Carly comes back

 Carly came back today, with the rest of Pork Chop. There were still a few parts that had to finish smoking, like the bacon and ham.

 I picked up a new little freezer last week. The 7 cubic foot turned out to be a much better choice than the 5 would have been.

It is packed solid right to the top. Only one problem: there is still one more deer coming back. I guess we will figure something out for it when it gets finished. Maybe I should have gotten the 9 cubic foot?

Season opener

Today was opening day of rifle season, and it was very good to me. I got this nice 8 pointer just before sunset. We will eat well this winter!

We have venison

Early muzzleloading season opened this morning. I didn't see anything this morning, but got a nice doe this afternoon. Now we have venison for the freezer.

Plant deck

 I added a small shelf type area on the porch. I wanted to get the herbs Lynne and Jess are growing up off the floor. They don't do well when they get knocked over and tripped on.

 The framework is complete and ready for the decking.

I brought some scraps home from work to use as the decking. It is all cabinet grade plywood and it made a very nice table for the plants.

New porch roof

 I got the old roof pulled off first thing this morning and moved out of the way. I will probably use some of the metal to add a cover to the back porch, and Heather wants some for the barn to cover the back door.

 First sheet is always the hardest. Since all the other pieces fit to this one, it must be exactly straight.

 Everything is moving right along. New roof is single piece to help eliminate any leakage. I just couldn't make the seam stop leaking.

 Lisa stopped by and helped. She anchored the front edge while I was getting the top part of the sheet.

Heather helped, too. I couldn't bend the edge over and fasten it like I wanted to, so she helped fold it over and hold it so I could get a few screws started. It looks very nice.

porch roof extention

 Lumber is more expensive than it use to be. This little bit was $150, but it was what I needed to extend the porch roof to cover the ramp. It was no fun walking up the ramp while it was raining. Much like walking through a waterfall, but with clothes on.

 I put up the outside supports first. The truck made a handy workbench for a lot of the project.

 Then came the header and rafters. Heather helped put up the header. I needed an extra set of hands to hold the other end of the boards

She also helped with the sheeting and the roofing. It got dark before we finished it, so I had to finish up today. Naturally, it rained most of the day. I got out in between the showers to finish it up. I still got quite wet.

Food plot growing

 Last week, I took the rototiller back into the hollow and turned the deer food plot over again and replanted it. The first plot was too much of a success. It was eaten to the dirt as soon as it sprouted.

 I checked it today, and it has sprouted and seems to be growing well. I'm hoping it will have enough of a start to survive longer than the last time.

It seems to have good growth due to all the rain we got this week and the hot weather, too. Maybe it will help us get more deer this year.

Another PC update

 And no, PC doesn't stand for Politically Correct. Pork Chop is still doing well. He's a bit over 3 ft in length and a little over 250 pounds in weight.

All in all, he's looking good. He still has a couple of months to grow, too.

Small projects

I added a boot rack to the porch to keep the muddy boots outside. It's right next to the bench for convienence.

I also put together a small table with a shelf for Jessica's room. For a few books and her alarm clock.

Bench finished

 It took a while to get the bench finished, but I finally got there. The boards were cut a couple at a time until they were all done.

 I had to work the Friday night trap shoot at the range last night. I went there directly from work, so the bench waited until today to get assembled.

I added a center support to make sure it is rock solid. It is a useful addition to our porch and it looks nice, too.

4th of July and a porch bench

 Allen and I went to the range over the 4th when he was here. I found some better targets to play with. We both did well, Allen needed a little warm up time with my .45. He isn't accustomed to it like I am.

 This week's project was a bench for the porch. I have been cutting a couple of the boards almost every day when I get home from work. There isn't time to do much else.

Here is the bottom half of the bench. I am going to put a back on it, but needed the bottom in place to measure everything out. Now the muddy boots can stay outside.

Porch!

This is the beginnings of the new front porch. Our contractor started on it Monday morning.

 This is what it looks like now. He still has to do a couple of finishing touches, but it is basically finished. We will have to stain it  the color we want.

E-Z access ramp and stairs, too. Along with a roof so we can grill in the rain and not complain about it.

 The old front porch has now become the back porch. It is a very big improvement over the cinderblock steps we had out of the back door.

 We even have a pool now! I was in it today. It felt great!

A/C finally installed

 After sitting on the unit for 2 months, they finally installed our air conditioner. It works very well and will turn the place into a meat locker if we want to. Thanks, Allen!

 It may be a "scratch and dent" model, but I couldn't find any. It looks perfect.

I'll put in a new enclosure for it someday, but that is a little lower on the priorities list. The working unit was much higher on that list.

10 days worth

 I brought home a couple more BIG bags of sawdust for the culvert pipe, figuring it would fill it in fairly well.

 Each bags fills up the cart twice, 4 loads of fill. It is working pretty well, but it still has to settle in.

 Yogi came in in his white wrappers. He yielded 55%, right in the middle of the dairy breeds and the beef breeds. Yogi was a mutt, so we don't know exactly what breed he was.

 The garden is looking good. We have flowers on the beans, small tomatoes, and a ton of peas and lettuce.

 On Monday, Heather picked up a load of mulch for me from the place in Farmers. Back to the filling operations.

The whole load spread on the culvert pipes. We ran the 4 wheeler over it a few times to help pack it down. I might be able to get the mower over it now, but I haven't tried it yet.

Pork Chop is doing well

Pork chop is growing very nicely. It looks like he is nearing the 200 pound mark. I can still see the size difference, but it isn't a real big difference anymore. Mom and I stopped over to check on him today.

Some fill for the culvert pipe

 Now that's a big bag of sawdust! Masco just throws it away, so I asked if I could take some home. They were happy to let me have it. They even loaded it for me. I'll take the pallet back. I really don't want it.

It took two cartloads to empty the bag. There was a lot in there, and the "land bridge" to the back of the pasture has begun. I'll bring more sawdust home as I have time to visit the guys in the warehouse and get more.

Happy Memorial Day weekend

 This was Saturday's job: packing in the culvert pipe that I added to the drainage in the back of the pasture. The old hay bales we left around the skirting was for that purpose.

 It was a 20 foot section of pipe that I cut in half to make this pair. The rest of the hay was packed around the pipe to hold it in place and start with the "bridge" over the wet/soft area. Now the filling in begins.

 The brush pile was Sunday's job. I have been waiting for the pasture to be vacant before lighting it up. Horses don't really like bonfires.

 Today, I finally took the boat out for the spring shakedown run. Yeah, I know it's quite late for that. But better late than never!

A very nice day out on the water. The water temperature was higher than I expected at 77, so the lake is warming up quickly.