Raizing the Martin House…McGyver Style..

  Gloomy and gray day today..but the temps are in the 70’s, so I will NOT diss this day! McGyver has finally been released from his duty/fun of farming…I can’t say I will miss finding kernels of corn and bean chaff in our bed.  I was feeling a little like “the Princess and the Pea” at times.
The leaves have been just gorgeous here.  There is something wonderful in the smell of Fall…I cannot exactly explain this odor, but it makes me all fuzzy and snuggly and smiley….No, it isn’t the leaves burning…it’s just the “smell of Fall”. 

I wandered out into the back yard and managed to retrieve a few “hangers on” tomatoes from our dying vines…


As you already know, it doesn’t take much to make me happy…a few more fresh tomatoes from our garden did the trick !



While I was doing the “happy dance” over our tomatoes, McGyver was contemplating taking down our Martin house for the Winter…We never have had any Martins in it, but have had Squirrels, Starlings, Sparrows and various junk birds make themselves at home in the Condo Cave…You gotta know that this Martin house was a huge condo, and very heavy…Naturally, as is the case with most men, Dennis will not ask for help unless he is going “under” for the last time (you ladies will understand what I mean).  When Dennis put this sucker up, he had our very young, very strong neighbor, John, helping him…McGyver dug the post hole in early Spring of 2011, and the bird house went up a month later.


Now, I am only so big…and only so strong…I use to be able to hold my own while helping McGyver attack his never ending  tasks…This included me holding dry wall up with my head while on a ladder, so he could nail it…helping take down our entire chimney, roof to basement, brick by brick, and toss it into the dumpster in our drive, and handing large buckets of wet concrete in to McGyver through our basement window,  so he could fill in our new sump pit….Oh, I could go on and on, because McGyver has done 99% of the work on our home with just himself…and “moi”..a MUCH younger “moi”..and we have lived here 38 years. That’s a ton of work, just sayin’… So, as I watched Dennis circle the Martin house, I knew darn well I couldn’t be much help anymore…and I could also tell that Dennis had his own plan….As it turns out, it included his treasured and trusty “Ol Blue” truck…

The extent of my involvement in this project was being a “Nervous Nellie”, making woeful comments of doom, like “Look out!  Sheesh, you’re gonna  drop that Martin house on the truck’s roof!!!!”…I am always the sooth sayer to Den’s “lone wolf” projects,and I make sure to have 911 on speed dial…Surprisingly, his plan to walk the Martin house down from the back of the truck bed and lay it on the truck roof WORKED!!!…!

Great job, Dennis!!…………………………………..My work here is done…
This coming weekend we are taking the Heiser grandkids to a woods South of here to visit my brother….My brother, Michael, is a man of many talents…He is a gifted artist, has etched pictures on grave stones, carved decoys from a block of wood, done oil and water color paintings, fabulous sketching…and now has built a teepee by hand…(This is his 2nd teepee). This is a traditional Native American real size teepee, with wood burning fire in the center, made out of long poles he carved himself…The woods we are going to belong to a family friend, and this friend lets Michael and our son, Kelly, hunt and “play” down there…So, this weekend we are going to visit the teepee Michael built…Believe me when I say I will post many pictures of this…
So that’s about as exciting as our life is right now…However, I am going on a “journey” of my own sometime next month…No, not a journey of miles…More like a transitional journey…and now I sound a lot like Al…giving you a teaser…I will keep you informed when I choose to begin it…In the meantime, I appreciate those who are still hanging in there, reading my drivel….This road I take you all down can get pretty bumpy at times..Make sure you strap yourself in and hang on!!

“Self-esteem is different than conceit. Conceit is the weirdest disease in the world. It makes everyone sick except the one who has it.”

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   ~Hartman Rector, Jr.