Working Away From Home

      As the fall seems to be coming to a close and I really do not have a project that I focused on this week, I thought I would document where some of my time has been spent lately.    Let's see...  Oh yeah there is the fact that I have been moving stuff from the garage shop to the basement shop which is now completed.   And there is the fact that the garden season has come to an end so there has been a little time spent cleaning off the last of the produce and putting tools and stuff away before the snow flies.   And there is that fact that I have been so engrossed in the political ads, debates, and surveys lately (believe that one would you?  Not one candidate has address the fact of the rising cost of wood tools and lumber).    All I know is that it does not make any difference to me who gets in.  Life will be better for us all because either man says if he is the one who is president,  everything will be better than it was the last four years. (I can't lose.)    I don't want to wish my life away, but please - November 6th, would you come around a little faster?

   I did put in a little road time this fall.   This picture was taken down at Shawn and Vanessa's place.  On the south side of their house was this spot where there were a couple egress windows coming out of the basement bedrooms.    The picture to the left shows that area of the house where Shawn had hire a friend to help lay some landscaping block down plus there is a little landscaping work around the windows.    Now that the landscaping is completed the balance of the siding on that side of the house needed to be done.


     I helped get the siding started.   There were a lot of angled cuts as we had to fit pieces in between the stone and the windows.   Plus we had to made sure that once we got started the siding would match the siding that was already installed on the rest of the house.    Needless to say, I was there to help Shawn get started laying the base layers, but I was only there for one day and he had to finish the balance of the job himself.  It looks nice.     Just break out the grass seed and next spring it will be picture perfect.

    Here is another project that I have spent some time on this fall.    This is another cabin up at the Okoboji Bible Camp.   The very first cabin I worked on a few years back was called the Sac Cabin.     Last year I spent quite a bit of time working on the Dakota Cabin.   I even blogged about working on that one a little.    Most of that time was spent during the months of January through April.     This cabin is call Navaho Cabin.    The maintenance personnel start to gut this cabin once summer camp came to an end.    There is a plan to make this cabin handicap accessible also.   The first cabin, the Sac cabin,  was not remodeled that way, but the Dakota was.    The Dakota was a very popular cabin this past summer and was rented out almost continually.     I have been up working on the Navaho three different times now.   My last time helping out on this project, we took out the front door, steps,  and front windows and completely closed in that side of the cabin.    They will be putting in sliding glass doors on the side facing the lake.   They are waiting for a shower to arrive and be place inside the cabin before putting that door on.   The windows have all been replaced.

    The (cute) picture of me to the left is inside the Navaho cabin.     Believe it on not, it was cold by the lake last Thursday.   (This is where everyone says "Ohhh, poor guy".)  You can see that the inside of the cabin was completely gutted out and there are already rooms framed in.    Next we need a licensed electrician to show up.  
   Regardless of whether I help Shawn or help at the Bible camp, I am usually the one that ends up running the chop saw.   I'm not sure if that is because of the accuracy with which I make the cuts or if it is because everyone I help out is younger than me.    I wonder if they are thinking that if I accidentally sawed off my finger, everyone would view it as it being the loss of one of the older fingers in the group.   Hmm.    I think I will just be a little careful.   I wear my hearing protection.   I wear my safety glasses.  And  I like my old fingers.     I guess I like running the chop saw too.