Been a bit busy with work and outside projects but we all took off for the White Mountains on July 1st. Spent a week at Bretton Woods and the Mount Washington Resort, swimming with the kids, watching the fireworks, and relaxing with Laurie, Yannick, Linda, Kirsten. Celebrated my 40th birthday there. I am still amazed I lasted this long… 
Thinking it would be a fairly easy birthday workout, I rode my mountain bike the five or six miles from our condo located off of Base Road up to Marshfield Station and the Cog Railroad. I was sucking wind by the summit but the view and cool air more than made up for my agonizing ride up to 2700 ft (about a 1000 ft ascent.) I have to admit, I felt smug looking around at the overweight 40-somethings getting out of their cars, fumbling for a smoke and then noticing that I had biked up. Next year, I will make the climb even faster.
After almost two weeks of clearing out a wooded spot in the backyard, hauling out the debris (almost a 15 cu ft dumpster full) and leveling the ground with 1 ton of gravel, I had a shed installed today by Sheds USA. It’s 120 sq. ft. and all cedar. Didn’t have the factory do everything so my next steps are to install gable vents, add interior shelving and an attic area, build a ramp and stain the exterior. Looking forward to moving the mower, snow thrower and other lawn tools into the shed and getting my garage back.
Last week we stayed at the Mountain Club at Loon Mountain and spent a few days skiing. Got both kids in lessons and I decided to try snowboarding. It was my first time so I took a 2 hour ‘intro’ class with two other people and then spent the rest of the day on my own. It was awesome and I’m already planning another trip back. Been checking out the gear I want to get. Would make a nice 40th birthday present (hint for Kirsten.)
Cate and Abby loved their ski lessons. One afternoon, Abby and Kirsten took the gondola up to the summit and skied down together – this just blew me away. I couldn’t believe how it all just came together for Abby and was proud to see her skiing confidently and loving it. Cate, by her second lesson, was turning and stopping like a pro and wants to go back as soon as she can.
Happy Holidays from Chris, Kirsten, Abby & Cate
I completed the swing set for the girls but never got around to posting about it. Let me start at the beginning…
When we moved here and realized we had our own whopping half-acre spread (tongue-in-cheek), the girls immediately asked for a swing-set. We ended up waiting … one summer came and went, then another and then we decided we should do it before the girls started high school.
We looked at the fancy swing-set designs costing $2K or more and, frankly, I wasn’t impressed with the construction. Yeh, it’s a lot less work to purchase something from a store or catalog and have it installed but I wanted the challenge of building this myself and being able to tailor it to fit our yard. Having a job that allows me to work out of the house also meant I could tackle the project during the week so it shouldn’t take too long, right? Well, I started in late June and didn’t finish until late August. Two things slowed me down (ok, three if you count a few rainy days):
1. I needed some additional tools
2. The wood prep took much longer than I anticipated
I ended up buying a great Porter-Cable mitre saw and assorted hand tools which helped a lot but the sanding and staining of all the pressure treated lumber added weeks to the process. And, yes, I used a mask when I was sanding all that chemical filled lumber.
I also decided to change the plans a bit and use a composite material for the decking above the slide. Composite decking is a mix of wood and plastic that is extruded by a machine. The local home center had it in 12′ lengths and I fastened it using stainless steel screws. It needs no staining, will not splinter or decay and should handle the pounding it will get from the kids.
Next summer, I’m adding monkey bars to the back of the swing-set leading up to the slide deck. I just ran out of time to complete it before moving on to other projects that needed to get done before winter. It was a great project, one that I recommend if you have the time and the tools. Take a look…
Spent a relaxing week in Florida with the family. Other than the two holes in one (it was miniture golf) and the great fishing, the best part was that I had WIFI (wow, I AM a geek ). An open Linksys Wireless-G Broadband Router nearby made checking email a lot easier than dealing with dial-up or driving to an Internet cafe. Remember to secure your wireless and change the default admin password in the router.
