Lighten Up

The weather around here has just been all over the place lately, much like my thought patterns.  I have managed to get it together enough today though, to scribble out some kind of post.  Actually, I have some updates on some things I thought some of you might be interested in.
As far as the weather though, one day it's a nice sunny day near 60F and the next, like today, the temps are falling to near freezing and were got a few snow flurries.  Can't complain though.  This winter has been rather mild so far with a number of sunny days.
The girls certainly enjoy and take advantage of the nice days.  I think I took these photos Saturday when they were all out having a good time bathing and grazing.

In one news, over a week ago I went to my appointment at the UAB Pain Clinic to see if they could offer me any other alternatives to steroids for my SI joint.  The BFD got me into see these people and I'll admit, I didn't have a lot of hope going in.  However, I was glad I went anyway and it just goes to show that you never know unless you go! or ask!  At first, it didn't look too good after talking to the first doctor (who turned out to be a resident actually).  He said he only knew about the steroid procedure but did admit he could understand why I did not want to continue that.  Second doctor came in later though and had some very interesting information.  He also understood why I was refusing the steroids and admitted they often put some patients on Valium to get them through the initial treatment.  I just can't do that.  Anyway, he recommended physical therapy for 5 weeks and then if no improvement was made they would consider doing a nerve ablation.  Basically they fry the nerves going to my SI joint and you have almost instant pain relief for 5-6 months.  Of course, there are varying degrees of success with this but that is what they consider a best case scenario.

There is no guarantee it would work that well for me but I think it's worth a try if the PT doesn't work.  Even if I only had it done once a year we would have 5-6 months we could go places and I can handle it here the rest of the time.  So, I've been doing the PT for about 10 days now and I can't see really any improvement but I wouldn't really expect to so soon.  I am however, very sore from the therapy! so maybe it is an indication that those tendons are so tight and bound up it could be causing some pain.  At first I didn't really understand how PT could help but when you see how much tendons and ligaments hold our bones together it makes a bit more sense.  So, hopefully something good will come from this.

I have also continued my workouts at the gym and around here and that is going really well.  So far, I have lost at least 15 pounds, maybe more!  I'm very excited about that.  I hope to lose about 15-20 more and really lighten my load!  My feet still hurt... but maybe not quite as much.  All of these things are contributing to me being able to do a few more things around here lately.  If nothing else, the consistent exercise really does seem to help my mood and that makes you more eager to work on stuff.

So, in other news the girls are laying more and more.  We are getting 3,4-6 eggs a day.  They all seem to be doing well. 

Big T continues to learn about roostering and he's doing a pretty good job.  I had to laugh though, when the other day, two of the hens got into a real knock-down-drag-out.  T ran over and jumps right in the middle to break it up, flapping and scolding them thoroughly.  To which they promptly jumped all over him!  He did however, stop the two hens from fighting each other.

Big Iron

     Aha!!  I bet by now, you all had even forgotten about the "word" posts that I was supposed to be doing!  Uh-huh.  Well, that's okay.  I'll let it slide this time.  I can't blame you because I have been a terrible slacker.  But, I keep the list on my desk so I will get to them all at some point.  Well, anyway....the next word on the list is podger!!  And I would imagine that most of you, like myself, are like, Huh??  What the hell is that?  Leave it up to some smarty pants construction people to come up with something like that...heehee.  The tool of course, I knew, just not by that name.  Down here, we call this a spud wrench.  Podgers, or spud wrenches, are generally carried by ironworkers and used to help erect "red iron".  This is the term we use for the structural steel framework of a building that is usually coated with a red primer, although many times they will use grey.  Red iron just sounds better.  Red iron is welded in places but initially they bolt it together as the crane lifts each piece into place.  As you might can imagine, a 30 foot I-beam swinging from a crane is not incredibly easy to control by a person standing only on an 8 inch wide beam 60 feet in the air.  Suspended in such a manner, the beam actually swings quite easily, but getting the bolt holes to line up just right is time consuming and a good way to mash your fingers off (literally), thus the pointed end on this tool.  It's easy to ram that end through the misaligned holes, as long as they are somewhat together, and as the pointed end is pushed through, it draws the holes in line.  The bolts can then be placed in the other, now aligned holes, the podger removed and that hole bolted.  It's also a great pry bar.  A coordinated ironworker can move pretty fast with one of these.  This particular spud wrench is fairly large (for me) at about 20 inches and it has, as you can see, a fixed open end.  Many spud wrenches are adjustable just like a large Cresent wrench.  I honestly have no idea where I got this one and have rarely used it.  Tools like this were usually supplied to us on the job and as I was not a full-fledged, regular ironworker I did not keep my own.  Allen has an adjustable one that we use more often, as you might imagine.  So, there is your lesson for the day.  Haha!


