The Antique

I wish I could see all of the things my camera can see at night.

This past week, Ann and I went to the old family farm to do lots and lots of manual labor, but hopefully also relax and enjoy the October weather as well.  The Antique was originally built in 1746, and was due for some TLC. The first couple of days were spent getting rid of a bunch of stuff that we didn’t need anymore, that somebody else could use. 

The rain during the first half of the week was terrible and made for a miserable experience of loading/unloading stuff.  The weather was so bad that we were forced to stay inside and organize stuff.  Ever since we’ve been taking care of the place, we’ve realized a couple of things. 

1. We may actually be the first folks to even attempt to organize and/or purge junk from the house.

2. It seems that in the recent past(75 years), folks would buy items at a hardware store, and then forget where they put it. 

Five-ten years later, the same item would be purchased again, not knowing the item was already buried somewhere in a cabinet or shed.  I can’t tell you how many gas cans, rope, nails, screws, nuts, and bolts that we have found.  So we decided to stop the madness and came up with a plan that I’m convinced is the most economical way to organize all the stuff.  Zip-Lock containers are perfect for this sort of thing.  They come in all sizes, and they’re transparent.  So no more paper bags of nails, or boxes of crap that you can’t find.  When I’m looking for something (like a roofing nail),knowing where something isn’t is just as important as knowing where it is. With the Zip-Lock containers, everything is very visible and easy to find.  Take that Ikea!

Next, it was on to more manual labor.  Almost 2 years ago, we painted the metal roof with Fibered Aluminum paint, as it was in rough shape and badly needed.  The hope was that we wouldn’t have to paint again for another 10-15 years.  Unfortunately, over the past year we’ve been noticing large areas where the paint had been chipping off again. Sad manual laborer.

I’m still not completely sure why this is the case as we cleaned and scrubbed/scraped the entire roof clean.  The bad areas are on different sides of the roof, different angles, heights, etc. It’s possible that we had a bad can of paint(the first time) or that the metal roof is more distressed in some areas.  Needless to say painting a metal roof up high is no picnic, so this time around we decided to rent a 50 foot Genie hydraulic lift to speed things up and hopefully be much safer. Into the basket I went with paint roller in hand, while Ann worked her magic on the controls from the ground. For some reason, I really enjoy working on the Antique even though I’m totally worn out in the end. It just feels good to take care of something that has been around for so long.

Eventually, we finished painting the roof on a spectacular evening for viewing stars.  I’m starting to get the hang of nighttime photography, and I think I’m hooked.  I even saw a nice bright shooting star but wasn’t in place to catch a picture of it. I’m just amazed at how many stars can be seen on a nice clear night in October.

Once all of the work was done, it was time to play.  We spent the day fishing, goofing off, and cooking out. I’m pretty sure Ann was fishing here.  Though, as hard as she had been working, it’s entirely possible she was on the dock catching a couple of Zzz’s. I can’t make too much fun.  I definitely won the award for casting the most amount of line over the shortest distance.  Quit frequently, I would cast the line about 40 feet straight up in the air only to have it land 5-10 feet away. I’ll have to come back soon and practice. Happy manual laborer.

The magic hour just before dark.

Thanks for Reading!