In the garden, and RAIN!!!!
POSTED BY: SIGNYM
UPDATED: Thursday, December 25, 2025 04:27
VIEWED: 1005090
PAGE 270 of 1154
Nothing on the news but if I find a little community newspaper there might be something in it. I'll keep an eye out.
I remember police helicopters going over when my family and I were visiting some family in California. We were out in their pool and the helicopter started going over. We asked if that was normal and of course the cousins started making jokes.
This was something we never noticed at that time up here if any of the police had copters up here. This was in the late 70s.
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Speaking of being jumpy, I was up around 4:45 AM and went to the kitchen for something. When I hear a car come by and I'm by the window I always look out for some reason. I see the public works truck rolling by my house and slowing down past my driveway and out of my line of sight. I got my clothes on and went outside. By that time, I saw them driving around my old neighbor's house that had been foreclosed on, and possibly turning around. I went into the garage service door, then kind of peeked out and saw them drive the other way past my house a minute or so later.
I had been working all day out there the previous day though while my neighbors had a party. My neighbors are totally cool, but who knows who was at that party. Talk about paranoid. Geesh... I couldn't sleep for about 4 hours after that. There's little chance they were scoping my work out. More likely, they were looking at something with the ditch, or possibly just seeing if the power was on in the foreclosed house since it would flood again if the sump pump wasn't on.
Just really found it strange somebody was driving around one of the city trucks before 5AM on a Sunday morning...
So... I didn't do anything but sleep all day, and I felt terribly guilty about it, even though it was wonderful. Perfect rainy weather and temperature to just sleep and sleep.
But then I realized I squandered an opportunity to truly see what was behind the scenes on the wall with the louvers, and if I truly was taking in any water. There was still a layer of plywood to remove under that cedar paneling.
So... I finally did it. I'm truly naked on all 4 walls on the inside of the porch now. It was bone dry and the stuff looks completely healthy. :)
This says to me that the only reason I took on water in the front was because of how it graded back to the shitty fake aluminum windows (as I suspected) and the water was all pouring in between the back of the cedar wall and the plywood directly on top of the framing.
One step closer... :)
Got to finish the back windows this week, painting and caulking and making them water tight, even if they're only going to be there temporarily. I've got some minor framing issues to fix around the rotten porch door. I'm also going to do some work buttressing up the 4 joists that are beneath the two sheets of plywood closest to the house that I have not and will not be ripping out, both in the center like I did with the new stuff, and I'm also going to make box-type supports by doubling up on the outside joists, sills and inside joists underneath the walls. I want that to be just as strong as I've made the rest of the floor. It will be dark and dirty and a pain in the ass, but well worth the money and work.
After that, I'm ready to put the floor in as soon as my brother can pick it all up.
Then I have to get my friend to help me with jacking up the front porch overhang, making that all level looking fancy. At that point, I'll have to decide if I want to tackle new windows and the gutters before winter or next spring.
I'm about $550 into the work now. Nothing so far is breaking me, financially. New gutters, windows, porch door and all of the framing and vinyl that will be needed are likely to run me around $2,200 or more though, and I've got the $3,600 or so for dentures coming up soon as well as my 2nd installment on the property taxes. I'll still be okay, but going to have to get some decent income before this stuff starts getting out of hand. If I do all of that before getting a new job, the work I've done on the house and getting my mouth fixed are going to be basically all the money I saved while working at the last job.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Found myself falling a sleep in front of my computer this afternoon and I didn't get up until 11am.
Last time I did do that I gave myself a sore neck. Very annoying as I don't sleep properly at night because of it.
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lol... wow Brenda. We must be on the same bad sleep schedule.
I've been cleaning up around the house. Finally vaccumed all the crap out of the basement that I had to stop doing before I fixed the shop vac. Doing things I can do inside that don't make much noise since it's too late to be doing any work on the porch that needs to be done.
I have no clue how I'm going to get any sleep after I slept about 24 out of 28 hours before finally getting my ass out of bed... And I know what you mean about the aches too. Didn't sleep sitting up, but my back never feels good after sleeping that long, even on a good bed.
Oh well... going to try to get at least 4 hours of sleep at some point tonight and force myself out of bed by around 8. Got a lot to do this week. Probably going to have to bail on going down to visit my brother again until next month.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Nah, Jack. It was just another Sunday up here and I don't normally do much on a Sunday. And it was raining again. Soggy end to September.
Out in a bit. Got some errands to run. Birthday card to mail then head over to where I play mah jong.
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Think I'm done for the day. Had a good one though.
Got my rebate forms out in the mail, picked up some more things I needed from Menards.
Put the tar over my tuck pointing. It looks professional. Did the stuff with dirt close last to keep as much clean as possible till the end. Requires spirits to clean the brush so I just used a dollar store brush and pitched it when I was done.
Washed the back 3 windows down and gave them 2 healthy coats of primer. If the weather holds, I'll probably paint them along with the two columns in front that I primered a few months ago all in one go. I like painting as much as I possibly can at once to avoid waste from cleanup.
Also drilled holes into the 5 tree stumps and put the poison granuals in there. Hopefully that kills them and keeps anything more from growing until I get around to digging them all out.
If I wake up early enough to have the painting done by around noon, I hope to do all of the structural support work that I plan on doing underneath the two boards of plywood that aren't coming out tomorrow.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Was out in the rain all day today. But card into the post and other things done. So a good day.
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Just watched some stuff on YouTube. Couple of Jeff Foxworthy videos and his buddy Bill Envgall. These dudes are funny.
My Blair never could understand my love of southern comics.
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I liked Ron White.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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Oh god... I'm in pain..... 
First half of the day went very smoothly. I got the first coat of the white finish paint on my columns in front and the windows in the back of the porch. They look fantastic. Used just about half of what I have, so should have plenty for a second coat when it's time. Instead of rushing both coats today, I saw the 4 hour required drying time between them necessary and decided that I'm going to do more caulking on those windows before putting on the final coat. Weather permitting, sometime by the weekend it should all be done.
But then, the under-floor work. I knew that the front area under the plywood wasn't great. My friend said it would be fine, but I was not convinced. I was shimming some joists on the compromised sill and the damn thing broke on me. Shit.
I kind of freaked out since I had never done this stuff without my friend around.
I thought it out, did quite a bit of prep work and then I jacked the front of the porch up on the 12 ton jack, making sure everything was jacking straight up and that I wouldn't have a malfunction since I only had the 1 jack this time.
Cut out 29" of bad sill and replaced it with good stuff, then I put in a few pieces for support to at least get me overnight without needing the jack up all night when I'm not there to monitor it.
Jack is down and the walls are still up. 
It's even more solid than it was before.
Aside from the caulking on the windows, working under the remaining flooring will be my only focus tomorrow. I might have to buy some more lumber and materials. Hopefully that will all be done tomorrow and I can finally say that the structure is solid.
Do Right, Be Right. :)
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