Well I just can’t seem to get the hang of this blog site. I wrote a long blog about what I did today and when I went to edit it (there wasn’t a button for that) on the page I was on so I tried moving around to find the edit button and totally lost my posting, so I gotta start over. Learning to blog, ugh.
So I will try to remember what I wrote. Here goes!! Out the door at 8:00 this morning and the weather was beautiful 70s and 80s with a wind about 20-25 miles an hour. Breezy but comfortable. Spent the morning putting primer on some of the porch ceiling joists. I had primed and painted them once, before they were installed, but they hung up there for a couple of years before we finished putting the roof on. Needless to say, they weathered and now had to be scrapped and re-painted. This time I used better primer and they will be sheltered so I shouldn’t have to do them again for a long time. Maybe not in my lifetime. Tomorrow I will put on some of the finished coats if we get back from the rental center in time. The ladder climbing went better this week. Last weekend I was jinxed. I was coming down the ladder and whoops, missed that bottom rung. Luckily, the wall caught me and no damage done. Then I moved the ladder and positioned it to do another porch joist, but wasn’t paying attention to the cross joist, and ouch ran right into it with my head. I was literately seeing stars. I had a friend tell me just the other day that “a 60 year-old-woman has not business on a ladder.” Humm maybe she had something there. Sad part, my husband watched it all, and just grinned and shook his head.
Finished that little task around 11:30 and stopped for lunch and a break.
Now, time to work on the test-post. Took the clamps off and proceeded to scrap, sand and turn and do it again. I also took some photos of the post, but will post them when I get it finished. The before and after. I did find a helpful tool that I am sure Norm Abrams would not approve of on a wood post. A whole new appreciation for a “rasp.” That little baby helped me take down some of the parts that didn’t line up. Just tooling along with that and then thought I would try some of the Bondo in the cracks. Just to get a feel for how it would do.
I used Bondo about 6 or 7 years ago when I refinished the 70 year old posts on the front porch of the house we are living in now. It was really slick and easy. So I thought “no problem, I got this.” Wrong!! My frugal Scotsman husband, said “Oh, we got two cans in the shop, so don’t buy any.” Sounds like a plan. Got the 2 cans and a tube of hardener. First can, dried out. That went in the trash. Second can, iffy. Putty like gray substance, didn’t remember it being that color or that consistency. Oh, well, now to the hardener. Remembered that being the consistency of tooth paste. This wasn’t like that, it was liquidy like water. That didn’t look right to me either, but thought maybe I didn’t remember right. Put a golf-ball sized (that’s what the can said) glob on a mixing surface, then added some hardener. The can said about an inch and a quarter (1 1/4″). How do you measure an inch and a quarter of water? Something wasn’t right here. Being the eternal optimist, I proceeded. I just added what I thought would be enough. Mixed it together and proceeded to work fast filling in some holes so it wouldn’t get hard on me. Hum, two hours later, it still hadn’t set up. Now, I had to scrape it all off and try to clean-up that area. What a waste of time and effort. Tomorrow I will be buying some Bondo before we go and pick up the boom lift at Sun Rental in Walla Walla. So excited, can’t wait. Now, I need to just concur my fear of heights. Maybe it won’t be so bad in the lift.
Finished for the day about 3:30. Cleaned-up and headed home for a shower and a blog update.
You know men seem to be born knowing about these things, but us ladies fly by the seat of our pants. I would appreciate any sage advice on the Bondo thing. What do I need to do different? All encouragement appreciated.
Annie, the novice blogger and post fixer.
15yearsandcountingdream 