Dirty work / raising the roof prep

Dirty Work:

I have been having a hard time with my back ever since we got back from Montana. The drive really messed with my back equilibrium and even the adjustment at the chiropractor hasn't really relieved it; I should probably go back sooner than my normal every three weeks. Because of this issue with my back I have been a little leery to do any real strenuous work with digging or lifting. I was really concerned I was going to bend over and pick up something small and blow another disc, like it happened last time. So I have spent a lot of the last couple weeks taking it easy, stretching, icing, laying flat on my back as much as possible to see if over a week it would loosen up enough for me to feel like it wasn't going to snap at any moment.

That didn't happen so I was out today shoveling dirt hoping that the work would loosen things up where taking it easy wasn't working. I seemed to do just fine except for being a little weak, or more like not as strong. The full wheelbarrows of dirt seemed to be so hard to handle today, at least at first.

What I got done today:

• the trench along the south side of the house for the lawn sprinklers got fully filled in
• the extra piles of dirt that had grass growing in them were moved to the front yard (about 5 loads in the wb)
• the area between the house and the cherry trees got graded down to about where it needs to be
• the trench on the south west side of the Family Room, that goes to the sprinkler valve box, was halfway filled in
• filled in part of the trench by the deck area where the drain connects into the downspout drain so that I didn't have to avoid the hole and dip there when running the wheelbarrow by that side
• the grass that was growing along the south planting beds that I didn't quite get with the sod cutter was removed that the ground along that whole area was dug down to make it more level with the rest of the lawn area.
• I started digging out for a second row of pavers in front of the shed so that the dirt doesn't spray up on the shed when it rains ( I need to power wash the shed walls to get the accumulated spray removed; the hose sprayer isn't strong enough to remove it and I don't want to have to scrub it.)

The trench is filled and the ground around it is mostly leveled out

This shows the area to the side of the house where I removed the pile of dirt that was there and graded it below the siding and away from the house toward the cherry trees. It really seems like I am going to need to remove a bunch of dirt from the lawn area to get the yard graded to the back fence. Not fun.

I used about half this pile of dirt that was left over from digging the dry wells. I should be able to use the rest of it in the trenches that are left and in the raised beds I will be putting in along the south side of the house and along the south fence.

It looks like a long list but really doesn't seem like that much sitting here thinking about what it feels like I accomplished. It was satisfying especially since I did all this after getting up at about 11:30am and getting out there about 12:30 with only about an hour and a half break at dinner time to eat, read and rest my back. I got up so late cuz I have been trying to finish a book, Isaac Asimov's Foundation series "Second Foundation". I went to bed last night, well this morning about 4am.

Raising the roof prep:

I ordered the roofing materials for doing the rest of the roof. It will be here on Wednesday and then I need to wait to make sure there is going to actually be a dry spell before starting to tear the roof off, re-sheet almost the whole front and side roofs and then put on the new tar paper, ice and water shield (in the valleys and on the hips), and shingles.

I hope they are able to get the shingles to the back side of the house. If it is the same boom loader flatbed that they delivered with last time it shouldn't be a problem. They were able to get to the ridge and seemed to have more extension left in the boom they used to move the pallets of shingles. I really hope I ordered enough.

I really need to find some help in getting this done since doing it myself will probably take me about 3 weeks. Dad is planning coming to help, as long as I can actually start the week after next and it doesn't end up later when he will be gone to his 50 Year High School Reunion trip. 

(I just realized I should take some ibuprofen so I keep the inflammation, after the work today, at a minimum. BRB)

I have such a hard time asking people to help me, especially since most of the people I would be asking are not going to be available during the week and that is when I would be able to get a lot of work done. I guess if I can get some help with the exhausting work of removing the old roof, shingles and sheeting, that would put me in a position to get the new sheeting down and tar paper on pretty quick. I really don't feel close to any of the people we know here and even though I know they would probably take the time to help if they were available, I have a hard time thinking they would be glad to help me.

The weather forcast keeps changing from 80s to 90s to partial rain to showers. I haven't checked it lately, sooo..... It still says that it is supposed to rain from next Saturday through the 4th, then get back up into the 80s by the 7th (where ther 15 day forecast ends). I will have to see how that changes over the next week and how the week after seems to be looking before I will know if I can start on the 5th or if I can possibly get some time start earlier.

