Men in trees

DH's work buddy, Billy, recently got a new fancy BBQ smoker.  He enjoys smoking ribs, brisket, and chicken wings.  Since his smoker uses wood, he was looking for a wood source.  DH struck a bargain with him; if Billy would come out and help DH with cutting and splitting wood, he could have a share of it. 

Yesterday they cut up a couple of downed trees and they will split it in another couple of weeks.  Due to last year's drought, we have plenty of dead and downed trees to choose from.  In one day, the two of them were able to get more work done than DH could have done by himself in two.  Here is DH cutting up a huge tree that fell down (we heard it!) this spring.

DH and Emma decided to take a break after lunch today.  She likes to lay on the couch behind his head - he calls her his "hairy headrest."

LoneStar

Making holes in the wall

DH and I had a nice week off together.  Projects got done.  We did some relaxing.  Then, as is often the case, DH had a wild week when he returned to work on Monday.  So this weekend we are doing a lot of relaxing in between minor projects.  

We are now ready to get the electrician out here to do the work DH can't do.  DH was able to set the new breaker box next to the old one, and the electrician will need to move the power from one to the other.  DH had to do some major construction on the wall to do this.  He cut a big hole in the wall and then made it bigger.  He replaced old, bad wood with new wood and then spent time patching the outside of the house temporarily to keep the rain and heat out.  As soon as the electrician does his thing, we will refinish about 15 feet of the front outside wall of our house.  We'll remove the shingle siding and replace it with Hardi-plank and paint.

Inside before (with the freezer still in the den).

Outside before.

Cutting the hole.

Emma supervises.

Holey moley.

A whole lotta wall gone.

Patching the hole.

Sealing the hole.

New box next to old box, ready for electrician!

On the stitching front, I finished the July square of "Crabby All Year."  Now I'm grudgingly working on "One Nation" or "that durn flag" as I affectionately call it.  I intend to stitch on it all through the month of July and then bury it in my stitching bag again.  It remains a boring and tedious stitch to me.

LoneStar

Is it Wednesday already?!

Happy Independence Day, America!

DH has taken the week off to work on the house and relax some.  I've intended to post every day this week, but I haven't.  

This weekend, DH was planning on getting up on the roof to install two plumbing vent pipes, some of the last bits of plumbing he has to do.  Of course, we had intermittent rain a good bit of the weekend which kept the roof just wet enough that he couldn't work on it.

It made him grumpy to have his plans thwarted by rain, so I sent him out to his shop to finish making and mounting the drawers and doors on his shop workbench, which he did.  

The doors and drawer fronts are made from old cabinet doors DH salvaged from a remodel at work.  He saved them from the dumpster thereby saving himself a bunch of money.  The drawer pulls and door handles we got on clearance from Lowe's for fifty cents each. 

On Monday, the weather was cooperative enough for him to get the vent pipes done.  The summer weather is definitely hotter now.  DH hates sweat running down in his eyes, so he "borrowed" one of my microfiber sweatbands to wear.  I think he looks rather jaunty, don't you?  ;-)

I've been stitching on the July block of "Crabby All Year" and hope to have it done by the weekend.  I plan to spend the rest of the month of July stitching on "that durn flag."  Hopefully I can make myself work on it enough to get a lot done on it.  

LoneStar