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It's the first day of June so that means it's June First and that means a new month has come forth here on the first day of the Sixth month and I have completely wasted the first paragraph of this post.
Susan is determined to put a strike across the "To Do" list for the Living Room. She is seeking to put some sort of a sealer over the painted stencils to protect them from scratches.
I am working on placing a strike through the back door porch item on the "To Do" list. We've been trying to figure out what type of flooring to put there and we have settled on a thick kind rubberized coating for decks.
Let's see how we do.
11:09 PM: The day is done. Gone the sun, from the lake from the sea from the sky...blah blah blah
Let's start with Susan's project. We purchased a clear varathane sealer in a spray can to try and secure the stenciling for posterity. Susan tried it on the sample tile and was not happy with the result. We both concluded...separately and at about the same time...that the stencils were fine as they are. It's not like we have wild uncontrolled dingo's running through the house.
So, it's official! The Living Room is done!
Here is how the back door looked once Phil completed his work.
I really like the way the rail came out. It now matches the railing on the front porch and the deck.
Before I got to work on the floor, Susan reminded me that it might be wise to get some primer on the railing. I reluctantly agreed that was a good idea. I really wanted to get the floor painted to see how it would look.
The floor is a large piece of half inch plywood with an ever so not so slight angle to it. We thought it should have a slight slope to encourage water to roll away from the porch. Phil made it mostly level with a sudden slope. You kind of feel like you're drunk when you're walking off it.
I've been looking around for some sort of flooring to put down. Short of replacing the tongue and groove planks that were there, there really was no good option I found.
So, we settled for this deck coating paint that goes down really thick and gives you a little grip. Above are the picture of the can and the formula for future reference.
With the railing primed with an initial coat, I finally got to work on the floor. I've only got one coat down so far and I'm not sure I'm going to like this stuff.
I was hoping this would do a better job of concealing the fact that this floor is a piece of plywood. We shall see how it looks after the next couple of coats.
Since Susan finished her stenciling project, she got to work on the flower beds out front.
The day concluded with a Graduation Party for my nephew, Peyton. He graduated a year early from High School and is not sure about what happens next. His brother, Burke, also graduated from College this year and has some plans for the summer that include working as a Counselor at Camp Nor'Wester over on the coast.
Here are some pictures.
There are the three graduates, Peyton, Burke and Peyton friend, Connor.
This is a tree the kids planted and placed the ashes of their mom (my sister, Sherry) beneath it.
All in all, a good weekend!
We've started a new project that I think will be completed pretty quickly and for a minimal outlay of cashola.
The flooring at the back door has been bad since we moved in almost ten years ago. It was crappy out carpeting covering a rotting piece of plywood.
I pulled all that up the other and found the original tongue and groove wood flooring that was laid down when the house was built. It's in pretty bad shape as well so...
That had to come up as well.
At this point, I called Handy Phil to come and put down a new, level sub floor. As usual, it's going to be more difficult than expected because we have to jack up the post in order to set a solid foundation for the whole floor.
The other thing I didn't consider is the post at the bottom of that stair rail.
It's pretty much rotted through and needs to be replaced, as you can see from the life-like photographic representation above.
I was hoping to use the flooring I took up from the entry way when we installed the tile but I don't have enough of it to cover the area. That means we'll be shopping for some nice outdoor flooring during the Memorial Weekend.
Susan is continuing her stencil work on the fireplace and is getting ever so much closer to completing the project.
My hops plants are doing quite well. The Hallertau has reached the top of the arbor and the Sterling is not far behind. I had a problem with the Sterling because the shoots kind of fell over near the top and then started growing up again.
I had to tie up the shoots which led to this bit of comedy caught on camera.
Here I am stepping off the chair, not realizing the cat's water bucket is right below me.
Here I hit the bucket and start the long decent into loss of balance.
Pivot points change, weights shift, the square of the hypotenuse intersects the cosine of my ass. I really don't think I need to comment beyond this point.
