Building More Than a Deck

This summer has been a deep dive into projects.  Other summers have passed with long road trips, lounging at pools, and putzing in the garden, but not this one.  We've wielded paint brushes, power washers, hammers, drills, and the almighty shovel. 

For several weeks I have poured significant time into laboriously painting shop windows for the Music Man set.  I loved it so much I seriously thought I may have missed my calling as a sign painter!  Then, last weekend, I joined a hundred people to tear it all down (sad sigh.)  Sunday night I collapsed in exhaustion.  Monday morning I took my daughter camping for American Heritage Girls, and Tuesday I started the next project...building a 2-level deck with my husband and son. 

Every summer for seven years we've talked about this, sketched out plans, and then shelved it for another year.  I'm so glad we waited.  The little boy who would have been in the way is now big enough to hammer 4-inch nails and carriage bolts, and drill a thousand deck screws.  His compensation for a week of hard work?  Vikings tickets!

While the boys (and daughters, too) get to drill, measure, hammer, and place the wood,  I get to shovel, shovel, shovel.  Fill up the wheelbarrow.  Roll is to the back.  Empty it.  Spread the dirt and pea rock.  Wheel it back up the hill.  Do it again.  Here's the thing...I love it!  I've been lifting weights at our local athletic club for a couple of years, and I surely don't get a new deck at the end of all my exertion. 

Purposeful labor is a thing of beauty in our cerebral, technology-driven life.  During the school year, our heads are in books and laptops, our hands lift nothing heavier than guitars, remotes, laundry baskets (and, well, weights,) and the results are nebulous and hard to measure. 

When you slide on your work gloves, grip the wooden handle, sink the spade hard into earth and rock, feel your muscles strain and contract and occasionally rebel, now that is satisfying.  Watching your son and husband work side by side, seeing the pile of wood in your driveway transform into a deck in your backyard, listening to classic rock on the radio, warm sun, cool breeze, tiger swallowtail and monarchs, dog rolling in the dirt.  It's poetry.   

Dave always amazes me with his skill, hard work ethic, and patience in teaching the kids.  My hero in a tool belt! He claims the most useful summer job he had as a teen was assisting a building contractor.

This was one of my projects.

A strange teen phenomenon:  planking.  Why?  Good question.

There were many breaks taken on the rope swing.  A steady stream of neighbor girls have stopped by to watch the project.

Not feeling guilty about eating a DQ blizzard at the end of the day.  Perfection.

The dictionary is the only place where success comes before work.  -Vince Lombardi