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Well this memorial day will be one that we will remember for a while. No real building this weekend instead we had a yard sale in the rain not too profitable but we did make a little cash. During our yard sale we found a lost Maine Coon kitty and he will be our house guest until his vet opens on Tuesday. He is very sweet and unfortunately has been completely declawed. Oh to his defenselessness is why he is our house guest to protect him from the neighborhood kittys.

Well on to the big news of the weekend (other then Jane’s ribs last night), We have a new member of the family. Miss Savannah has arrived from her home in Wilmington. She is 100% Maine Coon and the sweetest cat we have ever had. She even tolerates the boys, and their non-gentle affection.

This weekend the weather is going to be great. We have to go grocery shopping today, which means a trip to Greenville but other then that it will be siding installation for us today. The boy’s slept extra late today which was nice, when I say late I mean 8:00am. So we’ll see what kind of building trouble we can get into today.

Today is Mother’s day, which is both bittersweet and fun for me. See I have my wife as a mom, and her mom, so I do get to have some fun. On the other hand I lost my mom in 1997 before I was married and before I had my boys. She would have loved to known them and watch them grow. My wife is a great mom to the busy builders. She gets to stay at home and nurture them and watch them grow. So last night we had a nice quiet dinner out and today she gets to sleep in. That’s what she asked for, I tried to get the boys and go get her presents but she said no. Later today we will take the boy’s over to her mom’s (AKA. nana) and let them spend some quality play time with Nana. they got the pleasure of putting them to bed last night, but I thought they might like some play time.

So to all the mom’s in my life Happy Mother’s day.

Well we are trying to keep with the going green theme, we have done the compact fluorescent light bulbs, built our own recycling can so that we don’t forget to recycle just because we have to carry it outside, we have adjusted our thermostat 2 to 3 degrees for the season, we are growing a garden and we are trying to lower our carbon foot print by driving less until we can get a better family car for the environment. Well for me I wanted to do more, a few weeks ago I posted about a rain barrel project that the city should do for the environment and an increase in revenue. Well if I’m going to propose it I thought I better go out and get one so that I can say “hey I did it and these are my results”.

So while getting our garden mulch at Lowe’s, Jane said why don’t you get a rain barrel so we don’t have to pay to water the garden. Secretly she just wanted the gutters put back up and she knew I would do it right away if i had a cool use for it. We bought the Fiskars rainwater collection system 52 gallon barrel. More information is available here.

So yesterday we put the gutters back up with some changes so that they all flow into the single downspout to be collected by the rain barrel. I will be collecting rainwater from aproximately350 - 400 sq ft of roof in to my 1st rain barrel. it should take less then .50 and inch of rain to fill my 52 gallon rain barrel. Installation was easy and if I was installing it only and not putting my gutters back up at the same time it would have been a 20 minute process. The directions were easy to follow.

Here is a picture of the fininshed product.

We are going to be getting some rain tonight I will let you know if we fill it up or not.

Update:

It took about an hour’s worth of steady rain to collect 52 gallons of water.

Well Fred has finally gotten the siding removal project underway which means I get wood siding for the playhouse. The boys and i got to start putting the siding on the front of the playhouse today.

Pictures coming soon.

FYI- playhouse doors and 3 year olds don’t mix. Jane had to remove the door a couple weeks ago because my oldest troublemaker liked to close the dog and his brother in the playhouse. So the end result was the loss of the door.

Well after a few “yucky” weekends the weather has turned beautiful and sunny. The boys and I got to do a fun project yesterday. My mother in law’s deck only had a railing around it so we were constantly having to watch the boys to keep them from falling 6 feet and goto the ER. Well she managed to salvage 30 1×1’s that we could use for the railing to keep boys and Jack Russell’s from going over the edge. So in trade for building the slats and mounting them Jane and I get a night out without kiddo’s and having to put them to sleep first.

Dad Hard at Work Before After

Of course i had my helpers who played and helped so hard that nobody made it thru the bedtime stories. Thanks ma.

For more pictures and information click here.