Sam falling on his rocker

Aimee, Sam and I were in Sam's room talking about curtains for the Livingroom, since it is the only room in the house with the curtain rod still up. Anywho, Sam was playing around while we were talking and I all of a sudden realized that he was in his little rocker, backwards, knees to the back of the seat, rocking. I no sooner said, "Aimee! grab him, when he leaned completely into the back of the chair and went head first into the corner of the room where bookcase, toy chest and lamp are. He narrowly missed the toy chest, which in hindsight would have probably been better since it would have been earlier in the decent, and landed face first on the base of the lamp.



I hate those moments!!! There have been a couple really bad ones like this where I just can't react because it is mostly over by the time I even see it. I almost exhale a big sigh before I completely understand what is happening because subconsciously I have already identified that there is nothing I can do because I didn't see or recognize what was going on soon enough.

I take pride in seeing things coming and have, on more occasions than I have missed, caught Sam in mid stream before he actually got hurt; so my pride takes just as much of a bruising as Sam does when this happens.

It turns out that he was fine, even with the big, purple, swollen cheek he ended up with. Aimee took a lesson from the weekend we went to the beach where Sydney, one of the little girls who was part of the 5 families that went, took a dive off of an elevated bed face first. They put some what I can only describe as "bruise preventing" gel, because I don't remember what it is called, on it and it really reduced the black eye that Sydney had over the short weekend we were there. It worked the same for Sam and, even though I don't know what it would have been like without the gel, it sure seems like it could have been much worse than the slight discoloration, purplish, that he has under his left eye and on the ball of his cheek.

We did get Sam to let us put some ice on it for about 15 minutes so I am sure that helped with the swelling, but the swelling was gone for the most part before he went to bed. After the initial crying/screaming, he didn't even complain too much about touching it; although he did say it hurt to push on it. I didn't want to hurt him but, with as well as he was taking it, I did want to make sure he didn't have any fractures, which would have hurt to push on. We gave him ibuprofen to help with the swelling and some pain management, but he really hasn't needed anything since the day after he did it, which was probably more for our comfort than his. He was even hamming it up when we were trying to take pictures of it.



I guess it just proves how helpless we are as Parents to protect our kids from every hurt and how we must trust in God's provision and protection of them when we fail. He is one tough kid, though; he even took a nap after we did the ice and made sure his eyes were dilating. It totally amazed me how quickly he really recovered from it; I hope he is not getting used to it now.

Beating the heat...

Ha!!! After dealing with an extra hot house yesterday, I installed the window air conditioner in the Family Room last night and had a nice cool 73 degree house today. Then when the back of the house got way hot, especially in the office, I installed an old a/c unit that came with the house in the office and cooled all the bedrooms and the rest of the house down. Almost had to put more clothes on in the office when I had it cranked, before the rest of the rooms cooled off back here.

So Heat 1, John 1, but I think I am winning the rest.

The house was actually pretty cool the first two days of this heat, but it didn't cool down at night like it did the first night. It was still 75 degrees in the house yesterday morning. I figured since today was supposed to be even hotter, which it was at almost 100, I had better put them in and get it over with before we cook for too many days. It was hard to go to sleep the night it was in the upper 60s outside and hotter in the house; ended up sleeping through my alarm cuz I got to sleep so late and missed a office call I should have been on. Oh well.

Sam's idea of keeping cool was to have only his boots on and he started off with them on the wrong feet when he got them on all by himself initially.


We got through the hot days by having fun in the pool with Sam the first two nights it was hot. We didn't get the pool out until the early afternoon the first day so the water didn't warm up very much from the tap water (cold). Oh and I ended up smacking Sam in the face with the foot pump while I was blowing up the pool when he came up beside me when I thought Aimee had taken him into the other room. You can see the scrape/cut on his forehead, under his right eye, and evidently I also got him on the leg, which I didn't realize until tonight.

