Tanner's Gallery...

This is some of Tanner's work from "Art Camp"...




Tanner and TJ are glad it's over, but I think they probably learned a thing or two... Creativity, an interesting thing... Give ten different people a canvas and a pen/pencil/paint/ect and they will all come up with something different...

What Were We Thinking??

Tanner has been wanting a gokart for a while now, particularly since Chance is tooling around on his dirt bike... He found one on Craigslist (the whole family loves that site! :) and begged us to get it for him as an 'early' birthday present, which was stretching it a bit if you ask me, his birthday is in September... Would almost be like asking for an advance on next year's Christmas presents on New Years Day... That's just me though... He DID talk us into it though... :)

Here Tanner is taking Taylor around the house...

Chance broke out his dirt bike and Tanner was in hot pursuit...

That is what they did for a while, chasing each other around the house...

I told them they could ONLY ride around the house today!! I can just see the huge track around our house if I let this continue, so I suppose tomorrow I will HAVE to find a place for them to ride in the back... May have to fire the Bobcat up for that one... We'll see...

Yeah, Okay...

Putting those deck boards on, as it turns out, is a little harder than it sounds... Well, if you want a straight deck it is... Then add in the 'those boards have been sitting there since last April' factor and, yeah, it's a little more complicated than just screwing them in...

I got 3 and a half rows done! Yay Matt!! Not!

I wonder if I'll get any done tomorrow? I want to, but we'll see how that works out... :)

Of course I DID waste an hour or so swimming with the kids, but what are you going to do?? It's 95 degrees outside! :)

I THINK The Rest Is Easy...

So anyway, I haven't felt like blogging lately, or rather, once I get inside after working, I'm too tired to... :) I've been toiling away in the baking sun trying to get this deck up... FINALLY to the point where I start putting down the decking, which will start here in a few minutes...

Throwing in a few 'extra' nails just to 'make sure'... Although the deck ISN'T going anywhere! My neighbor thinks I WAY overdid it, but whatever... As you can see, I have just about baked myself to extra well done... No where to hide though where that deck is, it is right under the baking sun pretty much all day, so I'm sure I'll be extra, extra crsipy by tonight as it is supposed to be 97 degrees here today...

Cleaned up and ready for the decking...

The decking should go on rather easily, the post/rails MIGHT be more of a challenge, who knows, we'll see... :)

So Anyway...

I'd say I've been busy, but I really haven't been... I suppose by some people's standards, possibly... Or rather, if you are talking about the general populace of this country, yeah, I'm freaking BUSY, BUSY, BUSY... :)

As many of you know, I'm building a pool house... It's NOT done, yet I've moved on to the deck... Then the other day or week or whatever, we decided to also fix the 'other garage' because the roof had started rotting on the ends...

It's actually almost done though, we hired the neighbor kid to do it... I've had to help him some, but really only for direction, but that didn't really take me away from anything other than running around getting shingles, etc...

Then the other day Carolyn and the kids took Bo to get a haircut, Bo was thrilled I might add!! He was getting HOT in this 80+ degree weather, and with 90+ degree weather coming tomorrow and likely to stay, I'm sure he is happy! He looks like a different dog though...

Of course I'm STILL working on the deck!! I did get the beams up, was going to bolt them to the posts, but I didn't have a long enough 1/2" drill bit so I decided why not let that wait until tomorrow... I just wonder how long this is going to take me?!?! I thought the posts were the hard part, then I had to notch 12 6" x6" posts... Who knows, the rest LOOKS easy, we'll see...

Of course the whole time I'm doing all this, the kids and half the neighborhood kids are all swimming and making a mess... Carolyn has laid down the LAW about towel usage... One towel, per kid, per day!! I don't blame her though, I got up this AM to take a shower and there were no towels?!? I did find one on the dryer though... These kids want to swim for thirty minutes to an hour, then stop, then swim for thirty minutes... ALL. DAY. LONG. :)

Chance and Tanner are about to start camp... Chance is taking an extreme science camp and Tanner is going to some art camp... It's just day camp, they start at 9 AM and end around 2 or 3... Our neighbor has her grandkid all summer, so she is going to take them to and from the camp, so that worked out GREAT!! Other than that, same old thing going on, just trying to finish these projects, working, tending to the family and half the neighborhood kids, etc...

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah...

Yeah, I haven't much felt like blogging lately, perhaps I'll post something tonight... :) In the meantime, I'll leave you with a picture of our next President...

Who Will Win???

I was out there earlier and cut off the posts so I can start with the beams... A little while later, Chance and Tanner decided to play "Survivor" and see who could stand on the post the longest... Somehow, they talked Carolyn and I into paying them $10 each if they could stand there an hour...

We'll see if they can do it... :)

Whew!!

I'm exhausted... The hard part is over though, at least I think it is, I've never actually built a deck before... How hard can it be?!?

Luckily the neighbor came over and helped... It took half the day yesterday to get a concrete footer out that was right where the last deck post was to go... It was a MAJOR pain getting it out, but finally got it...

