Wood Rack

Last weekend, Hubby, the Imp and I all went up to see my folks in SC. My little brother, Brian (who turned 36), and his family were there, too. The guys (Hubby, Brian and my dad) had the task of replacing my dad's rotting wood rack. My dad lives in the woods and collects fallen trees for his firewood. He had a wood frame with a tarp covering to stack this wood in. The tarp kept the wood relatively dry.
Brian got there before Hubby and dismantled the old frame. Some boards were 'humming' and vibrating. Wood-boring bees had made their home there. Better him than me handling that. Once Hubby got there the 3 men had a pow-wow over THE PLANS for the new structure. Dad, never to do anything half-way, wanted to make a concrete base. After some quick figuring made Brian and Hubby realize over 25 bags of 80 lb concrete would be needed, they nixed the idea. If my dad were in better health, he would have won the argument, because he would have done the work himself. Unfortunately for him, he had to give up some of the control on the project, and to his credit handled it pretty well. The boys didn't finish the project that will eventually rival a small play house. The frame is 12 ft wide and 3 feet deep. The front of the structure is 5 feet and the back 4 feet tall.

The frame is complete, including pouring concrete filler at the four support poles in the ground. Only the planks of plywood to create the floor and the vinyl roofing needs to be added.

It was fun and entertaining to watch the 3 of them try to figure it all out. Hubby really enjoyed spending the last day with my dad pouring the concrete. It was just the two of them then and Dad told stories of his youth back in rural Louisiana in the 1940s.
I got to spend time with the cutest, most energetic little boys. My nephews (6 and 3 1/2)are so charming it's scary. The younger one has the cutest little dimples. The will both be lady-killers and will get out of lots of scrapes with their impish grins and great sense of humor. My Imp loves them, but wasn't thrilled at their infatuation with the great outdoors. There were lots of bugs and various other critters roaming around my parents' house. She was ready to come home when they started catching bees in jars. My parents have some great spider webs around outside their house. We saw a spider resembling this one

The boys thought it cool; it gave the Imp the willies.
The Imp and I took my mom shopping at Columbia Mall. We did a lot of window shopping, not much buying, but had a great time just visiting.