Running out of winter, Walk, double RK weekend
Before winter started I made myself a list of some small projects I wanted to get done while the temps were cooler and the property was dryer. Unfortunately the weather this winter has been the most abnormal since I moved to Florida nearly 16 years ago with warm temps and way more precipitation than normal. As a result I haven’t been doing that great at working the list, almost half of the items are still not crossed off. Ironically on Saturday I decided I wanted to tackle a project that I forgot to put on the list but that needed to be done nonetheless.
The wooden ramp that I built after the 12′ x 20′ shed was installed some 13-14 years ago was in rough shape. The years in the elements had really done a number on it with the wood starting to break down in various spots. I actually had wanted to rebuild it for a couple years. For whatever reason Saturday morning while I was weeding I made the mental commitment to do it, today.
When Cindy and I were out on errands we picked up the necessary lumber at Home Depot. I was actually pleasantly surprised that the materials I needed for the job added up to less than $85. On the way home we picked up Sadie for a weekend visit. After eating lunch I began the project.
First up was removal of the old ramp. At first I had a silly idea of actually taking the old ramp apart in an orderly fashion by unscrewing all of the boards. That idea lasted all of 2 minutes. Instead I used a post bar and sledge hammer to break loose the ramp from the shed and then flipped the old ramp out of the way more or less intact.
The original ramp was one of my very early construction projects at the house. There were a number of design flaws. The support beams underneath were only 2″x 4″s while the top surface of the ramp was heavy 2×6’s. I also had gaps in between the top boards. I think at the time the gaps were just a cost savings effort to use less lumber. The end result of the gaps has been a somewhat hazardous walking surface as well as allowing space for weeds to grow in between the gaps. The new ramp used a reversed plan with 2×6’s for the supports with conventional decking up top, sans the gaps. My many construction projects over the years have allowed me to learn from past mistakes.
Construction of the ramp took a good portion of the afternoon. Cindy helped me during the decking stage of the build, using the pry bar to apply pressure to the planks to keep them as flush as possible to each other despite some minor bends in some of the boards. Once the last board was screwed down Cindy put the first coat of waterproofing/stain on the surface to protect it. We were both very happy with the outcome. The ramp looked good and felt rock solid. Hopefully it will last well into the next decade.
On Saturday night we were beat and decided to just do movie night at home watching our latest Netflix DVD, The Walk. It is a movie about the french guy that strung a wire across the world trade centers and walked back and forth for around 90 minutes back in the 70’s. I actually saw the documentary about this amazing feat a few years ago. I thought the movie did a good job of capturing the incredible and borderline insane bravery required for a man to walk a wire between the two tallest buildings in the world. The visuals of the walk made Cindy and I turn away at times, it really felt like you were on the wire with him. I thought it was a very solid B+ rental.
On Sunday neither Cindy or I said a single word about doing any endurance training. My back and abs were both killing me from the ramp project plus the clocks jumping ahead made everything feel late already. We made our second trip to Rural King of the weekend, probably an unnecessary one but we wanted to give Sadie a chance to walk around the store, something she really seems to enjoy. When we got home we spent about an hour outside working before eating a late lunch. For whatever reason after lunch we both just felt pooped. We wound up crashing back in the bedroom for a couple hours half napping while some show on the DIY network about flipping junk houses in Texas was on tv.
The rest of the weekend expired without incident. We started binge watching the latest season of House of Cards on Netflix. That is a quality show in case you haven’t heard.
Over the weekend I finally released my lengthy blog entry regarding my drone incident at Yellowstone Park. If you have some time to kill you may want to take a look at how the Yellowstone National Park Service likes to ruin park visitors holiday season through capricious, retroactive enforcement of poorly communicated park regulations via YouTube videos and calls on personal cell phones.