Mr. Skellie wants Tea & Sympathy...

Since I knew my two part epoxy on Mr. Skellie's shoulder would be all set now, I went to wake him to go out and give Bill a hand. "What's this!?" I asked, "And where did that afghan come from?"

He said he still didn't feel good and when Marilyn found out he was injured, she overnighted a hand made afghan to him. He said he didn't think he could work today and snuggled deeper under the covers. Quite suddenly, there was a knock at the door...it's Marlene, I whispered. "Quick," he said.."get rid of the afghan!" "I'm only going to do this once." I said. I welcomed Marlene in and she took out her knitting and sat with Mr. Skellie.

Looks like I'll be helping Bill today, you look like you're in good hands with Marlene here. He just smiled and winked at me. I shook my head and went outside to see what I could help Bill with. He had already put up the Z bar and I handed him up the last piece of siding.

Since he wanted a small overhang, he nailed up a 2x4 on each side with a trim piece over that.

I got to hold up the ends with a piece of 2x4 while he nailed each piece in place...mmm, look at those muscles!

Next, he trimmed the ends with the jigsaw so everything's nice and neat.

Since it's hot and humid today, his last job was to trim out the door...not bad for a used door; I managed to pry out the mullions the other day. They would be hard to keep clean and would be sawdust collectors in the shop.

Since I have plenty of paint left over from painting the front door, I'll paint this red too. After he put everything away, he came in and showered and we went out to Lowe's to pick up electrical boxes and some interior lighting. We found some fluorescent light fixtures that were marked down from $69 to $20 so snagged those right away, perfect shop lights. After a little more shopping, we headed home and Bill is back out there putting some final touches to the front edges of the roof. Looks like we'll need a couple more bundles of shingles to finish, but now it is pretty much weather tight. Looks like Mr. Skellie will be needing some physical therapy for that arm....hmmm, scrubbing the bathroom should do the trick...LOL! Have a great day!

Roofing, Siding,...Injury!

Bill went out to start work on the addition at 6:30 this morning. Like many sections of the country, we've been having a hot spell for awhile now. He was hoping that Mr. Skellie would be out to help him, but our skeletal friend decided to sleep in. He wandered out to the shop about 7:45 just in time to see Bill finish shingling one half of the roof.

Since the temperature was already close to 80 degrees, Bill told Mr. Skellie to start up the air compressor so that they could start work on the siding. He was wondering why there was a wet spot under the compressor

and I explained that since he's only a baby compressor, he couldn't quite make it outside. Mr. Skellie made a face first and then laughed.

He made sure all the water was drained from the compressor and started it up. The roof was already getting too hot to work on, so my Dear Hubby asked Mr. Skellie to haul out a sheet of siding and hold it while he nailed it in place with the nail gun.

Of course, you-know-who wanted a turn with the nail gun too and he was trying to see if he could put more nails in than Bill.

Now there is more siding on the front!

As he was coming back into the shop, Mr. Skellie spotted a dead June bug.

He felt bad for it until I told him that they dive bomb your head and are just a pain in general. Then he had another idea....

"No way!" I said. You are not bringing that thing into the house...I don't care if it's dead. He threatened to toss it down the neck of my dress when I wasn't looking and I told him I have tools and know how to use them...Well, wouldn't you know, at that moment he tripped on some extension cords and fell and damaged his rotator cuff...basically, his arm fell off.

I took him inside for immediate surgery

and squirted out some two part epoxy.

Looks like he'll have to be on bed rest for the rest of the day.

He said he saw a bright light but I told him it was just my shop light and not to be so dramatic. I told him it was getting too hot to work outside any more anyway, so he will be chilling while the temperature rises. It's close to 90 degrees already, so my job for the rest of the day is to deal with a pile of filing that needs to be taken care of and Bill's going to clean out his T-shirt drawer. Going through his T-shirt drawer is like traveling back in time; I think some of those T's are from the 80's! LOL! Have a great day!

Mr. Skellie, Gentleman Farmer...

 Last night, I had gone outside to pick some corn for supper. As I looked around, I realized I was going to have to pick it all and get it ready for freezing. One ear was overloaded with ants, so I left it behind on the ground. Cooked with butter and salt, it was delicious! This morning, Mr. Skellie announced that he would help me today. He told me to grab my hat and we were off to the garden.

I have sunflowers out there too and they were saying hello to the morning sun.

Remember that ear of corn I left behind last night? This was all that was left,

night visitors for sure. Since it was still early and cool, Mr. Skellie got right to work and soon filled the paper bag I had brought out with us.

He's already picked out the one he wants for supper, of course, it is the biggest one...go figure.

He thought our work was done, but when I told him to start shucking, he didn't know what I was talking about. I opened one up and he was surprised to see actual corn in there! LOL!

After we both worked for a little while, he came across his first corn borer.

