Herding Cats

Herding cats would have been easier than having the family come over to paint the house last Sunday.

Everyone showed up Saturday night and sat around the fire, lied to each other and drank a little beer. I blew up air beds and opened the camper to find room for everyone to sleep. Having a tiny house does have it's disadvantages at times. My buddy even had to sleep on the couch.

It was windy, really windy and almost too cold to do anything but we did.
After a big breakfast we braved the wind to get the house painted. I fired up the smoker and put on two racks of ribs and about thirty pounds of chicken. Potato salad and baked beans were our sides. At noon when the temp was above 50, everyone went to work. My buddy manned the smoker while I played "Runner Boy" for the painters.
What, there's a hog in the trap! I looked up and everyone was gone. It was time for a hog killing. After that we got back to work.

 

We got the front all painted, but it was getting too late to start on the back. I will do that this weekend. There is a lot less to cut in back there so it should not take as long and if it's not windy then I will get to try out my new sprayer that is still in the box. 

Then it's on to the railing across the top.  

Last night I got the main power ran for the house. No more of this turning one thing off before turning another on kinda deal. I have the power to run it all now. 

Plus I need to spend a day cleaning up after the disaster left behind from the weekend. 

 I guess that's all I got for now, A big thanks to all that came out to help.

See ya,

Jerry

Small Window

I might have a small window this weekend to get a little painting done on the tiny house.

I have been planning this for the last three weekends, but the weather "made" me go cook chili instead. The same for this weekend as well. All the plans were made earlier in the week for Saturday. The help was all lined out and all the materials bought only to be postponed due to the temperature not being above 50 all day.
I should have known this would happen. I should have painted as soon as I could back in the summer instead of waiting till winter to try and paint. It's my fault and only my fault.
This is what happens when you get detracted and do other things instead of finishing what you started first.
The small window I am talking about is Sunday. The high will be 65 degrees, but the wind will be blowing too hard to spray. If I can reschedule and find enough help, then we can go "old school" and all use brushes and rollers to get it done or at least a major part of it done.

The cost for free help could add up if I am not careful. 
Lets see, three cases of beer at $65.00, two racks of ribs and chicken quarters at $35.00 and all the sides at about another $40.00. Add in other drinks and snacks for the kids and wives at about $30.00 or so. So the total for free help will be somewhere around $170.00
This may sound like I am complaining, but I am not. To have someone come out and do the work would cost 10 times that amount so I think I am getting off on the cheap, plus I get to see everyone and do some cooking during all this.
Now, I just need to get on the phone and let the family know there is free beer, free food and free paint brushes available on Sunday.

Oh, I promised a picture of the trim on the porch posts I did not like so here it is.

I am not going to trim the posts at all now and just paint them. I think it made them look like a poodle's leg or something. 
   



I will let you know how the weekend turned out,

Jerry

I Just Didn't Like It

Being they have upped the chances of rain even more for this weekend, painting the tiny house is defiantly out of the question, plus my help decided to go out of town.

I bought the materials to trim out the 4X6 posts on the front porch so at least that could be done when the weather permitted me to paint. A couple of days ago I cut all the boards and trimmed out one post to see what it would look like. Now here's the deal, I should have only cut enough wood to trim out just one post to see if I liked it or not instead of cutting everything. I just don't like it. I would have taken a picture to show you but I don't like it enough to even do that. I left the post trimmed thinking it would grow on me, but no. So now I have forty four pieces of wood cut to fit around the tops and bottoms of every post on the porch and I don't want to put them on. I even asked the wife what she thought and she didn't like it either. There is nothing else I can use all these angled cut pieces of wood for except the fire pit.
Now that all the tools are put away and with the rain is coming in, all that is left to do is cook chili.

So now the plans have changed. I will be going to Shreveport LA this weekend to cook chili. I don't want to do that either, but it beats sitting around the house kicking myself in the butt for wasting all that wood. I can do that when I get back.  

Maybe there is still hope for the weekend if I can find a good Cajun Restaurant and get me some real Jambalaya, AIEEE!!!!!!

See ya next week,
Jerry  

Check Another One Off The List

It's kinda funny on how you have a place pictured in your mind and a burning desire to do a particular thing, but once you see it and do it, it's very disappointing. Lets take for instance Mt. Rushmore. I have been told the pictures really do it justice and once you see it, it's like, "really, is that it?"
You have such high expectations for something, but it seems to fall short once you see it.

I have a Texas Bucket list as well as a regular Bucket list. The only difference between the two is the Texas one has to do only with Texas things and being a native Texan I would like to do as many of those as possible.
One item on the Texas Bucket List list is the Cadillac Ranch in Amarillo. I have seen pictures of it and talked to folks that have visited. They all say it's a must do, but it's only ten cars buried in the dirt. So this last weekend I had the opportunity to go to Amarillo for the first time and participate in the Tri-State Chili Cook Off Championship, by the way I got third place and automatically qualified for the world championship. While there I made the trip North a couple of miles to mark another item off the list. We pulled over on the side of the road, looked across the field and all I could say is, really? They were right, it's only ten cars buried halfway in the dirt. How this made the list I will never know. I guess it's just one of those things kinda like looking at the world's largest ball of wire.

   

 We did take a can of paint because that's what you are suppose to do when you go and painted our names on the cars.
We travel and cook with our good friends and chili family K and D because going all over the place by yourselves is just boring. My dumb butt shaved my face and head only to be in one of the coldest places in Texas that weekend.
New Years weekend we traveled to San Antonio, cooked chili, did great and walked the river walk in the rain. We just can't catch a break on the weather while traveling and cooking chili.

I have every intention of staying home this weekend and just sending the wife to cook in Shreveport LA. I bought the stuff to paint the tiny house. Now they are calling for rain Saturday night and that just spoils my weekend plans. I still my stay home and do some more trim work on the porch if I cannot get it all done during the week. I am really tired of going, going, going at the moment.    

Other than that, not much is going on. It's too cold and nasty for anything else.

Jerry