8.12.2022

Jim helped me this morning with my postage meter and loading up my car with a big fire school mailing.  After that, he headed to pick up our lean-to shingles!

He also picked up a roll of flashing material (doubled in price since last he bought it!) and started making drip edge for the roof...

Explaining how it all works to Mom...

Drip edge is all made...

He unloaded all the shingles onto a pallet...

Doing some beginning measurements...

Putting up the first piece of drip edge...

Once the front was done, he decided to put a few more nails on the edges of the roof...

Putting the drip edge on the side...

Jim just has a little bit on the top of each side to do...

With just a bit of time left, Jim put up a piece of fascia board that he had...

High 77.2/Low 55.5 - gorgeous!

8.11.2022

 Mom and I headed out this morning to do a Home Depot pickup and grocery errands.  Check out the license plate on the car we saw in a parking lot!  I'm a bit jealous that someone else has this plate!

Jim had a haircut appointment this morning and then used this opportunity to be able to shut off the water and see if he could fix the outdoor hydrant up on the hill.  He first had to take off the cap and handle...

Jim was hoping that this rod would come out easily, but of course it didn't.  It's about 6' long - he eventually got it out.

The next step was to try and get the broken end of the clevis rod off - it's threaded onto the rod and had totally corroded...

Jim finally got it off and the pretty new stainless steel one attached...

He was able to get the lawn hydrant working so that's great news!

He next headed out to the lean to to work on more finishing details - he made some blocking pieces first...

He used to be able to buy tongue an groove boards for the skirt but they weren't available so he is going to use these blocks to hold the two pieces together...

He attached one block between each span...

Then putting up the trim board...

Finishing up the trim on the skirt...

Random picture - Jim was up on the ladder and dropped a screw.  It landed exactly on the edge and stuck into the board straight up and down!  He could probably never repeat that in a million tries!

The new headers Jim ordered for the 4Runner finally came in - it's been months!  So working on the car is going to be another project for him...

Jim did some grass cutting at the end of the day and found this beautiful little leaf - a sign of fall?

High 84.1/Low 60.4 - beautiful!

8.10.2022

After some hot days, it was wonderful to wake up to temperatures in the 60s.  We shut off the AC and let that cool mountain air be our air conditioning for the day!  It was gorgeous!

Jim figured out all the trim pieces he will need to finish the lean to and got those ordered this morning.

After working in the shop after that, we headed out to the lean to after lunch to do some painting.  Jim taped the top line above the ceiling joist and then did the hand painting of all the grooves and the top edges...

Using the roller on the side edge...

While Jim continued doing the grooves, I followed along rolling the paint on.  Jim took over for the high parts...

All painted!  We got a good match for the siding color so it all looks really nice.  The inside is basically done and ready for inspection.

Jim continues wasp duty - this hole had a cicada in the hole and one right outside!  He floods out probably a dozen areas a day!

High 75.7/Low 63.5 - gorgeous!

8.9.2022

 Jim's always got a project or two lined up for down the road.  This morning, he marked out wall sizes and started planning out the subway tile for the wood shop bathroom.  This will be our trial for the kitchen, so we'll make sure we get the grout color we like, for example.

Outside (wow - look at that sky!), Jim was explaining to Mom where the different type of trim pieces will go on the lean to...

When Jim put up these joists, he only put a couple fasteners in them so that he could do this work today - take them down and paint underneath them so that when we paint this side, we don't have to go around anything.

A little paint behind...

Working his way down...

All done!

Now it's time to put all the fasteners in...

Each of these hurricane clips has a lot of screws...

High 86/Low 63

8.8.2022

Jim is trying to get rid of some things around here that are just taking up space.  This morning, he tried to see if he could load software on my old Dell computer so that he could list it on craigslist.  Always a project...

Jim continued to do work on the lean to, making special flashing for the corner...

Jim is figuring out what pieces of flashing he has and what he needs to order; he'll be putting an order in probably tomorrow for the remaining pieces he needs.

While it's not a bear, Mother Nature is definitely interesting.  Overnight, this huge spider web appeared along with a big spider eating a grasshopper!  As long as Mother Nature stays outside!

High 91.4/Low 71.8 - hottest day of the year so far!

8.7.2022

Jim took down the scaffolding in the lean to today and we got it cleaned up.  Weeds had grown up and there were some wood cutoffs to get out.  Looks really nice now!

Jim put away some of the scaffolding parts in the pole barn and then did a little bit of cleaning/rearranging...

Working on special flashing for the bottom front...

Attaching the flashing...

Jim took the rest of the scaffolding pieces back up to the shed and then did some grass cutting to finish off the day.

High 90.2/Low 71.9