We spent the bulk of Memorial Day weekend at my mom's. The Feipel Five (plus Boon the dog) were also there. They arrived Friday afternoon and we did later in the evening. They left to return to the Fort Sunday on morning, and we left late Sunday afternoon after Jane attended a graduation open house for one of Michael's daughters.
The main accomplishment on this trip was to FINALLY tear out the garage dog pens and put up some storage shelves. My dad had built two separate dog kennels inside the garage, with a door that went outside. Since they've had no dogs for 20-some years now they had become nothing but storage areas. I really wish I'd taken a "before" pic, because the things stored in them ended up covering the entire floor of the garage, not to mention all the wood and wire used to build them. Much of the lumber used was from the old barn that used to sit on the same spot, and it was pieced together any way imaginable, and with twice as many nails and bits of wire as was necessary. It was way more of a chore tearing out the old than erecting the new!
I enlisted the help of s-i-l Drew and we started moving things out of the kennels mid-morning Saturday. It was a daunting project, and I thought we'd be lucky just to get it all torn down that day. The kennels were built on wood platforms six inches off the ground, and the worst part was cleaning out decades of straw and dust from under them. I was almost sure we would both be sick from breathing it in, but so far we haven't. We got it all cleared out around 2pm-ish. Way sooner than I anticipated.
I used these plans from Ana White for 12'x6'x24" shelves attached to the wall. They worked out great! We used some of the lumber we already had, but I ended up buying some new. Boy, I was aware lumber prices had went up, but didn't know just how much! Instead of 12' 2x4s, I ended up doubling up on 6'-ers (because I couldn't find a vehicle to haul the longer ones in). So I got 6 2x4s at 6' and another 6 at 8', plus 2 sheets of plywood, 2 boxes of 3" screws and 1 box of 1" screws. It was $224 altogether. Jeepers!
Anyway, we put the shelves together just how the plans said and they were up in no time. After supper Jane and I started clearing the garage floor and filling up the shelves. By golly, before it was dark we had pretty much everything done and were even able to put my moms car in the garage that night! I was amazed.
I was plenty sore and had a head and lungs full of crud, but didn't feel as bad on Sunday as I expected.
So, that's about the bulk of where that weekend went. Drew also managed to clean mom's gutters and do some other odd jobs for her. The kids went over and saw some of Carrie's cousins Saturday night, and Jane visited with her brother Keith both Saturday and Sunday, plus other relatives at the open house on Sunday. I snuck in a nap Sunday afternoon and we arrived home at 10 pm. It took us 4 hours and 4 minutes on the return trip.
All in all it was a pretty good weekend visit.
***
Psalm 10:16-18
the nations will perish from his land.
you encourage them, and you listen to their cry,
so that mere earthly mortals
will never again strike terror.
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