lots of desserts and cake!
The new deck and landscaping projects, were enjoyed by all who attended, which was of course a lot of family and friends and neighbors of theirs.
So Happy Anniversary to Bill and Kathy!
It's Done!
Well, I spent the last day on the deck project today! We have it finished, and I took a little video of the project once it was done and things were picked up and all the tools were put away.
Here is the video link to the complete project!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E5dNDf1YqoU&feature=player_embedded
It is hard to judge the size of this but the video helps, the pool is 27 feet across, and the deck area when you first walk up is a section that is 14 ft long by 8 ft wide, and it fans out all the way around the pool. With the narrowest deck surface only being about 4 ft wide, and there are 7 steps up to the deck surface. It sits along the entire pool edge which is about 50 inches off from the ground.
I have to thank, Bill and Kathy for allowing me to do it for them, and also all the friends of theirs who pitched in when they could through the process, and also thanks to my brother Neal for also helping out for a few of the 7 1/2 days it took.
We came in under the projected budget and with a minimal amount of waste, which I removed for them, as we have wood burning stoves for the small scraps, and also other fix it projects for some of the larger pieces left!
Also thanks to my wife, Crystalie for putting up with me being gone, and taking care of things here at home..love ya dear!
The Boys!
As many of you know we live fairly close to Crystalie's brother Mitch and his wife Kay and their two boys, Jacob and Joshua.
We drove over tonight after we had grilled steaks and grill pan veggies. I had talked to Mitch earlier about borrowing a saw of his to finish the deck project.
We always enjoy a nice visit along with, getting to play with the boys..tonight it was opening all the McDonald's toys I had gotten over the last 2 months...I like the cheeseburger happy meal, and I get boy toys so I can bring them over to the boys, when we visit.
We played with those, and then we started playing with a wooden nickel and a quarter...I would have them take turns guessing heads or tails, when I would flip it, the most they got in a row right was 5! After that we played find the coins...I would hide them and then give them clues...all in all we had fun and of course lots of laughs.
The picture above was from this last spring. Joshua on the left and Jacob on the right!
Keeping up...
Well, as you can see the last week has been difficult for posts about stuff going on here, and I apologize for that.
This week is busy also, if it drys out some, yes we have gotten lots of rain in the last 3 days almost 2" or so...I plan to mow grass tomorrow night. Plus I need to get down to the garden to see how things are going there.
Probably have zucchini the size of small animals by now....
Anyhow, I will try to keep up and keep you apprised of the what's going on!
Deck Project days 5 and 6
The decking part is done!
Yep, I got another weekend off from R and went down to Brother Bill's place to try to finish the deck project.
As you can see by the above picture, that by Sunday evening all the decking was in place, along with an access hatch for his pump and filtration system in the lower left and also the access lid for the daily maintenance.
We also completed all the cutting on all the joists, and around the edges which need to be capped.
The next phase is the railing, which will go up soon and when that is completed the cap will go on around the outside edge.
Weather conditions were sunny and hot and somewhat humid also...needless to say after working nearly 20 hours in a day and a half, in the heat and sun...my body could feel it. Along with sore feet, from all the kneeling and moving around on the deck...thank goodness I have foam knee pads, and the pool was there to cool off in every so often.
I figure I have about 10 hours of work left...and maybe less if things go well!