That's it! Now just have to slap the wood on... I'll let you know if it really IS that easy... :)

Memorial Day...

I wonder how many Americans even know what Memorial Day is about... I would bet that the vast majority don't have a clue... Picnics, cookouts, swimming, etc. According to some surveys, which can be made to say just about anything but can be insightful at times anyway, most Americans have zero idea what the purpose or meaning of Memorial Day is... Do you? :)

Deck Day Two...

Of course it's REALLY day 387 +/- since I actually started this particular project... Coming right along though...

I went to Home Depot this morning and got concrete to set the posts... I'm like, I'll get 12 bags, we can come back... Yeah RIGHT Matt! I had to go back and get 45 more, and MAY have to go back for the 'final few' tomorrow!?! Well, at least the posts shouldn't GO anywhere... It didn't help either that the holes in the front were 'off' and once you correct that, then the hole is twice as big, which means more cement... So I suppose had I measured correctly the first time, I would have saved a few bucks... :)

Let The Games Begin...

Not sure why I chose that title, the games began around here about seven years ago... Whatever though...

Finally getting started on the deck... NO, the pool house isn't done yet... :) I got all the holes dug for the posts though, ripped down the bushes on the side and ready to put the posts in the ground tomorrow...

I actually replanted those bushes above the pool on the bank there, we'll see if they live through the whole transplanting process, my bet is they don't... We'll find out soon enough... :)

I'm sure my neighbors will be glad when this mess is cleaned up, soon enough... Although, I think they are all happy I'm doing what I'm doing... So we'll see how much gets done this weekend, and I have an extra day because of the holiday, so while everyone else is grilling out and celebrating, I'll be working... Soon enough though, and I will be working on this house no more... :)

More...

Taylor and her friend Hannah at their party...

Taylor and Hannah again...

Of course Tanner's party was yesterday, and his room parent never really mentioned that it was yesterday and not today, so no one went to his party... :( I did go see him at lunch today and he wanted to know if I could just take him home now, so we did... :)

Final stop, our celebration dinner... Of course some people likely think we are NUTS for eating dinner at 4:30, but whatever... :)

Congratulations Chance!!!

Not that graduating from 5th grade is a HUGE accomplishment in the big scheme of things, but for a 5th grader it is pretty important!! :)

Chance did manage to get the Honor Roll all year!

On to Middle School!!

Their last "walking the halls at Russom"...

So that's it, last day of school... The kids are SO excited about it being summer vacation, not that I blame them, I never did like school at all! Off to Taylor's 'end of the year party'...

Not Much Going On Here...

Well, that's a lie, there is a shitload of stuff going on, none of it exciting though, of course it's all exciting to me!! Well, it's not necessarily exciting, but getting it done is exciting I should have said... :)

I spent a good part of the day getting that shower drain moved over... It was a nightmare! I had paid the neighbor kid to dig out the concrete, but I had to move it over another 8 inches because I was unable to get a saw in there to cut the damn pipe off... I'm GLAD that's done!!

Of course the kids took turns riding the dirt bike and swimming... Canyon came over last night, and believe it or not, they all swam LATE last night... I can't do it, the water is still too cold for me. They don't mind though. Tanner FINALLY made it to the "big boy track"... They call it that because you have to be able to maneuver between those trees there... Of course you can't really see them in this picture, but there are three trees at the right that you have to go through, anyway, Tanner is now riding on the "big boy track"...

Yep... I got the bar varnished, the lights on and the ceiling fan is working as well... Not sure why I'm surprised, I just am... :)

AND! I finally got the water from the house hooked up!! We'll soon see if there are leaks, because I haven't tested any of it yet.... :)

I doubt there are though, I'm anal about my solder joints, etc... Who knows though. So yeah, that's what's going on around here. I am on a mission, I MUST finish this soon because I'm tired of working on it!! We'll see how that works out!

PC Hell...

I know everyone goes through it, but damn! I've had various PC issues over the past two years, but rather than address them, I just keep doing 'temporary fixes' and keep limping along... This week, I rebuilt my server with bigger drives in it and started the process of transferring data from the six PC's it is spread over trying to consolidate it all into one location for a change! I set my partitions up on the server like so:

Of course now that I am transferring everything over, it's like, hmmm... I thought 170GB would be PLENTY of space... Turns out it may not be though, ugh!! I suppose it will have to do for a while, but I remember when 60, 80 or 100GB of hard disk space was MORE than enough... I think I need to setup a separate storage device with a TB of space just so I never run out, at least for the next year or so... It's stunning how much space just the average user needs these days with digital pictures, movies, songs, etc... Of course my song collection doesn't take up all that much space because I listen to the same songs over and over, but the rest?? Yeah, it's starting to take up too much space...

I suppose I should just consider myself lucky that I can do all this myself though without having to pay someone else to do it... :)

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah...

Yeah, I haven't felt much like blogging lately, I'm going in many different directions at the current time... Work, side job and of course the pool house...