After he got over his shock, they chatted for awhile and I explained that Mr. Corn Borer was going into the shucking bag. I failed to mention he would probably make a great snack for one of the birds. I knew we'd been out in the sun too long when Mr. Skellie asked how he would look as a blonde...

We both cracked up and headed into the house to blanch the corn. I cut off the ends nibbled by Mr. Corn Borer and his family

and got the water boiling. Mr. Skellie helped me pop the corn into the pot

and then watched as I cleaned the sink to get it ready for ice water.

I used my Young Living Thieves Cleaner and filled the sink with cold water and lots of ice. We let the corn boil for 6 minutes, then put each ear into the ice water. Mr. Skellie thought it would be great fun to float around on an ear of corn, but it couldn't support his weight and he got a good dunking!

I helped him out and dried him off and he started labeling the freezer bags for me.

3 minutes in the ice water and I pulled the corn out and put it into the bags.

We did all of this 2 more times and stacked all of the bagged corn in the freezer.

I think I will sit down for a little while and maybe after lunch, we'll make squash bread! Yum! Have a great day!

Mr. Skellie is one busy guy...

I planned on going up to see my mom last week and packed up everything I figured I'd need for the two days I would be there. I remember when I was younger and my mom would come and visit and I was always amazed at how many bags she would bring with her. Well, I must have officially become a grandma because now I do the same thing!  

And, of course, I have to bring my pillow too....As I got ready to get behind the wheel of my truck, guess who is there to greet me.

He has made himself my designated driver....hey look, there was just orange juice in that glass, I swear....I asked him how he was going to reach the pedals and he motioned for me to have a look at the gas and brake pedals. Ha! The minions are in on this too!

He told me to just relax and take a nap and he would have me to my mom's before I knew it.

Just as I was about to drift off, I heard..."Gas!" "Brake!" "Slower!" "Faster!" Holy Smokes I said, what is all the racket? Well, I guess they have been practicing and that's how he communicates with the Minions since he can't reach the pedals. I showed him how to work the cruise once we got on Highway 81 and the trip was a lot quieter after that. I might even have gotten in a few winks. I helped him navigate Mom's driveway and he ran up the driveway ahead of me. He heard about the lovely lady that lives in Mom's dollhouse from the Captain and was just dying to meet her. He enjoys watching Marlene knit at home, so he was eager to see what Marilyn was working on.

He had a grand old time there and I had a nice visit with my mom. I drove on the way back home as Mr. Skellie had stayed up late partying the night before. The next day, Mr. Skellie was raring to go on the addition to the shop.  He helped unwrap the bundles of shingles

and cleaned up the plastic wrappers from them.

Then he threw a bunch of shingles up to Bill and scurried up there to help with weaving the valleys on each side of the roof.

Our neighbor had come over the night before and helped Bill get all the OSB on the roof and put down the Feltbuster to keep out the water until the shingles could go on. So this is where we are at right now. (I helped with the door....)

Don't worry, there are window holes under there, Bill just has to build the window frames before he cuts the holes. It's been 90 here with high humidity the last few days so progress has been slow but steady. I'm sure the neighbors have a heart attack when they see me go up the ladder, but this grandma is still pretty agile! ;) Have a great day!

Another busy day for Mr. Skellie...

I went out to my wildflower garden to see what new flower might have bloomed and saw this beautiful poppy and a red flower with velvety petals.

This started as a good-sized bag of wildflower seeds that we bought on impulse back in the spring when we were on a trip to Lowes. The wildflowers have been such a delightful addition to our yard and didn't cost me an arm and a leg. Speaking of arms and legs, I heard Mr. Skellie hollering, "Come see! Come see!" I walked over to the shop and there he is running the radial arm saw today.

He must think I stock spare parts for him or something...After cutting the 2x4's at the correct angle on one end, he'd hand them up to Bill and he nailed them in place.

Looks like there will be a roof by the end of the day! Woo! Hoo! He had borrowed my camera earlier and got a shot of Bill attaching the ridge board to the roof of the shop.

The roof rafters are attached at one end to the metal brackets along the top of the walls and the other end is screwed to the ridge board. The structure is a lot more stable now and Mr. Skellie sat down for a minute to admire their work.

He would hold the ladder for Bill each time he went up and down and has been indispensable during this project.

Some small stud pieces had to be put in along the front of the first set of rafters and Mr. Skellie was pondering what tool to use.

He ended up with the impact driver which he prefers now. If I can come up with a reason to have one of those in my shop, I would pick up one of these too....they are kind of cute in a Boston Terrier sort of way. Now that the roof trusses are just about done, Mr. Skellie was goofing around and got himself into a fix!

Just as he lost his grip, I caught him in my pocket.

I turned him loose and he walked away a little embarrassed. So I went into the kitchen and rustled up a snack for these guys....homemade sausage, egg, and cheese biscuits!

Now fortified, they were back at it in earnest. Bill wants to get the roof on by the end of the day, so I will keep you posted. Have a great day!