Today felt like a bit of a bust. I started out by trying to acquire a new tank of propane. I paid for one at the close Dollar General, but it turned out that none of their cylinders had gas in them. So on to the next DG. I checked before going in and they did have some full ones. Unfortunately the woman working there couldn’t find the key. After a little wait and a call to the store manager she realized that it was on her key chain after all. I exchanged my tank and bought a second one in order to avoid future issues.

Back at the farm I started messing with the man lift. I could get it started but then it would shut down when I tried to do anything. Confused, I took the drastic step of reading the manual. Empowered with my new knowledge I was able to get it operational. My maiden voyage up was not pleasant. I was hoping that it would be better for me than a ladder. It was not. I could barely function. I moved it around to the front of the house so that my dad could do some work, but it wouldn’t rotate the way I needed it to, so I moved it again to the back. By then it was getting pretty close to time for our Thanksgiving dinner. My mother and Lauren arrived first and we set up chairs and a folding table out back in the sun. There was a lot of food to put out. We ate and talked. Luke seemed a little bored.

After lunch I put paint samples on the French doors. Liz chose a light green. Everybody toured the house then left. I set up scaffolding in the kitchen so we can work on some trim tomorrow then went into town. Aldi was closed today and Kroger closed just as I arrived. I sat in their parking lot for a long time doing a lot of research on my phone. That was actually pretty productive.

Now I’m back at the farm. Not feeling too good. Tomorrow is supposed to be colder so we probably won’t paint. Yesterday’s painting looks like garbage. Very thin in spots, and discolored because of the freeze. Saturday is supposed to be warmer.