So anyway, I've been working on the inside of the pool house for a few days now... I did hang my first piece of drywall, that was pretty exciting... Here I was thinking I was "almost" done with the thing, and it hit me today... Umm, Matt! You've only done the rough in, you still have to FINISH the damn thing!!! Ugh!

Of course the kids are enjoying the pool, along with all of their neighborhood friends!

I did manage to 'almost' get my first so-called 'finishing' project complete... which was to build the thing that will cover the door over the bar when it is up and then hang the lights... :)

Lot left to do though... Sigh!

Huh!! Who Knew??

Happy Mother's Day Carolyn!!!

Lights, Camera, Action...

You know, I do this stuff all the time, but when I flip the switch for the first time, it always amazes me that it all actually works... :)

This was the first test... Worked like a charm! I got motion sensor lights, just have to adjust them, but I'll figure that out later, I'm just glad they work!!

On to another topic though, for a change... The 'Federal Gas Tax' holiday that both McCain and Clinton are touting... I'm with Obama on that one, it is pandering PLAIN and SIMPLE!! It will save most Americans about twenty or thirty bucks... I read somewhere that it would be the equivalent of solving the obesity problem in this country by making Twinkies, ho-hos, and deep-fried Mars bars tax deductible. They are right! It's pandering for votes, no way around it. The problem is, most people are so Fing stupid, they probably think it will save them money.

Lets say you drive 41 miles a day, the average would be about a gallon and a half of gas a day... The federal tax on that is 27 cents! Wow! So this 'proposed' Federal Gas Tax holiday will save the average consumer about 23 bucks over the entire summer... Try not to spend it all at once... Idiots... That would be the American people who would vote for those morons for proposing it, the smarter American people would denounce McCain and Clinton for being so idiotic and vote for Obama even though they don't agree with everything he says... Obama though has called it like it is, pandering for votes amoung the great unwashed, and wow, there are a LOT of them!!

Will It Ever End, Doubtful...

I'd post something meaningful, but you know, there is not much going on around here except work, working on the projects, and life in general... :) Chance is having a BLAST riding his dirt bike, so are the other kids, but Chance rides it nonstop! Tanner just went with Nate and his family to eat at some Mexican restaurant, Chance wasn't interested, he's riding his dirt bike... :) Of course I've been working on the pool house...

Can you spot the differences from the last photo I posted?? It's tedious! I've had to make all that trim around the siding, and it has taken FAR longer than I had anticipated... Oh well, it will soon be done! How long have I been saying that?? :)

Still a LOT to do, but it's getting there, slowly but surely...

I've TOTALLY neglected the front since I had it done, LUCKILY it doesn't look that bad... Also, I'm SO glad Cory does our lawn maintenance, if I had to do it I'm sure the grass would be knee high!! I'll get back to that once I'm done in the back!!

Nervous Wreck...

Well, not REALLY, but wow! I've never ridden a motorcycle in my life, and the few times I've tried, it didn't work out too well... Chance does great on it, Nate does as well, Tanner doesn't want to get on it, and I myself, wish I had never bought it! Not really, but just getting used to the thing being operational 24/7... :)

Mike brought Canyon over today, I guess Canyon hounded him to no end about coming over, so Mike finally brought him over. Of course the first thing on the kids mind was the 'dirt bike'...

Canyon about to have a go at it, he was a bit nervous, I think he was too nervous actually. He finally gave up.

About to go again...

Canyon gave it a good try, but then decided he would rather swim! So Tanner and Canyon went swimming, Chance took the bike around until it got dark. Then Chance joined them in the pool. Myself, I was out watching all of it of course, reading my book, "World Without End". I'm so close to the end of the book, I don't want to put it down! I ran out of light at the pool watching them swim, but now they are all in. I'm on page 810, and it is a 929 page book. I WILL finish it tonight!!

Yeah, I've been working on the pool house as well! I actually today finished the LAST of the electric work, tomorrow I hope to do the same with the plumbing! No exciting pictures to post though... :( Drywall is next!! I can't wait for that! I will just be GLAD when this is done, I'm OVER it!! Got to finish what I started though... :)

STOKED!!!!!!

That would be Chance! I'm sure everyone remembers the dirt bike we bought for him last year. Well, we never could get it working. I replaced the carburetor, I bought a new stop switch, on and on it went... Still would not work. Chance did NOT give up! Over the past few days, he was DETERMINED to get it working, and today, he did!! Go Chance!

I'm not sure how many times Chance and Tanner did that, but it was a LOT!!

One of the many failed attempts... What's that hanging from Tanners jeans? Well, we DO live in Paulding County... :)

Finally got it running though!!! I was SO thrilled! You can't describe how happy I was seeing Chance finally tooling around the property on the dirt bike!! I may be more excited than he was! He is SO happy! He's doing a good job too of learning the basics! Wow! I've not seen Chance this stoked in a WHILE! It makes me happy!!

The Dirt Bike...

Finally got that damn thing running... Chance is SO happy!!!