Gotta Make Me One of These!

Yesterday we met Matt and Tasha at a cornmaze near Jasper, GA. They were much more reasonable on price than larger cornmazes we've visited, so on a whim I decided to buy us each a turn on the corn cannon...

What fun! You drop a cob of dried corn down the barrel of the cannon (for all the world like a mortarman in an old WWII movie or the old tv show "Combat!") Then you hit the switch, and a blast of compressed air shoots the cob about 150 feet into the air.

I came the closest to hitting the target, I think! But later, the guy running the show changed to a smaller bore, and the thing started shooting about twice as high in the air.

Don't know what I'd do with a corn cannon, but it sure was fun!

Finished up!

Saturday Debbie and I finished up her building. She really helped me with the times it was simply essential to have a 3rd hand! And she got her share of blood blisters and minor cuts, too. But the building is up, looking fine, and already has a lot of stuff stored in it. Now I just have to put on the 'tie-down' kit to keep it from flying away in a wind (not that I seriously think it would--I built the building on a foundation of 6x6 treated beams!

Sunday was another thing 'finished up.' Our church paid off an 11-year indebtedness that started off at a half-million dollars. Even after I came as pastor in January 2007, we still owed nearly $100k. But thanks to generous donations, the debt was paid, we burned the note (and all those pink shreds from the promotional posters) and we all had a great potluck lunch after worship.

Another thing that looks to be finished up is the stock market...I calculated that the losses to my retirement fund roughly equal my entire earnings for the 1 & 1/2 years I've been pastor at this church. So any 'early retirement' plans are probably on indefinite hold. Seems like the last time we had a dip (collapse?) like this, it took 7-10 years for the market to recover. Hope it won't this time...but I'm afraid it may take even longer. Pity the poor builders, carpenters, etc. who will be out of work until the 'existing inventory' of foreclosed homes gets sold.

Building together

This summer, I've been building a combination storage building/shop down in the woods behind the house. Unfortunately, I have only completed the foundation and floor of it. So Debbie got impatient, and insisted that we get a much smaller metal storage building for her to put 'her' outdoor stuff in.

We managed to find a good kit for an 8x10 metal building at Lowe's, and they had a floor system thrown in for free. However, after looking at the floor system, I decided that we needed to build the building raised off the ground, which entailed cutting up some 6x6 treated posts that I had left from my own building, setting them up, and installing some 2x6 treated lumber under the floor system. Then I had to put some chipboard on top of the flooring...so with all that, it took up most of the day yesterday.

When Debbie got home, we started working together on the building. I have an occupational disease of do-it-yourselfers: I assume that my helper can read my mind. Since Debbie's not too experienced with outdoor work, running electric screw guns/drills, etc, it was interesting. I managed to cause her to get a really bad blood blister on her finger, but she was indispensable in getting up the siding on the building. Some of the kit just could not have been done by one person.

We finished all the framing and side parts, but before I could get the roof on, I had to go to a church meeting last night. Today it's raining, and it's forecast to continue through tomorrow, so I don't know when I will be able to finish this thing up.

Debbie's remark was, "It only took us 35 years to get to the place we could work together!"