More Deck Construction pics

Ashton helped lay out the joists. Notice the tape measure wrapped around her arm? She really did help though. I put a mark on her tape & she then "measured" the layout.

Cutting off the joist tails with a corded saw after the cordless saw had had a "good run". A "good run" to my dad is 2 boards.

I know how everyone likes to look @ my backside.

We're starting to grasp how big this thing is

Now the "fun" part. Laying the decking. 25lbs of screws later we'd be done.

Look closely & you'll notice I forgot to reapply sunscreen & my back is starting to get a little red. It ended up getting a lot red. Jus my back though since I spent 4 hours bent over.

My dad the day after. Mom said he spent most of the day sleeping on his deck.

Memorial Wknd Update

Amber & I have been talking about adding on to the deck since we bought our house two years ago. We finally pulled the trigger on it this weekend. I took Friday off & my niece Ashton came to help. Thursday after work we loaded up my dad's trailer with most of the required lumber. I saw most since we ended up going back to Lowe's several times. Most was because of a big design change yesterday.

How the deck used to look. Plain 12'x12'.

After Ashton & I removed the guardrail. Just before the rain storm that put down the digital camera for two days while it dried out. oops!

Mia kept a close eye on the work progress her dad & both grandad's were making.

This was today after I got the guardrails on the new addition. 8' out from the old deck. 28' wide & 12 ' out from the side of the house that had no deck. The front has no guardrail yet because I'm making the guardrail into benches. If you look closely you can see the pattern I made.

We decided the deck needed flow to the yard so I added 8' wide stairs in the center of it. Lucky likes his new place to chill out. I'll post pics of the actual construction once my mom emails them too me. Then you can see my dad, my dad in law Rick, & myself in full construction mode. As soon as I get the deck finished off we'll be sure to have a deck warming party.

BDAY Party wrap up

We had a great party for my girls Saturday to celebrate their Birthday's.

Mia's "smash Cake" she wasn't real interested in eating it. She doesn't like sweet things.

Lots of people showed up. Amber was way too stressed. Everyone ate too much but seemed to have lots of fun. Lucky & Lacy haven't been that tired in a longgg time. They chased, fetched, tackled, & got tackled by all the kids in the back yard. I got my neck sunburned raw bar-b-quing for everyone. 24 burgers, dozen hot dogs, & a dozen brats. Very few left overs.

Tonight I came home from a VERY bad day @ work to find the best thing ever. My garage returned to me from its previous role as storage shed for our old furniture. I got Amber new furniture for her present this year & we had to put the old in the garage till the Victory Mission could come get it. Now I have all kinds of space.

This weekend is the great deck expansion. I'm adding on almost 250 sq feet of deck space. Straw boss will be my niece Ashton. Pictures too follow.


*******OH Yeah Wednesday Night ride is @ 5:30 @ McBride for those of you have trouble finding the message board. I'm also now the owner of www.ozarkcyclingclub.com so hopefully I'll have it up & running soon.*************

Happy Birthday!

Happy Birthday to my girls. Mia on Wednesday & Amber Yesterday. We're having a house full to celebrate on Saturday. Mia's getting a "smash cake". We gave her a cup cake last night but I had to help her smash it. She wasn't thrilled with how sweet it was.

All her cousins, aunts, & uncles are coming to wish her a happy belated bday. After we plan on celebrating Amber's bday. Amber keeps saying something about Patron, so it should be a fun night. I don't think she'd mind if my readers wanted to swing by to wish her a happy bday. If you'd like to come by give me a call & I'll give you directions.

Mother's Day WKND

To celebrate Amber's First Official Mother's Day we loaded up & went to my parents house to surprise my mom. Dad had the pool all heated up so we were able to let Mia try her hand @ swimming. She likes it as long as no one splashes. After that we went out on Mom & Dad's new pontoon. Snazzy. My nieces & my brother in law Eric even did a little tubing.

Getting ready to head out.

Granddad let Mia Drive.

Wipe out!

Ashton(left) showing off while Nina holds on for dear life.

Making headway

Last night I actually felt some progress be made in my legs. I rode all of the Wednesday night long loop. I figured I'd get dropped but managed to hang on with Curt & Peter. I even took the Jamesville climb. I had to dig really deep to do it but I found some reserves in my legs. Curt got me @ the Boaz sprint. I was able to cover his jump but just couldn't get that extra gear. All in all 62 kilometers averaging just over 30kph. Last year I was doing that loop @ 35+kph by myself. I have a lot to work to do but I'll take what I can get. A few more weeks & I should be able to stop driving over & ride over. It really bothers me driving to go ride, especial with gas @ $3/gal.

Lots going on this weekend. Going to be non stop fun. Don't forget to tell your mom you love her on Sunday.

Making space

Mia & I have been hanging out a ton lately. Lots & lots of fun. Last night we walked about 2 miles around the house. She throws a fit if I let her walker get stuck, so I guide it as she walks behind it. Its more of a run though, she is my kid after all.

I was inspired by the pics of Bryon's home shop. Mine was getting a little crowded so with Mia's supervision I modified one of the shelving units into more bench space. I used the newly finished under stairs storage to better store our camping, climbing, & boating gear. Now I have access to my toolbox & its bounty of fixing goodies. Next up is some peg board to hang my more used tools @ my beck and call.
Two bikes @ the ready. One for pulling Mia in the trailer, the other for getting my butt handed to me on the weekly Wednesday night ride. I don't even want to think about the TT bike yet, thus its lack of wheels while hanging on the wall. I did put the finishing touches on the SS MTB this wknd. Once my arm strength is back I'll be spending sometime on it as well.

3000 clicks a day

Where have I been hiding? Good question. I feel bad Skip had to call me out on not updating the old blog. Have been pretty busy lately at work. Being on the computer non stop @ work I kind of lose interest in sitting at it when I get home. I had to manually transfer a ton of data from the old system to the new. It takes about 3 mouse clicks for each task. That adds up to about 3000 mouse clicks a day. My right forearm has been getting a hell of a work out. Good thing I have developed it over the years. There I beat (no pun intended) all of you the the punch. LOL!

On the collarbone front got bad news on Monday. Have to have the plate in another 6 weeks+. Plus my range of motion isn't where it needs to be so I have to go to therapy. To add insult to injury I found out today because of my new insurance I have to switch to Cox. That means a new Ortho. So I can't start therapy till I go see whoever my current Dr. sends me too. Way too complicated. The only other option is pay up front & get reimbursed. Not sure I'd like to part with $30k for another surgery.

On the riding front I've been doing some. I rode just over 100k last week! The good thing about going metric is it sounds like more. This week I'm already ahead of that pace. Who knows maybe I can get in some sort of shape & go make a fool of myself at State TT. I really should try & defend my jersey. I got out last night for a shorten Wednesday night ride with Roger & Peter. Road smartly & kept the HR down so not too kill myself. It sucks being out of shape. I've rode less than a 1000 kilometers this year. That's about what Mertz rides in a week.
I now have no excuse not to ride. We went a saw Roger over @ A&B and bought a trailer.

Mia likes it!

A lot.

Only 2 weeks to go till she turns 1. Just chillin out waiting for the party.

I have been doing some things around the house. I finally got around to framing in the under stairs storage closet. That's a home made door frame. Our house had a door in a stupid place which I took down & have been storing in the garage. I cut it down, rehinged it, made a door jamb & hung it. Still need to add trim & some paint but not too bad.

We had wellness checks at work today. Had blood drawn, got my BP checked, weighed(150 lbs) & my body fat checked. 11%. It was from a scanner so think its off. If I had to guess I'd say I'm really around 8%. All for now.