Saturday, September 25, 2010

Boredom is the Enemy

Today was a great day in that we had nothing planned. John went to work for a few hours and I cleaned house. When John got home he asked what I wanted to do. My response, clean house and clear the leaves off the back patio. Fall is definitely here, so clearing the leaves has become a regular Saturday task. Anyway, it didn't take long for him to clear the patio, and then boredom set in. We should all know by now what happens when my dear husband gets bored. Presenting, the partially demolished patio. This fun project was originally slated for November, however, we were contemplating delaying it until February to ensure enough reserve funds to cover incidentals. Judging from today's events, this has been moved up to October, possibly September.
A little background on this less than fun project. The previous owner of this wonderful abode built the patio on over the existing roof. There is currently a leak that we believe is at the point where the patio roof joins the old roof. It does not leak in the house, but it does leak on the patio. It is causing the soffits to rot out, so it has to be corrected. Whenever we remove the actual roof from the patio, we will have to put new shingles on at least two sections of the roof. Since we have never shingled before, it should be interesting. But as John says, "I saw it in a cartoon once." The only major challenge today was avoiding the rage of red wasps. Of course, John arose victorious. I just enjoyed sitting on the patio taking it all in. My pink roses are quite pretty.

Tuesday, September 21, 2010

Happy Birthday my Love


Happy Birthday John. It has been another amazing year. Thank you for all you do. You are a loving and devoted husband, father, and friend. My life is blessed beyond measure because you are the man God called you to be. I'm looking forward to another great year. I love you.

Thursday, September 9, 2010

Memaw and the zipline

I don't know how I have forgotten to post this here, (but to my credit it is already on Facebook and YouTube) but here it is. I give you Memaw riding the Zipline. ------


YouTube Video

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone4

Monday, September 6, 2010

Labor Day

Once the plumbing was back in working order we made our first trip to the Vicksburg National Park.










After that the boys got to go fishing. Joshua got the first and smallest, Jacob caught the next five, and Joshua finished with about a four pound catfish.












All in all it was a great day.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone4

Labor Day Weekend

In honor of the Labor Day weekend, John's parents came to visit. They arrived Saturday around lunch time and left Sunday after church. Once they left, John needed a project to fill the next two days. Boredom gets him into trouble every time. The man cannot just sit still and enjoy some down time. I now present, project number one - clearing the front flower beds. It is true that the front flower beds have been badly neglected. When we bought the house, they were overrun with twisted and mangled shrubs that looked awful. We wasted no time removing the shrubs and planting some mums. Two years later, and that is all we have done. To make matters worse, we have not done any maintenance, so the few remaining mums were surrounded by weeds and in need of pruning. John's solution - till it all up and start fresh, possibly with Azaleas. Sounds good so far. Off we go to till it up. Oops! Apparently, the main water line into our house runs right under the front flower bed. Enter, project number two - replace the broken copper pipe. This was not as simple as it sounded. John has never worked with copper pipe, and he was less than anxious to learn how. So, he cut out the section that was broken, and off we went to Home Depot to review our options. There was a really nice guy in the plumbing section, that offered some helpful tips. We bought 10 foot sections of 3/4" copper tubing, 1/2" copper tubing, and PVC pipe, lots of shark bite connectors and other miscellaneous supplies. Just over $100 later, I was starting to think calling a plumber might have been the smarter option. Once we got home, John hooked everything up, and water shot out of one of the shark bite connections. Because of the angle of one of the connections, the pipe needed to be soldered.
On to plan B - watch online "how to" videos to learn to solder. John watched a few videos, and we made another trip to Home Depot. This time we bought flux, a soldering kit, a small torch and other miscellaneous supplies. Just over $70 later, well over $100 later if you count eating dinner out since we had no water, I was beginning to rethink my decision not to call a plumber. We stopped at Walmart and picked up some bottled water to get us through the evening. John got up first thing Monday morning, and restored the water. He quickly mastered soldering and can now add that skill to his impressive list of talents.

In addition to replacing the pipe, he also installed a main shut off and spliced into the pipe to run water to the faucets in the back yard. The previous owner just had a pipe running from the front faucet and it looked pretty tacky. He did a great job and now we can move on the finishing the original project. Oh wait, since we spent our plant money on plumbing supplies, I guess the flower beds will remain bare. At least John learned some new skills and he definitely stayed busy. No boredom here.

Wednesday, September 1, 2010

The zipline is down

Evidently our Sunday night rains brought down a big enough branch to bring down our zipline. The fun part will be stretching it back up.







- Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone4