1:55 in this case. It’s nice to be able to do all of them, now I am just working on getting smoother and faster.
2026-09-06
Next up on the agenda…
We had a chance to paddle around on the pond and test out Johnny’s John boat. We had a blast and it worked nicely. Then we moved a chair into their place and rotated the wheels on his “new” car. A fun and productive day for sure.
The before and after.
We were pretty happy with the way it turned out. It’s gotta be WAY better than it was before we started. Hopefully it’s water tight and we can tackle repairing the dining room ceiling plaster next.
It was a day of proud papa moments and full hearts❣️
I’m just a gopher these days…
…and maybe a foreman. It was fun to watch the boys helping each other out. We tackled a couple vents too, just to make sure they were up to snuff while we were already up there. In the lower right, I’m just sitting in the shade waiting for my next assignment. They said it looked like I was over there playing in a sandbox, haha!
Lower left is me “go-foring” up a blower to clean everything off before we re-sealed it.
The work begins on Johnny’s chimney flashing
First they had to strip off the old sealant and pull the nails that had worked their way loose. It’s fun to see Andy and him diving into a project together.
2026-09-05
Figuring out the work for the day…
Last weekend the boys all gathered to help John with his leaky chimney flashing. It was fun to see that Andy broght his measuring tape along and was ll prepared to help. It’s crazy that he’s had this since I first started buying him tools as a child. Probably from the 201–2012 timeframe. He’s replaced some of the guts a couple times. It’s “survived” some pretty big drops and really starting to show it. But it still works. It looks like it might just fall about soon…?!
Fun with Andy’s truck
It got lettered recently so John and I stopped by to see it and grab a few tools for the day’s adventure. John geeked out over the layout. Andy showed us his newly built pipe stock storage and his “door jammer” which holds the automatic lock open when he is going in and out of the trunk constantly on a job. He even built a place to store it on the side of the stock bin. Inventive!
Fun working through our new Kendama tricks
Andy likes to keep tabs on how I’m doing. He cheers me on, and also gives me little tweaks to improve my consistency. It’s kind of impressive how he can watch me for a minute and tell me what I’m doing wrong, then all of a sudden, I’m lacing it. I’ve gotten to where I can reliably get through all my tricks in three tries or so. Speed ladder, here I come…
2026-09-04
The blood moon mostly elluded us
It looked like it was going to be a nice night to see it, but clouds rolled in about the time it was a third of the way through. I like the pic on the right the best just because it’s a decent one of the moon and clouds and has an appropriate lunar eeriness to it. You can see the earth shadow coming in from the lower left and blocking about a third of the moon.
The upper right pic lets you see the most complete part of the eclipse we were able to see. The clouds became thick enough after that so we never saw it again until after it was over. The lower left pic was the best hint of red we got. You can see it best in the lower right of the moon. This was only visible for about two seconds as the clouds rolled by, haha.
Fire certifications
These were my grandma Morey‘s two uncles on her dad’s side. William (uncle Will) was still alive when my mom was a kid. He’s the one her folks bought the old cottage at Long Lake from. He died from getting burned in a fire up there.
And 1897 is the year that grandma Morey was born.
That reminded me of this cool German clock
It was always in my grandpa’s garage. It’s almost two feet long and really cool looking. I particularly like the “exposed” escapement you can see from the face of the clock. It’s a porcelain dial that is still in prety good shape. It doesn’t stay running, but the gongs all still work and sound beautiful. He made the case for it to keep dust from taking a toll. It also serves as a fun spot to store some other special memories. Some of our kid’s favorite stuffies, a little band saw test my grandpa did of my grandma’s name, and a report card from the early 1900s. I’ve added a few stickers too. I like the one my grandpa put on from Frankenmuth. I spend a week or two with them one summer in the mid-eighties and they took me there.
Timepiece fun…
It turns out that at the same time I’ve been exploring watches, Susan and Larry have been doing the same thing with clocks. Grandfathers, mantles, and cuckoo clocks. So I gave them this one that I had to them. My dad had picked it up at a garage sale somewhere along the way. He wanted it on the mantle downstairs in one of the areas he was using as an office during his church treasurer and income tax prep days. It runs nicely, sounds nice, and keeps good time. It looks like it was from the second decade of the twentieth century (early 1900s). It will be fun to see what Larry and Susan do with it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)