JULY 2 UPDATE: More stair work

Well, for the sake of not shocking people when they look at the time of this post, I'll keep this brief.

Dave finished cutting the stringers (that's the jagged-looking pieces that hold up the stairs, for all of you who aren't up on stair terminology -- like me) this evening, and they are in place but the supports that need to be under them are not there yet. He'll have to do a some more framing work, and then the fancier detail work of the stairs begins.

Tomorrow likely little will happen as far as building -- Dave is going to take the truck to Mertz in Ellendale to get supplies when he goes into work, and he'll have to go down to Menard's in Aberdeen to get more supplies in the evening. Dave's parents will be here for the weekend, and we need to make sure we've got supplies on hand to work with while we've got a crew.

We had been hoping that either the excavator would have been here or the windows would have arrived before this coming weekend, but neither one has happened. So I think the work plan for the weekend is to finish putting down the first floor, put in a door on the east side, and frame openings for the windows so they are ready to go when the windows arrive.

We're not planning on working the whole weekend, being as it is a holiday. We're hoping to fit in some time to go swimming.

... The reason I am up so late is more complicated than I care to write about or that you probably want to read, but it has to do with the complications involved in getting this flier (if you click on it, you should be able to see it in a big enough format to read it) out to the general public before the first movie is shown on Saturday.

This is part of my volunteer work for the Frederick community development group. Dave asked me, as he was going to bed and I was still up working, why I feel the need to be the patron saint of lost causes -- and now that I think about it, that does seem to be the case -- most of the groups I working with (the town, the church, the store) are struggling financially and otherwise. It's the optimist in me, I guess. Yes, it might be sad and frustrating to keep fighting against the tide, but it would be sadder still if nobody was fighting and we just let the tide roll in and erode everything that's left in our community. And not every small town that declines dies! Sometimes it just takes a creative idea to bring about new life.

Actually, as far as this flier goes, it's more selfish interest that's motivating me rather than any high-minded ideals. I went to all the work of designing this poster, now I want people to see it!

So, anyway, it should get out in the mail tomorrow. Or later today, actually.

Did I say I'd keep this brief? Ah, well, brevity is not a writing skill I use very well.

One more thing: I got a message from my aunt in Sweden today. She said she and the rest of the family in Sweden are all very interested in our building project. Pretty cool to have fans across the Atlantic!