First timbers are up

After a few days of loading and unloading, measuring, cutting, lifting, rolling, loading and unloading again, the first timbers are on site and ready to be erected.

Here they sit, close to where they will go up.

One post up, thirty some to go.

The crew.

First top beam set.

It's amazing how tall it looks when it's upright!

Next, posts and beams

With the floor ready to use, it's time to start moving timbers from the Raccoon Creek site.

The pile that was here...

is now here...

and on its way to be resized for the house.

Finally, a floor

Before we could pour our floor we had to place all the drain lines, place the PEX water lines, bury the water and telephone lines, level the area with stone, cover it all with two-inch-thick polyurethane insulation, distribute the radiant heat water lines, and place the rebar.

Here's the result of all those steps awaiting the concrete pump and trucks. The extra thick piers are visible where the insulation doesn't show. We decided not to place radiant heat in the two small guest rooms. For those few times they will be used when the sun doesn't heat them, we will use a portable heater.

The pump has started pushing concrete to the farthest corner of the building.

Just the rest of the large room and the master bedroom to go. The pump shuts down between truckloads of concrete. The tube can be seen hanging to the left.

Ta da! Now we wait for it all to set, the crew will cut some slots in the morning, and the floor will be finished.

Graduation number 2

Our week away from home is nearly finished, but not before we see grandson Nicholas Riddle graduate. He has been at Carolina Coastal University for four years and plans to go off to Illinois College of Optometry after the summer.

Here's Nick going over the hill.

Dad (Barry), Nick, and Grammy (Sandy).

Since Nick was all packed there wasn't much for us to do, so we said our goodbyes and started home.

350 miles, 5 days, hmm...

We spent an extra day in Jacksonville with Andrew's family and left early the next morning heading for the Okefenokee Swamp. Our next "appointment" was a graduation at Carolina Coastal University in South Carolina.

We entered the Okefenokee via Georgia's Steven C Foster State Park. There we rented a canoe and paddled into the swamp. I'll let the pictures speak for themselves.





We took a tent with us on the trip but the weather was threatening so we wimped out and stayed at a nearby motel.

The next day we headed for Jekll Island, Georgia, in search of the The Georgia Sea Turtle Center on Jekyll Island. It's an interesting place. We visited the building where they rehabilitate turtles. That's where I found "Ed," an 18-pound, juvenile, female! green sea turtle who was floating abnormally when found last September near Jekyll Island. She is eating now and will likely be released soon.



Still a few days until graduation number two so we explored the rest of the island and headed north. We spent one more night in a motel and two nights camping.

The first camping night was on the ocean at Hunting Island State Park in South Carolina. We had a tent site no more than 100 feet from the beach and spent a few hours walking in the surf.

Our second camping night was on the Intercoastal Waterway at the US Forest Service's Buck Hall Campground. Our tent was fifty feet from a seawall on the waterway.

The next morning we stopped to pick some fresh strawberries (which survived about 30 minutes) and spent the better part of the day at Brookgreen Gardens near Myrtle Beach, leaving at the last minute to pick up Barry at Myrtle Beach Airport.

Salute! How we spent Mayday

We took a long week off at the end of April to drive to Jacksonville, Florida. Under the live oak trees on the campus of Jacksonville University, my son Andrew got his BA degree, magna cum laude, on May 1st.


Not only that, he also was recognized as an ROTC officer candidate.


Got some added recognition from Andrea.


Was sworn in.


And got his lid from daughter Audrey.



What a day!

Outdoor effort at the apartment

While the weather was cold Sandy took a weekly course that, after 35 hours of volunteer work, will make her a master gardener.



As the weather got better, she started putting her new knowledge to work. Vegetables were planted and mulched. Some were covered with a netting to discourage butterfly caterpillars from munching on them.










When that was done she set about digging up a sloped path that has proven very slippery from time to time. I moved some of our pavers back up to the apartment area to be used as stairs, and, with the help of some old lumber, started putting them together.




Watch for more pictures of the garden as it grows.