The new campfire thread...ooooh purrrrty!!!!!!

[Fenlason]

Yes.. we are supposed to have a pretty awesome day here also.. although our awesome is maybe in the 60's.. and sunny.

I got a bit of plastering done yesterday.. and I will be heading out shortly to do more.

We have a great ride last night… and have another on tap for tonight.

[Fenlason]

We got up to 80 yesterday. It is supposed to be cooler.. with maybe some showers.

I did get more plastering done yesterday. Then some bike rides. We host a ride at 5:30.. Laurie gets out at 4:00 so I met her there.. and we went out for a spin before the other ride.

Today.. i will be doing some errands.

[toypusher]

Yeah, it hit 87 on my thermometer at the house yesterday. For my second day back at work, it made things a bit tough for me and my new co-worker. He is a bit overweight and has to do most all of the trim work. I mow and do cleanup with the backpack blower. Hoping the rest of the week will be a lot easier on him. Also, have some trouble with my knee. It is bearable, but really slows me down, especially when going down an incline.

[Fenlason]

Sorry about the knee Kerry..

It's getting darker here.. we are supposed to have some showers today.

I have done a few errands.. I made an appointment for the van [oil change] I expected to have to wait longer.. but they are going to do it tomorrow at 7:30.

I stopped by Laurie's work.. well the new store.. not where she is. I was looking at options for putting lighting on our deck. Or upper south side deck only has the flood light for lighting up out back. We have needed something else for lighting. I am thinking of putting some poles [electrical conduit] up alone the railing posts.. connect them with stainless cable.. and hang string lights off that. I was looking at various mounting hardware.. and came up with what I want. I failed to check to see what I need for conduit first.. so I didn't pick anything up.

I picked up more wire lath.. so I can start prepping the backside of the wall we fixed last fall. I will lath it and then use a surface bonding cement plaster on it.

I also picked up another bag of motor mix for my porch plaster project.

I almost got me a turkey.. heading out this morning. I see one slowly crossing the road up ahead of me.. I slow.. giving it time. I sped up and was off the road heading into the field.. while I transitioned my gaze to the woods he had come from.. see if there were others to look out for.. but the one that had crossed.. decided he wanted back on the other side.. and chose to fly there.. I did brush him with the windshield… .. It didn't seem to hurt him… or me.

I also had a police car pull a U turn in front of me.. We are on a 4 lane road.. heading toward Oakland.. I am following him in the right hand lane.. he puts on a left turn signal.. looking like he is turning into a road on the left.. [from the right hand lane] he then proceeds to make a full u turn. No lights.. seemingly no hurry..

Well I seems as if I am not going to get a gentle start to work this year. Some of it will be from the weather.. a late spring.. always makes things hectic. Paul is out again.. in about 2 weeks.. although this time for a very acceptable reason. He only son just had their first child.. so they going down…

Just getting back into the swing of things.. is tough.. starting when It is really busy.. makes it harder.. and we have a few new procedures and such.. to make it even better. At least we will have an extra person to help with some of it.

[toypusher]

48 degrees this morning. Should be sunny and high of about 68 today. Feeling cool after the weather so far this week.

We are at least a day behind on mowing so far. My new guy is hurting a bit everyday and can only last about 4 hours max. I am hoping to get at least 6 hours out of him today.

[Fenlason]

Heading out this morning.. and I notice we had had some "activity" out by the road. Sometime during the night.. or early this morning.. someone had had quite the ride. The went off the road… into the ditch.. hit our driveway.. and launched in the air for a bit.. came down.. leaving parts behind.. and went down the lawn quite a ways.. stopping just before plunging down into the ravine.

My van appointment went well.. I guess.. I picked up some more stuff… and then stopped by work… and ended up there most of the day. I was just hanging out / visiting.. and Paul ended up there alone.. and was quite busy.. so I helped. He sold a treadmill.. and the people were going to take it with them… If I wasn't there to help load it.. it would not have happened.

Earlier there had been all this talk about keeping up on repairs.. that we were going to have a couple day turn around vs a couple of weeks.. Well we have 30 bikes in waiting for service… Paul was busy enough he only got one done today.. and I haven't been called into work yet?

[Fenlason]

Last night I got asked if I could help with a delivery today.. I had hoped to get some work done here.. but I had said yes.. to make it worse.. it was kind of in the middle of the day.. and worse yet.. Laurie writes me and says she has the afternoon off.

I did the delivery with Dave our new manager. The owner sees that one of our guys is getting a bit of work done.. but the other one doesn't appear to be.. so he is hesitant to bring me in.. to cover his butt.. meanwhile.. the work is pilling up. I have been asked to work Thursday.. and other wise I am confused.. Tuesday if I want?? and they sort of would like some help in Farmingdale… So I am not really sure on anything. Other than I am working Thursday.

I was thinking it is a late spring this year.. but last year I was not working yet either. I might have started next week.. I don't remember..


I did get a few errands done on the way into work.. and we just did a bike ride.

We are heading to Dave and Angela's for dinner.. so I guess I don't get anything done now.

I am not sure what we will work on tomorrow. We have lath to put up… or I can put house wrap and start strapping another wall section of the barn. I have a few branches to pick up out by the road.. and do some clean up from the car that went off. We did see today.. the reason they didn't go down in the ravine.. was because they hit a big enough stump. It had a good impact ding in it.. and it is short enough.. that it was probably something on the underside of the car that hit it.