     I haven't told ya'll a funny work story in some time so I thought this one kinda went with the post.  I don't think I've told this one but if I have just pretend you've never heard it.  In my construction career, I actually worked more as a carpenter probably but did do a fair amount of steel work on our jobs and the last job I did was solely as a welder.  I did hang a little "red iron" but mostly I was there to weld up the structural steel that held pre-cast concrete and stone panels.  As you might also imagine, this is some pretty hefty steel to be able to hold that much
weight.  The steel is also not bolted up but welded directly to steel plates embedded in the underside and edges of the concrete floor slabs.  The vertical pieces were only about 3-4 feet long, and I could handle those myself but the horizontals were very heavy and they would set those for me with a machine.  Well, this was a crap job.  I was supposed to have another welder helping me but that boy never could get his act together and ending up leaving because of an off the job injury.  Even with another welder there was no way I could hang all that steel by myself (also the elevators, handrails and much other misc.) in the time frame they wanted.  I was somewhat flattered in their confidence, or whatever, but no way, no how.  So, they ended up hiring a steel subcontractor to come in and help.  I had the pre-cast on the back of the building and this group of 5 men had the steel on the front.  To be fair, they did have more to hang than me. ha!  Now, for near 20 years, through chance or design, I had worked a great deal by myself.  When I truly needed help I could get it; I never moved a piece a steel that was too much, but if I could handle it myself I preferred it that way.  And, when you work by yourself (whether you're a man or woman), you learn how to move things and hold stuff the smart way because it's not physically possible to manhandle it.  The high art of wedging, cantilevering, prying and clamping come in handy.  So.  I was chugging along the back, hanging my steel like all get out.  I would put a heavy board across the handrails of my lift bucket and then wedge the vertical piece of steel between that board and the embed it welded to.  I had my layout marked on the embeds already so I just tapped the steel with a hammer to get it on spot and to plumb it up.  Magnetic levels are very handy too!  I'd tack that off and then move back, clamp the diagonal brace off to my first piece and just hold the other end until I tacked it.  Easy Peasy.  Double check my plumb and then hard weld everything.  I only needed help after I got all my vertical/ diagonals hung and one of the guys would hold the 30 foot or so horizontal angle up to them with a Lull.  I'd tack weld it on grade, he leave and then I'd finish.  Piece of cake.  So, the new steel crew came out and started on the front.  And this was no rookie crew.  You could tell by looking at them they were seasoned ironworkers.  Well, their first day I came through the building for lunch and I noticed that 3 of those men were crammed into the basket of one man-lift.  Now, that is highly illegal in OSHA's book and our foreman over the steel had a fit when he saw them.  "What in the world are ya'll doing??  Why do you need 3 men in that one spot??"  They stomped and fussed.  "Well, what do you expect??  Got to have one to hold, one to plumb it and one to weld!!!"  Now, Nick, one of our younger foreman at the time, usually goes into a battle of wits unarmed, but the construction gods were kind to him on that day.  An evil, joyous smile quickly spread over his face.   "Well, I'll tell ya'll what..." Nick drawled, barely able to control his glee but trying to feign a serious air. "I got a woman welder around back that's hanging all her steel by herself....I'll go get her to show ya'll how to do it."  Nick said a look of sheer horror came over that steel foreman.  "Hell no! No, no, no!!  Naw, we can figure it out!!  Nick insisted it would be no trouble, that I was a very nice lady and don'tcha know she won't mind a bit but they would have none of it.  Haha!  Imagine that.  I was in the trailer eating lunch with the other guys when Nick came running in to relay the story.  He was laughing so hard we almost couldn't understand him but eventually we all got a huge kick out of that.  He told me later that day he saw two of the welders peeking around the corner of the building to see just how I was doing it on my own.  Of course, every time I passed them after that I made sure to smile big and wave.

In A Nutshell

 A few days ago I was actually feeling well enough to do a little hiking/ walking so Chigger and I set out for the trail that leads to the top of the ridge behind the house.  We didn't make it to the top mind you, but that wasn't really what I had in mind anyway.  It goes up on one end of my property and about halfway up you can take the deer trails over to the west and come down right behind the house.  One of these days I'll actually make some clear, formalized trails but for now you kinda just follow intuition.  Anyways, I remembered that there were 3, big, hardwood trees not too far off the main trail we cleared that had been downed by a storm and I wanted to see just how much trouble it would be to get to them.  The fate of the trees is a bit of a mystery.  They are large, healthy hardwoods, well, except for one that was completely hollow, but they were all just snapped right over about 15 feet above the ground and they all fall in the same direction.  It was obviously a storm that did it but the type of storm is what gets me to wondering.  See, the trees grow on the side of a small mountain that is very, very rocky, so, high winds just normally blow the trees over, roots and all.  And, they almost always fall in the opposite direction that these fell.  It was a fairly recent event also (within a year) as the trees still bear dead leaves. Amongst the leaves and limbs of the trees I found this:

Now, that side of my property does connect to a subdivision but that thing is a ways down a pretty steep hill.  I suppose some crazy dog could have toted this coconut way up there and dropped it but it had no chew or teeth marks in it.  So, how did an intact coconut get way out in the middle of nowhere on the side of a ridge??  You may remember back in 2010? when we had those really bad tornadoes that tore up many places.  We found probably 2 pickup loads worth of debris scattered across my land, some of which is still way up on the higher elevations because it is just so hard to get down.  I found numerous items from Tuscaloosa and areas over 100 miles from here.  Maybe there were flying coconuts that night too??  Who knows??

Well, in other news, we have harvested just about everything but the brussel sprouts out of the garden and I am slowly feeding the spent plants to the girls.  They really go nuts over the stuff!  They stripped one of the cabbage plants so fast it looked like feathered piranha going after it!  The greens really add some good vitamins to their winter diet though and it really doesn't cost us anything.  Before too long I will be able to screen my brussel sprouts off and just let them into the garden to forage, dig and poop to their hearts content.  They do a great job of cleaning and preparing the garden for spring.

And we can tell the days are starting to get just a tad longer again...We are getting more eggs!  I was excited to see we got all of the colors today.  The browns, white, aquas and olive.  It's funny, the olive colored egg is laid by Marilyn, our all white Ameraucana.  I really thought she might lay a pale pink or blue egg.  Oh well, shows you what I know. 

Busy Times

Yep, we all been busier than a one-eyed cat watching 9 mouse holes around here.  The garden has died down a good bit so I let the pullets in for the last 3 or 4 days to clean up for me and boy, they have been goin' to town!  They have scratched and dug and picked and had the time of their lives eating everything in sight, although they are pretty good to leave most of the larger plants alone like the peas and beans and such.  I'll go out there about twice a day and dig around for them where the dirt is real loose.  They get so excited they jump in and start digging too and pretty soon there are so many of them scratching in my spot I don't have room to dig anymore.  They are not able to dig quite as hard and deep as the big hens so they are not as destructive but they clean up the place good and clear out lots of the bugs and grubs.

The poor little things got in a fire ant bed though and I felt bad but couldn't help but laugh too.  They couldn't resist eating the ants and their eggs but were getting their feet bit from standing in the ants.  So, they would stand there and when the ants started biting, the chicks would start stomping their feet but were too greedy to leave.  If I had had some bluegrass music to play it would have looked like chicken buck dancing!  I laughed until I was cryin' just about and they would finally get enough and then run away and pick the ants off their feet.  Edit:  let me stress that I do NOT think it was funny that the chicks were getting bit, in fact I tried to run them out of the ants, but they insisted on running right back to eat the critters.  But seeing them all stomping their feet like that was funny.

