Of Sheathing…….An Allergic Reaction?

They were once men.

Great kings of men.

Then Sauron the deceiver gave to them Nine Rings of Power.

Blinded by their greed they took them without question.

One by one falling into darkness.

They are the Nazgul.

Ringwraiths, neither living nor dead.

 

Aragorn, explaining to the Hobbits what and who are chasing them.

Okay. I know I used these lines in another post way back when. But something happened that the Ring did not intend. I mean I was thinking about the Nazgul and what happened to them. You know the taking of the Rings and the whole falling into darkness theme. Yeah, that one. I’ve fallen into a bit of darkness but it has absolutely nothing to do with accepting a Ring of Power.

That doesn’t happen too often in these parts.

I’m glad you’re here following me and my long journey to whatever lies ahead. Hopefully a fully functioning Hobbit House.

So the falling into darkness thing. The situation is that I’ve been having this allergic reaction to something for about a year now. I think I mentioned this in a previous post so I’ll just be brief here. So what’s been happening is I’ll get this tremendous lip swelling. I mean tremendous. Probably every other week or so. When it first started it was every other month or so. So I really didn’t pay it any mind. But when I got it bad it would almost totally reconfigure my face. To the point where my whole family couldn’t look at me without laughing hysterically. Same thing at work. Nobody could take me seriously when this would happen. They would just start laughing at me. On top of that every so often I would break out in hives. Different spots all the time. I mean this is a problem.

One day at work I had to wrap my head in an ace bandage like the Elephant Man. It was that bad. I’m only kidding, I really didn’t wrap my head up like that. I had hives one day when I got home from work in a certain private area that I couldn’t even look at it it was so hideous…..and painful. I told my wife that day ” If you smell smoke it’s not the house on fire it’s my b___s on fire.” (It’s a family friendly blog so I’m not going to print some of the other things I said that night.)

I’m really going on ad nauseum here aren’t I?

Yeah, you are. I said I would be brief. That’s out the window.

The point is this is really bothering me now. I mean it’s affecting my quality of life kind of thing. Plus people can’t look at me anymore without laughing. So it’s a problem.

I go to the allergist. (I must be having some sort of allergic reaction to something , right?) The first time I  went they did all the tests for food allergies. I’m thinking let’s make sure it’s not something I’m eating right? I was worried that I was going to be allergic to chocolate Thank God I wasn’t cause that would have been a huge problem. The second time I go they test for environmental stuff. You know trees, pollen, dust, mold, and animals.

So they do the test and I go in to see the doctor and he looks at the test results and says, “Wow! You really had a huge reaction to…..your Mother-in-Law.” I didn’t know you could get tested for that! I’m only kidding. Turns out I’m allergic to cats…..and we have three of them. Well that’s just great.

So I picked up three burlap bags and three bricks at Tractor Supply. You know so I could get rid of the ca…..

I know what you were thinking. That thought never crossed my mind though!

Wow was that long or what???? What’s this blog about?

(These cats have got to go. They’re driving me nuts. By the way I’m on Allegra and it seems to be working so far. A week into it.)

Enough about you already get back to the building part of the blog will ya!

Let me get a picture in here before my whole family logs off.

Dove building a nest inside the Hobbit House.
Dove building a nest inside the Hobbit House.

I got to the house on Saturday and this mourning dove flies out of the house. That was weird. I start setting up and it flies back in and takes a seat over the arch of the window. Even weirder. I go over and notice the nest it’s making. Pretty unbelievable right? It really is amazing how creatures are always looking. I had to get rid of it though. Once babies hatch they make quite a mess. I have plenty of other things to do without cleaning up bird droppings thank you.

So I really got into sheathing the front of the house this weekend. Very challenging from a carpentry point of view. Especially working alone. The top pieces took quite a while to put up but by the end of the day I had gotten the top all worked out. Check it out.

Sheathing begun in earnest . End of day Saturday.
Sheathing begun in earnest . End of day Saturday.

So I really got the bug and knew I had to finish this up this weekend. I already did the hard part. The balance is easy. I went back Sunday and finished up the sheathing. Check it out.

Front sheathing up and in.
Front sheathing up and in.

I just tacked this plywood up for now. You know just four to six nails in each sheet to hold it in place. I’ll bring a nail gun in to nail off the field next weekend possibly. Maybe I’ll have Terence do it if he wants to work.

There are a couple of other details I have to do before we nail things off. Especially in the corners.

For all you Hobbit people out there don’t get too bogged down about the door. Trust me on this one. When it’s done it’s going to look awesome. Patience people.

Well I hope you all have a great week. Take it easy.

Jim

4 thoughts on “Of Sheathing…….An Allergic Reaction?”

  1. Some information about doves (in my role as Radagast the Brown.)

    Doves are the same kind of Bird as pigeons – generally we call the larger members of the family pigeons and the smaller doves.

    While they are really bad nest builders (what you have there is typical – a pile of twigs on a flat surface) they are really good parents with both parents sharing nest sitting duties (usually her during the day and him at night) and chick feeding. Two eggs per nesting is usual.

    The babies put their heads into their parents’ throats to consume “pigeon milk” which is actually a sloughing of cells of the walls of the adult’s esophogus. This makes them very difficult for humans to hand rear because they don’t open their mouths to beg like most altricial birds.

    Right before they leave the nest the babies are actually bigger than their parents. The act of learning to fly strengthens their muscles and that actually pulls their bones together, bringing them down to adult size. Because of this squab (young pigeon) are harvested right before they learn to fly.

    Reply
    • Hello Sally and thanks for the info. Nature really is amazing. So much to learn and so little time.

      For the record the pigeons in New York City are called rats with wings by some. Actually some of them are very pretty.

      I hope all is well! Take care!
      Jim

      Reply

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