Running a Bit Behind Schedule

I reserve a block of time to hunt every fall.

It’s typically the whole season.

My wife used to push back a bit, but in recent years has relented, finally realizing, I suppose, that four months of me gone most days is a pretty good deal.

This fall I’m paying her back.

Instead of hunting I’m building.

We sold our house in Malta last summer forcing us to downsize. What didn’t fit in our cabin on the lake we divided between the office we still have in Malta, and the small house we bought a couple of years ago in Livingston. Both places are packed.

The solution, we decided, was to build a garage behind the house in Livingston. It would handle the overflow.

Over the ensuing months, however, the garage plans morphed into plans for a sewing room for you know who. I’m fine with that. We all need our space.

My truck lives outside anyway.

And I can still hunt.

I told Barb it would only take me two weeks to get the building enclosed. Dot and I should be back in the field by October.

I am running a bit behind schedule, though.

For some odd reason things take me longer than they use to. I stood up the first wall this morning and I’m already exhausted. I suspect 2x4s weigh more than they did 20 years ago. Same with my saw. It was never this heavy.

Driving nails that once took me three swings of the hammer now take six. I blame the nails. Apparently they’re not as sharp as they once were.

Like all of my building projects, the plans are in my head, and therefore subject to change. I’m still trying to remember where all the lumber goes.

The backyard looks like a job site, but instead of workers scurrying around to get things in place, there’s just a lone old man scratching his head in bewilderment.

I’ll get it figured out. There are only six more walls to stand, two sets of rafters, five windows, a couple of doors, and all the sheathing.

Then I’ll go hunting. Barb says I can finish the sewing room this winter.

I look forward to it. Instead of spending the frigid months curled up on the couch watching basketball, I’ll be outside pounding nails.

Now if I can just summon the energy to go back outside in the heat I may still get to hunt a day or two this month.

Parker Heinlein is at [email protected]