They especially liked the coldframe once I turned some of the soil for them.  It was very loose so they could scratch through it easily and they got it all ready for me to plant now.

Hey, those are some funny looking chickens right there!  Well, somebody dumped these 2 little sweeties down at the end of my drive about a week ago.  Chigger actually found them hiding in the weeds when we walked down to check the mail, so I brought them up to the house and we have been trying to find homes for them.  No luck so far.  Grendal does not tolerate other cats well and I don't want any more in the house anyway, so they have been staying in the Goober Chicken Memorial Pen in the henhouse.  They actually seem to really enjoy it and the chickens don't really seem to mind them either.

And I have actually started on the kitchen in earnest since we about have the outside done!  My cabinet guy came Monday and got his measurements so those are being built now.  Things are slow for those trades right now so he said he should have them ready in 2-3 weeks!  Which means I have really got to get my butt in gear to be ready for them.  Yes, that is corrugated metal roofing going on the wall and it is a dark chocolate color.  I'll explain more about that later.  I know the whole kitchen looks kinda dark in this photo but it's not really.  My appliances are all stainless steel but they reflect the dark of the wall making them appear black too.  It will lighten up and be much more colorful when I am done.  I also got the wiring and ductwork for the range vent done and have closed up that wall and chase.  That is the big grey block on the right.  That is Durock covering that wall as it will get tile and stone over all of it.  You can see the ductwork poking out where the vent goes.  So, things are going but I have so much to do in this one area.  I am really excited about it and anxious to finish though.

The Night Before Christmas

 'Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the kitchen

Not a creature was stirring, not even Basement Chicken.

 The stockings were hung by the fireplace with screws

In hopes that Jack would notice the cues.

 The chickens were nestled all snug in their coop

 And I was trying hard not to step in their poop.

 And Jack in his T-shirt and I in my slip

Had just settled down for some nog and some lip

When out in the woods I heard such a ruckus

I fell off the couch and landed on my tuckus!

Away to the door I hobbled kinda quick

Flung open the same and stepped on a stick.

When what to my blurry eyes should appear

but a big goofy bloodhound and eight giant deer!

With a yip and a yalp and a howl so loony

I knew in a moment, it must be stupid Ernie!

More thunderous than cattle, here they all came

I cursed and shouted and called him such names

You dumbass, you stupid, you lousy ol' cur!

I'll beat you, I'll choke you (just joking)

if you don't get outta hur!!  (that's redneck vernacular)

So up through the valley they all did run

With Chigger in hot pursuit

If only I'd had my gun.

But I did hear him yelp as he ran out of sight

and I laughed at the thought of how Chigger can bite!

 

So Merry Christmas to all and to all a good night!

Friday Food!

I thought I'd do a short food post today; I think Friday's used to be the day for bloggers to do that. This is a real quick simple recipe that works for lunch or even breakfast. Daddy Rabbit, my old boss, taught me this one. You take one flour tortilla, lightly rub or spray both sides with olive oil and toast for a few minutes. I lay the tortilla right on the rack in my toaster oven at about 425 for 5-6 minutes. Watch it close because they tend to swell up and can burn. You see how this one is puffed up? Just take a fork or knife and poke it and it will deflate. After it is slightly toasty, take it out and mash it flat.

I then rub a few tablespoons of pizza sauce over the tortilla and apply a little cheese. I sometimes make a small batch of my own sauce to keep in the fridge for this or you can buy a small jar of ready made sauce. Now, years and years ago I worked as a cook for Pizza Hut during the summer while I was going to college and this is where I learned to put a little cheese down first.


Then, simply layer whatever toppings you like over that. I like ham, onions and mushrooms. What ever you put though, make sure it is thinly sliced as this pizza will not cook as long as a regular pizza. I then layer some more cheese on top! Place the tortilla back in the oven, right on the rack and bake for another 10-15 minutes. Just until it gets as toasty as you like it. Now, obviously, if you don't like thin crust pizza you probably won't like this style but I love it and you can top it with whatever you like. I want to try some spinach, leeks and goat cheese. Bet that would be good.

I slice mine into quarters and scarf it down!! Yumm!!! This is great if you are watching your carb intake; not a lot of dough in this and you can use whatever size tortilla you like. I use the kinda medium size and it makes a great lunch. Add a salad and it would make a good dinner.


It has been so hot here this week we have tried various things to help the chickens stay cool. We broke out the fan for them yesterday and some watermelon rinds. They really seemed to enjoy both. At first they wouldn't touch the watermelon but eventually one brave soul ate some and liked it; then it was on! When we came back there was nothing but the thin, dark green skin.

One funny story for ya'll: I had been doing some painting on the trim of the coop and was in the bittie's pen with a small step ladder. I rolled the top netting back to be able to paint and then took a lunch break, leaving the netting pulled back. I didn't think about what those little shits might do. I walked down there just in time to see 3 or 4 of them hopping up the rungs of the ladder, heading straight for that open gap in the netting! One of them reached the top and was contemplating if he could jump the rest of the way! One more leap and they probably could have made it over into the garden! I had to laugh. Maybe they aren't as stupid as many people think!

