I accidentally left the garden gate open one night and deer ate the tops off of all of the peas we planted.  All but two plants looked dead within days.  (Deer tear the plants they eat – they don’t shear them off.)  But almost all of the plants seem to have made a recovery and we may have a few peas ready to eat before we leave (in just 18 days)!

Here is one of the big radishes from the crop Jordan planted after our vacation.  

I took some time off on Thursday and Friday to take advantage of a lack of rain. We had the front and back walls of the second floor go up and we framed one of the end walls once we had the rafters. The back wall height allows the siding to hang down to the point where it touches the top of the lower wall’s siding. So the total height of the wall on the back of the building is 16 feet.

We spent a lot of time making a rafter template and then marking and cutting the rafters. Pepper and I hauled each of the 20 foot boards into place. We tired ourselves out.

Saturday Pepper and I nailed the rafters in place with Simpson straps and I called John to help get plywood onto the roof. Pepper and I were able to get the sheets onto the second floor pretty easily but putting them on the roof was a little more of a battle. It’s just a little sketchy that high up!

Yesterday Pepper and I nailed down the remainder of the roof sheeting. I cut the edge off of overhanging plywood and then tacked down tar paper that had been given to me. Last night it rained and when I checked the building this morning it was quite dry inside. I had to leave one 32 inch piece of plywood off so I can get back onto the roof easily but will soon need to do away with that luxury.

Next will be framing the last wall, sheeting the walls, building the ramp connecting to the house, putting the metal roofing up and installing windows and doors. Finally insulation of the building.

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I think I scrounged this cargo net at the dump.  It was buried in my piles of stuff which I have been unearthing as I build the shop.  Jordan has been wanting to put it up pretty badly after we went camping at Green’s Camp.  There is a huge net strung up in the trees there.  He spent hours playing in it with Melinda’s and Rachel’s kids.  So yesterday I spent a little time stringing up the cargo net and he spent a lot of time up there with Zach.  Sarah came over to learn glass etching and she hopped in so I crawled in too.  It’s pretty sturdy!  It would be nice if it was easier to get into and out of though.

Our last day in Italy and we had a few of the more distant sites to see. We really should have learned the bus schedule but we stuck to taxis and the subway system. We walked a LOT this day. Unfortunately the two catacombs we went to you are not allowed to take pictures of the interior.

We somehow managed to wait a few days before hitting the Colosseum.

It was a hot day for us to walk around the Forum too.

And we hit the Pantheon too.

We used the subway quite a bit but also did a heck of a lot of walking.

We couldn’t miss the Capuchin Crypt‘s morbid display of bones. You’re not supposed to take photos. I understand not allowing flash photography because the light can damage artifacts but I think seeing pictures like this are more prone to excite people about going to the location.

Then we went to the Trevi Fountain…

It was hot out so we found something to cool down with.

We read about Torre Argentina in the guide book but it didn’t make our list of must-see attractions. But when we stumbled on it we were glad. The site is where temple ruins from 300-400 BC have been set aside as a sanctuary for feral cats. There are a few hundred that roam the site and there is a small shelter run by volunteers.

I made significant headway before the 4th of July on the shop building. I already posted about the piling and beams. But I managed to get the floor joists in and square and then the inch and an eighth plywood flooring down before I had to spend a week and a half of almost all of my time working on the 4th of July.

Every year I take a few days off making the following weekend my 4th of July weekend. And I managed to get all four first floor walls built and put up, partially sheeted and even siding put on the front (because you can see it from the road). Keith, Orin, Pepper, and a guy named John helped get the walls up. Pepper and I managed to put the floor joists in for the second floor and then Jordan helped us put down the 3/4 inch plywood.

I’ve been doing my best to do the project right. I even used a house wrap and have been struggling to keep the structure square and level. But since we have been using rough-cut material for the walls there has been considerable variation. The ceiling for the shop is just a little over 10 feet high. That will let me move even full sheets of plywood around inside the shop quite easily. I have been chewing through the materials that I have been collecting and salvaging for years. By the end of the project I’ll have a lot of dry storage space and a sizable shop and most of my piles of stuff will be depleted!