The first snow.....

Well the girls decided to play in the little bit of snow we had. This is their first snow man.

If you look above you notice a sneaker, yes they had to wear their sneakers. They had no snow boots but they were determined to play. You can't tell but their snow suits are 6" to short for them and pulled up their but crack and they had to go in the basement and find hunting gloves to wear. Yes, I need to go shopping, soon!

I told them to get creative and they did, what a great job, Although they need to find another hat for this one did not bring Frosty to life!!!

One "Black" Friday

For those of you who recieve my post thru e-mail probably already know how my black Friday earned it's name this year. This is something I need to do for my own peace of mind and if you do not want to read this I completely understand. For hours I pondered on whether to do this and why? Why sit in front of the computer and drudge up memories and cry my eyes out? Why go thru the horror? I'll tell you why, I owe it to Tanner.



This is in honor of Tanner, my best friend and companion. I had the joy of spending 12 and a half years with him. In my eyes he was the best dog you could ever have the honor of being part of the family. Every dog is unique in there own way. You tell me you know a dog that could hold his bladder for 33 hrs and still refused to go in the house. You tell me you know a dog that after not being able to hold it, would go to the bathroom in the tub and not somewhere in the house.

This is my Tanner and I love him.

Tanner was working on 13 years of age and every pet owner knows that animals get old alot quicker than us. Even knowing this, I have had the hardest day of my life.

I was out taking Tanner to pee one night and in the blink of an eye Tanner fell to the ground and I watched his and my life change forever. Tanner would never be the same. As I carried him in the house with my heart racing and placed him on the living room floor, It was then I realized he might not be with us much longer.



Not knowing exactly what happened, I watched him closely till the next day and took him to the vet only to hear the news I knew was coming and didn't want to hear. Tanner was in early stages of congestive heart failure with fluid in his lungs. So I took the heart pills and antibiotic and brought him home.




I gave him his medicine as directed, but only to watch him get worse. He couldn't walk, he couldn't stand, he could barely hold his head up to get a drink. I carried him out and helped him stand as he peed, then would carry him back in and place him on the floor where he would lay for hours on hours. As a couple days past I knew the moment would come and I was putting it off. I would lay with Tanner and cry only to catch those last moments with him. He was suffering and I knew it.

I left for Thanksgiving dinner at my moms only to think about him non stop and feeling bad, because I knew this would be his last Thanksgiving and he was home alone. So I told my mom I was going to get him. I took him to moms and laid him in the living room. He couldn't do much but he enjoyed the attention from everyone. When I brought him home he was different. He actually laid with his head up looking at us when we walked by, following us around the room. It was as if he was saying thank you for spending Thanksgiving Day with me. Thank you for not letting me be alone.

Although he held his head high that night, the next day he was still not making any progress so I took him back to the vets. I got the news I was expecting to hear and "that moment" had arrived. Tanner's organs were shutting down and he was slowly going into shock. It was time to quit being selfish and wanting Tanner with me and do the right thing.

My Tanner is not suffering any more. He is in peace and not pain. And although there is pain in my heart, I am at peace knowing he is not suffering.

To My Dear Tanner,

I love you buddy, and miss you. There won't be a day go by with out thinking of you. I want to apologize for missing 6 months of your life that you lived with Nancy. If I could get those back I would. I knew you didn't like it there and I'm sorry. There will never be another like you. Words can't explain how I feel right now without you, but I am happy your feeling better. Run and play and be happy. I look foward to seeing you again.

P.S. I'll put leftovers in the trash can for you.

I Love You, Daddy

Tanner Barnes

March 24th, 1997 - November 27th, 2009

The Last of Washington College

Here are two pictures of the baseboard we put down. I have included a close up so you can see the "back cutting" we had to do to get these boards to bend around the inside and outside corners. Very time consuming and a pain in the butt i may add.

Next two are pictures of 2x2 maple railing put on top of the metal railing.