World Of Hurt

I have to laugh sometimes when I think about some of the comments you guys leave, complimenting me on my carpenter abilities and such. My ability to construct all these things by my little self. Now, I'm not making fun or mocking anything you say and it's not that I don't truly appreciate such kind words; I really do. What I mean is, ya'll just can't see what a complete goober I am sometimes. If any of you could ever be here while I'm working.....you might end up thinking, 'lord, it's a wonder that woman can walk and talk at the same time' or 'how did she ever do this without cutting her head off!?' Well, actually, if you've been reading my blog for any amount of time, I'm sure you are quite aware of what a freakin' goober I am!
Let me explain what I mean. I was up on the clerestory section yesterday doing a little caulking where I had run that siding. Now, on that end I have had trouble with wasps wanting to build in the wall. I have killed literally hundreds of wasps over the months there but I believed I had gotten them all. So, I'm up there caulking away, and mind you, I have to stand right on the edge of the roof to get to that side, when I feel something scurry down my neck. Now, in my flurry of activity, I had forgotten that i had tucked my carpenter's pencil up in my ball cap and that might be what had slipped down and I now felt on my neck. No, all I could remember is that the wasps might not be gone, in fact, I had seen a couple, so that is what I instantly determined was on my neck. I'm not sure what exactly happened next. All I remember is terror, ducking and slapping and a sudden pain across the bridge of my nose! What had I done!? I looked down and caulk and blood were going everywhere and in that same instance the phone started ringing. Well, the hell with that, I wasn't going to try to answer it, I had to find out why I was bleeding! I finally got the caulk stopped and eventually determined that I had hit myself in the face with the caulking gun, cutting myself across the bridge of my nose. As if my face doesn't look bad enough, I have to keep bashing myself there! I was greatly relieved when I woke up this morning and did not have a black eye from it. Now, I just have to think up some good story to tell the guys when they inevitably ask why a have this cut across my snozz. What do you think? grizzly bear? bar fight?

On a good note though I harvested some raspberries!!! It was just a few but I've never been able to get them to grow before, much less make fruit! They were SO good! I have 4 plants in right now and thought I would plant grapes the rest of the way across the back of the garden but I may have to buy some more raspberries! Yummmm!

And my blueberries are making fruit too!! They are actually doing better than the raspberries. I only have two of these. I cleaned up in the garden some and did some major mulching on what little I have planted.
I continued to work on the clerestory area, putting the soffit material up on the side overhangs that never got put up and the other set of corner boards. That's been pretty easy, other than being super hot up there. So, maybe it won't be too long before I will be completely finished with the siding.
Yea, and I still hear ya'll snickering about my nose!.... I know! I was making mad, passionate love to some good-looking man when he suddenly lost his footing......

*Drive By Truckers

Laughing With

Well, things just seem to keep sliding downhill for me but I'm not going to let it get to me. Not yet anyway! In an effort to redeem myself I'm just going to leave ya'll with a funny joke today. Sometimes you just have to laugh to keep from crying. This was sent to me by a good blogger friend but I am not sure if he would want everyone to know it was him, so I'll just let him be anonymous. He is also apparently one of the very few men I don't piss off or disgust regularly.

A man wakes up in the hospital bandaged from head to foot.

The doctor comes in and says, "Ah, I see you've regained consciousness. Now you probably won't remember, but you were in a huge pile-up on the freeway. You are going to be ok, you will walk again and everything, but your penis was severed in the accident and we couldn't find it."

The man groans, but the doctor goes on, "You've got $9,000 in insurance compensation coming and we now have the technology to build a new penis. They work great but they don't come cheap. It's roughly $1000 an inch."

The man perks up. "So," the doctor says, "You must decide how many inches you want. But I understand that you have been married for over twenty-five years and this is something you should discuss with your wife. If you had a five-incher before and get a nine-incher now she might be a bit putout. If you had a nine-incher before and you decide to only invest in a five-incher now, she might be disappointed. It's important that she plays a role in helping you make a decision."

The man agrees to talk it over with his wife. The doctor comes back the next day, "So, have you spoken with your wife?"

"Yes I have," says the man.

"And has she helped you make a decision?"

"Yes." says the man.

"What is your decision?" asks the doctor.

"We're getting granite countertops.


*Regina Spektor

Water, Water Everywhere

Oh, I didn't mean to get so far behind on posting! I've just been busy at work and around the house and just haven't felt like I've had much to say really. Not sure why. Anyway, it's been raining like hell around here. I now have 2 creeks in my yard in addition to the one by the drive. We've been rained out at work a couple of days this week. Well, one day a few of us went in, though it was raining, and about the time we were going to get to leave an 18 wheeler pulls in with 20 or so tons of rebar for us. So, break out the raincoats and unload him. It took a couple of hours because we only have a backhoe with forks for such. We don't have a crane. I was the lucky one on the back of the truck rigging the bundles. I could see lightning flashing off in the distance at times. It never got close enough for us to feel real uncomfortable although there were a few times we considered it. But, have to get the truck unloaded; he's got places to go.
In between thunderstorms the sun has been wonderful and things are sprouting everywhere. On the drive home today, I saw the slightest blush of color in the Redbuds that line the highway.
I got to run a 60 lb. jackhammer some at work today. That was the small one. I felt kinda bad for the outside crew. They kept having to run in and out of the rain but were determined to stick it out because we've missed so much time. One of the last times Hippie (some of you may remember) went out to see if it was still raining. He came back in and proclaimed the coast was clear; rain was gone! So, they all drag out their tools and get back out in the middle of the site, far away from shelter, ready to work....and the bottom just falls out. They did not speak kindly of Hippie. Something about his senile ol' ass.
I have this weekend off in order to finish as much as I can before the newspaper people come to take photos. I hope I get a good bit done. After this weekend though, I'll be working as much as they'll let me. Things are looking very bad for our company. I am on one of only 2 decent size jobs we have. There is talk of being bought by a construction company from Mississippi. They are forcing many of our older superintendents to retire, whether they are ready or not. I don't know what we are going to do. It's very sad to me that we may all be split up to work for other companies. But maybe we can hang on.
I noticed this the other day walking to the mailbox. Sort of an unfortunate placement of growth. I did not plan that at all, I promise.
Well, hopefully I'll have some more to post about on the house soon. Right now the bed is calling. Those jackhammers seem to make me tired.

