A working-man's blog. Dedicated to the advancement of the four day work-week, catch-and-release fishing, noxious weed control, less government, home-made bread, tractor time, and wide fairways.

Sunday, February 26, 2006

Sheathing and Siding On

Well it's coming along. I was hoping to get the shingles on today, but didn't make it. I hope it doesn't snow (or rain) until I get it shingled, but we sure do need the precip. I used house water today to water trees, it has been so dry. I'll have to have a stiff drink before I look at our next water bill.








Here's a shot of the building inspector and her helper. They gave me the go-ahead to get this thing done before summer.

Ha.

Monday, February 20, 2006

Long Weekend

Yep, it was a long weekend for me, what with last Friday off and today, of course, Presidents Day. So I got a lot of work done on the CHP, right? Uh, no. I started putting on the roof sheathing, and had to take it off and shim some rafters (imagine that... they weren't all level on the top. Must be somebody coming in at night and messing with my work). When I got the sheet and a half of sheathing back on, as shown, I got on top to do some nailing. Well sir, it commenced to swaying, so I got myself off and decided to put the siding on before trying to get back up there. Hopefully the siding will make the whole thing more rigid, so I can get on the roof. I had the fascia all on so I could put the roofing on, but realized I had to take it off so I could nail the tops of the siding. Bummer. So there it sits after this long weekend... part of the roof sheathing on, and part of the siding on. But the good news is that my thumbs still look good... no purple thumbnails yet.

Sunday, February 05, 2006

Braaaack!

That's the sound this little hinge made this morning. It sounded just like a parrot would before he says "Polly want a cracker!"











So, being the handyman of the house, I grabbed a can of that wonderful bike chain lubricant, Tri-Flow (shown here with an eggplant for scale. I didn't want to commit another faux pas like the one yesterday... no scale. My first thought was to use a cucumber, but I realize some people might be put off. Thus the eggplant. And in case you think "faux pas" should be "faux pax" I really don't know. But dictionary.com shows faux pas, so there you go. Eggplants are not gourds, are they?).

Past experience has shown that if you push the cap down REAL SLOW, on the can of Tri Flow, you can make it come out in a dribble. Now of course if you push a little too hard, you get the "phhhhht!" I was confident of my ability to control the pressure, and I might have made it if I had not already had my morning coffee.

I'm sure there's a moral to this story somewhere.

Saturday, February 04, 2006

Framed

Well I got all the mileage I could from my knee repair and the cold weather. I finally had to get the chicken Taj Majal framed.




After getting the walls up, I realized just how tall this thing is.

I should have had EB stand in the door for scale, but the opening is about 6 1/2 feet tall. If I ever have a basketball player collect the eggs, I won't have to worry about him klarning his head in the doorway.







And the height may come in handy if we decide to raise chickens on stilts.

Yummy.