We Have Projects

This has been a busy week. The weather has been perfect for projects and we tackled several, some big ones and some small ones..


This is our porch. It's very private and comfortable.


The porch connects to the deck which runs all along one side and along half the back of the house. There is a stairway down into the back yard. The deck is about twenty one years old and has been exposed to hot sun and heavy rains over those years. The wood has taken a beating and is in need of some repairs.


What's harder to see is that the spokes on the railing are too far apart. In most places this deck wouldn't have passed inspection. The rules are pretty lax around here, but I have never felt the deck was safe for small children or animals. When Tsar was a little pup he did fall off the deck, but fortunately he landed in the flower garden not the driveway.


Monday morning Rob decided to tackle the deck.


There were several floor boards that were split or warped. He started by removing them.


He replaced the bad boards with new ones. Then he had to do some cutting and shaping with his power saw.


Because the saw is in the garage workshop, he opened the garage doors, turned on a couple fans to keep the air circulating and used his safety equipment. We're both sensitive to sawdust.


A few adjustments to the mask.


Add some hearing protection.


Safety glasses are important.


Work gloves to prevent slivers.


Looks like a creature from outer space, right? But at least there were no trips to the emergency room.


He removed all the railing spokes. He reused the ones that were in good shape. He cut new spokes and set them all closer together .


The lighter colored ones are the new ones. They'll eventually fade to match the others.


The original owner used nails to build the deck. Rob has replaced all the nails with screws and used new bolts where necessary on the major posts. I think it looks so much better and it's safer, too.


Of course, every big construction job needs a supervisor. In this case Tsar volunteered for the position.

What was I doing during all this? Well I did help fetch and carry and measure for the deck, but I had some work inside the house. Most important was practicing with Fudge for our big Rally trial on Friday. We did some practice in the garage, some in the driveway and some in the library.

Here Fudge demonstrates the sit-stay. This week Fudge and I have practiced in front of Lowes, in front of the library and made an attempt at Walmart. Too many people wanted to meet him at Walmart and it turned into a social event, but he did well at the other places with a lot of distraction around him.


Here is a perfect down-stay. Notice that he isn't on his back with his feet over his eyes. This is a big improvement. Let's hope he remembers this on Friday.


When Fudge and I weren't practicing I was able to finish this cross stitch for Nicki's club raffle. I'll make it into a pillow.


This is the start of my baby blanket for the challenge. I didn't get a chance to work on it yesterday so I'm behind schedule, but I hope to get it done by tomorrow.

A little update on the vet appointments the other day. Morgan's toe is healing nicely and I think we can probably remove her plastic hat today. Tsar's tooth was OK, just a little worn and discolored. In January he'll go in for a cleaning and have an x-ray done to be sure the root canal is still in good shape. Sky sheared the top off his tooth but didn't damage the root canal. On Wednesday he'll have a little repair work done to add a layer of composite that will offer extra protection. All in all it was a pretty positive visit and didn't do too much damage to the bank account.