Keeps Gettin' Better

You know how that old saying goes, "when it rains, it pours"? Well, that is what I'm referring to. I was working on siding today, after I took my truck into the shop to have the transmission serviced, and my sister calls me. It's kinda unusual for her to call during the week like that, but anyway she says, "have you talked to Mama today?" I told her no, was something up? She says well, Mama just called her from the emergency room and asked her to come over there. Seems Mama was feeding the horses and one of them bit her finger off! I almost fell off the pick board! I said "what??!" Rosemary said the horse bit the end of Mama's finger off and then she asked Mama if she got the finger and took it to the hospital, thinking maybe it could be put back on. Mama said she tried but the horse wouldn't give it back! He ate it! My family is like some kind of circus! So, Mama bandaged her hand up and drove herself to the hospital. She is 70.
My truck is still in the shop so Rosemary is going to take Mama to a specialist in Birmingham tomorrow. I talked to Mama on the phone after she got home and you know, it's not funny really but she was laughing and then I was laughing. Sometimes it's just all so absurd or surreal. The thing is, this kind of stuff is actually kinda normal for us. It's like the time our cousins collided head-on during a family football game or when Daddy shot Uncle Bill that Thanksgiving. You just never know what's next.

*Christina Aguilera

Boris The Spider

I actually had a little trouble deciding on the song title for this post as there are a number of good ones I could have used. I'll quote Jim Stafford at least by saying "I don't like spiders and snakes" either but I have gotten used to this type because I've convinced myself that they eat all kinds of nasty other bugs and would not bite me, so are 'nice guys'. And I'm sure they do, although they eat basically anything that gets in their web, 'good bugs' included. This one was resting comfortably on the side of the house yesterday. Well, he's been there for some time and it has been their custom every year to have at least one make their home on the side of my home. I did have to move him slightly, as he was in the way of my digging out the foundation but he took it all in good stride and just climbed higher up the wall. I wonder is he the offspring of the giant one that lived on the west end of the house all last year? And yes, I know it's very possibly a 'she' but I'm going to call it 'he'.
Anyway, did any of you happen to catch NPR yesterday morning when they had the guy from Animal Planet on? I'm not sure what segment it was; could have been "Wait, Wait Don't Tell Me", I'm not sure. So, anyway, it was the funniest thing I've heard in some time. This guy is a vet who, in his younger days, was a bodyguard/roadie for The Stones and The Grateful Dead. So, he later becomes a vet for larger animals and now has a show on AP. Some of you may know who I'm talking about; I don't get that many cable channels so I don't know him. So, he's talking about some of the crazier things that have happened to him in real life and he was relating how that pets go in fads, unfortunately, and that right now, spiders are the big fad. Big spiders. Really, really big spiders. Now, he's creeped out by the things and doesn't like to deal with them. "Bugs shouldn't have hair or saliva", he says, "it's just not right". I agree and yes, we know they're not 'bugs' but they're not mammals so they're bugs for our purposes. But yeah, what kind of mouth must a bug have to be able to hock a luggie! That's not right!
So, this guy brings one of these large spiders to him in a plastic shoe box. It fills the box up. Now, he doesn't want to take the spider out so he trying to stall. He asks the guy what is wrong with the spider. "Well, I don't know; he's just not himself"..... Now, at this point I'm laughing my ass off. How do you know if a spider is 'just not himself'? He didn't get up and have coffee this morning?
"Well, what do you mean, 'not himself'?"
"He hasn't been eating and one of his legs fell off". His leg fell off. Well, that's a good indication of something being wrong. And that's just what the vet said. So, he's wanting to get rid of the spider (and the guy) so he suggests that a professor over at the university might be a better source to go to and sends him off. About an hour later this professor calls the vet. "Did you send this guy over here with the giant spider?" he asked, kinda harshly.
"Well, yeah."
"Did you tell the guy that the spider's leg falling off was a good indication of sickness?"
"Well, yeah..."
"Well, if you had taken the time to examine the spider, you would have seen that it was indeed dead!"
You can probably find a link on their website and hear this for yourself but I was laughing so hard I was crying. Good thing I had reached my driveway and pulled in. But what I'm wondering is, if you know your spider well enough to think, "he's just not himself", don't you think you'd notice too that he was dead!


*The Who

Funny

A railroad switchman working the yard one winter day went inside the train house to warm a bit while work was slow. The boss spied him inside and asked gruffly what was he doing in there, when the work was outside? The switchman replied that his feet had gotten very cold and he thought he would try to warm them while there wasn't much going on.
"Tomorrow you need to wear two pairs of socks if your feet are so prone to get cold" the boss said, unsympathetically.
"Well," the switchman replied dryly, "if two pairs of socks are warmer than three, I'll take one off."
Well, I thought it was funny....

The real Switchman told me that one last winter. Of course, he told it as a true story but I suspect it is just one of the old standards that exists in many of the trades.

Pulling Teeth

Lately that is what it feels like trying to get anything done around here! I actually did get some work done on the house this weekend and I will show that soon. It's not very exciting though but it is some progress. It occurred to me recently that I have not shown the inside of the house in quite a long time and some readers may not have seen much. Unfortunately, it has not changed a whole lot lately. I have sheet rocked the living room side of this partition wall. The other side is the kitchen. I need to continue the Durock wrap on around the upper sides and then this area (the Durock) will be tiled. I may also build a small hearth with a stone cap below the wall heater there. I plan to make at least part of the tiles myself for this wall. I'm thinking of tiling it in a commercial tile, either ceramic or stone, and then inlay a design of my own making of tiles I do, to create a mural or something along that line. Where the wall indents on each side, there will be built in bookshelves. I just had that small bookshelf already that I put there to hold a few of my books and art. And in case you have not been reading long, that plywood wall is not finish; it will get a better surface than that. One day....
On a completely unrelated topic but one that still is related to the title, Pablo asked the other day if we ever get to do anything like the little time capsule on any of our jobs now. You may remember a long time ago when I worked on that mansion restoration, our crew put a small capsule of items into a cavity in a chimney on the house for whomever to find one day. That was Pablo's idea by the way! Anyway, do we ever get to do anything like that on new jobs? Well, no, it's hard to find a good place on new construction. Something about commercial work just doesn't make for good opportunities. We do have a few old traditions that we still hold to though and his question, for some reason, reminded me of this story. The superintendent that I worked for at the railroad always insists that we throw money (small change) into the first footings that we pour. And yes, he'll throw his own; he doesn't make us throw ours! It's best if it's the very first pour you make on the job but can be any one of the first big pours. He says that is an old tradition observed so that you assure your job makes money. In other words, you don't run over schedule etc. so that you lose money. He is one of the most esteemed supers we have so maybe he has something.
Anyway, back to the story... We have this older carpenter that works for us that is just one of those people you have to meet to believe. We call him Hippie (years ago he had real long hair) and he is about as backwoods redneck as you can get. Hippie is so redneck, his false teeth are missing teeth. He is an absolute sweetheart though and I love working with him although he pisses and moans all day long. So, one day they are making this big pour. I was not on this job but one of my regular partners was relating this to me. Now, as I have said before, on big pours you often don't have time to eat. Sometimes someone will bring a bag or box of food out and you take turns running over and grabbing a bite to eat in between trucks or whatever. Well, someone had brought chicken wings to share with everyone this day and Hip got a break and ran over and grabbed a wing. He was talking to my partner and eating this wing, when he took a big bite and as he tore some of the meat off, two of his teeth came flying out also and sailed over into the fresh, wet concrete! Hip just looked at Anthony and said, "well, I'm not going in after those." I was laughing my butt off when Anthony told me this and I asked Anthony, if throwing money in a footing makes the job go well, what you reckon throwing teeth into the footing does?! He just laughed and shook his head. "Your guess is as good as mine".

