Summer Daze?

No, not yet. But a beautiful spring Sunday afternoon that seemed like a summer day. Shawna was in town visiting, along with Doogle, so after Church, Bonnie and the kids came over to hang out and it turned into a summer like day.


Grandma catches a few rays.




Bonnie catches up on some reading.




Shawna and CJ break out the ladder ball game.








GM cleans up after dinner - yummy enchiladas. Like her new polka dot apron?




Doogle looks for someone to play with. We decided he really likes playing in the yard!




Aubrey gets in on the reading thing.



Bonnie and Shawna. Are they having a reading race?





CJ watched "Pirates of the Caribbean" during dinner and is now a pirate. It's only a matter of time before he ends up in the pool.






It starts cooling off, but Bonnies on a streak and breaks out a blanket.




Everyone ends up in the spa.


After a trip to Dairy Queen to take advantage of the last day of the Blizzard sale (GM got 6 and put them in the freezer).
Shawna and Doogle crash.
What a great day! I can't wait for summer!

A leg to stand on

For a long time after we moved into the house we have now lived in for, I think, about 24 years, we called it the "new house".
I think that's because when we were building it, we'd be running back and forth between the "new house" and the "old house".
I guess now it should be the "old house" and the "really old house.
Anyway, when we moved in here I built a fort / playhouse / fort thing for the kids. I didn't really build it to last forever, not forecasting grandchildren at that age. Well it still gets lots of use. In a previous blog you can see CJ shooting his paintball gun from it (Shawna too).

As I said, I didn't really build it to last forever. I used old temporary power poles I had (untreated 6 x 6's , for you men). I dug holes and poured concrete around the poles. Not something you would normally do, thinking I'd get 15 years or so out of it, then tear it down.

The other day I was out in the yard and happened to glance in as I sometimes do (you never know what CJ might have going on in there. I won't go into the bathroom he and James made in there from an old automatic dog watering dish. It's customary to check for things like that, or unexploded ordinance, stuff like that).

Anyway, as I walked by something didn't look right somehow. The building seemed to be leaning or something.



The next step was to saw the leg of. This is appropriate because a lot of what goes on in here is pirate play, so it's only fitting that the fort end up with a peg leg.


I looked at it closely, as it was obviously leaning, so I poked a small pipe under the leg, and where it should have been solid, it went right through like there was nothing there.
The next pictures show what I found when I jacked the building up. There was nothing there!





The next step was to saw the leg off. This was especially appropriate because a lot of the play here involves pirates, so it was only fitting that the fort end up with a "peg leg".




The picture at the top is the new leg we made at work by welding a bracket onto a length of 2 1/2" galvanized pipe.

Next I had to dig and vacuum out all the dirt and old wood and junk to create a place for the new leg. Kinda like a root canal for a building.
You can see the fort is resting on large blocks of wood. It made me a little nervous working under it. Funny thing is (hahaha) we had an earthquake later in the afternoon. Sure wouldn't have wanted to be under it then!
I didn't want to end up with my own peg leg!




I then bolted the new leg into place. No small task as it was heavy.


Then poured the concrete around it.

All thats left is to cover the concrete and paint the new leg green.
Think I should check the other 3 legs? Na, I just watch for "the lean"
I hope I get some new grandkids to make this all worth while!