Camping!

 Last weekend we went camping with friends.  Good friends and good coffee make for a grand weekend.  And I was lucky enough to have both.  I am a tent camper--which appears to be a declining form of camping as I saw RV's everywhere but very few tents (except those doing duty as overflow for the RV folks)  I find this interesting as to me, an RV feels like I am a hermit crab, carrying my house along with me.  I enjoy the freedom of choosing minimal essentials and making it work for the time we are there.  I usually forget something--the only thing that would ever cause panic would be the coffee pot!  The pot above has camped with me for more years than I dare to count.  It was falling apart til I had to lend it to my friend this weekend and he fixed it before returning it to me.  Clever guy can fix anything. But, I was able to fix their caffeine deprivation because I had an old fashioned perk pot and they had a Keurig and the electricity at the campground went out!  Old school to the rescue!

Between our two families we had 10 kids, ranging from 3 to 17  It was so much fun.  Evening campfires, games at the picnic tables, several communal meals.  Lissa got to night swim, which is always a big deal at 13.  I remember how special that was at that age.  There were smores, laughter and a birthday celebration for our friend's son who turned 14.

This will be our only campout this Summer of Covid.  But it was a most excellent one, with warm and wonderful memories that I will grasp as tightly as I do that coffee on a chilly camping morning!

A shiny new door!

 This weekend we tackled installing a real storm door on our front porch.  I wish I had been smart enough (or not embarassed) to take a picture of the old screen door that was there for literally years.  It was slightly too big for the opening and did not close all the way.  The screening had been busted out on the bottom level by a youngling trying a karate kick and the upper screening was in no great shakes as well.  I wanted a true door that would help block some of the wintry elements so that when you reach the porch in December through whenever winter leaves you have a bit of protection.  

It took most of Saturday but we got the door installed and it is lovely.  There is a screen but the solid bottom will hopefully give stability and prevent cats from trying to climb the screen.  This picture does not show it but above the door is a bit 6 ft long and 36 inch wide opening that we made a frame and screening for as well.  Oh, and the door has an after market door handle with a key lock.  This is so that we can secure the porch if we are in another part of the house and want to give the pets access to the extra room.

Today, we made screens for the top two "windows" beside the door.  That was practically a cake walk for us at this point.  The two openings below those small screened windows though took a goodly amount of time.  Those are plexi glass windows that we made and framed.  We did not want screening because we figured the pets would wreck it and we did not want an indoor pet gaining access to the great outdoors via a torn screen.  Plexiglass is  a bear   interesting to work with.  It is probably easier with a power saw.  Because we don't have that (yet!) we had to score it with a utility knife and then snap it. It did work. There was one jagged section but it is thoroughly covered by the framing so it was not a problem.

The last thing we did was hang out the new mailbox. I bet the mail man is going to be so happy that this job is nearing completion. Our mailbox has been getting moved around a bit while we worked!

Here's a close up of the window!  It is so clear that the cat ran head first into it when they went out onto the porch the first time!

And here is the cat enjoying his new space.  We still have to paint the floor but that won't happen for a few days as I am going camping next weekend!

Screening our Saturday

 You can't really tell from the picture but we built three ginormous screens and installed them on our front porch.  The openings are about 6 ft x 7 ft so it was quite the experience.  We got a good groove on it though and they look really excellent. (pats self on back)  

The next thing we are doing is putting on a new storm door.  We bought that yesterday at the orange big box store.  We want to be able to lock the screen door because we envision times when the indoor cats will be enjoying this space and we don't want a delivery person to open a door and have an indoor furry suddenly outside.  We found out most storm doors don't have locks unless you want to pay a LOT for them.  I am doing this as frugally as possible so that is not an option.  We found out that we can buy an after market door handle that is lockable and install that ourselves on the door.  It cost like $6.00 and our door way under $200

Today I took off the old door, sanded the framing and patched for painting.  I'll probably paint after work during the week so that we can jump right into door installation next Saturday.  After the door is installed we have two side panels that need plexi glass installed. They are down at eye level for dogs and cats and I don't want screening there because I know if they see a squirrel they will blow through it!  Then there are three small upper screens around the door frame to build and install.  After that, I paint the floor and we will be done!

This is by far the biggest project we have done and we are also sandwiching it around my wife's business work.  She has picked up some extra clients to help off set a whopping dental bill, so time is not always available for us to work together.  Big projects like this need two sets of hands frequently.  I can sand, patch and paint on my own. But I don't think even home improvement experts could build 7 foot screens without two people!

My thoughts unmasked!

Since in pandemic times the renovations just.don't.end.  (because seriously what else is there to occupy my time and energies?)  My wife and I need to start making ginormous screens for our front porch. They will be about 7 foot by 8 foot.  We went to the orange big box store for supplies last night.  We had a question on if a staple gun or a brad nailer  would adequately fasten the mitered edges.  We asked an employee if this would work or if there should be some other type of stabilizing agent.

The employee looked at me and said (and I quote) "you mean a paper stapler?"  I'll give you I still had my work clothes on.  Picture older woman in office wear asking this question.  Still. . .  wouldn't the fact that I even used the term "mitered corners" have indicated I had at least a rudimentary knowledge of carpentry.  (or had binge watched 50 million home improvement videos during lockdown?)  Technically both statements are true.

I looked at the fellow and said "I'm a girl, not stupid!" and thankfully he had the good grace to appear abashed.  For the record, I can you the staple gun according to this fount of information.

The incident did not really annoy me as it was such a whacked out comment that I just responded in kind.  But it points to assumptions which are never good.  And in our society at present so many assumptions are being made in so many arenas of our lives, that I am mindful of how scary that is.

There are the people who are making the assumption that being asked to mask up in public is an infringement on their rights. It isn't.  If you don't like it,  please stay home.  Have a friend shop for you if it is impossible to mask up.  Order on line.  Use one of the burgeoning delivery services.  I respect your PTSD, your belief that you are dying of carbon dioxide poisoning, your COPD.  But realistically if you have COPD you are at such high risk of complications with Covid that frankly you should be staying home anyway.  Is being asked to wear shoes in a public building infringing on our rights?  Nope. Because we are a) used to it. b) puritanical about our bodies and c) we have learned that it is no fun to catch athletes foot fungus from walking around bare foot with lots of other folks in the same space.  I have spent the last month communicating with my sister long distance as she fought Covid. She lives in AZ which is a hot spot state. She has asthma.  She appears to have made it through okay but it has been 25 days of worry and she still has pneumonia. She caught it giving a co worker a ride home from work.  They were not masked up in her car. The coworker had no symptoms and did not cough or sneeze once in the vehicle.  So, seriously,  mask up folks!