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 was a little late getting to the farm this morning. It was about 6:30. While it wasn’t hot yet it was plenty humid and we were quickly soaking wet. My dad had the idea to set up a fan outside and that provided some relief. Unfortunately my power strip wasn’t working, probably due to getting wet last night, so we lost a lot of time plugging and unplugging various tools. The rain also made a muddy mess of things. We focused our energy on the back of the house as it was fairly easy to reach. That went pretty well. The new nail gun was a huge hit. My dad left around noon and I went to lunch at a burger joint I had never been to before. The burger was great, the fries were mediocre, and the milkshake below average. I ate outside because I was pretty dirty and also didn’t want to get spoiled by the air conditioning. After returning to the house and tidying things up a little I went to the lumberyard to buy materials for the front porch. Since delivery was only fifteen dollars I chose that. Everything should come tomorrow. The electrician came by to drop off some supplies just as I was walking out to build some scaffolding. He said that I could borrow a couple of extension ladders and a platform instead. That will be great. Then we talked for about an hour and a half. He is a very nice guy and that was enjoyable. Plus it was super hot and I didn’t feel too much like working. After he left I moved some siding into position for tomorrow and built a cutting rack that should save a lot of time. Lastly I loaded a bunch of trash into the car and hauled it back to the dumpster at the condo.