Finally, the next series of pictures are before and after pictures of all the walls that we put up thes vertical slats. They are 6" apart, center to center. This was very time comsuming, pushed our patients to the limits, but in the end it turned out pretty good.

Our Pumkin Carvin

Each year we try to have all the kids carve pumkins. Here are this years artwork.

This one is Makayla's.

This one is Tyler's.

This one is David's.


This one is Kate's.

Washington College Part 3

Here are a series of pictures of countertops and floor and wall cabinets that we installed.

The next four pictures are a room I think they were going to have a bunch of computers in.

Here are two countertops they called "banquettes". There are two of them one each outside the eliptical pod and rectangular pod.

This wall cabinet unit was five different cabinet sections. We installed them to make one unit. This was the game room equipment storage.

This was also in the same room.

This was just some cabinets we installed. There was a copier going beside these.

Washington College Part 2

When you walk in the front door to the right of the steps that go upstairs, we installed this corkboard wall display with a maple header board. This is what it looked like when we started.

They are 4x8 sheets of 1/4" corkboard. We put them up with contact cement. I never thought it would work, but it did. I assume this is going to display information of some kind.




Here you see 2 levels of concrete and stairs. These are the main stairs for up going upstairs. Why they want benches here to sit on, knowbody knows and everybody thinks it was a stupid design. I'm not to argue, but I just install what they say.


There are 14 different boards put together here. I must say this was very difficult and tested our patience, but we got it done.


What people wonder is that on the left you see the first set of steps, that is getting a hand rail. So in order to get to the second level of benches, you have to step on and climb over the first level???

Welcome To WASHINGTON COLLEGE

As you all should know, I have found a part time gig doing something I love, working with wood. This job takes me to Chestertown, MD where I have to live in a hotel for up to 5 days. That part really sucks, but I am thankful that I had the oppurtunity to help Randy out. For those of you who that don't know Randy, he is my landlord who is married to my cousin.

I will be posting what we have been doing. I will explain a little and give you before and after pictures. It looks like it is going to be very nice when it is all complete.

Well this is Washington College, found in 1782 and I guess majors in Science and Liberal Arts since thats what the sign says, but don't ask because I have no clue what you would learn in either of those subjects.

We are working in the addition called Hudson Hall. This is going to be for food and recreation. It has numerous kitchens for like hot foods, cold foods, salad, bakery, and drinks. It has 2 main floors and a third floor on the dining pods, which is one of the things we are working on. You will see lots of pics of these.





So with out further a do, let's get started.

Above you see a picture of 2 green "S" shaped knee walls. We didn't get to these yet, but take notice to how the top of the wall looks. It has no cap.

One of the first things we did was put window seals and door jambs in and put caps on the walls. Below you will see one of the dining pods. Notice the rounded walls. This pod is called the "eliptical pod" because it is egg shaped with round walls and it may look cool, but turned out to be a big pain in the you know what. At the top of the wall you see the cap. I showed you the picture above because all of the walls looked like that and as you see below, we put finished maple caps on them. Also take notice to the windows. We had to put in window seals and in future pictures, if you look the doorways have the same maple jams on them. There was about 14 or 15 windows and 5 doorways. There was about 50 to 70 feet of cap on the eliptical pod and 110 to 120 feet of cap on the rectangelar pod which you will see in the future.

The thing about it is the egg shape. Because of the round corners and egg shape we had to carry up 1 1/2 inch boards that were 12 or 13 inches wide up to 16 ft. long up to the 3rd floor of the pod. Lay out these boards to draw lines so we could carry them back down and load them to go to the shop to be cut, sanded and finished so we could none the less, lug them back up to install them. Needless to say, I earned my money doing this job it was not easy.

We also installed window seals and aprons as you se below. The skinny piece below the window is the "apron." We installed about 2 dozen of these any where from 4 ft. to 16 ft. long.


I will post more pictures soon. Hope you enjoy the information.