Amazingly, no injury, no bruises.
Just a dumb ass looking at the camera, wondering if that got recorded.
I have been thinking for a while that it looks like there are two different skunks hanging out under the Skunk Cam. I was able to confirm it today.
The skunk on the right is MY skunk (Patty LaPue) who currently resides under the Carriage House. The one on the left (Stinky Usurper) is not from around here. Stinky comes by to check out the area but has never gone under the Carriage House.
I left Patty a little treat last night because I wanted her to be healthy. I cut up a hotdog and put it in a little bowl. I didn't get any video of her eating it but lots of footage of her after the meal.
We had to say good-bye to T.J. today. I came home last night and found him splayed on the couch and I thought he was dead. It turns out he went into a diabetic coma. I got him down to the Emergency Vet and they stabilized him but we think he had some loss of oxygen to the brain as he was having seizures and temperature spikes and not responding well. It did not look hopeful that he would recover so we had to make the hard decision.
A note from Susan:
T.J. - his full name being Thomas Jerald because when I first got him someone said he looked like the Tom and Jerry cartoon kitty - was an amazing, one-of-a-kind cat. He was definitely our Alpha kitty and I have to admit, my favorite. He was a good hunter and brought several birds, mice and even an earthworm through the cat door in my last house to show off. What a character! He did this unusual movement with his front paws in which he looked like he was waving. I called it the "paw thing". When he was little he would rise up on his haunches and do the "paw thing" whenever he saw something unusual, but when he got older he would mostly do it when sitting on my lap. You can go to the blog post of January 31st, 2011 to see him do it. I will miss you my dear, sweet kitty boy and I will never forget you.
He is missed!
Pictured above is a hole that is going to be the subject of a recurring theme.
It will undoubtedly be featured here several times over the next several weeks because of the extraordinary wonder that nature yields.
This is the west side of the Carriage House. That's right, we have a Carriage House. We have no Carriage, but when we do, it has a House. The unique feature of the west side is that it is the one area where nature can make its way under the building.
We have dealt with nature getting under there before and we have not enjoyed the encounter. And...that's a little strong. I thoroughly enjoyed the encounter but it required a great deal of extra work on my part.
The extra work to which I refer involves trapping and relocating pole cats. I have been battling a skunk for some time now that had been trying to dig under. She finally beat me. And I do believe that's a she.
So now I have the proof. I've seen her come out and go back in. I tried blocking her out and she made it back through. Skunks can dig!
So, I am expecting 4 to 7 little bundles of stink come popping out soon. Maybe within a couple weeks.
Skunk watching wasn't the only thing accomplished this weekend. I tending to the hops and the grape vines. I laid down some ant bait. I did some high level security work that I don't care to discuss here. I did a little pre-yard yard work. It's just the stuff you do before the other stuff you do.
I racked my current batch of beer, a clone of Alaskan Amber. This has been an odd brew. It reactivated itself after the first racking and got very active again. It kind of boogered up my cool new vapor lock.
Anyway, it's been almost three weeks and it's not yet ready to keg. That okay! I'm not yet ready to drink it. But it's coming!
I have successfully completed my first transit of the Spokane River for the 2014 River Transiting Season.
I arranged with Don at work to get my car down river so it would be waiting for me when I arrived at the bottom.
Don then took me over to the river at Harvard Road where I put in.
The water was pretty chilly when I first stepped in but by the time I got out, I had adjusted. I wasn't worried because my plans were to be on the water, not in it!
The river is running at 15,300 cfs (cubic feet per second). That's about average for this time of year. And it means there are some kick ass fun rapids to ride through.
I put in at 4:40 and I pulled out at about 6. According to my GPS, I traveled about six miles and dropped about 25 feet.
It was the first trip of the year but definitely not the last.
Thanks to Don for taking the time to transport me around and for the bulk of these pictures.
