Must be fall

I'm splitting firewood.

My corner solutions

With posts attached on the outside of the rim joists the railing presented a challenge.

Of course the two were not the same.

Deck and house progress

The deck railing and house painting continue to progress. I have only one more piece of railing cap to cut, fit and install,then I'll start working on the stair railings. For the balusters I'm going to have to rip 2x4s in half.
Jo has one coat of paint on all of the siding and two on some. She's taking a break to get the garden in.

Lunch

Heatin' up some chicken for lunch.

Deck update

From April 9, 2014

So, I've started working on the deck again (as of 4/9). Here is an in process photo of the first set of steps. Note that I am using a cantilever system rather than the more common notched stringer.

Spring?

For those loyal and regular readers (all 4 of you - you know who you are), welcome back to the HoLmestead News.

It has been a long and hard winter, combined with cataract surgeries in both eyes spread out over almost 2 months and, as I posted earlier, almost all projects came to a halt and I had very little to say.

Now we are into spring, right? Ignoring the sub-freezing temps last night and the dusting of snow, the crocuses and lilies are blooming and the grass is greening up. I even saw one of the first signs of spring the other day: a motorcycle. Not just parked, either.

So, this past week we were able to get back to one of the major projects we were working on last fall: the new deck. I got one set of steps built and we were able to start laying out and screwing down decking and attaching some of the railing posts. We learn on the job, as usual. We had decided to put the posts on the outside of the deck so it is most convenient if they go on before the decking so I can reach inside to tighten the nuts onto the bolts. But we really wanted to get some of the decking down so I decided to put as much decking on as I could between putting up each post.

In other news, I was able to get started on preparing the wood for Amelia's treasure box. She wants to build one with my help. Of course she can't do the work on the saws and other big power tools yet. Maybe in a couple of years. I planed some oak to 1/2" and cut them to length and width and started mitering the corners.

Motorizing and test driving the scaffold

Sometimes my wife thinks I'm crazy. I've got to show her this!
In truth, I'm really impressed with what Matthias can do -- or is willing to try :-)

I had embedded the video here, but it insisted on playing every time I loaded the page which was annoying, so instead you have to click on the following link:

www.youtube.com/embed/rBmnQN78aZU