Getting closer...

The posts are cut!  The posts are cut!!  The posts are cut!!!

Another round of paint on the morrow and the airing porch is done!!!  [At least my part is.]

The steps are all boarded.  Firewood Man admitted that he's putting of the angled cut of the handrail until the last possible minute.  He made progress on putting up the lattice.  As I put it, the dead bodies buried beneath the porch can no longer reach up their arms through the creepy debris down there and grab me.

The trim work is still ongoing.  We realized that we had forgotten the boards to cover the facia board (and those ugly bolts).  That will need to be painted.  However, I think I might try to do it after it is installed.  Because ............ Tim is almost certain he will finish on Monday.

For my part, I supervised, held boards level as he matched them up, squealed in terror each time he cut something by holding a board across his leg, put proper screws into the firewood rack (the ones that came with it were not really wood screws), added the padding to the bottom of the rack so it will not scratch the porch floor, helped clean up work debris, and did a bit of weeding whilst cajoling Amos to tend to his business even though lots of scary noise was being created by all of Tim's work.

Tim stopped to admire my burning bushes.  [Please ignore the gutter lying on the ground, as it cannot go back up until the facia board is painted.]  Just look at that GREEN grass!!!!!!!!!

Whilst the grass has grown back toward my bench three stepping stones worth since Tim started tending my yard for me, there is still bare ground that can get muddy, even though it does have a covering of fallen leaves from the evergreen trees I have back there.  Since I complained about Amos' muddy paws, Tim brought over a ginormous bag of pine needles for me to lay down as cover over the winter.  No more muddy paws!  What a kind man he is!!

Amos doesn't quite know what to do with or think about the pine needles.

Tim left about 4:00 PM today.  For the briefest of moments I thought about trying to squeeze in that second coat of paint before dark fell, but I am exhausted from all my helping and puttering and imagining the cutting of fingers and limbs.  I thought it would be smarter of me to just wait until tomorrow to paint.

Sometimes, the intelligent part of my brain is still working, eh?