Ouch!

More like moan and groan than ouch, but there were a couple of ouches during the week as well. Both Barb and I (and Forrest) have aching bodies from working on the garage. But we made some great progress!

The pile of lumber that we had delivered last week is now 2/3rd gone and built into actual garage walls. Kevin came over last Sunday and helped us lay out the plates. Laying out the plates is basically marking the bottom and top boards, so you know where to put each of the studs. Typically, 16" apart, this is so you have a board every 48" or 96" so your sheeting seams hit on a stud. There are other studs too, such as corners, intersecting walls, windows and doors. 

Kevin, being a fulltime contractor can lay out buildings in his sleep. Us, not so much. What would take us a full day (probably with a few mistakes), he can do in an hour. So, he was nice enough to come out and lay them out, marking where each stud should go accounting for the length of the wall, windows and doors. That day, he did two walls: one 48' long wall and the 24' west wall. This would be enough to keep us busy for a few days as we built them. Which is what we did on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Tuesday, we built the 48' north wall. The first step was to cut all the studs to 10'. Did you know that a 10' 2x6 is not always exactly 10'? They will be anywhere from 10' to 10'-1/2" so you have to make sure they are all exactly the same size. To do these two walls we needed about 60 studs. Once those are cut you lay them out on the ground, standing on edge with the green treated board on the bottom and the top plate on top. You lay each of the studs at the mark Kevin had made on Sunday. This particular picture is where an interior wall intersects, thus the additional boards. 

Then you nail the studs to the bottom and top plates. Somer even came out to help nail in a few boards!

It was a beautiful day, and we only had one minor incident when I tripped on a stake and took a tumble. Well, it was more like 3-4 stumble steps before I fell, then the fall and a roll down, where I lodged against a tree. I laid there for a few seconds taking inventory of what hurt the most before I struggled to get up. Somer was fortunate enough to witness the entire thing, Barb had her back turned. The only damage was to my pride and my shin which got scraped up. That was my first "Ouch" of the week. 

Our next "Ouch" came the following morning when we were getting out of bed, Barb and I were both moaning and groaning from the previous exertions. We sucked it up though and went back to work building the shorter 24' west wall. Luckily with no additional "Ouches".

Once that was done, Barb and I went shed hunting (hunting for the shed antlers the elk and deer dropped in the last few weeks). We went over near the area where Barb shot her elk last falls as we knew there were a lot of elk in that area. That is where we both experienced our next "Ouches" for the week. We covered some terrain that was way beyond our physical abilities. I like to think we are in pretty decent shape, but we got our asses kicked. Up and down the ridges. It was the ups that kicked our butts. 

What a beautiful day though, 70 degrees and sunny! Did we find any antlers? Just one, a decent whitetail antler. 

Speaking of being physical, Barb and I both had our annual doctor appointments this week. Barb came home with instructions to monitor her blood pressure for the next week as it was higher than they like to see it. My appointment went fine, they asked all the usual questions; "Are you feeling depressed, are you generally happy, do you have thoughts of hurting yourself...... But there was one question that made me pause; "Have you fallen in the last 30 days?". I thought about it for a millisecond before responding "No". I did not need some minor trip being on my permanent medical record!

When I got home, Forrest and I loaded up the boat and headed 40 minutes south to the Angostura Reservoir, the only open body of water in the area. We spent 6 hours on the water half of which I played with the electronics getting familiar with them and the other half fishing. 

What a beautiful day, 84 and sunny! So hot in fact that shirts were coming off and sunburn was setting in. While we did not catch any fish, we had a great day. 

While Forrest and I were fishing, Barb was back home cutting more studs and putting sill seal on the bottom plate.

Friday was a wall raising day! Kevin brought his skid steer over with the boom, Dan and Bonnie came over to help and along with Barb, Forrest and I we were ready to lift some walls! I was skeptical lifting the 48'er, but Kevin knew what he was doing and within 5 minutes we had it standing! We spent the next 45 minutes bracing, drilling concrete anchors and leveling every up.

The 24' wall was next. Again, we leveled, braced and drilled. Kevin still had some time left, so we quickly laid out, built and raised the 24' east wall. Just like that we had 3 walls up!

Before he left, Kevin laid out the plates for the 48' garage door wall. Barb, Forrest and I got busy building it after he left. We still have the large headers to put in, but that too will soon be standing, and we will be ready for the trusses!

We paid for it the rest of that night and the next morning though as our stiff and tired bodies questioned what we were doing to them. The hot tub felt great that night!

Saturday, rain and snow greeted us as we woke up. Three days with 70 and higher followed by snow. Welcome to spring in South Dakota! 

Our niece Alana and Ryan came over on Saturday along with Sophie and Loki for a doggie play day. We were forced to stay inside as it was wet and muddy outside. Oh boy, we had a lot of catching up to do after a 3-month absence. They are building a new house that should be done in the next month or so. We chatted, caught up and of course played dice games. For each game the winner won the money, and the loser had to take a shot. Forrest won 4 times out of 8 games; I lost 5 times out of the 8. Barb added a new element to the loser called The Shot Wheel. The loser had to spin the wheel to see what shot they were taking. 

No post is truly complete without a few dog pictures. This is my view when I am eating a Rice Crispy bar.....

Otherwise, if I am not eating, they just chill.....

While we don't have it on the calendar yet, with luck, next week's post will show some trusses on the building and maybe even some sheeting!