The drive was sealed on Tuesday afternoon

July 10, 2014 - Thursday

37 degrees/clear/calm

Pentoga Road

If I weren't such a macho manly man, I'd start a fire in the wood stove. Another unofficial low temperature record was broken early this morning and it seems we're continuing with the same weather pattern as last winter. Thankfully, for the most part, the days are sunny and comfortably warm and everything is green and lush with all the rain that's fallen.

Wednesday was a mixed bag of business. I started the day picking strawberries, occasionally quitting between rain showers. In the end, I filled a large bowl, plus a five quart ice cream pail.

The rain quit long enough so I might turn my thoughts to working on the foundation of the storage unit. I fussed and fumed and often misreading the tape measure, called my Mississippi brother, Garry. 

It stopped and started raining so much that I finally gave up moving the tools that were on the four wheeler and simply added or removed the tarp when needed.

Garry and I are both graduates of the University of Southern Mississippi... from many many years ago. We've been emailing each other for close to thirty years on a daily basis and would bet we haven't missed a dozen days in total. In fact, we started our daily correspondence before email was invented by leaving each other daily messages on a digital bulletin board sponsored by one of the sheet music companies when we were band directors. 

Garry knows more about me than anyone else in the world. We've shared many a joy and more than our fill of sorrows over the years. 

Garry's also a heck of a carpenter and knows his stuff. He also knows that my eyesight is less than ideal.

I cut a piece of twine to the exact measurement so that I don't have to worry about reading the tape measure while working.

I called him yesterday, crying and whining, and presented my problem of how to build the base/foundation of the building straight and square without having to extensively read a tape measure.

There's almost two feet of water in the post holes. Pulling the post out is like listening to a cow pull her foot out of a mud puddle... and difficult due to the suction.

Garry gave me a lesson in Algebra, something I managed to fail twice (along with flunking Geometry three times) in high school, only yesterday, the lesson had to do with practical knowledge and it actually made sense. 

He also came up with a system of how, once I loosely set the posts, I might begin to put in the floor joists and lay the 4x8 sheets of plywood, adjusting anything that might be out of kilter as I go. 

I hung up the phone an hour later feeling like a million dollars. Within the next four hours, I had worked some algebraic magic and had the corner posts fastened properly in place, and had there been more time, the other two would have been ready to have the outside 2x6's attached. I was a building machine and for the first time all summer, felt confident that I might finish this unit.

Since I don't see fine objects too well, I tend to form a picture of how something should be constructed in my head. Garry painted a mental masterpiece yesterday afternoon and I'm rarin' to go. Thanks, Brother.

I don't know what I'd do without Mississippi Brother Garry and Yooper Brother Mark. Along with Brother Preacher Pat who tends to my spiritual well being, I'm a lucky lucky man.

The blacktop people called mid-afternoon saying they were on their way to seal the drive. Thankfully, it had quit raining, the sun had come out, and the pavement was dry.

It took between fifty and sixty gallons of sealer to coat the drive. I'm so happy I had them do the job and have since calculated it would have cost almost the same for me to have done it myself. It sure looks nice.

Sargie's off today and no doubt, we'll be doing all sorts of jobs around the house and yard. I will continue working on the storage unit and hope to purchase some needed plywood along with more treated 2x6's and begin getting the floor joists installed and covered. My goal is to have the floor completely finished by Sunday evening. Next week should see the walls go up and after that, the rafters.

But first, it's time for another cup of coffee and grade some assignments that came in yesterday. After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...  

If I could just teach him to read a tape measure...