So busy.... and so very tired tonight. There is actually a reason, or rather several reasons, why there have been no posting for a while. I've been too busy during the day, and way too tired every night. I am still at Rima's place near the town of Floyd Virginia, and have been doing a bunch of odd job kind of things around the place while she has been busy working. Right now there are 3 major endeavors  that I work at when I get the chance, and several others that I try to do when there are a few extra minutes between major jobs.
   Number 1 remains working at creating a new shop area for me to work in and store my tools. The area I picked is a small room at one edge of the barn complex, that had been stuffed with old materials from several different groups of people. It took me several days just to clean that stuff out before I could even start rebuilding it. The whole barn complex is a mish-mash of different rooms, each with it's own unique type of wall, roof and ceiling, and every one of them finished in some manner that utilized found materials. So none of it is structurally sound, it is all infested with vermin of all kinds, and most of it is on the verge of falling down.
   So I started tearing down what stood in for walls in the shop area, which was really only 1x wooden boards nailed onto a couple 2x purlins and then covered in various forms of batt or rigid insulation. What a pain in the butt it was to pull all of that stuff off.. In fact it was nailed on with so many nails in some cases that I had to go buy a new 3 foot long wrecking bar just to get some of it to come free. Once off though I could start reframing some real walls again with real 2"x4"s and everything.
   Of course nothing is level or square in the whole place so it has been pretty interesting getting it all put back together. As of tonight I have nearly all of the 3 exterior walls reframed with only a couple more studs needed to finish up one door opening. But I ran out of 2"x4"s so it will have to wait until I get into town again and pick some more up. In the meantime I can finish up attaching some more hurricane ties to the upper end of the roof joists and even start putting some of the sheathing on the exterior walls.
    Number two on the list of things to do is to clear out more of the fence right of way out by the entrance road. I got a lot of that done last week when I piled up all of the slash we had down on the ground from the trees we cut in January. I also cut up all of the trees we had down and got most of them piled up and ready for transport down to the wood shed. There are still a ton of trees to cut down however and tons of brush to still cut out and remove. I'm shooting for clearing another 200-300 feet of fence line before the trees and poison ivy leaf out, as well as putting at least another dozen trees on the ground for fire wood next winter.
   And the third thing on the list is getting the rest of the horse barn mucked out. It isn't really so much that the barn really needs it, as it isn't that deep or even smelly, but I really need the material I'm removing in order to build up and level an area outside of the barn where I want to put in a 4'x12' raised planting bed for a little bit of a garden.
   So those three main jobs are keeping me busy while there are still minor things that need to be done around the place as well. I did get another peach tree planted the other day so now we have two new ones and they look like they are doing okay so far. I also transplanted two cherry trees that Rima had started from seeds several years ago. They went out along the driveway into the house and should look nice along with the apricot tree that is already out there.
   I also spent some time over the last couple of days pruning that tree up pretty drastically. I had lightly pruned it a couple of years ago, but that just invigorated it to grow even more branches back until it was so entwined that there was no light or air getting into the center of the tree. So even though there were thousands of blossoms last year, not a single fruit made it through the season. In fact most of the branches were developing a fungus on them which I hope my pruning this year will help control.
   I must also start looking at getting the mowers in shape as the lawns are going to be needing some mowing here in a week or two. There is also more tree trimming and pruning around the house to do as well as lots of fencing to redo. It seems pretty overwhelming at times, but the reality is that I don't have to do any of it if I don't want to. I just prefer doing something that keeps me active and stimulates my mind once in a while. On the other hand; I keep wondering why I'm not in Hawaii with Rima right now contra dancing to the tunes of the Great Bear Trio and swimming in the ocean all day long.
   A few last thoughts before I close; I did my taxes finally today. It only takes me about 2 hours to do them as they are pretty easy to figure out. I don't own anything anymore so there are no deductions to take, I donate money every year to a couple pet causes, but that is never enough to make any difference. So I do a short form and take a standard deduction and end up paying about as much as someone in my income bracket can pay..... and I really don't mind it all that much. I like having highways that work and National and State Parks to visit, and I like having fireman and policeman around as well as a good national defense. I don't even mind if a few bucks go to feed hungry people or those who are less fortunate. I always like to remind myself that most of us are only one bad car accident away from having to live under a bridge somewhere, and it's nice to know someone might care somewhere.
    That being said, I'm still getting a few bucks back this year so there might even be enough to splurge a little bit when I go to Europe next month with Rima. Not enough to go crazy unfortunately, but maybe I can come back with  a couple of new shot glasses from somewhere new.




































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