men at work!

This is my youngest brother, Tony.
In his younger years, he was trained as a house framer and construction is his specialty.
By 10 AM, he had removed all the damaged fascia on the back of my house, hence those open areas at the ends of the roof rafters.
Here, he was taking a pause to determine how far back he needed to cut the water-damaged soffit to the left of the vent.
(smile)

This is my brother Smitty.
We differ by only two years.
He and I had made this deal about two years ago to have work done on my house in return for my work on his business.
Since then, I've been building up credit and the time had finally come for part of the work to be done.
The yardwork wasn't part of the deal, but I was glad he decided to help a sister out with it!
(smile)

Then I had a nice surprise -
my nephew, Smitty's son Zach,
came by to help out, too!
He was immediately put to work laying up some new fascia, after Tony had placed the first piece and finished off the soffit.
Then he was turned loose with that massive yellow weed-whacker machine on the rest of the back yard and all of the front, too.
He was so fast with that machine!
(smile)

By noon30 (as they say at the
Savannah Music Festival),
the decaying wooden fascia
with its peeling paint
had been totally replaced by
the new and improved vinyl version.
Doesn't it look beautiful?!

As for the back yard,
the nearly two-foot high growth
had largely been tamed.
No more monstrous dandelions
sprouting forth and making more!
No more purple blooms of the legions
of wild iris drunkenly staggering around
in every direction!

Still no rain, so they kept working.
Here, on the side of the house,
the soffit had rotted out again,
though not quite to the point it was
about a decade ago.
Back up the ladder Tony went,
pulling down the damaged wood!
Then up it he went again
to install the vinyl material!

Oh my goodness!
Doesn't that look wonderful?!
As good fortune would have it,
Smitty had all the tools they needed -
and the materials, too -
on his truck, so no side trips
to fetch anything were needed.
i thank You, God.
(smile)

How had I passed the time while they were working on my house and yards?
I was in my Ocean Room, vacuuming up cat hair from the carpet with a brush tool,
scrubbing down surfaces with Chlorox wipes, spraying more and more deodorizer into the cat-scented air, sprinkling baking powder again and again.
I took down the blinds, deciding they were not worth keeping or cleaning.
Time to put my Ocean Room (shower) curtains back in place!
However, some of the seashell hooks had fallen out of the curtains.
When I searched for them, I found... a penny.
So rough and scarred that it had no shine, so dinged and scraped that the date was not legible, looking like it would have been more at home on a well-used street, the penny had still caught my attention...
reassuring me that all was well and I was loved.

i thank You, God.

Now, Smitty and Tony and Zach and I have lunched on "Andy's Pasta" -
that dish I make with the kale and tomatoes and chicken and pasta -
and they have gone on their way.
I will soon be meeting Carolyn to watch a romance, "Krystal".
Life is so very good...

i thank You, God.