I’m starting Monday morning off a little tired. We had a busy day yesterday.
The boys went to their mother’s house in the morning, and I had about an hour to clean up breakfast and relax (that is, drink my coffee) before Susanna came home from church. Susanna and I then took the dogs for a walk into the woods, and spent some time trying to find the location of a airplane crash about a mile into the woods. In October 1944, two F6 Hellcat fighters were conducting night training and crashed. Both pilots were killed, and the wreckage is still in the woods in Preston. We found the crash site of one of the planes (after several wrong turns). I’ll have to post pictures later (no time this morning).
The hike took us all the way to lunch time. Of course Tucker ran off during the hike, but actually beat us home (which almost never happens, he usually wanders home an hour or two later). After lunch it was chore time. I headed to Home Depot to pick up a pair of 2×6 boards to sister the joist in the barn that was cracking, a pair of 6×6 posts to replace some rotted supports in the barn, and some concrete to pour footings for the new posts. However, the concrete needs to be kept above freezing for at least two days, and we had two cold nights forecast – so I held off on the concrete.
I was able to get the one joist repaired, but wasn’t able to get the second 2×6 put up (didn’t fit too well, and I didn’t have time to get it to fit). I also wasn’t able to replace the front post of the barn (no footing needed, it is already on concrete) – I may have better luck after I unload the lumber from the second floor of the barn. However, I was able to replace the middle post (and able to see how rotted the original really was). The next steps in that project will be to pour a footing for a fourth (an additional) support post (the middle post is not quite in the center of the beam). After the footing cures, I’ll add the support post.
In the meantime, I moved the entire stack of lumber over to one side of the bay in preparation of building a proper lumber rack. I’m a little too tired today to build the lumber rack tonight, and I need to sand the bookshelves and move them to the basement for finishing.
Last night was movie date night. Susanna and I went out for dinner and to see “The Descendants” in Mystic.
