Deck Moving Week

Another week zips by in a blink here at the Plantation. Here are a few pictures of the ice cream social on Sunday. As you can see it is always well attended but we haven’t known a food event that the Escapee SKPs don’t attend! The ladies that crocheted rugs from yarn display their projects and you can also see a few of the canned chairs that will be auctioned off on Monday after our Mardis Gras parade and lunch. There will be 21 chairs in all going on the block – wow.

Monday afternoon, Barb attended her knitting class while I faked going over to cane. I made an excuse to leave the club house and snuck out to buy some roses and a pot of tulips for Barb. After I set them up in the rig, I went back to the club house to finish caning my chair for the auction. All done, even a coat of wax to help protect the finish and it looks really good even if I do say so myself. After we were done and finally arrived back at home, Barb was surprised by my sneakiness.

On Tuesday, the quilting ladies had a Valentine  gift swap that they created for each other. Barb made a fabric flower broach and a bag to keep it in. The ladies here show off their prized gifts to each other. When I am in the club house caning, you can hear the ladies are having a good time – I don’t hear many sewing machines working hard but the ladies…. 

In the evening we celebrated Valentines with a dinner and camaraderie at the clubhouse. As usual, the food was good and the company is always fun.

Wednesday is landscape day on our site and this day we chose to move the deck! We propped it up on 4x4s and used planks as pry bars and inched it out to where we wanted it. Little did we know that it had a ton of blocks under it and a couple of times the deck would get hung up on the blocks. So, we doubled the 4x4s and continued to where we wanted it. Barry came by to help and then we were able to lift one side to about 40 degrees and cleaned out all the block and stuff from underneath. Next was the challenge to lower it without dropping it and try to get it level. We lined up some block along the trailer side and then tried to line up a few on each end. While it was up in the air, why not put some block under the frame at the low end so we wouldn’t have to raise that side to place the blocks in the right spots. Good idea in theory but when we started lowering the deck, it scooted out from under us and slide to the Sage Palm and hit it with a thud. Not our plan! So we inched it back and then started the leveling process at each corner then the centre. Great job by all.

Ouch, oooch – it is tough rolling out of bed today! I think I used muscles I hadn’t used in awhile. Anyway, I’m off to the computer group session this morning and Barb gets to stay home – what a role change that is. The quilting ladies cancelled their sewing today as the clubhouse is busy with Mardis Gras decorating. After the computer group, I came home to finish the deck. We had removed the centre boards and then I could place blocks under the deck frame to stabilize it. The first few were difficult then my darling bride suggested I get OFF the deck to place the blocks. Wow, did that make the job easier! All done and now it is solid and level, I just have to drop and attach the anchors so it hopefully won’t blow away this summer.

It’s Friday and after dinner, we crown the king and queen for this years Mardis Gras celebrations. So, tune in next week to hear and see our few days of excitement. Hope all is well where ever you are.