Trim - Tasks - and Time with Family

Steve got up this morning and decided it was time to start trimming the inside of the new windows. It was rainy and icky outside, so there was nothing for him to work on out there. 

He got out all of his tools.  It was measure measure measure, in-and-out in-and-out to the power saw in the garage to cut each little board.  He had to figure everything out so each piece would all be symmetrical and perfect. He would write down the measurements on his little clipboard, but he didn't always remember to take it with him out to the garage. Good thing he still has a pretty good memory. 

He pre-treated all of the knots with Zinsser shellac spray. Otherwise they will eventually bleed through the paint, even after multiple coats.

Attaching the trim boards is pretty easy with the little air powered finish nailing gun. He has this little portable tank that he can fill up with air from the big air compressor in the garage.  Binney does NOT like the nail gun, whatsoever. She came over to give it a sniff out of curiosity before he started. Once the 1st nail was driven into the wood, she scattered for the hills!  (and hid behind our bed)

Putting the trim on is like the final dressing on the window project.  He really wanted to get this trim in place.  It makes kind of like a "picture frame"  around the beautiful scene looking out into the backyard. It was bugging him to get a move on, and I had to move his stuff around to make him breakfast and take a break. 

Once he had all the wood into place, and then he caulked all of the little cracks and seams. That way, when it's painted with the white paint, you don't see all of the dark cracks and seams where two pieces of wood meet. I had to wait a little while for the caulking to dry before I could paint. He uses a paintable latex caulk that doesn't take too long to cure. 

Out came my little favorite roller and painting tray. I like those little 4" rollers instead of a wide brush. I still use a narrow angled brush to cut in the little edges in go along the edges of the window. But the roller seemed to leave a nice smoothly painted surface without any bristle marks from the brush.  It was getting rainy and dark, so I was loosing my natural light for painting the first coat.

While I had a pot roast in the pressure cooker for dinner, I was able to get the 1st coat of paint on all of the new wood trim.  I do enjoy painting, and this was such a small job, that it was done in no time. 

I think that it sure looks nice and neat. Steve did a very good job trying to make both windows appear the same and to have a nice little ledge and reveal to frame in the windows.

