On the 4th we removed the roof from the boat. We tied flags and other patriotic and festive looking things to the railings. We donned our American tee shirts, took up more small flags for waving, and joined the flotilla to town to watch the city’s fireworks display.

Woohoo!

Happy Birthday America!

One of the things I had to fix during the kitchen renovation (see August 2007 through January 2008) was a big water stain on the ceiling. There had obviously been a leak sometime in the past, but the roof had been replaced. The spring of 2007 was one of the wettest we had ever seen, but with all that rain, we had no leaks. I determined that the problem was history and that the ceiling had simply never been repaired. I cut away the stained and damaged sheetrock and used the hole for access into the attic. After rerouting wiring and adding support for the cabinets, I patched and painted the ceiling.

Well, I guess a new leak had developed because rain came through the ceiling of the kitchen during three separate storms in the spring of 2009.

After each storm I attempted patching the roof. The first two were done with roofing cement. My latest attempt included the addition of rolled roofing material and a liberal application of more roofing cement.

On the 12th we painted the propane tank (see November 2008). It was relatively easy to scrape away the unidentifiable gunk that was smeared across one end. The whole thing cleaned up nicely. We applied a coat of red, oil based primer in the morning, a coat of white semi-gloss in the evening, and a second coat the next day. Much better.

The lake had been at least a foot below its historic “normal” level since shortly after we moved here. Then in late June, for reasons inexplicable, the folks in control of the water started allowing it to drop. It plummeted daily until our boat would no longer float in the slip. We, and many of our neighbors, were unable to go boating.

I took advantage of the situation and built the water access steps my wife had requested. I set the handrails stationary, but the steps themselves were hinged. This would allow them to be raised up out of the water when not in use for extended periods, thereby preventing moss and other slippery lake water stuff from collecting. Of course, until the lake refills it's pointless.

From the early days of our time here, I had planned to build a low wall along the east edge of the driveway. This, coupled with a set of steps that would create a slightly elevated route between the end of the existing wall and the crepe myrtle, would allow the yard to be built up, thereby diverting the runoff along the side of the house instead of across the patio (see March 2007).

I knew this would be a big project and had been putting it off. On the 23rd, one of my daughters, my middle child, talked me into starting it. She said she would help. She arrived bright and early on Friday, ready to get to work.

Having eliminated several trees and having cleared away the bulk of the undergrowth, our need for a large burn pit had passed (see July 2007 and March 2008). We determined that we could dismantle and move the burn pit wall and reassemble it along the driveway. We took a few measurements and started digging.

We prepared the ditch, over-cutting it by three inches. To give ourselves a true and solid surface to work with, we mixed concrete and poured back those inches.

The next morning, we started moving the wall. It was heavy and fitting all the pieces back together proved tedious. Miraculously, by the end of the day we had most of it done.

We continued on the third day and eventually completed the rock work. We installed a sub-surface drain pipe along the base of the wall, covered it with small diameter rock, then backfilled the ditch.

While not completely finished, we had reached our goal of getting everything stable, but later in the day, with the promise of rain, I opted to do further grading. I simultaneously knocked down the spoils of our ditch while starting on the contouring of the yard, and built a temporary dam around the future stepped path.