November 29, 2006 – Dormer Done Outside!

The handy man from Two Friends Farm finished up the outside of the dormer today. We still have the older, smaller dormers to side, but the big new one is done on the outside. I am a very happy boy that I will never have to crawl up there to paint again. I’m not happy about artificial siding, but I tried to pick the lesser or two evils.

We decided to go with a creamy yellow color and put shake shingles on the dormers and regular lap siding on the rest of the house when the time comes. We’re happy that with the color and look so far – it’s not in your face yellow, but has a pinch of flair.

one year ago… the computer was dead.

November 28, 2006 – Blast from the Past!

We were rummaging through some deep storage the other day and Claire ran across this newspaper featuring her father’s photo on the front page!

It shows me with the trophy for the “Ugliest Truck Contest” at the Central Iowa Fair in 2002. I inherited this truck many years ago from my father and it had over 200,000 miles on original engine, clutch, and transmission before it died.

Here’s what the photo caption in the paper says: ” Mark Runquist of Melbourne earned a dubious honor on Saturday afternoon at the Central Iowa Fair with his winning entry in the “ugliest truck” contest. Runquist brought his 1984 Mazda to the competition. His truck comes complete with corn stalks growing in the bed. He was awarded a trophy that looked a lot better than his vehicle.”

one year ago…no entry

November 27, 2006 – Same Old…

Not much new to report. I’m beginning to sound like a broken record. Today I moved the scaffolding to the north side of the corn crib and started working over there. About 8 hours of climbing up and down, lifting and dropping – a good tired at the end of the day. It was a bonus day – it was in the 60’s and was supposed to rain, but only ended up with some occasional drizzle. More importantly – no wind, so the siding sheets were easy to handle alone. So I neglected everything else as it might be the best day for a long time to do this kind of work!

one year ago…