Ok. It is January. And I was outside in a short-sleeve shirt working in the yard. I would say it is quite a welcome change from the bitter winter we had last year, but I’m probably not really thankful for the (probable) cause of the extreme weather we have been having. It was 59 degrees out this afternoon. I guess on the good side (in the whole carbon/global warming picture) is that I’m burning a lot less oil this year to heat the house.
I took Will to get his hair cut this morning while Ben was at his piano lesson with Susanna. For the past year or so it has been a fight to get Will to get any hair cut off. And when he goes to get a hair cut, he wants the smallest trim that I’ll allow him to get away from. I told the hair stylist that I wanted to make sure that she took 1-2 inches of hair off – but make it closer to the two inches. This time I must have let his hair get long enough to really bother him. He had the stylist use clippers. She showed me a picture of what he wanted and asked if it was ok to cut it that short. I said that there was a minimum that I wanted to take off, not a maximum. She could cut it as short as he wanted it.
Of course I didn’t take a picture. I’ll get one later and post it.
This afternoon was dedicate to yard work. We (mostly I – but Will, Ben and Justin did help a little) cut out a couple of big thorn bushes in the back. We were clearing a path to where we plan to build a new bridge over the stream (it is in the woods – just upstream of the old stone wall crossing the seasonal stream). I made a fire in the fire pit – it is always a pleasure to burn the thorn bushes. We cleared a pretty good path, but I think a better approach for the summer may be to try and borrow Mark’s tractor to clear out the other thorn bushes.
We went under the barn and dug out 4 pieces of white oak (8 feet long, 2″ thick and 7-8 inches wide) for the bridge. I bolted them into 14 foot lengths and Susanna helped me place them for the bridge. The next step is to finish the frame and put the planks on top (that should use up a bunch of the scrap red oak).
Again, I failed to take pictures. Maybe tomorrow if the weather supports.
Ben had his best friend, Anthony, over for dinner tonight. Will was a little upset that his friends couldn’t make it over today, so he convinced Susanna to take him to the arcade at Foxwoods casino (that and a nice dinner out). For once, Will stressed that he couldn’t find a nice enough shirt to wear out (he hasn’t tried to wear a button down shirt in a year, so he doesn’t have one that fits). With a little help, he was able to find a presentable outfit for a night out on the town.