*Green Day

School's Out

I recently attended my brother's college graduation when he received his master's degree. He is 4 years older than me and it has taken him a while to get his education but he finally made it and we were all very proud. He put his wife through 2 degrees before pursuing his own and working at the same time. That is our mother standing beside Mark and the little short stuff there is one of his 2 daughters. He lives about 2 hours away and my sister is an hour off so I do not get to see them very much. They both have 2 kids and busy families so they don't have time to come here and it's hard to catch them at home even. Sometimes I think that we all just get too busy these days.
I sort of wanted to post this photo to show that I can clean up and do not always wear a ball cap or hard hat! If I ever see any of the guys from work, away from the job, where I am cleaned up it usually takes them a few minutes to recognize me. I always thought they were kind of putting on about that but one day, when I was still at the railroad job, I stopped by work after a doctor's appointment. I was dressed about like you see me in this photo but still wearing jeans. Anyway, I just walked in the office trailer and went over to the assistant superintendent who was sitting at the desk. I noticed that he looked kinda funny at me and did not smile. Kinda like, " who are you and what makes you think you can come on this job site?" I then spoke to him and made some joke and a look of recognition came over his face and he started laughing. He then admitted to not realizing who I was at first, until I spoke. Now, during all this, one of the Norfolk Southern bigwigs was in the office, meeting with their on site rep and had been casually observing this. He always seemed like a nice guy but never spoke to any of us field personnel, which is not unusual. Anyway, I said, "Oh, come on, I don't look that different than I do when I'm dressed for work!" and this guy walks over quietly, leans towards me and simply says, "oh yes, you do" and walks off. I wasn't sure what to think. I mean, I don't try to look rough for work but I guess it just happens.
It was raining when I got up this morning so I spent a good part of the day doing some research and shopping around. I have decided that with 17 acres and Fred's place to maintain also I need some mechanical help. I am going to have to buy a tractor. I can get a 48 or 60" mower attachment for the 3 point hitch and several other tools for it such as an auger and front bucket. I have been looking at the smaller Kubota tractors. They are a considerable investment, one of the smaller ones was more than I paid for my truck! I bought my truck brand new and it's not a stripped down model either. I had a little bit of sticker shock but that faded somewhat when I drove the tractor. Hehe, I have to admit, I like nice machinery. Keep your old pearls and sparkly things boys, give me a backhoe! I don't intend to clear that much of my own land but there is a lot of maintenance to do regardless. One thing is that I must keep the area underneath the power lines clear or the power company will come in and spray that horrible poison on everything to kill the vegetation and I will be very upset if this happens. Some of my lines will later be run underground but there is quite a bit that crosses Fred's land before it gets to me. Anyway, I am looking at some used tractors also and different options. Something tells me that what type of tractor to buy is not a decision that normal women have to make but I guess I should be used to that feeling by now. I don't really have a desire to be "normal" but I guess I would just like to sometimes not feel so different. I don't understand why things are the way they are.


*Alice Cooper

All Our Past Times

I have been going through some old work photos to try and find some that might show form work for slabs and more specifically, the rebar specs, but have not been able to locate hardly any. Ron over at Homesteading Hickory Hills is about to form a slab roof for his root cellar and I am trying to get him some photos etc., although I think he is already on the right track. I haven't forgot about you Ron and will still send that little sketch for the outside forms. I did come across some funny and interesting photos though from waaay back though. This one above is obviously me but about 7 or 8 years ago. I was a journeyman at this point, working on a hospital. It struck me how clean and neat I look then. I mean, we try to all keep ourselves neat looking at work, as best we can, but my ol' hardhat is much more battered now, with a lot more stickers. Many construction workers collect stickers from the jobs they work on as sort of a record. I have 2 now that I prize highly with the NS logo; given to me by a major sweetheart. My nail apron is held together in many places with tie wire. I guess I am going to have to break down and buy some more. That hammer is still the same one I carry now but it is needing to go into retirement too. It has just gotten about impossible to find a 20 oz. leather handle, straight claw Estwing though. I don't wear suspenders anymore. Actually, that did not last long at all. Most of the guys wear them because our pouches are so heavy but let's just say, they don't have anything up top to "get in the way" of suspenders. I found them very irritating and I have enough caboose to keep my apron up, unlike most men! A lot of people ask me why I don't wear my nail apron when I work at home. Well, ours are a little different than what these guys on This Ol' House wear! Ours are longer and can weigh 15-20 lbs. if carrying all that we do for form work. When we get a chance to take them off, we do!
Turning 40 also has gotten me thinking a lot about where I've been and things I've done. I guess I've had a very different life experience than most women. This was a job I was on in North Carolina. It is not one of my favorite job memories because I was married at the time but it was interesting. It was who I was married to, not the fact that I was married btw. This is what we call a tilt-up. Basically, you pour the wall slab on the ground, as if it were a floor slab, and then you stand them up and secure them to the building frame. You can stack them up like cards on the ground and you spray a release agent on each on to (hopefully) keep them from sticking to one another. These are about 8" thick and weighed about 35 tons apiece. They have more rebar in them than a regular slab to withstand the stress of movement. Pouring the panels is fun and interesting but setting them is very dangerous and nerve wracking, at least to me. Generally, you have a separate contractor come in and set the panels. These guys make "danger pay" which is a higher rate when they are doing this because it is so risky. Many men have died because the wind will get up quickly and snatch the panels around or various other problems and break the straps to the crane.
With these big openings you would have a slight chance of getting through a hole but with the solid panels, well, at least it would be a fairly quick way to go. I was just a little apprentice on this job and had never been around anything like this before. We had a crew come in, mostly Hispanics, and began setting the panels on a Monday. Well, that night they all went out and just got really hammered because they were all too sick to come in the next day. Some of these guys are kinda rough. Anyway, we couldn't wait on them so we had to start setting them ourselves. Fortunately, our bosses had experience with the panels but it was still very scary to me and the other apprentice boy because we were the ones that had to climb up on the panels and secure them after they were put in place. We were very happy to see that crew come back in the next day. I think they were a little surprised to see that we had set a bunch without them.
I'm still working on siding; it's going pretty slow but it looks good. Maybe some photos of that soon. It has rained some more so I've had to stop now and again because of that. I did take the time yesterday morning to plant a good bit in the garden before it just got too late, so am very happy about that.


