Cousins Construction Recap

I know, I know,   It’s been a long, long time but I have been very busy and, unlike my younger cousins, I cannot work 10 and 12-hour days.

 

That was Gatorade they were drinking.

You’ve probably forgotten, but my cousins came from Wyoming and Montana to replace three sets of exterior stairs.    If you haven’t forgotten, then you’re probably wondering if they managed to accomplish that or if I have to use a ladder to get onto my decks.

They started with this one that collapsed from rotting wood and heavy snow load.

This one would be next.  Rotten treads and cracked stringers.

 

Have no fear; the cousins are here.   

 

Bud is five months younger than me and I’m 82.   His brother Bob is five years  younger.   Just a whippersnapper so he got to handle the enormous circular saw that my neighbor brought over for the project.   Besides that, he’s a journeyman carpenter.   His second career.

 

Bud is a jack of all trades and master of several.   Until he retired and sold his business, he dealt primarily in heating and cooling and sheet metal.   He’s remodeled his own place and worked on others.   Right now he has a huge garage/shop project going as well as helping his daughter add-on and remodel her new house.

 

Anyway, back to the stair story.

 

The first item on the list of lumber I bought should tell you everything, but I’ll tell you anyway because that’s what I do—I tell stories.

 

First item:   12 ea. 4x12x12.   

 

In lumber-ese, that means I bought 12 pieces of lumber and they were 4 inches by 12 inches by 12 feet.  That’s all the material it took to replace the two sets of rotten stairs to my decks.   

 

Oh, and a bunch of “L” brackets and a bushel of screws.

The green marked lumber is for my two sets od deck stairs.

The red treated lumber is for exterior stairs to the second floor of another building on my property where my friend Julie lives.

 

We no sooner arrived at my place after I picked them up at the airport in Anchorage than Bob wandered outside without saying anything.   Bud and I were talking and noticed that Bob was missing.

 

Right then we heard a crash and found Bob well into demolishing the first set of stairs.  The heavy snow load this past winter caused the rotting stringers to break lengthwise and down went most of the steps.

 

Bud got into the act and soon the area was littered with rotting wood.

 

 

And that was that for the first night.   A couple hours and the site was ready for the next step.

Update. Proof of Life Post

 Unbelievably, The Cousins finished three sets of exterior stairs in only 5-1/2 days.  That left three days for us to play tourist!

They returned home Monday and now I am ready to put the first coat of stain on my deck stairs.  They are sanded, swept, and masked and I'm stalling around writing this.

Julie got right to staining her new stairs and they look fab.

Photos and words when I have some time.  Lots of chores to catch up on first.

In the words of you-know-who, I'll be back!

CAUTION! MEN AT WORK

COUSINS CONSTRUCTION CREW

DAYS ONE AND TWO

   

 The old codgers are dragging this morning.   They, my cousins Bud and Bob, are here at my house building three sets of exterior stairs and they are stiff and sore from handling 4x12x12 foot lumber.

 

With the lumber well-advanced in the aging process, this set couldn't handle the deep snow load this past winter.

Even though still standing, the other set of stairs was in worse condition, they guys said.

Bud, left, and Bob carry a 4x12x10' stringer.

    Bud, from Wyoming, is 82, five months younger than me, and Bob, from Montana, is five years younger.

 

    I picked them up at the airport in Anchorage Friday noonish, took them right to the lumber store where we bought a bunch of fasteners for the project.   My neighbor Bruce Jaffa had already picked up my lumber order the week before and the trailer was parked in my yard, close to where the two stair sets are located.

All the lumber we need, I hope.

 

    I bought them lunch and we drove to Moose Pass.   Darned if they didn’t get started almost right away and worked several hours that first evening, well past their Mountain time zone bedtime.   Demo of one collapsed set took less than a half hour, and then they started laying out the stringers—4x12x10 foot each.

Demo complete and stringers laid out.

 

    Even with a delay caused by no one having a peculiar bit for the several dozens of weird 8” screws we bought, and a rain delay as a thunderstorm passed over, the first set of stairs was almost complete and useable by quitting time, which was very late.   They even got stringers laid out for the second set while I drove to Seward and got different screws that took a normal drill bit pattern.  They are doingthe finishing touches this morning.

Bob uses a monster saw on the timbers.

Corporate meeting to discuss design and the lack of union wages.

SO that's how they get screws into the underside of the bottom two treads.

 

Getting things into position.

The first trial.

Almost complete.

    But, as I said, Cousins Construction Crew is dragging today.    At breakfast we talked about how difficult it was for employers to find employees  these days and even more how rare it was to get kids to show up and on time.

 

    Then these two old men didn’t even get started today until 8:30!    Meanwhile, I need a nap.

How We Roll with the Nome Journals

 There is no way on earth that I will be able to write the Nome Journals while they are still fresh in my mind.    Friday I will pick up two of my cousins at the airport in Anchorage.   They are coming to rebuild three sets of exterior stairs at my house.

Lest you get the idea they are a couple strapping young lads, Bud is five months younger than me and I'm 82.   Bob is five years younger.   I will be very busy for the ten days that they are here, helping, make design decisions, writing change orders, getting in the way, and feeding and watering.

But I have a lot of photos to show you and stories to tell, so that's what I'm going to do--in no particular order.

So, my birding friend Leilani, with whom eI have taken a lot of photography trips to photograph birds and whatever else got in your way, suggested we go to Nome this year rather than the Denali highway as we usually do.   I agreed.

A Willow ptarmigan on a roadside snowbank.

Nome in the spring is a bird paradise.   Both birders and bird photographers head there from mid-May thru late June to catch the migrating birds.   For some species, it's the only place you can see them.

We were joined by my pals Marg Wood and Shelly Kurtz from Canada, both excellent photographers.

So here's a quick story from the last day of the trip.   Remember, I promised stories but not in chronological order.

  GET OUT OF JAIL, NOW!

It's our last morning in Nome and we're heading out of town when we spot a number of people pointing binoculars and cameras at some trees on our left. Leilani Devries pulls our car into the parking lot and a kind gentleman graciously points out a nesting Northern Shrike in one tree and the male close by in another.

We're happily clicking away, exchanging bird location info, and about to finish up when a burly uniformed man approaches and says, rather politely, "Sorry, but we can't have you here."

We had unknowingly parked in the parking lot of a medium-security prison. "Sorry, we didn't notice," we say and get in the vehicles.

"How can you NOT notice?" he asks, a look of stupefaction on his face. When I look at the nearby building, it is obvious that it's a correctional facility.

"People, binoculars, cameras," we respond. "That means birds!" He's still shaking his head and smiling as we drive away.

Scenery

Coming Soon to a Tundra Near You

 

Hey, there!   Just a note to say "Hi" and to let you know I am still here.   Busy, busy, busy, but still here.

If and when I get the time, I will start posting the 2024 Nome Journals.

It followed me home.   Can I keep it?

As soon as I get my transportation running, I'll be back.

For now and for the WOW factor:!

Memorial Day 2024

 

Have a safe Memorial Day weekend.

Revealing the Truth

 Will the real boss of Tern Lake please stand up?

And there you have it, Ladies and Gentlemen.   The real boss of tern lake is not the river otter, nor the red-necked grebes, though they try.  

It is none other than the Trumpeter swan cob (male).   The female is called a pen.