I can't wait until the 2nd coat is on and dry. Then the grand kids can line up my little blown glass paperweights all along on the sills.

~~~~~~~~~

Yesterday was a good day. I spent some time with my sister. As of writing this blog post, she now has 6 doses of her radiation completed. She only has 4 more to go. 

My goodness, I love her so much!!!

 She is so brave to go through all of this.

I brought her some goodies and things to help make her comfy.  Her husband has been a champ to run and get things and keep her on schedule for all the sessions.  He has been through cancer himself, so he knows what she needs too.

After our visit, she needed to go back to the hospital for her next dose of radiation. We left there and drove up to Door County, Wisconsin to spend the rest of the day with Steve's dad, Paul.

He had prepared us a wonderful lunch of baked chicken, baby red potatoes and carrots. It was delicious. He is quite a cook for 88 and a 1/2 years old~ 

Next, he had a list of projects that he needed a hand with. He made a pretty good supervisor while Steve took care of power washing his little tractor.  

This beautiful flowering crabapple tree needed a couple dead branches taken out. Steve took care of it rather quickly and we carried the branches back to the burn pile. Things are way too dry right now in Wisconsin to do any burning, best to wait for another day.

Pops Pfundtner got his little raised garden cart already planted for the summer. Three different colors of peppers, some tomatoes, and I believe he also said green beans and a few other things are planted as seeds. He also took care of getting some tomato cages adapted to fit in the cart and protect the tomatoes from the harsh Door County winds.

It was an absolutely gorgeous day, sitting out on his backyard deck. The wind chimes were clanging as the breeze was blowing. There were birds flickering here and there. All of the trees were in flowering bloom as well as spring flowers poking up everywhere.

After all of the work was done, they needed to sit down and play a hand of cribbage. It was a tight game and getting competitive towards the end, but Pops pulled ahead and finished with a 3 point hand to win!

It was a long ride home, and we were glad to spend a wonderful day with Paul. He has such energy and ideas and great conversationalist. I love spending time with him. We did a couple little things on his computer, and he is very well adept at handling all of these new modern technology things. He takes it all in stride. I am quite proud of him.

After we got home, we ran a little errand out to our daughter Heather and son-in-law Jesse's house. They have the most absolutely beautiful magnolia tree in full bloom in front of their home. Little Whitney posed to be the little "Magnolia Blossom Queen"--- Just look at those beautiful eyes!

As we went to bed last night, we were thankful for family and all of us trying to help each other along the way in this journey we call life. On Saturday, my siblings are going to gather here while we watch my mom's live streamed memorial service from Florida. It will be a sad day, but it will be a good day for all of us. We need this.

Happy Birthday Saturday with Family

I had such a delightful birthday yesterday... thank you to all those who sent greetings via Facebook, cards in the mail, and all my little goomers who stopped by for a socially distanced Front Porch Birthday Visit! 

We had Unicorn Chelsea (who had her big unicorn head off for the visit), and Claire the Princess Elsa, and then Clayton who was the werewolf guy.... 

Trotting out in front was our Wonder Woman Whitney Wonder Wade... followed by her Mommy Eeore, Daddy Ted E Bear and Chickie Auntie Erin.   

Handsome Jameson, the oldest, was a masked Dragon Priest character from some new movie, I don't know what one.  But what is cool is that their family got a new 3D Printer, and they MADE this mask!   Plus they made Whitney's Wonder Woman tiara too.  How cool is that?  What a fun family project to figure this stuff out. Jesse said it's a blast and a wonderful hobby as well.  They are learning so much and Heather explained how they can get the measurements off of things or get files to recreate them with the printer. 

They showered me with wonderful thoughtful presents, and best of all, homemade birthday cards chock full of the grandkids' artwork!  Those make me smile the most. 

After the kids all left to go get their goodies around the neighborhood, we had a nice visit with some people who stopped by.  The wife, as a little girl, lived in this house. She moved away when she was 6 years old, but had so many happy memories of living here.  She took some pics to send to her mom. They moved away 20 years ago, and they were happy to see that the house is being loved again. In the future, we planned a visit where they can come over and check it out and they share some photos they have from way back when!  How cool will that be? 

After all the trick or treaters were done and on their way home, Steve set the table in the diningroom for a nice evening meal.  How he spoils me! First the new kitchen sink and disposal, then the new backsplash.... and now a tenderloin dinner on the grill. 

Well he was busy tending to the grill, I tossed a couple potatoes in the oven. Lately I've been eating baked sweet potatoes instead of regular potatoes. I find that I like them much more. Steve cracked open a bottle of wine and we turned on some celtic music. The soft antique lights were lit around the dining room and we were really enjoying a peaceful quiet evening. 

