Weather Not Wasted!

It is done! The deck project that has been put on hold for motorcycle riding priority and cooler weather is now complete. D finished up the last of the lighting last evening and now we can officially enjoy the fruits of his labors (mine too, for what it was worth!). The lighting looks much better "in person" but you get the idea.
Another project completed was this goofy little zipper bag I made to match the Chocolate Lollipop bag I made B a few weeks ago. I used this wonderful tutorial I found on Thimbleanna's blog. There will probably be more of these made in the future. Also in the finished column is the Halloween table topper. Other crafty things of note - a knitting refresher course courtesy of a friend met at aerobics class. I'm note sure how much knitting I will do because I'm not sure if I really need another hobby! But I appreciate her help and it was fun getting together with the other novice knitters.

The weather here in Southern Indiana has been beautiful this past week and weekend. Of course we had to get out on the bike and enjoy the best riding conditions of the year. The cool mornings, cloudless skies and warm afternoons can not be wasted!

Saturday we recruited M and R for a road trip to Glendale, KY. We enjoyed a nice lunch at the Whistlestop Restaurant and then some shopping at the cute little shops. R and I posed with one of the guys - no wait that's a scarecrow!

Comfortable seating for waiting husbands makes them happy and shopping soooo much more pleasant!
I love fall and all the decorations put out on display by the merchants!
A few weeks ago we joined one of the local H.O.G. chapters. Today was the first time we had gone on one of their regular rides. We rode almost 200 miles total as we wound our way to Rough River Lake lodge for lunch and back. There were 22 bikes with about 30 or so riders and spouses. We had a great time getting to know some of the members and riding some new, for us, roads.
This is the pretty view off the deck of the Lodge restaurant. Lunch was a buffet with locally raised catfish, fried chicken, turkey and roast beef and all the trimmings. We did NOT go away hungry!Tonight we made one last ice cream run to Chillers. We had lots of company as it was the last day of business for them until next Spring. It's not so hard to give up summer when you've got such a beautiful fall day to enjoy! I hope you were able to enjoy your weekend!

Sometimes You Have to Stay Home

Some weekends, we just need to stay home. Even though the Harley sat in the garage calling out to us, we devoted the last couple of days to a little (well, maybe not so little!) home improvement project.

Our deck was in need of serious help. Even though it's not that old, it was apparent that the upkeep (that should have been kept!) was going to become more intense every year. "Deck?" you say. "Aren't they supposed to be working on the kitchen? What's up with that?" Yes, the kitchen is still in the works. The cabinets are stacking up in a corner of the basement. But we knew that if we were going to work on the deck, we need to take adavantage of some of the cool, pleasant spring weather we've been having.

Here's a couple of before photos. The wooden balusters have been removed and stacked on the wavy, blotchy deck flooring.

Here's the master carpenter at work. We are using a composite decking material from Weatherbest. It could have been screwed down to the original floor joists, but D chose to use his biscuit jointer to make slots for these special fastening clips. They draw the floor boards together and to the joists without the look of dozens of screw holes across the floor. As each old deck board was removed, my job was to remove the nails and stack under the deck. Hopefully, we can find someone to give them a new home.

After two days of un-accustomed physical labor, we had the floor replaced. On the second day, he actually trusted me with the screw gun and allowed me to do more than remove nails and be "gofer". We've still got lots of work to do but we did accomplish a lot today! The new posts are in place but I've got to find more of the cute little lights before we can finish up the railing. You can barely make out the light on the second post from the left. I forgot to take a final photo of the day until right before I sat down to blog! It's pretty dark out there right now. We'll also enclose underneath the deck and replace the stairs. D might be a little stiff and sore tomorrow after using some muscles he'd forgotten about. But he's not forgotten his construction heritage or skills. He probably wouldn't admit it, but I think he actually enjoyed this stage of the project. There's still a lot to do though, and hopefully it won't take us all summer. After all, there's still the kitchen!