Well that day, Sam and I didn't really like getting in it for too long at a time since it was quite cold. I knew it was time to get out when Sam's teeth started chattering. The water level was up to his mid chest, so he was in it a lot more than I was and since he had a hard time walking around, he slipped a couple times and got dunked before I could react. He took it in stride but wanted to get out soon afterward cuz he was cold. The life jacket went on him after the first time he went completely under and he had to hack out some water when I picked him up. I figured it was the only option since the water was so deep that time.



The second day of heat we got the pool out a little earlier and I didn't fill it as much, so it was at mid-thigh on Sam. He had a lot easier time getting around and even though his legs were cold he stayed in a lot longer at a time. I even sat down in it since it didn't quite feel ice cold that day. It was about 90 when we were out there and it was nice to cool off a bit since the house had gotten a little hot and stuffy.



Today, we got the pool started this morning and Aimee was tasked with filling it up after she got done watering. She came inside and all of a sudden realized she was supposed to be watching the water level. When I went to check it was almost over the top of the 2' sides. Aimee seemed to have fun emptying the water with the 5 gallon bucket so that it wouldn't be too deep for Sam. It was already getting hot though and she ended up dumping a bucket of water over herself while I was videotaping her throwing the water out; I think it was all for show.



Anywho... Sam didn't end up getting in it tonight cuz the house wasn't as hot and we didn't make it outside to play. Although, Aimee and I did once we got done hacking away at a bush on the property line with the neighbors that was getting out of control and covering the sprinklers... again. So we filled up the yard debris buckets to put them out at the curb full this week for pickup tomorrow due to the holiday. We would have missed it if it wasn't for the holiday cuz i totally forgot to up the trash and stuff out last night... or even think about it being a holiday week. So we sat in the warmer water as dusk was turning dark and just talked and had a good time by ourselves; it was nice since this doesn't happen a lot where we are without Sam.

Anywho... hope everyone else is surviving the plunge into the Summer heat from the cold and wet beginning this Summer started with.

digging deeper, with chips

I "donated" the second load of dirt to the local landscape dump, ~ 3 cubic yards in total. When I left, I had thought the trailer wheel was flat, but found it had just sunk into the gravel due tot he weight of the dirt.

Thinking that the patio was sufficiently flat, I decided to get a load of wood chips to put down so that the mud was kept to a minimum until we were able to actually do the patio later this summer. I then tried and eventually succeeded in wrestling the trailer into the back yard with 1.5 yards of wood chips, wet wood chips. The trailer and wood chips probably weighed about a half ton all together and if it wasn't for my uneven grass and backyard, it would have been fine. I had to use the come-along a couple times to get it out of ruts in the grass and by the cherry trees since the weight of the trailer was compacting the ground in areas and the wheel would sink.



I surveyed my digging before putting down the wood chips and found I was not taking enough dirt out to make a slope away from the house, so I had to take down the area outside the door about 3 inches and the area by the hot tub about 6-8 inches. Since the trailer was full, I had to just pile the dirt at the end of the patio. It took about another hour and a half to get the side of the patio the slope I needed, landscape fabric down and the trailer turned around and pushed down the side yard to where I could get it over the area I had prepared for it. Unloading was a little challenging since a yard and a half of wood chips is a lot to put in a 6x8 foot area. I ended up staking some boards at the "house" side to make a barrier to hold the pile back. The pile ended up being about 2 feet deep on average.


It probably would have been easier to just have used the wheelbarrow and like 18 trips, but I got it in my head it would be easier to pull the trailer... oh well. I was spent after I got that unloaded and quit for the night.



When I was taking off my gloves and bandage from my blister, I saw the white ball in the blister wound and thought it weird until I realized it was skin and that my blister had gotten another blister that had ripped open also. It looks a lot worse than what it feels like and doesn't look much different than the previous picture, it just really stings when it gets wet. I plan on taking some time off while this heals and give the patio a break for now. Or at least take a couple days to recuperate a little and look up online how to wrap an open blister so it doesn't get worse while working.

