On the one hand, I think that I believe that retirement is good, but on the other, I seem to be stuck in time. Each day passes with nothing being accomplished. The smallest aberration derails whatever detailed plans I had formulated. Perhaps I should adopt the motto: Carpe Diem! (Seize the day!) At any rate, I have not added to these pages in two months, mainly because nothing seemingly noteworthy has occurred. Perhaps a more accurate description would be that I failed to take any photos. I plan to be more prolific in the future, even if I have to stoop to a discussion of the rate of fingernail growth in senescing males...

The class (entitled Physical Geology) that AJ and I took together has ended, and to my delight, AJ got the requisite "A." I found the class both interesting and informative. In addition to interacting with AJ, my motivation for this class was to gain information about the rocks that we cut and polish in our little lapidary shop. What I learned is that most of them (jasper, petrified wood, tiger eye, and the various agates) are just slightly polluted quartz... Learning the current theories about how the Earth came into being and morphed into it's current state was also interesting. In fact, I came away with a desire to take the next class, Historical Geology, which deals with the coming and going of the various life forms the Earth has hosted. After consideration, the 80 mile round trip to attend each class argued successfully against that option. I opted instead to buy the text for the class, only to be deterred by the $157.50 price tag. In the end, I found an obsolete edition of a comparable textbook and purchased it for $3.99, in the hope that the 4.5 billion year history of the Earth hasn't change significantly in the 5 years since the book was published.

Recently I was strolling through Sam's Club and noted frozen dinner rolls, designed to go straight from the freezer to the oven. Given my affinity for fresh, hot bread, I placed a package in my cart. Then my miserly nature asserted itself, and I thought, "I can make that." So... I tried it, and was well pleased with the results. Simply make dinner rolls, processing them as you normally would, to the point where they are ready to go in the oven. Then put them in the freezer instead. The next day (or when they are frozen solid) transfer them to an airtight container (or bag) in the freezer. To serve, bake in a hot oven (425°F) for 15 minutes, or until done (caveat included because of suspicion that my oven's thermostat is not accurate). If you are into convenience foods, give them a try...

These look like biscuits, because I rolled them out and cut them with a cookie cutter, but they are yeast dough. The shape is not critical, but if they are too thick, heat transfer problems may mandate the use of lower temperatures and longer times during baking.

Much to our surprise, Nathen, AJ, and their families showed up at our house one day with a load of lumber and announced they were going to help me complete my shed. My plans to house a metal lathe and a mill in that shed required two substantial cement slabs. The next day, AJ borrowed some more equipment from his work. The cement mixer he brought ended up being non-functional, so I reluctantly purchased one from Harbor Freight. That was probably a mistake, because now that I have the means to change it, the dirt floor in the rest of the shed looks less and less appealing.

We poured the cement in 4' by 6' pieces. The first was too wet, and we were able to still work it the next day.

We erected the walls before pouring the second slab.

Persuading the new walls to conform to the existing ones required a bit of ingenuity along with judicious application of a sledge hammer.

Barbara wanted a door installed on the north side of the building, so there will be two doors, 3' 6" each.

Seeing people on unstable ladders is a bit disconcerting. We had one ladder collapse into a twisted heap, but fortunately no injuries were sustained.

In erecting the walls, we followed the existing foundation. The result is that nothing is straight or square. But hey! It's just a shed!

Still, I have enough of my mother in me that caddywhompus and I are not good friends...

Kyle functioned as our supervisor.

And like most good supervisors, He was hard to find when you needed him...

Much to AJ's delight, we were able to make his engine driven welder function. I think he even wanted to take it home and hang it from the ceiling of his apartment. Brittany, however, had other ideas... It obviously takes a special mind to grasp the nuances of interior decorating.

Setting the joists in place was both easier and harder than on the first half of the roof.

These were fabricated from 1/2 inch rebar instead of 5/8 inch Thus they were lighter, but also flexed much easier.

I think welding to stabilize the joists was the favorite of the younger set.

Struggling is good...

Backlighting gives nice black and white images even with a color CCW camera. Barbara is experimenting with different settings. She took the majority of the photos in this communiqué.

The open structure of the joists make a convenient storage space, but I need to consider the weight of stored items. To this point, I don't have a convenient algorithm to decide when enough is enough...

We used 1/2 inch angle iron perpendicular to the joists to support the roof sheeting. I was not comfortable trying to install them working from a ladder, so I built temporary scaffolding.

On the first use, the scaffolding collapsed in the middle. But with a jack and enough timbers, you can salvaged anything. Note from Barbara: Does the term Mickey Mouse come to mind? Once again, Alan and I want to express our love and thanks to our kids and grandkids for all the help, and supplies, with this project. Our extra thanks to AJ (& Brittney) for his help and assistance in acquiring more fencing, pipe, and corrugated siding (for free), from a job in Catalina. He was working on this job with his boss, friend, and neighbor, Ben. We loaded our truck twice and made two round trips with the materials that Alan and I were able to get because of AJ's thoughtfulness.

This is a view of the underside of the new roof...

...and this is what it looks like from the outside. We used self-tapping screws to secure the roof sheeting, and they installed quite easily. I hope they function as well as the bolts on the other half of the roof. They were certainly much less expensive.

I think I will wait until I finish pouring cement to hang the corrugated metal panels on the sides. So, as is the case with most of what I try to do, this is still a work in progress.

While Barbara and I stayed with their offspring, Nathen and Terra attended festivities in Phoenix. Upon returning, they described some interesting sounds, but that is their story... If Nathen and Terra enjoyed their entertainment as much as Barbara and I, it was well worth it.

Barbara brought a croquet set, and after a slow start, the kids got into blocking each other by hitting their opponents ball. After that, the winners enjoyed it, and the losers... well not so much.

Nathen brought his trailer, and I finally unburdened myself of the food my mother placed in storage in the 70's. I have been wanting to clear out that portion of the shed since we replaced the roof covering it. I think the number 10 cans numbered 109, and there were 45 gallons of dry packed wheat. In addition there were three or four cases of smaller cans. I'm sure not all of that food will be salvageable, but what is should go a long way toward raising a pig (assuming they can find one that lacks a discriminating palate). I thought it might be interesting to see what percentage of them germinate, so I asked Nathen to plant 100 wheat seeds from the oldest container. Results may be forthcoming.

This is my bud (big ugly dog). From being a cute puppy, he has grown into a 75 pound bundle of energy, who has decided to ignore the invisible fence we installed and at every opportunity takes his foamcl (face only mother could love) and runs off to terrorize the other dogs in the neighborhood. I don't know exactly what to do with him. Stay tuned for late breaking news...