I have a question, I know about golden birthdays, like when you turn 26 on the 26th of the month Etc ----  But what about when you turn 60, and you were born in 1960? I think that's a special super duper golden birthday! Yep, I have turned 60. I asked Steve when he went to bed with a 50-Something wife, how did it feel to wake up with a 60 year old lady? All he did was shake his head in disbelief. Sometimes I guess he doesn't understand my humor?

But on the other hand, he was so afraid of turning 60 that he was 59 for two years in a row, and then he went straight to 61~

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Oh, one of the other projects I finished up yesterday morning was that I gave a coat of paint to the ceiling and the beams of the entryway in the she shed. In my previous post I was talking about the knot holes bleeding through the white paint as they dried out over the last year. I used the special Zinsser primer shellac spray can to cover them up. So yesterday morning I got out my little paint tray and roller and got to work.  It was a fast project and only took a few minutes to roll the entire ceiling and beam area of the entryway.

It sure covered up all those knot holes nicely and looks really good now. I'm glad that all those tan circular marks are gone. They were really bugging me. Like I said in my last post, they looked like roof leaks or something.  

And again, that guy must have been trying to turn me on because there he is, washing windows.  I told him that is a turn-on for women to see a man wash windows. Now I think he will do it all of the time just to get my attention?   

This morning it has turned very windy and cold. There are snowflakes floating around and the winds are going to reach gale-force warnings. They said there could be waves up to seven feet high out on the bay. Good day to stay inside and stay home.

As we are sitting down in the she shed this morning, enjoying our coffee, we noticed flocks of these black birds with brown heads, called Cow Birds, getting ready to head on South. They would gather on the ground in big bunches eating something. I don't know what. Then they would all fly up into the air on the wind in big swarms and swirls and land in the trees. And then a few seconds later they would all swarm back down to the ground again. How strange. I made a little video clip for a few minutes of their antics:

I'm not sure what the rest of the day holds for us. It's going to be a quiet Sunday after such a busy Saturday / birthday. The sun keeps trying to poke out and chase away the snowflakes. I guess later this week it will be warmer and we will see if there's any camping planned ahead for us in our schedule? Socially distanced, of course.

Assistant to the Lumberjack

Steveio was on a roll today.  His goal is to remove seven junky box elder trees from growing around the cement slab foundation in our backyard. He calls them "weed trees". He would like to use the slab in the future to build a cute Little Red Barn for a garden shed. 

He figures that the sooner he gets the trees out of there, the better it will be. It will be easier to remove or burn out the stumps. If any of these half rotten trees were to blow over during the winter, their roots could pull up and damage the cement slab that's already there.

So far he has cut down five of them with the chainsaw and most of them are rotten on the inside.  So he was right in getting them down out of the way. 

Today he had the last two to get rid of. The only problem is, exactly where they would drop is where he has two beautiful trees that are growing up nicely. One is a ornamental crabapple tree and the other one is a nice black walnut tree. So his problem was how to guide them down without harming the nice trees, as they land on the ground. 

So that is why he had called upon his Assistant to the Lumberjack-- (ME).  It was up to me to sit behind the steering wheel of our Saturn SUV with a rope attached to the hitch.  This is why:

See these two angled trees in the picture? The two with the Red Arrows? Those are the two that he wanted to take down.

The two trees with the yellow arrows are the good ones that he wants to preserve and not get damaged during the process.

They are leaning far over to the right and he wants them to drop closer down to the left in a straightforward position. So that's why he needed me to drive to the far left with a rope on the hitch as they were going down...

He got everything ready and got the big thick rope into place. Now it was my turn to help out, while he carefully cut the trees from behind.  The Saturn (and me) would be far far away to the left when this all happened. 

This was my view point from the Saturn in the front driver seat. He would tell me when I should ease the throttle carefully and help pull the tree over, as it slowly was cut away to reach the ground. He uses the hinging technique with wedges instead of a straight drop. Much safer, and a more careful process to land the tree onto the ground.

TIMMMMBBEERRRRRRR~!    

Well, actually  timber   .....It just eased gently to the ground. 

First one down, and the rope technique did the trick! It didn't damage anything and landed exactly where he wanted it to go.  He said he knew it would.   See?  No where near me or the Saturn. 

Soon the second tree was safely down and he was able to take care of cutting it all up into pieces this afternoon. We have two nice piles of wood now for the neighbor, and Steve has removed all seven trees from around the cement slab.

He will probably spend the winter 

drawing up Little Red Barn plans...

