Blueberry Hill

Mom and I visited Leo and Kristen this weekend at their new home. It is in a rural area of Pennsylvania in the northern Poconos. The dirt road isn't on most maps. Google can't find it. Mapquest locates it, not quite correctly, but pretty close. I was concerned that they were going to be living amongst moonshiners and crackers, but was very pleasantly surprised to find that all of the houses in their area are quite nice. Their house is very nice and is much larger than it appears when it is first approached. There is a good size porch on the front and a large deck on the rear. There is an enormous lower level that is already divided into a room to be used for computer / office, an entertainment room with a nice bar built in, an exercise room, a room that was to be a home theater, a large furnace room and a large workshop with built in workbench with two double doors opening to a driveway outside. I'll post some pictures when I figure out how. There is a hill behind the house that starts out with lawn, then low shrubs and then trees and shrub. Exploring the hill I found that the shrubs were mostly low bush blueberries. I partook of one and found it edible, the news of which prompted Mom to appear with a plastic container to collect them.

It is incredibly quiet there. Hardly a human sound can be heard. We sat on the front porch in the evening and listened to a couple of wild turkeys calling. The tom frequented their backyard and we even saw him pursuing the hen, although she seemed to be uninterested. We heard a fawn calling for its mother and Kristen professed to hear the deer walking in the woods. Although Mom, Kristen and Leo all reported seeing deer on the hill, I saw only one. I did see many in other places on our visit. I got up in the middle of the night to use the rest room and decided to have a look outside. The stars were astounding. There was no ground light, only pitch black as a backdrop. We wish Kristen and Leo the very best in their new home and hope that their family has many years of happiness on Blueberry Hill.  [You can view some pictures of Leo and Kristen's new home at www.flickr.com/wvkol ]

The Great American Shelving Adventure (Part 6)

My Goodness! It has been a long time since I have written anything here. Much is going on. A new roof is being installed on our house, Leo and Kristen are moving (tomorrow in fact), Pippi has finished elementary school (congratulations) and I have started on the last phase of the Great American Shelving Adventure. This part consists of building the toy box of secrets. I can't say anymore otherwise it wouldn't be a secret. I have doped out a plan and cut the wood. Now I must plan some more before starting assembly. I tend to build things with only a sketchy plan and then build as I go. Sometimes that works. Once in a while I forget something along the way and I have to re-construct as  I go. Anyway, this box is turning out to be a lot bigger than I expected. Oh well, it has to hold a lot of treasures. Maybe I can post a picture when it is finished, if I can still remember how. No, I can't post pictures during construction - the box has secrets. 

The Great American Shelving Adventure (Part 5)

Tonight I put the second and I hope final coat of polyurethane on Harry's desk top. I have committed to deliver and install all pieces and parts tomorrow. Well, of course, not the storage box which I haven't even started yet. That will be the next thing to do. I glad I'm going to start working four days a week beginning May 5th, so I have the time to do all of these things. I may even get the time to post some more stuff on my own blog here.

The Great American Shelving Adventure (Part 4)

Everyone now seems to have a blog and when I read them, I feel compelled to leave a comment, or at least think about leaving a comment and that takes a lot of time. I hardly have time to add to my own blog. Besides, with the great shelving adventure, I have to actually do something with the shelving before I can add anything onto my blog about it, which takes more time. Anyway, I now have a coat of stain on both sides of Harry's desk. I filled in a rough spot on the back edge and went over the whole top with OO steel wool (OO is very fine). Now I have to decide if I want to add another layer of stain. It looks pretty good the way it is, but it may not be quite deep enough in color. I'll have to see how I feel about it tomorrow.

There are only two weeks to go before I will start working four days a week. I have mixed emotions about this plan. I think it is a good way to transition into retirement, but I need a plan for this plan. I just can't hang around every Monday like it's a vacation day, can I? I'll need to do something, but I don't want to just work either. If I'm going to work, I might as well go to work and get paid. No one will pay me to work around the house. The whole point, of course, is that I don't want to work any more. If you count summer jobs, I've worked about 50 years. I think you ought to be able to stop at some point if you want to. But will I need money? Will I be able to continue to live in New Jersey? It's a puzzlement.

The Great American Shelving Adventure (Part 3)

The shelves are now stained with the very able help of Harry who enjoyed himself thoroughly. In the interest of saving time, I applied a coat of satin polyurethane by myself and the shelves are ready for installation. The desk part of all of this is 3/4" birch plywood. I rounded the two front corners (I dislike sharp corners on things that stick out in kids' rooms) and applied birch edging. The edging is pre glued and is put on with the use of an iron set to "cotton." The instructions warn to use a piece of foil to protect the bottom of the iron, but I found that I couldn't hold the edging even while manipulating the foil and the iron, so I skipped the foil. No harm befell the iron. I must now fill a couple of very small defects near the edge of the plywood and sand the top edge ever so slightly to put a small bevel along the entire top. Another option would be to use a router, but that seems too aggressive for this project. I'm sure that Norm Abrams would do so, however, I think hand sanding is the answer here. After the sanding is done and the edge satisfactory, stain and polyurethane will be applied. I think that Harry may want to help with the staining.

By the way, for the benefit of Uncle Pete, who is singlehandedly battling gangs and trying to keep order in Haiti, "Harry" is really Stephen.

The Door (Part 2)

I got the door assembled at home and transported it to Basking Ridge where it was then installed. When Timmy saw me with my tools, he quickly got his own tool box and carried it into the kitchen commenting, "This is heavy." Both Timmy and Bridget watched me carefully and provided helpful assistance by handing me nails as needed and by asking many question along with showing me that they had toy tools similar to mine. The installation went smoothly. I now must finish off the top, install catches and make a smooth transition to the top closet shelf.

 

While this is going on, I must continue with the Great Shelving Adventure, but cutting the wood to proper length, sanding and having Harry help me apply stain.

The Door

I have been working on Teddy and Patti's door for their closet and hope to be able to deliver and install it this Saturday. So far things have gone well. I am putting a poly stain on it and I'm finding it tough to spot little runs of varnish which show up quite plainly the next day after it is dry. I am building a frame from measurements that I took at their house, so I'm keeping my fingers crossed that everything fits ok. If it doesn't quite fit like I hope, Timmy got some tools for Christmas, I think and maybe he can help me fix it. Then we will proceed to Harry's shelving. I didn't buy the stain for that yet because I want to give Harry a few samples from which to choose. Maybe that's making things more complicated, but it's his room and I want him to be happy when it is all done.