Roof raising

Still very much under construction, but we can tell a difference already in the temperature in and around the house.

The theater seats might find new homes out here once we're done. Keith kept stubbing his toes on them when they were at the end of the bed. But how to keep the cats off them is another issue.



Our friend Steve in Portland commented how fun it is to watch summer storms roll in from a covered porch. He's so right.

Now all the sheeting is on, the drip edge and fascia is on. Keith has to crawl up there Spiderman-style and get the tin on and then the gutter and then we'll start on slats. I don't know what the construction timeline is, really; I'm just the home owner.

Peep some of last weekend's wedding photos at my newly reorganized site, aprilblankenship.com. It went fairly well. The church was dark, so I wasn't able to get good shots of the procession/recession with no flash, but I got some good altar shots and a friend of the family covered it, too. The hour after the ceremony set aside for photos went by in a flash. The next wedding is on the 3rd of July in an open field and I hope I don't spontaneously combust.

In Tiny House News: look who's getting a covered porch.

We finally came to an agreement (with the help of SketchUp) of how it should look (meaning Keith gave in) and Keith's making quick progress and it's very exciting.

It's so hot in our house by mid-day (like 90+°), now that summer is actually here.

Project #1 is covering the porch and doing slats like this. (Well, but different.)

Project #2 will be insulating the roof (from inside). I wanted to maximize the space in the roof, with the beams showing, but a couple of inches of rigid insulation will help immensely (with heat and cold) and we'll still have the exposed rafter look.

Project #3 and #4 is for Keith to build us a couple of these chairs our friend Mike has. Extremely comfortable and pretty easy to build (easy for me to say...). For our covered porch!

We made a mad-dash trip to Missoula today and saw tons of wildlife. Dozens of deer, a herd of elk, a chipmunk sitting on the center line eating a nut, 4 or 5 cranes, some tom turkeys. It's such a beautiful drive.

See: Mormon Peak. Just outside Lolo.

And coming down Lolo Pass on the way home:

There's a lot of local hubbub about Imperial Oil/ExxonMobil hauling HUGE processing equipment over the pass and eventually into Canada this fall. (Big, as in a truck pulling a 24-foot-high “module” that is 54 yards long, nearly 10 yards high, and weighs 220 tons—the equivalent of about 40 elephants. ) There's an "open house" hosted by Imperial Oil next week in Kooskia. In Kooskia, anything can happen! Might be entertaining. Interesting at the very least.

The mill where my mom used to work is re-opening. Crazy timing with the restaurant closing and all. It wasn't planned, I swear. She's officially on the payroll starting Monday. It will have a new name and operate just the small log side, but it's back to work for about 60 people around here. Good news for the community. Good news for my mom. And us. We won't have to float the tiny house down the river after all.

(A la Natalie Dee)

First, shingles suck.
Yes, I have an "old person's disease."
And IT HURTS.
Don't worry, it's not contagious.

Second, the pain is somewhat mitigated by my love for my new camera.
Test shot on my favorite test subject:

Tiny house at dawn:
Today's we're emptying the restaurant. After 6 months or so (plus Nov.-Dec. of '09), my parents are quitting the restaurant. It boils down to, mostly, the economy here. It was a struggle the entire time, they sunk a bunch of money into it, and they just couldn't afford to keep losing money. So Adine's is closed. (Sad trombone sound.)

It's sad for everyone, of course. But it's kind of a relief. Today my mom turns 58. She says she'll be glad to have her life back after working 15+ hour days, 6-7 days a week. Since Keith and I had pulled back all the stress was on her (and my dad, but she was in charge of daily operations).

They should have everything wrapped up by the first of next week and she says their packing up their camper and heading to the woods for a week or so to decompress. Can't say I blame them. It was an unsustainable pace.

Harpster bend:
I went on the first (chronologically speaking) wedding consult yesterday. After multiple bouts of rescheduling, we finally met at the site just over a week from the big day. Nice couple. Gorgeous location. It's been raining cats and dogs forever and so everything is super green. Hopefully the sun will be out next weekend for them. The shot above was on the way home. The river is high and wide at Harpster! And everywhere else.

Waiting for the UPS man

Jeff, our UPS guy, is going to be my best friend next week when he delivers my new camera. I found a great deal on a "like new minus" (basically new without original box) Nikon D40. With the standard 18-55mm lens and a 55-200mm lens. So we're eating rice and beans and whatever random things we find in the cabinet until next payday, but that's how we roll. Sometimes.

Today I got back the slides from the Velvia 50 I sent to Yellowstone Photo. Overall, I was pretty happy with the way they turned out. Some were way overexposed, but I'm still climbing this learning curve.