Head first , the wrong way

After getting home from the Wonderful Ones brunch, I played with Sam while Aimee got Lunch ready. Sam was playing on the slide and I was trying to take some pictures/videos with my phone to get a good one to post. Sam was having a great time and started going up the slide with bare feet and walking his way up to the top and sliding down repeatedly. Aimee came out to watch for a minute so I was kinda playing with my phone and just happened to see Sam as he was climbing to the top of the slide loose his grip on the top and start falling backwards down the slide. Luckily he is flexible enough to put his head between his legs and he mostly slid down the slide that way with me, and my cat like reflexes, getting there to slow his decent and giving him a more graceful landing on the floor.

He must have been getting tired cuz he was playing not just 5 minutes later and got to the top of the slide and was laying on his stomach at the top with his feet down the slide. I just barely caught sight of him out of the corner of my eye as he went head first down the steps of the slide and my cat like reflexes were of no use to keep him from falling to the floor. I picked him up as he was screaming and Aimee came out and calmly told me "It's ok, but he has some blood on his lip and nose." I was very thankful for her calm identification and notification of this information cuz I didn't freak out.

It took a minute to get Sam to quit screaming and get him set down on the counter so I could take a look. I couldn't figure out where the blood had come from at first since it wasn't gushing and looked like it was transfer from somewhere else; he didn't have blood in his mouth or in his nostrils. I dabbed the blood away and found that it was a scrape on his nose and lip, most likely from him hitting it on the stairs on his way down. The stairs have a bit of texture on them, probably to make it less slippery when wet, and evidently make it rough on your face when coming down head first. Today , second pic, he has a bright scab that everyone is noticing and making comment on as Aimee did Library story time and errands this morning.


It was amazing to me that once he calmed down, he wanted right back up on the slide, but we put it away, had lunch, and he got a nap since he was evidently just too tired to manage not falling; I wasn't going to risk it again. It was a good lesson for him and me to learn about how he can get hurt; I won't be so quick to be so trusting of his ability to navigate a toy that may be a little out of his age range in term of safety. I figured it was only a matter of time that he would get hurt on the slide; it is taller than he is by about a foot. I just couldn't justify spending the same amount of money for a smaller slide that was only 2 feet tall so maybe waiting a little longer to get it for him would have been prudent. I felt so bad thinking that he had hurt himself so much worse than he did, I will definitely be more watchful of him in the future.

Ouch!

I kinda forgot about this one although it has been numb ever since I tipped the ladder and caught myself on the rafters in the bedroom a little bit before this happened. I was securing the light switch to the attic lights that I moved to put the switch outside the access hatch, instead of inside where it is dark. Well, I hit my finger with the hammer while trying to hold the box... I was laying on my side in the attic over the rafters and trying to get it done pretty quick. It sure hurt like crazy and went really numb when it happened, but didn't bother me too much after that. The numb fingers started the next day and haven't come back to life totally yet.

As far as the numb fingers go, I think it caught myself on the nerves that run down the inside of my arm. Aimee noticed a nice bruise, that still hasn't gone away in 2 weeks, on the underside of my upper left arm the day after it happened and what my chiropractor said about the way the nerve to my fingers runs down my arm finally registered with me about a day later that this is probably what the issue is and not the hammer. Hitting it with the hammer probably didn't help though.

Bend over backwards.

Aimee, Sam and I get to rough housing from time to time and it usually is instigated by me with Sam. He sure likes being flipped over from his belly to his back; when he is on his belly, I grab his legs, pull him up so his feet are above his head and then kinda toss his feet so he lands on his back... this is done on the bed or couch so soft enough to catch him. He also enjoys coming and flopping down on us when we are lying on the ground. He will just lay his head down afterwards, sometimes it seems like he is listening... to our heart, stomach, breathing... something, cuz he has a concentrated, for lack of a better word, look on his face when he does this.

Sam also likes to climb up on your back when you are on all fours. Yesterday Aimee had put her head down in this position and Sam came up and kinda pounced on her back, with his feet at her head. They had just come home from somewhere and he still had his shoes on, so when Aimee raised her head up and he was on her back with feet up in the air, I grabbed his shoes off his feet. Aimee thought I was lifting him but in fact I took a couple steps away to put his shoes down by the door. Thinking I had him, she raised up and Sam went sliding off the back of her, planted his forehead on the floor and arched his feet over him as they went over his head.

I hate giving notice of these types of events, but it is part of growing up. Lord knows I had my share of falls, accidents and emergency room visits; but I can't say that I remember Mom talking about any bad falls we had when we kids had in our first years.

