I Needed Help

I love to work around the house. I take pride in being the one who keeps it clean (still love washing windows), painted and I can handle most minor repairs.

When the weather is nice I am outside doing something. Mostly it's keeping up with the weeds. Ha..
When the neighbors tree limb fell on our deck there was some damage done to the decking. It really needed a overhaul anyway. I started scraping - Mike soon joined me and we realized this was more than a couple of hand scapers could handle and decided to rent a sander.
I really wanted to do it. In my mind I knew I could, but my body said no. Damn it!
I did get it all power washed and prepped.
Mike had to step in. He rented a sander over at the Home Depot and took a day off from golf and sanded down our decks. The machine was way too heavy for me, but it was what we needed to get it done sometime within the next 5 years. I'm pretty sure that's how long it would take me to do it all by hand.

getting started

We started on the front. I had stained it a couple years ago, but it would turn green in spots when it rained and I hated that. Time to take it down to bare wood again.

Me trying!!!!

Like I said - I want to do this stuff myself, but it was too much for me to handle. Damn It!
The sander started making strange loud noises so we let it cool down a bit and headed to the back. The reason we got in the first place.
Still making some LOUD noises. Oh boy...
Mike took it apart - It had a glob of hair and dirt in the engine so we took that out and well-la It was running like a sprinter again. (I couldn't help but think how many people would or even could take the thing apart?)

Back Deck

We had this thing for 4 hours, so we put another heavy duty pad on and do one more sweep of the front deck. You know when I say we, I mean Mike, right. Though I did follow him with the blower and kept the surface clean for him and swept up after him.

Last Pass Over

Now I get to decide just what I want to do. I do like the look of a clean white deck, but I just don't know.
Mike was at this for 3 hours with just a 5 minute break and he admitted to being sore. I never could of done this by myself.
 I needed help. Damn it!

Happy Birthday to Bryan

There is no way to get around it. Life goes on and we all add one more year to our age. Bryan, my baby is now 41.
I still remember him as a little boy. Even though I see him being a Dad with little boys of his own, I still sometimes see that little boy.
I was visiting a friend at St. Joseph Hospital on Wed. August 1 (Bryan's Birthday) so I decided to take a trip down memory lane and went up to the nursery where he was born. They wouldn't let me in, but I told them I gave birth there to my son 41 years ago to the day and I just wanted to peek at the babies.
They loved my story, but it was still a No.


We celebrated his birthday this weekend.
They all came out for a cookout.
Roger and Luke showed Papa how to fix puzzles.

Owen just wanted piggy back rides.

We took a quick trip to the creek to skip some rocks. Of course we had to stop at the fallen tree to take a yearly picture.

Happy Birthday to Bryan.