*Eric Clapton/ No Reason To Cry album

A Funny Thing Happened On The Way To The Tool Shed

I have been promising a story or two from work for a while now so since I don't have any new photos from the house downloaded, I thought this would be a good time. Most of my long time readers (if I have any besides Pablo) know that my real job is heavy commercial construction. I am a journeyman carpenter for a large company and we are building a service center for a railroad company right now. This is right in the middle of a busy rail yard so there are locomotives running back and forth all day around us as we work. Several other bloggers, including Woody and FC have had funny stories lately about crazy things they have done so I thought I would throw my hat in the ring, or my hardhat. Not to try to outdo but to say, at least ya'lls were in the privacy of your own home or car, whereas I insist on making a fool of myself in public!
Ok, here is the scenario: I am the only female working with 20-25 male carpenters, electricians etc. on this job. Then you have all the male train conductors, engineers etc. Well, shortly after coming on this job, I just happen to notice this one conductor, I guess that is what his is; he rides the front of the locomotive and he switches the tracks to move the locomotives from one track to another. Anyway, this means he is on the ground near us some and walking around so we can sometimes talk a little to these guys. Just general pleasantries as most of them are friendly and curious about what we are doing. Well, this particular guy is honestly, one of the most handsome men I have seen in some time. I know I just gawked the first time I saw him coming down the track and he looked down at me and smiled so that didn't help. He is a big man, tall and broad shouldered and dresses much neater than the others. So, despite being around men so much I am the biggest dork when I get near a man like this. I am clumsy enough as it is and I just lose all composure. Well, on the rare occasion that we are close enough to speak, he would make small talk about this and that but we could never talk more than a few seconds and never get within 20 feet of each other since we are both working, so it was not really possible to "break the ice", you know. In fact, we don't even know his name, so he has just become known to all of us as the Switchman.
Now, a little history on the other side. My guys on the crew look out for me and are really sweet so I try to make cookies or pies for them sometimes and pamper them a little and make them feel good. Well, this summer I grew a bunch of Moon and Stars watermelons and I brought 2 or 3 to work to share with the guys. Now, part of the crew eats in the office trailer, as I do, and the rest eat under a little shelter by the tool shed. So, one day I cut part of a large watermelon for the guys and was taking the majority of it out to the men by the tool shed. Well, one of the guys suggested that I cover the melon up with a bag because it might get dusty before I could get it out there. So, I did and headed out the door carrying my prize to them. As I got halfway, I saw that they were running the trains across the road and had it blocked so I would have to walk around the locomotives to get to the guys and, lo and behold, who was on the track but the Switchman. And when he saw me coming he started walking towards the area where I would have to cross over the track. It occurred to me then that I would finally be within a couple of feet of him and get to see him up close. I thought to myself, OK, don't say something stupid. Just remain calm. Breathe deep. So, sure enough, we meet on the tracks and he smiled and made a little joke about blocking the road and I laughed coyly and joked back. Ha, ha... He seemed even more manly up close but I restrained myself from throwing the watermelon down and grabbing him. Now, after 14 years of working construction, I can't hear worth a damn especially with trains around. And I had completely forgotten that I had covered that stupid watermelon and he probably couldn't even tell what I was carrying. So, as I passed by him and I heard him say something about something looking nice and being in my usual mental fog intensified by him, I just assumed that he was talking about the watermelon. Not wanting him to think that I was impolite, I turned and sweetly asked him, "Well, would you like some?"..................... the look on that man's face when I said that should have been a clue to me that we were not talking about the same thing. He recovered quickly though, stepped towards me and said so sincerely, "Lord, honey, I wish I could". It still did not occur to me what I had done, so I just said, "OK!" and wandered off to the guys. I did think that was a kind of odd response but just thought, boy, he must really like watermelon. Later in the day as I was driving home, my mind was slowly meandering over the day's events, I started thinking about things and finally, it hit me what had transpired. Oh. My. God.... I just offered this beautiful man, who I don't even know by name, wanton sex on the railroad tracks. Mortified is not the word.
I had to fix this, so the next day I enlisted the help of one of my guys who drives the backhoe. They were not going to get any more brownies or fried pies until the Switchman understood that there had been a horrible glitch in communications! After all, I was taking that watermelon to them and that had started the whole thing. So, Steve, being a major sweetie, finally gets where he can talk to the Switchman and tells him that there was a terrible misunderstanding over some watermelon and that I needed to explain something to him. Well, a few hours pass and I saw out of the corner of my eye, a train approaching. The Switchman was on board and as we both looked up, our eyes locked on each other at the same time but fear suddenly griped me. God, this man thinks I am a complete idiot or worse! But then I saw a big smile spread across his face and he breaks out in the deepest laugh that I could hear over the locomotive. He came by later and we talked for a moment and he assured me that he was not offended and understood the confusion.
Of course, amongst my crew, I will never, ever, ever live this down. It has become known as the Watermelon Incident. They tell me that I have single handedly set all women construction workers back 30- 40 years and am the kind that gives us all such a bad reputation. Well, at least I give them something to laugh about.

