Spring Awakening.

Weeeeeee...it's global warming spring time in Creede, which means the slow climb of progress can lurch on with slightly more gusto.

My last post was at the end of December. And now it's March. Crap! The truth is...not too much has happened. We did build a little masking for the refrigerator and add some trim on part of the hallway. New items for the house were acquired, thanks to a trip to Chicago to help go through my aunt Mary Lou's belongings. These things are always an odd process. Packing up the house of someone who didn't plan on dying so soon. It's frozen in time. You feel like you're invading their home.

Ahem...anyway...the stuff! My paternal great grandfather, Rush K. Berry, made a cedar trunk for his girlfriend Oletha, in 1912. Two years later they married. The trunk sits by our front door and holds winter items as well as a kick ass sewing machine, also from ML. She taught home ec for decades and had more sewing machines than I've ever seen one person own. Now I just have to get around to making something...

I like a good lookin' trunk. 

ML and my father's mother, Mary Ann Berry (Mamaw to the grandkids) was a tiny person. Maybe 5'1'' in her youth. Papaw made her many stools so she could reach items in the kitchen and elsewhere. We've got one of those too. Maybe the dog can learn a new trick and fetch us some crackers.

Stool Boom. 

As the weather has improved, we finally got around to cutting out the gingerbread for the back of the house. We're very close to finishing up the backside! A few trim and soffit pieces remain--to be put up so then I can then paint them. I know all anyone really wants in this life is a nice looking backside.

Nice ass, House!

I also want to introduce a SECOND blog that I have created:

It's called Onward and Upward. At the end of last year, RJ's parent's (Roger and Sheri) paid off their mortgage and decided to invest in a second property in Creede. They also decided to hire their first born, my dear RJ, to build it. It's going to be an epic addition to the Mann dynasty. We've already torn down some super old and crappy shit in order to make way for the new. This includes moving an entire structure around on the property. But more on that later. If you are interested in reading about more Mann shenanigans, stop over to this page...