The framing material has been purchased. Time to build a shop.

August 13, 2015 - Thursday

70 degrees/clear/breezy

Pentoga Road

The next two days are forecast to be scorchers and judging from the way today has begun, I'd say Carl the Weatherman has hit this meteorological nail on the head.

The heat, coupled with high humidity, makes any type of strenuous activity miserable.

Wednesday began by calling our local lumber yard and pricing framing materials, mostly 2x4's. I was delighted to learn that they were very competitive with Home Depot in Iron Mountain and in some instances, a few cents cheaper. It didn't take long to hook up the trailer and head to town. 

I couldn't believe my luck when I found the needed boards, most of them straight. One thing I've been dreading about building the shop is finding decent materials, boards that don't make a right angle in the middle, are so knotty they crack or break, or are split their entire length. I didn't even have to ask for help when it came time to load. The young man, a yard worker whom I've gotten to know, is great about helping me select straight lumber. 

Getting the lumber home was easy. Finding a place to stack it was another story. I've been cleaning in the barn and it wasn't long before I had a place along the south wall to put everything.

Next came cleaning out the area where the shop will be built. Other than the treated scrap lumber in one corner, the rest has been fairly easy. There's a lot of stuff, but it's fairly well organized and I should finish clearing everything this morning.

The rest of the afternoon was spent on the phone, attempting to talk with AT&T about the rising cost of our landline. It's gone up substantially during the past year and I'm about to disconnect the service and try a VOIP - internet-based company. Our internet has been working well for almost a year now and for the $40 a month savings, it very well might be worth a try.

The only problem with AT&T, their service is so bad that while we were on the phone, I was continually being disconnected and finally, our service went out completely. I ended up turning in a work order, via internet, so I can eventually talk to them.

Needless to say, Tommy P wasn't a happy camper after spending over two hours on the phone, waiting, only to be disconnected and completely lose service. I was upset. No, darn it, I was mad; down and dirty mad.

I needed to work off my discontent. What best to do other than to get on the back hoe and dig dirt, lots and lots of dirt.

So that lead to my last activity of the day, digging, hauling, and unloading a truck full to the rear of the back yard. In the end, I'd sweat out my frustrations.

It was past 10 last night before Sargie and Grady pulled into the drive. 

They were still going strong when I finally headed up the steps at 11, well past my usual bedtime.

I'm not sure what's on the agenda for today. I'd like to make pickles this morning before it gets too hot. Other than that, I'm sure Grady, Grandma, and I, will hang out, take a walk, go for a drive, and do all those things to keep Grady occupied. If it gets too hot, we'll head to the river or find a lake and take a dip. 

Meanwhile, it's time to go feed the beast. The pumpkin must be approaching two-hundred pounds and is growing noticeably on a daily basis. I'm hoping we'll squeeze another month to six weeks out of the growing season. 

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road...

To put everything in perspective... each leaf is over six times the size of my hand.