Gimme a Ham and Cheese on a Tomato….Toss It Up to Me Will Ya.

Wow! That was awful. I just spent a half hour trying to login to my website. Annoying. Very annoying.

So where were we?

Oh yeah. Something about a Ring a Dark Lord and the end of the world.

Nah. We’ll get to that later.

Well welcome fans of Middle Earth and those of you interested in the construction of Hobbit Houses! I hope your spring /summer is shaping up nicely. Mine is. Boy is it nice to see green again. Really nice. It’s always amazing how nice it  gets around here after the winter months. What a transformation.

I picked up my hummingbird feeder yesterday. Had a little one stop by the window looking for a sip the other day where I usually have the feeder. Felt bad for the guy. Was it a guy????

So I finally downloaded my pictures yesterday. I think the problem I had last week had something to do with the lack of room in my I-phone. You learn something all the time right people. So just bear with me here cause I’m probably going to overstuff this blog with pictures.

It’s weird how stuff pops into your head all of a sudden right?

At least into my head. I started thinking about this book called “Charlotte’s Web”. It’s a kid’s book that a teacher read to my third grade class like 800 years ago. It’s about a talking spider and this girl who finds her and becomes friends with her. So, if I remember correctly, the spider says “Salutations!” to the girl. That’s how they meet. Who says that? And why would you put that in a kids book? No kid is ever gonna say that.

Like I said. That just kinda popped into my head.

I think you might be witnessing the downward spiral of a man in his fifties.

It starts with these things popping into his head.

So lets get going again shall we.

Just quick. Redid the garden fence two weeks ago and never got the picture in. It’s not done but like I said we got the  heavy lifting over with.

Garden fence 90% done

I have to trim the post tops level.

Oh yeah and the boys fixed the front walkway the other day for me. That was interesting to watch. Especially when they got to the last bay. All the pavers where cut differently so you had to keep track of what you were taking out and where you put it so you could put it back together the right way. You know where I’m going with this one right? Yeah. They didn’t keep track of things. It was like watching an episode of the “Three Stooges”.

This one goes over here!!!!!!!

College educated too!

It’s nice to see that college money in action right?

Let’s get back to Hobbit House building shall we Jim?

Please.

So yeah I believe I’ve found my motivation. We really have to start pushing now people. Gotta get this thing done now.

The skylights are tough though. Just tedious. I don’t think there was a single thing that was easy about the skylights. Not one. Even laying them out on the deck was difficult. I can’t even begin to quantify how much time was involved. I mean hundreds of hours. I think it will be worth it in the end. They are really cool and they really change the feel of the room and the house as a whole.

Two down two to go. I got started on the third one Saturday and plan on getting the flashing kit on by the end of the day Sunday. We’ll see. Couple of pictures.

Terence screwing in the trim around the living room skylight.
Terence connecting the skylight handle to the living room skylight.

I know I think I mentioned it before but these are Fakro skylights made in Poland. Triple pane passive house certified. If you were wondering.

So the plan Saturday was to get up at the crack of dawn and hit the ground running. Which I did. But the hired help didn’t check their e-mail and they wound up showing up at 11. Which was great. Just in time for lunch. How convenient! I hate e-mail.

So we get started. Anyway over the course of the morning I got rained on a bit for about a half hour. Not really  bad but enough to warrant mopping up the water with a rag or a couple of paper towels. Whatever. So Jude and Terence arrive and I yell over to Jude to get me the paper towels out of my truck and throw them up to me on the roof. So now the roof is actually pretty high up there. Probably almost thirteen feet. Plus I’m 6 feet tall so if you’re going to throw something to me it’s got to be a pretty decent throw. You know like it’s got to hit me in the hands. I can’t reach for it or I’ll fall off the roof kind of thing. Jude played baseball. I played baseball. No problem right? So instead of tossing it underhand in a controlled arch he goes overhand. I mean why would you go overhand????Its a toss. I mean it’s automatic. It has to be a toss. Anyone who played baseball would know this has got to be a toss. So he goes overhand and it’s one of those things that you know what’s going to happen before it even does. (Almost like a Jedi) The roll of paper towels hits me in the big toe. And then proceeds to roll down the roof of the Hobbit house at like 50 miles per hour.

I told him to toss it!

Another job well done. Somehow this was my fault. Which I’m still pondering how in the name of God that could be.

Oh yeah for the record we were on track to get hit by a tornado the other day. Check out this satellite picture I took a screen shot of.

Tornado headed towards Pawling, New York!!!!!

So we’re watching the news when we get the tv message for everyone in the town of Pawling to seek shelter. So I get my boots on to go into the basement crawlspace with the Editor getting frantic about where we should hide when Terence says, “We should probably go out to the Hobbit Shed.”  The Editor: “Is that the safest place!! Is that the safest place!!!” So I said of course. It really is the safest place. So I grab the trail mix and we all head out there. (I’m always thinking about food) Of course Ethan brings the chess set and him and Terence start having a game. But this thing is really coming right at us. I mean I’m watching the radar and I’ve never seen anything like it before.

Hunkering down in the Hobbit shed

We started to bicker and argue about trail mix shares and what would happen if we couldn’t get out of the shed. The storm broke up just before it got to Pawling. I mean it was headed straight for us. In case you were wondering Ethan left the chess set out in the Hobbit shed which was found by Terence, who then proceeded to leave it on the stairs on the back porch exposed to the elements. Never a dull moment.

Oh yeah almost forgot. I got a hotel room out on Block Island,Rhode Island for the Editor’s birthday. We used to go out there for summer vacation when the kids were little about 10 years ago. The place is still the same. Great place to visit if you’re looking for something different. A couple of pictures and we’ll wrap it up.

The National Hotel

Enjoy your week!

Jim

One more thing. It’s lunchtime over at the Hobbit house  and we order lunch and I guess I mistakenly said “Get me a ham and cheese on a tomato.” Somehow this got the hysterics going. You know, “Terence! Did you just hear what he said!!!!”  Things went from bad to worse after that. I got a ham and cheese without tomato and without mustard. Instead of mustard they put may oh nase on it. Which I can’t stand mayonnaise. They didn’t give us paper napkins either so I had to wipe off the excess mayo with one of the dirty paper towels that had rolled down the Hobbit house roof. Jeez.

 

 

2 thoughts on “Gimme a Ham and Cheese on a Tomato….Toss It Up to Me Will Ya.”

  1. Here on the east coast we only have one species of hummingbird – Ruby-throated. If the hummingbird had a bright red patch on the high part of the chest, it is a male. Green chest means it is female. Males are usually first to arrive in the spring because they want to stake out good territory. And these little guys can be fierce! Hummingbirds collect spider webs to build nests that sit on top of tree branches.

    And Charlotte the spider greets Wilbur the pig with “Salutations” in an effort to expand his vocabulary. The girl who raises Wilbur, and comes to visit him in the barn, is Fern, who never hears the animals speak like we the readers do. One of my very favorite animal stories.

    Reply
    • Sally. I started making my own hummingbird brew for the first time this year. We’ve never had so many. I actually set up a second feeder. They’re really fun to watch.

      Take care and thanks for writing!
      Jim

      Reply

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