Anywho... We were both mortified that this had happened but when he wouldn't be held more than a couple seconds because he wanted to continue to play and even though he continued to whimper for a couple minutes, we figured he was OK and unharmed. Oh, but this was after he fell and had a big bump under his eye that had pretty much gone away at this point, but still. This was probably the 5th time I can think of when he really fell hard or hit his head, but was probably one of the worst contortions he has gone through.

1. Don't remember the details, but he was pretty young, less than 3 months old
2. Grandpa and Grandma Beltz's house 6-9 months - head hitting the corner of their chair with metal brads on it; ended up having two welts puff up and turn into one big knot.
3. Auntie Ann's (early Nov 09) - falling off the bed when I turned my attention for a second. The box spring and mattress were on the floor but the carpet pad is pretty worn and it sounded like he hit solid floor.
4. Falling backwards off the couch during playdate at the groups most protective mom's house; I felt like a really neglectful dad since he fell to the floor and landed on his bottom then whipped his head back and hit it on the rug covered hardwood floor. But, to my defense, Sam had been playing on our couch for months where we had shown him how to be careful and respect the edges; evidently unfamiliar couches have a learning curve and are not to be dismissed as the same as home.
5. This week's bend over backwards.

He continued to play and act normal the rest of the day and went to bed without trouble so hopefully any damage done was minimal. I just hate when the unexpected tumbles happen and my protective impulse get bruised; I guess you can't keep them in bubble wrap their whole life. He is bound to have more during his life; he is a Beltz, after all.

Park drop

We decided it was a really nice day out and made plans to go to Costco and shop, get hot dogs for dinner on the way out, drop off the fridge stuff at the house and then go to the new park that Aimee discovered last week. Well, it wasn't in Sam's plans to wake up from his nap until almost 4:30, so we got a late start. With Daylight Savings it was just fine though.

So we got the shopping done, got hot dogs and drinks, got the milk and stuff in the fridge at home and got to the part around 5:30, not too bad. Well, we ate and fed Sam his food we brought with us, cuz I am not feeding my 15 month old a hot dog, yet. Anywho... I go to throw away some of the trash and Aimee is like yelling at me about something when I come back and I can't figure out what she is trying to tell me to look at.

It ended up being her friend Tammy and family who were getting out of their van in the parking lot. Evidently she had recognized the boys who were running out to the park equipment to play, so she waited for Tammy to go walking across and called her over. We had a nice visit and I finally got to meet her since our families hadn't met yet, so that was nice.

It was a really cool park. I will have to post pictures to do it justice, but I have to download them from my camera first, so maybe this weekend. Anyways, Sam had a blast going all over the place and unfortunately thought he was bigger and more coordinated than he was cuz he kept wanting to try things that were just kinda dangerous for his size and coordination; like climb down poles from the second story of the climbing structure or go down the slides without someone to catch him.

I had fun trying to catch some good pictures of him while trying to keep him from doing the before mentioned stuff. Aimee and I had fun too, since we would take turns running to the top of the third story of the play structure to go down the really big slide. I went down once with Sam also which he loved.

Then Aimee went to take her turn climbing around and I was watching Sam as he went from thing to thing on the ground level and he started doing something I thought would be a cute picture, I just don't recall what it was though cuz as I went to walk around in front of him to get the picture... BONG... I hit the metal pipe from the monkey bars and laid myself out. It really kind of dazed me but I was alert enough to be concerned that I needed to identify where Sam was and make sure he wasn't in immediate danger where I couldn't get to him with me laying on the ground.

I look over and he is sitting the ground about 3 feet from me and then lays back, copying Daddy I guess. It was quite funny and I had a really good chuckle over it. You will never know just how funny and good of a boy you are, Sam, until you maybe read this years from now. I love you and am so glad you have such a good time with me. I love spending time with you and really hate times where work or projects keep me busy during normal family times.

So I have a bit of a knot on my head, right frontal lobe, and I felt kinda silly having just about knocked myself out at the playground, but we wrapped things up and headed home since it was dusk and starting to get dark. Sam got to bed a little late, but it was all well worth the memories.