~~~~~~~

Our next project today was to permanently make sure that our fireplace is closed off that nobody will ever want to try to attempt to build a fire from inside. Both the building inspector and our insurance company wanted to be assured that it was taken care of. Because we closed off the chimney from the top on the outside on Monday, we needed to make it obvious to anyone in the future that it could no longer be used.  We already knew the fireplace from the inside had been closed off years ago by the previous owners / renters. There was a firm metal structure covering the entire flue as well as a bunch of insulation above that, blocking it off.  We checked that out before we even bought the house.  

We went one step further to add a second metal barrier with words of warning written onto the sheet of aluminum. 

Steve cut it to size, to fit the flue exactly. It was now double layered to prevent any heat losses, as well as warning anyone that it is permanently closed. 

He was able to maneuver around and get the metal up into place and attached to the sides of the brick walls, as well as the other metal flat surface.  Good and secure.  Then he sealed it all around with adhesive and a thick bead of mortar caulk.

I aimed the camera up to take this pic to send to our insurance agent.  There is no doubt that the chimney is closed off, and now sealed around all of the edges.  No more drafts or heat loss. 

We will plan sometime later to add an electric fireplace, or a vent free natural gas one like we had in our home in Chilton.  But that will come later, much later, as the budget allows. For now, we will keep the existing fireplace doors in place.  They aren't too pretty, but they will suffice.

Steve cleaned up his mess, and I told him that to a woman, this is a turn on, to see a man who is washing windows. Well, glass fireplace doors, but who cares... it's glass and he is washing them!  LOL   That's my guy! 

He slid the newly repaired glass fireplace screen back in front of the doors.  I am glad we were able to fix it and keep it as part of our livingroom decor.  Someone looks pretty satisfied that he did a good job. The King of his Castle.

~~~~~~~~~

I started a little project today myself, because I needed to take care of something that has been bothering me. When we put the ceiling up in the she shed entryway, we used new pine V-groove boards. It is also known as "Car-siding". Because it was new wooden boards, the knots were not fully dried out. Even with a coat of primer and two coats of paint, the knots have bled through over the last 12 months.

Here are the unsightly knots that make big tan blotches all over on the ceiling in the entryway of the she shed. I think it looks terrible and it was time to do something about it. 

When I first noticed them, I first thought they were roof leaks, oh my!  But no, they are just bleeding through from the knots as they dry out. 

Good Old Google Research to the rescue. I read where people that have been doing a lot of shiplap wood planks, and lately have noticed the same thing.  Especially when using fresh new wood. They said the best stuff to use is this Zinsser shellac spray primer. Not the water-based stuff, not the brush on stuff, not the Kilz brand, it has to be this one. They said it's the only stuff that really works. So I will give it a try.

It was a warm enough day to open up the doors and windows to have adequate ventilation to use this product. It's very stinky!

Wow, look at this! This is just with the primer on and I haven't even painted yet. What a difference.  Maybe tomorrow I will get out my paint bucket and little roller.

Today I was finishing up weaving the final section of this wool rug. It was a different pattern I was trying out and I really like the way it was coming along.  While Steve was stacking wood outside, I stayed cozy and warm inside weaving in my She Shed. 

(I unrolled it a bit to see the pattern in the pic)

This is a very thick rug of wool fabric from men's suit coats. Recycling at its finest. I just have to add the tag and hem up the ends and it will be ready to list in my Etsy online store for for sale.

~~~~~~~

Finnegan is doing much better. It's been 4 days now since his tooth extraction. I think he's playing us and faking to take advantage of the situation. He has moved on from wanting things like cheap hot dogs and shredded chicken to more expensive things like bratwurst and shaved deli ham. The flakes of grilled salmon was good for two days but he decided that even that wasn't good enough. He's thinking that the raw tenderloin that we used to give him his pills in is more to his liking. No way Jose.

He is talking Binney (in the pink scarf) into begging for the "good stuff" instead of plain ole dog food.  They are conspiring against us, I am sure.  We just took two hamburgers off the grill, and they seem to think that the burgers were for them!!  Look at those faces!!

I think it's time to start weaning him back to soft canned dog food, and then the dry kibble that he is used to, and stop tempting him with all of these treats. He is finally eating better now that his antibiotics are done. I think they were making him nauseous and made the food taste funny?  Either that, or the little stinker is taking advantage of us. And I think he knows it!

Huh? Who? Me?

Somehow, he knows I am typing about him right now, doesn't he? Dogs are pretty smart creatures.