Porches, Heat, and Air

The weather has been hot and dry but our 5 fig bushes are still producing more than I can process. I've made fig preserves, canned figs, and dried figs!  We're eating them fresh every day.  What else can you do with figs?

We started getting ready to install the front porch last week.  Tom was going to move the dirt himself but ran into problems with a flat tire.

We got Jimmy to do the heavy dirt moving.  I lost my front steps.  Then Tom finished up with his tractor and a shovel.

We ran into a slight problem when we discovered that the corner of the house had been eaten away by termites.  Gary and Jack fixed it and started the framing for the porch.

The porch floor requires 300 tongue-and-groove boards.  They were $10 each pre-primed and $7 each if we primed them ourselves.  Laura pitched in and helped but it still took three of us working five days to prime all of the boards.

The last board!

Gary and Jack installed them as fast as we could paint them.

The porch is starting to look good.

Even though it will be a long time before we can hook them up, the heating and air-conditioning were installed this week.  There's a monster in my basement!

Since the contractors get here at 7 in the morning, we have been getting up with the chickens.  It's nice and cool early in the morning, but still in the mid-90's by noon.

Someday we'll be glad to have that monster in the basement!