Luke and I started off the day with a lot of reading. Liz brought out some of his older books that she had put away, and he really enjoyed seeing those again. Liz spent a lot of time packing and we did a lot of stuff to prepare for her parents coming this evening. Tomorrow she is going to Austin for a few days for work. After lunch we went on a nice hike at the nature park. Luke really enjoyed running around and picking up sticks. After his nap and a couple more books I drove up to the Mountain. I went to the job site and spent an hour and a half or so installing the last of the shiplap. Back at the cottage the propane tank is empty, so no heat, but fortunately it isn’t super cold tonight.

There were a couple of inches of snow on the ground, and I was in no rush to get going this morning. After breakfast I did load some shiplap onto the roof rack and headed to the job site. It was still snowing a little and was extremely cold. I finished the shiplap on the vaulted wall and started on the bathrooms. Both of those went pretty slowly. I had to go to the cottage for more shiplap, which I precut and hauled inside my car. I unloaded it, tidied up the house, and returned to the cottage to do a little work. Then I hooked up the flatbed trailer and drove home. I was able to spend about 20 minutes with Luke before he went to bed.

My dad and I went to the house this morning around eight and started working. It was rainy and nasty out, but dry inside. I resumed working on the shiplap while my dad cleaned, taped and papered over the windows and doors, and ran some errands for us. The electrician came by and said that he will return tomorrow to add the microwave plug. Work went well, although a little more slowly than hoped. I had wanted to be ready to paint tomorrow, but it that will get pushed back to Friday. I spent the last portion of the day putting locks on the front door. We left the house about 2:30 and I showered at the cottage before stopping by the Goat Market for a drink then driving home. It rained the whole time. Back home I played with Luke, we had dinner, I set up our new wireless network (Spectrum – blazing fast!), then power went out. It has probably been out a couple of hours now. Luke didn’t get a bath and stayed up a bit later than usual. Now we are just sitting around hoping that power returns before everything in the refrigerator spoils! Tomorrow morning I’ll return to the Mountain to finish the shiplap and all the paint preparation.