[toypusher]

WOW! That sounds like quite the accident.

I have to work today. The new guy working with me got to hurting so bad yesterday that I had to take him home and call the guy I used to work with to help me try to finish, but we still have 2 huge yards and one small one to do today. Can't start until late this morning because he has to work at the Golf Course first. The boss is back today, so maybe we can figure something better out for next week.

[Fenlason]

We saw a neighbor at the store last night.. and he told us more about the accident. Living underground we don't here much that is going on out by the road..

He said Police.. rescue wreckers etc.. were there. Everyone but the occupents. It was a pretty nice looking Escalade.

We have a nice sunny day today.. but are supposed to have rain tomorrow. Although we are driving to our niece's tomorrow for easter.. so we will be tied up a good part of the day.

We have gotten a bit done today. We have switched out all 8 snow tires… I have done some staining. I had some some porch things.. that I build late last fall that have needed to be stained. Some trim that needed caulking. Last week working on the roof I found a couple of screw holes that needed caulking. hmm maybe lath work next?

[Fenlason]

We did get all the wire lath up yesterday also. I have a little work yet to do on the bottom and the 2 outside edges.. folding over some pieces.. but I can easily do that alone. Plastering all of it might take some work though. Although I will be using a surface bonding cement.. and that might go on wire lath easier.

Well Dave wrote me about work last night.. he said he has talked to everyone else.. and was sharing what he needs for coverage.. I am to tell him what I will cover.. and he will get someone for the rest. Some of it is coverage on each of the 2 stores, on the same day.. so it's not like I can cover it all, even if I wanted to.

I do work Thursday this next week, and it looks like I work most of the week after.. we go from short handed to even shorter handed.. and with our weather finally switching out to spring.. it will probably be quite busy.

On our way back from Laurie's niece's we will stop and talk to Dave..

We are rainy showery today.. but I think the beginning of next week is supposed to be good. I know I will have to pick up materials… wood to make staging.. and some block bond to plaster. I am going to need to be making lists.. material list.. but also a list of projects.. so that I make sure I am ready to work on something regardless of the weather.

[toypusher]

Happy Easter! Beautiful day here sunny and might hit mid to upper 80s, but a bit breezy and maybe some rain after sunset.

Tough week for me and my knee is really not doing well. Have to see what next week brings.

[Fenlason]

Our weather actually turned out pretty darn good. We had a bit of high thin clouds.. at times clear.. but we got up into the 70's. It just started raining a few minutes ago. It's still warmish out.. and the frogs came out today.
Sorry about your knee Kerry.

We had Easter at Laurie's Niece's.. and stopped by at Dave and Angela's on the way home.. Dave and I talked about work some.. and then stayed for dinner.

We had a good talk.. well things continue to evolve.. as he talks to others.. and thinks about stuff.. I guess he was just telling me what he needed for coverage.. and offering it out to me… to see if I wanted more.. and or different. I told him ideally I like my Tuesday, Thursday schedule.. but would be open to helping them out this year as needed [within reason] I start Thursday.. and will cover for Paul… the following week [Tuesday through Saturday] while Paul goes to meet his just born grandson.



We did a little work here this morning. Our upper deck on the south side of the house.. really doesn't have any lighting.. I think I mentioned we are going to put string lights on poles. I got two of the pole mounts up. I will have 5 poles.. and of course 2 mounts each. I have marked out and predrilled whole for where they will go. I also figured out what length pole I want. I hope to put some stain over the holes.. and put the mounts up.. cut, drill, clean and paint.. the poles.

I guess I will run to the lumber yard tomorrow.

[toypusher]

Looks like we might get some sprinkles this morning, but be warm and sunny with a good breeze later. Have work today due to rain forecast for later this week.

[Fenlason]

It seems as if our forecast has changed.. I though we were supposed to have a couple of nice days [although not as warm as yesterday] but we are now expected to be cooler.. mostly cloudy.. and showery.. and cold at nights.

I will have to change what I work on.. but I still have stuff to work on. I am still heading to the lumber yard.. I want to go to the hardware store at the same time.. they open later.. otherwise I would have left already.

[Fenlason]

Our weather did improve.. it warmed up.. and was partly cloudy. I got a few things done… a lot of little things. 2 trips to the lumber yard.. and 2 to the hardware store. My light "pole" mounting brackets.. needed 2 pilot holes and a little recess drilled out in the middle.. I have stained those holes.. and installed the mounts. I picked up washers and nuts for these. I have cut down my poles.. I put galvanized black iron pipe fitting end caps on the end of my conduit. I used my dremel to enlarge the inside of the end caps just a little. I then used construction adhesive to hold the ends on.. and squirted some in the bottom ends to keep hornets out.

I found my left over stainless cable and found out it is JUST long enough for what I want. I took the snowblower of the tractor and put my logging hitch on.. so I could move my race trailer. I then took that off, and put on my post hole digger. I wasn't sure I the frost was out.. if I could even dig yet. I decided to try.. it went down a few inches and stopped. It ended up being a root not frost.. I got a hole dug for my Snowdog lean to. I didn't have lumber for that project.. so another list and another trip.

We have a ride tonight.. and I need a little break.. so that is it until the ride. Except I think Laurie wants our other bikes.. so I will need to take them off the Bkool trainers.