Chores and Projects Galore

 Reality hit when we returned home and summer was gone.  With the yard and garden and a shop to heat, autumn brings lots of work to do.  As if that wasn't enough, we'd both come up with other goals and projects we wanted to do at the same time!  So, we made a little To Do list on the marker board - trying to keep each item to one word.

 First, the pad.  This was the beginning of Andy's big fall project and had to be done before night temps dropped below freezing.  My coworker, Ron, came out with tools and helped Andy prep for and pour the concrete.  Then Andy's good friend, Nick, came out to help with framing.  Andy and I tackled the metal siding together, and Andy did the insulating by himself.

The result: a great little lean-to off the shop for the noisy air compressor!

Next on the list, the fruit.  Once it froze, it all had to be picked and the trees were loaded!  Andy and I picked a number of boxes before taking a few-day break.  Fortunately for us, we had some help to finish it up.  Can you pick out 3 people in the apple tree?

They'd be the fabulous Suzie, Bethers, and Marie!

Daisy, Cleo, and Jersey patrolled the base of the tree:

 The loot!

Andy had gone out twice to chop trees for heating the shop.  It was in heaps of rounds in the backyard and needed to be split and stacked.  We rented the hyrdraulic splitter again this year, and Susan, Andy, and I spent hours splitting the rounds into quarters and stacking them neatly.  It took way longer than last year!

 My personal project of the month was giving the house a little facelift.  The previous owners had a different taste than we do, but it was easier to just live with it while finishing school.  Finally, the time had come for a fresh look!  Susan committed 2 weekends and drove over to help.  Beth joined us the first weekend, and we spent it in the living room.
Before:

 Happy painter!

 Priming and applying the new color:

 

After!

 

 

Two weekends later, Suzie was back and we had a whole painting crew this time to tackle the master bed and bath.

Here's Before (lovely sky blue everywhere):

During:

 And, After!

 

 

Then, we had to put the fruit up.  Beth came out in the evening to join in on that time-consuming task.

 

I must say, I don't know what we'd do without my sisters around.  They're almost too willing to help us stay on top of the chores and projects we signed ourselves up for!  Thanks ya'll :)

So, what about that last item on the list?  Well, Andy got all that stuff packed up and headed north.

Stay tuned for the rest of the story...