This month's calendar Archives
August 5, 2011
IT'S FRIDAY, MY FAVORITE DAY!!
Painting, that's what I have been doing this week. Since we have been having relatively dry weather all week, it was time to get some of those past due painting projects started. Some of them were really past due. The frame around the door on the boat barn was really faded and when I tried washing it the paint peeled off, it was that bad. So we were down to bare wood and had to sand it and prime it before I could even begin to put the final coat on. After two coats of primer, I decided to doll it up a bit and ended up painting two more coats of forest green paint that matches the green trim on the two bay garage doors. Then Dave took down the "Bell's Boat Barn" letters and I gave them a quick sanding and a new coat of black paint and they look like new again too.
I have been priming and painting the deck railing all week. The guys will be installing the new boards to the railing next week and I wanted to get them painted before they were in place. It is a lot easier that way. So I painted 72 feet of 2x2's, 64 feet of 2x4's and 128 feet of 2x6's on all four sides of each board. That took me most of the week to do that as I had to wait for each side to dry before I could turn them over to expose another side to be painted. I have most of the painting done in the front of the deck and I have a guy who will come in a couple of weeks to paint the outside railings which involves climbing a ladder a couple of stories high. I don't do ladders anymore. Meanwhile, I still have the sides of the house to do as the deck surrounds three sides of the house. I sure hope the weather holds up.
The neighbor lady invited all of the other ladies in the 'hood to have tea with her on Monday. They had moved into their house about a year ago and wanted to show us through the house. It has some really neat features, like barn wood floors and a classy kitchen with red cupboards. She served tea and berry cobbler while we sat around and gossiped for a while. It was a nice break for me and it gave everyone a chance to get to know our neighbor a little better.
Dave has been readying the steamboat for the annual steam meet in Cathlamet (on the Columbia River between Astoria, Oregon and Longview, Washington) next weekend. He has studied and worked real hard trying to fix the problems with the boiler water return feed. He hasn't solved the problem as of yet but at least he knows a short-term fix. He had the boat running at the dock on Wednesday and got it to where it was running well enough to take it to the meet. While he was working on the boat, he managed to burn his arm on the hot engine. I guess that goes with the territory.
This weekend, the Kahrs are having a bunch of people come in to help them with a wharf project and they wanted Dave to be able to give the crew a ride on the steamboat. Hopefully, it will work out so he can do that. Every year, Des replaces part of the wharf when it starts getting rotten. This part is at the end of the wharf and is the last major thing he'll have to do, but it's going to take around six guys most of the week to move those huge beams into place. Anyway, after we take people out for rides, we'll get the boat away from the dock and out of way of the construction project. We'll take it out of the water and get it cleaned up for the meet next weekend. That will be my job next week as Dave will be busy working on both our deck project and Des' wharf project.
On Thursday, I had an appointment in Tillamook to get my nails done and got stuck in a traffic jam. There was a fatal accident involving a log truck and a bicyclist on Highway 101 just about 5 minutes before I got there. I waited in line to see the emergency vehicles arrive and then decided that I wasn't going to make it to my appointment on time. I called and rescheduled for today. The road was closed all afternoon so it was a good thing I rescheduled. Since I was planning on going the opposite direction to Warrenton to get the oil changed in the Jeep on Friday, I just rearranged my schedule and drove to the dealership on Thursday instead. Sometimes you just have to go with the flow. There is a lot of traffic on the road this time of year with tourists and bicyclists and you have to allow a little extra time to reach your destination. It can be very frustrating some times.
Our daughter Leslie had professional pictures taken of her two girls (Ashtin and Paige) and so I am giving you a quick peek at the proofs. These were lifted from her Facebook page and are tiny because FB won't let us copy anything other than the ones she initially posted. I'll get the real thing and post later, or you can just try to become her friend on FB and see the album for yourself. Both girls are very athletic (soccer and basketball) and have a great relationship with each other. It shows in the pictures.
My sister Jeanne called me from Scotland where she and Bob are staying for six weeks while he is filling in while the other minister takes a sabbatical. Jeanne wanted me to know that they had to put down one of their basset hounds because she had become very ill. While we were down in Phoenix last March, Stella (the hound) got really sick and it turned out that her adrenal gland had shut down. After several tests, they had to administer medication for her to keep her body functioning. Apparently every four months it had to be re-evaluated. Stella become very sick again and was rushed to the vet, but not in time to save her. She was only three years old and was such a sweet dog. Jeanne felt bad because she was so far away and couldn't be there with Stella.
