First trip to Too

After a day of playing in the fresh air at Too

one will have a good nap on the ride home.

August Visit

It has been a slow summer for III. So much rain, so much (muddy) lane, so few weekends. The pickens have gotten so slim that Himself up and went to III this past Sunday while Johanna, Audri and I went to the State Fair. He knew he had to mow and he knew he had to mow soon. As he'd rather mow than go to the State Fair, he was off. Like a shot.

This photo was taken right down on Sandy Creek in June when we discovered 10-12' of our land washed off and left our trail VERY close to the river bank. Himself said this visit, he mowed (and mowed . . . and mowed) then hurried up and got the 4-wheeler out to check on the trails and found tall, old trees down on the riverbottom trail. The River Trail is impassable! We will have work and exploring to do next visit!

Cool place

Morghan, Jack and Maddie Mae were not only able to sleep "out" two whole nights, they enjoyed playing on the porch during the day along with Gabby and Joey. The second day, I picked up the mattresses and put them away early and the kids were like "hey! where are the beds?" So I threw a mattress back down with a silky sleeping bag for that occasional card game or rest in the shade.

August

I am just returned from Too. I have spent the last three days with grandchildren at Too. This is what everyone should do in August. Spend time with children. Or -- spend time at the beach. Or better yet, both! I have had fun. A lot of fun. I have been grumpy too, and impatient. I need more practice. I may have to spend time like this in September, practicing at Too!

After work last Wednesday, I picked up the Small Frey and headed south.

On Thursday, Traci came (on short notice, bless her heart) with the little Hofs. We all spent most of Thursday at the beach and taking Harley Davidson rides.

JOEY

MADDIE MAE

GABBY

JACK

MORGHAN

Harley Davidson

We had fun!

Getting Started

This is the old porch. It almost sitting on the ground at the right end in the picture and right there by the tank on the grill, the porch was 3 or 4" away from the cabin. We had leveled the porch many times over the years and there were cement block, 4X4 scraps, other various boards and rocks under there trying to hold the porch up.

Still, it was kind of cute, wasn't it?

Rural renewal

The old porch supports had frozen and thawed and heaved until the old porch floor had pulled away from the cabin. There was a gap wide enough to lose a baby through! Well, a baby cat, anyway. So a week or so ago, Himself and I braced the porch roof, took out the old porch columns and floor and then put new treated lumber back. We kept the roof so that dictated the size of the porch, otherwise it might have been nice to make it another foot or two deep. I had hoped to keep the floor boards but we ended up using 2" treated lumber. This floor will never sag!

Work in Process

The new posts are in and we have started to frame the walls. This was still the first day of the job, in July.

A new skill

Himself had never built a door before but because of the bad luck we had with the boughten ones at III, he read up on the process, borrowed his friend's dowel jig (or something like that) and went to work. Here is the frame. He has drilled, glued and braced the boards and we were getting ready to put the screen on.
We had screen on the front front the July trip. This day was pretty nice! Warm but not horrid and working in the shade with a breeze, made it all bearable.

Finishing work

Notice that we have all the latest equipment and tools! Here is Himself using a wooden chair for a saw horse! He and I make do a lot. We can't, of course, run to Menards when we don't have a tool or piece of material. This day, we figured out how to rip a 1X4 into a 1X2 by nailing a jig on the porch floor. I think this is the fun part for me -- the improvising. The figuring out how to, part. Well, and the fact that we can finish a project. That helps!



See the little metal bed head and foot boards leaning on the porch? I'm going to make a little daybed out of them for the porch so little people can nap or sleep on the porch.

I found the camera timer!

Sorry! We had a little time after finishing the porch and putting the tools away. I played with the camera and found the timer. Here we are on our new, screened porch! Using the timer might be a bit dangerous!

Trying Tony's trick

I have a long arm, well two long arms, so thought I would try taking our picture while holding the camera. Obviously, I need more practice -- and I should wait until we've showered and cleaned up after a long, hot day working outside!

You can see how impressed Himself is with the whole process!

Done Deal

And here is Himself enjoying the fruits of his labors . . .

I said that I think the (new, sturdy) porch will hold the cabin up for another 40 years!

We sat out on the porch last evening, after our day's work was done. An evening breeze came up as the day cooled off. There wasn't one wayward mosquito or fly in the porch with us! It was so nice I wanted to sleep out there!