I arrived at the farm around 6:30 and resisted the urge to take a nap. Instead I put down the rest of the screws on the porch. It was boring and tedious, but thankfully now finished. Next I organized the tools inside the house and set up my two new scaffolding sections. The will come in very handy for putting the siding on the front of the house and installing beaded board on the ceilings. The HVAC guys came to start on the duct work and I talked with them briefly. I went to the roofing/insulation supply place, but the office was locked. I’ll return next week to speak with them about insulating the house. After a late breakfast I went by the Cub Cadet dealer and briefly looked at lawn mowers. They had some nice ones, but it’s hard to get excited about spending so much money. Back at the farm I just loaded up the cardboard boxes from the scaffolding and hit the road. I could have done some cleaning up outside, but it was really so muddy that I didn’t feel like walking around in it. There was also a chance of thunderstorms, although I don’t think those ever materialized. I’ll be back down tomorrow.

This will be brief because I’m pretty exhausted. I got to the farm just before six and my dad arrived soon after. I slept very poorly last night. My neck was really sore and every time I moved it was painful. Fortunately that went away mid-morning. We spent a little time repairing a siding issue and adding a lot of nails to the existing boards with the nail gun. Once the wood for the porch was delivered we started working on that. The 20 foot pressure treated 6×6’s were huge and heavy and a pain to deal with. Eventually we got them into place and it felt great. Lunch was at Sonic. Rather unusually I didn’t feel sick afterwards. We put the band in place and then my friend Emilie came with her three kids to see the farm for the first time. Unfortunately it started raining not long after they arrived. They left and the rain continued. It made a real mess of things. Once it finally stopped we put in the joists. That went pretty well. We started cutting the deck boards but got pretty tired. My dad left and I cleaned up a little. On the way back to the condo I stopped at Home Depot in Spring Hill for some deck screws.

Tomorrow and Friday there are supposed to be thunderstorms. I will still go the the farm tomorrow with the hope that there will be enough dry periods for me to finish the porch’s decking. Once that is done it will be a lot easier to put siding on the front of the house. The electrician and plumber worked today and are saying they will be finished tomorrow. One bright side of the rain is that it has been a bit cooler. I only took one picture of our handiwork, but will get more tomorrow.

I arrived at the farm a few minutes before six. My dad came not too soon after. Fortunately he was pretty motivated for us to get working on the siding, because I was not. We started under the porch as it was in the shade. The pieces cut easily and were mostly easy to deal with but for their length and flexibility. I went out to Lowe’s so get some cheap paint to cover the cut edges with, but was fussed at because the premixed (and discounted) red was too strong. So we didn’t paint and just caulked. The plumber and electrician didn’t show up today. Not really a big deal though, since they aren’t holding us up. My new siding nail gun wasn’t due to arrive at the condo until today, so we nailed everything by hand. Tomorrow should be much more efficient. We drove to Home Depot in Spring Hill to get nails for the gun plus some lunch. On the way there I got a text saying that the scaffolding I had ordered online had arrived. That was a nice bonus. Lunch was at Sonic, a decision I regretted almost as soon as I finished eating. We spent the remainder of the afternoon putting up more siding. It started to rain a little after five. I hung around until 6:20 or so then hit the road. My dad was spending the night in order to save himself a couple hours of driving. The rain really cooled things down and freshened the air, so it should feel great tonight. Back at the Condo Liz and Luke are doing well, and my nail gun was waiting. It even has a nice plastic case. Not much else is going on. I held the little man for a while and also chopped up vegetables for some stew.