Jeff, Meghan, Mason and Owen left to go back to Scotts Valley on Friday (today is a rainy Sunday morning). We had a GREAT time and I hope they did as well.
Unfortunately the subsidiary that I work for is in the midst of a 5 way merger and things are extremely busy and time sensitive leading up to our next phase on August 1st – so I was not able to take any time off beyond the weekend to hang out. But we did have the opportunity to see each other each night and on the weekend we got some time to play Dungeons & Dragons with Mason and Jeff hosted a party at my house on Sunday which went super well. The Muldowney’s came, Chris Fielding and his kids, the Collins’ (both Massachusetts and Maryland set), Scott Johnstone, Craig First, the Richardsons (my neighbors), friends of Chris and Mary Collins from down in Maryland and Ben (a friend of Meghan’s from California who is living in New England at the moment). Probably missing some folks too!
Quite a successful party – food was good, conversation was good and the zillion kids all had a great time doing gymnastics, blowing bubbles with commercial and hand made bubble machines and of course, getting Kimbles ice cream !!
Yesterday, my Dad and I went up to Brentwood New Hampshire to Highland Hardwoods to look at speciality hardwood for building the first shepherd’s hut. With the frame done, now I need to finalize the design of the structure itself, get the materials and start building. I was thinking of using oak 4×4 beams for a post and beam construction – but I may fall back to local Concord Lumber construction grade pine. Highland Hardwoods was not what I was expecting – it was more of a traditional lumber warehouse – which I suppose makes sense since the majority of their wood is locally sourced and used in construction. What I am used to is MacBeath Hardwood in Berkeley California who ship in wood from all over the world and it is a spice shop of exotic smells in their warehouse. Some thinking is needed for this project, but as Dad pointed out, I also have projects like a coffee table or two, a media center for the TV and other projects – Highland should be able to do the job for me !
Had a great time with family and I hope they had fun too !
