Eat, Sleep, Breathe.....Cars

As you all know, buying, building, storing, fixing, modifying, and showing cars is a bigtime hobby of Andy's, and now mine. This weekend has been full of busy summer days and nights doing most of the above. Friday, we only worked half a day and then spent the afternoon putting the Buick back together and washing her up for two car shows that were on the schedule for Saturday. Around dinner time, we heard from a friend and fellow car club member who needed some help rebuilding the rear suspension on his car and repairing the brake system...all to be done before Saturday's shows. So, we took the Buick for a test drive to his house and worked all night in the shop, running into some problems, but fixing them as we went. If you look close at this picture, you can probably see the millions of mosquitoes swarming around. Swatting them was a job in itself!As you can see, the job got done (using some wee hours of the morning) and we hit the road to the first car show. It's always a good time to travel caravan-style in our cars - people are so much more friendly! We drove down Main Street in Moscow during the Farmer's Market, and market-goers were waving, clapping, giving thumbs-up and taking pictures!
The first show was a small one for "exotic and unique cars." This was the first year it was put on, so we weren't sure what to expect. It turned out to be a pretty cool show, with lots of variety. We parked our traditional hot rods right next to an almost-new Porsche and across from a Smart Car. It was fun to be able to learn about other rare cars, that aren't so old!
The second show is actually a 4-day event that we just showed up to for one afternoon/evening. It's more of a motorcycle show, but there were a few cars there as well. It was held out in the hills near Steptoe, WA on acres of grass and trees....and some scrap piles.
Our friend Buddy, found this treasure atop one of the scrap piles and had a great time riding it down the hills. There is never a dull moment when he's around!As if Friday and Saturday weren't enough, Andy can now be found out in the shop working on his latest project - the Dodge pickup mentioned a few months ago. He is currently welding on some engine mounts. Tranny mounts come next, and then he can move on to the rear suspension. This project is really coming along!

Father's Day Fun

After all the hard work, we took off to Sun-Up Bay to spend time with Andy's dad.
I'm not sure he bargained to suddenly have 4 daughters for Father's Day :), but I know we enjoyed our time with him - going to a car show, playing games, enjoying the sun and the lake.
You can see more pictures on Susan's blog: http://csduckfans.blogspot.com/2008/06/weekend-with-sisters.html

The Car d'Alene on Saturday was my sisters' first car show, and they really had a good time finding cars that suited them to pose by for pictures (Marie - an old cop car; Susan - Suzee Q license plate; Beth - Lucky 13). One guy even let them sit in his car for a picture!
The next morning, the boys went out fishing (a long-standing tradition), and my sisters and I went for a short hike before they had to head back home. I don't have pictures of that adventure because Andy had the camera to record the fishing trip, and it's a good thing he did! He caught a very good-sized largemouth bass, which he (and Don) proudly posed with before throwing back to get even bigger.

Barefoot Gardeners

Just thought I'd share some fun pictures of the weekend of gardening and pergola-building.
While Andy was hard at work putting all the pieces of the pergola together, Susan, Beth and I were busy pulling weeds in the garden and many flower beds....

....and taking breaks to do cartwheels.....
....and compare our dirty bare feet :)

Home Improvement

With the summer comin' and goin' from day to day, we weren't sure if we would ever complete the house project we had in mind. We bought the wood months ago from Home Depot with a very practical wedding gift card, and hauled it up from Clarkston a couple of weeks ago. Sanding and painting began last Thursday with lots of help from Beth.

That weekend, the weather cooperated and we got the first stages of the pergola into place, and started sanding and painting the second layer. After a very lonnnng day and late night - Andy made milkshakes for us and even brought one out to the shop for me so I could have a refreshing break from sanding the endless 2x2's.
The main supports and the first layer - done and looking fine at the end of the day.
We've been priming and painting 2x2's almost every night this week, while it's been raining and even snowing outside! And then today came - with absolutely perfect weather! Susan came over from Portland for a 3-day weekend, I took the day off, and Beth and Andy worked half days. Andy spent his afternoon finishing the pergola while my sisters and I pulled wheelbarrow after wheelbarrow of weeds from the garden and flower beds. We'll be sore tomorrow for sure - a little from sunburn and a lot from pulling stubborn weeds and climbing ladders, but it was such a satisfying day! (and we're relaxing tomorrow at Coeur d'Alene lake :)