She's No Lady

Any Lyle Lovett fans out there might recognize that title. This is my Grendal cat; I've not shown many photos of her. I don't know why she sits like that. Just kind of plops there like a big sack of flour or something. Allen has many names for her: Toxicat, Grendal the Hut, etc. You might guess he does not like cats a lot.
Not much happening at the house this week. I did go ceiling fan shopping yesterday and then ended up finding a better deal online so I will probably order my fans Saturday. I think I am going to try to pour that slab under the house next Tuesday. My boss said it would be OK to take off from work. I am going to try to stub in the shower this weekend also and maybe do a little more painting. Every little bit helps. Oh, and work on the water system. Ugh.
Speaking of work though, we just had to go through our yearly evaluations for raises this past week and one of the carpenters had a funny story. This was on another job, some time ago. So, our carpenter was walking up to the job trailer to meet with the super about his evaluation, when another carpenter comes out of the office and seems to be a little upset. Our guy asks the other what was wrong. The other carpenter says, " That son of a ***** gave me a '1' on part of my work"! ( we are scored 1-4 on various things). He went on to rant about several things and the unfairness of it all until our guy asked him in which of the categories was this '1'. "My damn attitude! Can you believe that!", the other one replied.

Turtleshell!

Actually, this is the whole turtle but that title refers to something else that I'll tell you about in a minute. Neither I nor Allen had ever see a little baby box turtle before. I am guessing that is what this is. If you know better, please tell me. So, we were talking about that one day and then just a few days later, I found this baby in the water line trench. If you ever want to trap you some turtles, dig a long trench. But anyway, so I took some photos of the little guy to show Allen and prove to him that they do start out small. Oh, and this one was full of himself too; he hissed and carried on the whole time I had him.
Construction workers sometimes refer to the hardhats as "turtle shells"; as in, "Put your damn turtle shell on". And if you bend over at the same time as another worker near you and bump hardhats, one of you is supposed to yell a certain, slightly obscene phrase that refers to 2 amorous turtles. We have a lot of weird little rituals and things to pass the day.
The heat now is just staggering. No one can remember it being this hot for this long. As Karen says on her blog, Rurality; work, work, work, hot, hot, hot. Amen. We are in the desperation phase now at work. The boss has brought down 2 big, 55-gallon drums of cool water for us to kind of splash in to cool off. We have tried every kind of sunscreen on the market but we are all burnt to a crisp. We are having to tie our own rebar and drive lots of metal stakes so it's misery to pick anything up. Of course, we wear gloves but it's so hot that doesn't always help. If you work in a nice, cool office....be happy! We enjoy our work though.
When it gets miserable like this, we also tell stories and jokes to pass the day. Often times we work in pairs or small groups so it's easy to talk and work. Today's stories were "Humorous ways we almost cut our fingers off, set ourselves on fire or tore parts of our clothes off at work." I thought I topped them with a "Set myself on fire story" but one of the guys came back with an incident he witnessed on another job. I think it was a parking deck. So, this rodbuster is using a large impact drill on these rebar connectors and wasn't paying attention to what he was doing. Rodbusters are the guys that tie the reinforcing steel and are known for being rough, loudmouthed individuals. Well, something on the drill got caught in the leg of the guy's blue jeans and in the flash of just a couple of seconds, ripped his pants completely off his body. Anthony said all that the guy had left on was the waistband! I would have paid money to have seen that! Wait a minute, I think some people do pay money to see something like that. Anyway, the guy just duct taped his pants back together and kept on working. So.... always keep some duct tape handy and keep those drills away from your legs. The funny thing is, almost everyone I work with has done something similar to this.

These Boots Were Made For Walking

Actually, I think these boots were made more for kicking the crap out of somebody or something. That old song always makes me laugh because when we were little, it had just come out and my sister would stomp around in Daddy's boots singing it. She still stomps around a lot.

If you read my updated last post you know that I am back to work tomorrow so I have been running around the past couple of days getting ready. We have to be drug tested, have a background check, get new steel-toed boots, find all my tools and get them back in order. I cannot say much about this new job other than it is for the railroad. Homeland Security now monitors all that stuff and thus the background check etc. in addition to all the strict requirements from the railroad. I especially cannot discuss much about the job over the Internet. And of course, I get to start back on the day that is forecast to be the hottest day this year. It was 100 degrees in parts of Birmingham today and tomorrow is supposed to be worse and we are working right amongst the trains; no shade anywhere! If I don't post again for a few days just bear with me. Not much has been happening at the house this week due to this and the pour (under the house) has been put off for a week or two. But I'll be making good money again and can buy all kinds of stuff for the house!

I am going to work for a superintendent that I started out with 13 years ago. He (Larry) was the first one to let me come on his job as a apprentice carpenter. It was a 6-story apartment building and I was petrified. The company only wanted me there because it was a government job and it looks really good for them to have minorities. No one thought I would last a week but I finished that job up and kept on. I have encountered a fair amount of prejudice and discrimination over the years in my work but a lot of the men have been very fair to me. Larry has always been good to work for even though I know I have aggravated the crap out of him. He was the super on the second job I was on and we were out in the field one day; I was nailing door block-outs together and Larry was standing very nearby talking to the foreman (my then husband). I zinged a 16-penny double head nail and hit him square in the chest with it. He slowly looked up at me as if I had spit in his face. Now, Larry is a big man; very imposing, especially to a little apprentice girl. I looked frantically around for a piece of plywood, a rock, anything that I could crawl under. I didn't know what to do. He just sighed and shook his head. He has done that a lot over the years around me. Like that other time I caught my pants on fire! But that's another story.....