We played host to our first unofficial wedding shoot

Okay, so I don't have any pictures to show. On Saturday, October 2nd, there was a wedding at the church across the street from our house. Prior to the ceremony, the photographers were taking pictures of the bride and groom outside of our house. Chris offered to let them use the drawing room for some of the shots, which they did. So we have unofficially had our first wedding shoot at the house.

The Tower

Let me start this post with the following statement: "I'm a guy. As with most males our description of colors are simple, such as: black, brown, blue, green, white (oh yes, white is a color), and red. Colors such as: taupe, chartreuse, wine, etc. do not exist in my library of colors. Get the picture?" Now that that has been established let me talk about the tower. We have finished painting the upper part of the tower (well there is a little touch up work to do), and the colors are: dark green for the cedar shakes; beige for the window trim with a thin line of green on the inner trim and maroon for the window sash; light green for the dentil work at the top with maroon on the trim below the dentil work; the outer trims of the tower (top and bottom) are beige with a white underside. (You need to click on the pictures and zoom them in to see the detailed work). It is such a wonderful feeling (not that I'm a feeling type of guy) to see the details of the tower. The color scheme is perfect. All praise must go to my wonderful wife, Chris, for her vision.

Friends in high places

A friend stopped by the other day and made a comment about "friends in high places". I thought I would let you see what it was like to be a friend in high places.

Those dark marks on the roof are the holes I had to patch because of the 2x4's I screwed to the roof to make a ladder so I could get to the chimney. The lift wouldn't reach this one. Next time I think I will use a safety line; I can tell you that it's a weird feeling to be walking at such a steep pitch without a safety line. Notice that the chimney on the left has not been capped. I believe that this has contributed to the bats getting into the house, however I can't reach the top of the chimney with the lift so capping the chimney will have to wait for another day. I'm grateful for our cat who helps with the bats!

Have you ever wondered how the world looks to a bird? Here's a bird's eye view:

Now riddle me this, Batman. How can a bird in flight at a high altitude manage to hit such a small target? Ah, now that's the million dollar question.

Just like an amusment park ride

One of the major goals while the lift is here is to repair two chimneys. It is not a good sign when you can see daylight through the bricks, or in other words look through one side of the chimney and out the other because the mortar is missing. The hazard becomes the danger of "falling bricks". It is my goal to repair them before that happens. Saturday between sessions of conference I worked on one of the chimneys. Have you ever used an articulating lift? It is like operating an amusement park ride, one with interesting thrills, especially when there are 10-15 mph wind gusts. It's a weird sensation to feel what you believe to be a stable platform move under you feet. Here are the captured pictures of me, somewhere around 45 feet in the air, repairing bricks. (Photos courtesy of Chris)

Trust me, I'm up there! Anyway, I finshed the chimney that Brother Miller started...

and now I have one left. (Notice the holes, it's worse than it looks).

Oh the joys of restoration!

Into one's life a little sting must come

It's amazing how when you commit to do something right, how the Lord helps by sending people to lighten your burden. Chris and I decided that we were going to attend the temple during the week which would mean that we would end up paying for the lift to sit idle for a day. It would also mean giving up a day of work but we felt that the Lord would bless for our commitment. Wednesday, out of the blue two missionaries from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints stopped by with an offer of their services to us. Since Brother Miller and I were taking down trees it seemed like a great offer. They could work on the trees and I could continue my work on the front porch. Prior to recommencing on the tree take down Brother Miller took both missionaries (Elder Chidester (left) and Elder Lyon (right)) up in the lift to inspect the beehive in our old maple tree. The bees have been busily building a comb at the entrance of the hive. (Notice how close the missionaries are to the beehive.)

I thought it would be a great update to my September 22nd post to show the comb. I take it that the bees do not like the paparazzi because as we were going up in the lift I was suddenly stung on the right side of my face at the cheek bone, a place with little fatty tissue to absorb the sting. At first it felt like an electrical shock followed by a burning pain. For a couple of days the area was painful and felt like I had been hit in the face with a baseball. (I know that baseball feeling as I was an infielder during my amateur baseball career.) Anyway, having been stung I decided that I was not going down empty handed, or should I say "without my picture" so we proceeded up the lift. Somebody has to hurt in order to get the pictures.

Brother Miller's comforting words to me regarding the sting were "As long as your throat doesn't swell shut and you stop breathing, then you are not allergic to bee stings". I guess I'm not allergic to bee stings since I am still here.