Many Thanks & Merry Christmas Everyone!

To rummage through the files from Christmas Past is part archaeology and part memory lane.

It always amazed me how tickled some people were to receive the annual Christmas Postcard ( At least that is what they told me!!!). Definitely a different era.

The earliest (not pictured) grew out of the Barbeque Pizza Serial Saga. ( To be discussed at another time)

They were printed on a dot matrix printer with the aid of an Apple IIc computer (Remember them?)

The Christmas poem was for some reason a favorite and reappeared several times over the years.

Then came the post Hurricane Fran card which I was barely able to mail at all because of all the cleanup work those busy months required (especially at my house!)

The vintage 1997 Santa Pooper Scooper Christmas Postcard I mailed as a JOKE! and now in 2009 there are not one but several Pooper Scooper Companies in Raleigh!

What a wild strange world we all inhabit!

So for those of you who need some seasonal silliness enjoy these five selections from the archives.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year Folks!

I have been blessed to serve you again this year!

Door Jamb Repair

Today’s project, water damage right at the bottom of door threshold.

An all too common job–the damage you see is usually a result of rain water back-splash from some hard surface onto the lower few inches of exposed wood.

In most cases not too hard to fix. Enjoy the video!

Field Cut Fascia Miter

Another video! There may be more than a few of these lurking about the shop.

Okay, I am not exactly Bob Villa, but I did manage to drag a camcorder up on the roof with me and not get killed.

That has got to count for something.

So, to proceed….in the ordinary course of routine repairs many times the best repair is to “first do no harm”.

Tree Felling With Crane

The tree guys came by to take down a 110 foot tree before it destroyed a bungalow style cottage I periodically repair.

They brought their crane. Turns out life with a crane is a little bit different.

These guys were real life spidermen who rode up and down that thin crane cable like an elevator.

The 110 foot tree came down in 20 foot chunks and was safely cut up on the ground into bite size pieces.

Once the crane was in position it took little more than an hour to get the entire tree prone in the driveway.

The entire procedure was quite a memorable performance.

To see how firewood is made visit this Arbormax video:

Link: Arbormax Firewood Video

Turpentine Lighter Pine Window Sill

From North Carolina, the Tarheel State, comes this example of lighter pine in the form of a window sill in service for at least 100 years!

After all that time the turpentine fumes remain as fresh and pungent as the day the wood was milled and installed.

This wood is still so saturated with pine tar resin it burns at the touch of a match.

Volatile hydrocarbons, not from some internal combustion engine, but from all natural, completely organic pine trees!

The light blue smog emitted from this pine tree resin gave the Great Smoky Mountains their name!

Read more here….CLICK LINK

November Backlog Post

Amazing! In November the camera filled up with pictures and video and I did not post a single thing!

Yikes! Videos will take longer but here are a few teaser photographs from the job board that are downloaded and ready to go!

Radius Crosshead Cut With Circular Saw

Removeable Stairwell Bulkhead To Keep Water Out Of Commercial Building

PVC Replacement Window Sill