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Friday’s Weekend Column
About a Minnesota Man Exploring Life in the South Having Fun
It is so very hot down here in North Florida, and when it gets hot like this you had better do something you like, or you will be just miserable.
The studio is hot, but I have several big fans, and if you are just sanding or carving or drawing, just being out of the sun can make the heat tolerable. I do have one big project going that is so much fun that no matter how hot it is I can work on it and have a great time. I am in the process of building a big tree house. It has been in the works for a long time, but now it is taking shape, and I can sit on the platform and enjoy myself. The animals walking through the woods are used to it now, and they are not looking up to see if I am up there. I watched a couple of foxes saunter by and have a doe with fawn who I get glimpses of. There is a pair of pileated woodpeckers who call back and forth to each other and make quite the racked.
It is hot working and lately it has been mostly ladder work. Right now I am in the process of bracing the platforms to make them rigid when a lot of people get up there. I'm not really building in the tree, but rather have my platforms supported with posts and the trees grow through the platforms. Now that the platforms are done I can start building the little house that will be a little cabin way up high. I plan on making it with a flat roof with a deck on top, so I'll need to build another set of stairs to get up there.
I am building it by myself which has its pros and cons. The nicest thing about building anything alone is the wonderful thought time you have, and how quiet it is when you stop to enjoy what you just did. I hope to have that little cabin done by fall. No matter how nice it is, I don't think even up high it would be comfortable to sleep in with the summer heat down here, but I am looking forward to afternoon naps and quiet reading time is the fall, spring, and winter. Yes, I sure am having fun. |
Yes it is hot working out in the garden, but the flip side is that with all the heat, my vegetables are doing just great. All I have to do is make sure they have water, and I do weed. At this stage in the season, I don't think the weeds make any difference, but I like seeing the garden looking real nice, so I try to keep the weeds down, and I till around the plants. Yesterday I picked 13 tomatoes and one zucchini. Today we used several fresh herbs, tomato, green pepper, and zucchini in our dinner, and I did pick a few more tomatoes. I have several more bell peppers ready, but I want them to get a bit bigger so we can stuff them.
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