65" Short

Well the skirt on the new trailer is done. As far as I could go, at any rate. I ran out of the vinyl sheeting 65 inches short of being done. Two more panels and I would have been done. It reminded me of the scene in "The Ghost and Mr. Chicken" when Don Nott's character is running a sting of extension cords to a computer that was buried in a grave yard (a long story that I can't remember) and he came up short. Don said "You work and you slave and life up an kicks you in the teeth and you are five feet short of your goal!"

Oh well, Scott who sold me the package, is dropping off a couple of extra panels today. I will be able to finish up in about an hour or so next weekend.

And tomorrow I go to Didsbury to apply for a deck permit. Hopefully that will go smooth and we can have a deck in before the snow flies. I am getting it built. It is not that building a deck is so difficult it is just that with the price of materials what I can get it built for versus what I would pay is a difference of about $500. It is worth it to me to have someone build it for $500.

If I had the time and a helper I would do it myself. But my last helper, Ted, moved to Winnipeg. (And yes Ellen could help but it is not a good idea to work some projects with your wife especially if things go off the rails a bit. I could wind up in the dog house and even the Belle and Dixie would not join me out there.) Besides Ellen is quality control, on the skirting project she was the one who would remember how long each panel had to be because I would be thinking about other things by the time I go back to where I wanted to make the cut. She also was the one who kept track of when and where we needed to put in a "holey one" (vented panel). She also was the keeper of the tools, when I would wander off without the tape measure or pencil or tin snips she would bring them along because she knew I would need them. So you see she is a very good helper who's talents would be wasted schlepping 2X10's around.

So the deck will be contracted out. What will take them 2 days will save me about a month's worth of weekends next summer. Weekends that are better spent sitting on, barbecuing on and snoozing on a deck rather than working on one.

Why from our new deck we will be able to see Dixie run away in style. Yeah the little beggar took off an went for a tour of the woods. At 7:00 at night just as it is getting dark. We went out looking for her but we didn't see hide nor hair. Apparently there was loots to smell but nothing to track as that we would have heard. I though she was a goner. But at 9:00 she came back calm as you please, standing looking in the sliding door with a look that said "I'm back! Isn't it cookie time?" The clip on her leash had come undone on the harness. I don't know how or what she did to accomplish it but let me tell you I will be watching. So she was in my bad books Saturday night and Sunday. Belle was good and we should have listened to here when Dix took off, she set up a racket because she could not go too. I would have had her track Dixie but that would have had the three of us, Dix, Belle and me, all roaming round the woods without a clue. Bell is not a tracker, she is just a sniffer who goes where her nose leads. If it is after something she is supposed to find that is pure luck.

Home again 65 inches short of done...

Randy