It’s always harder than it looks. Those were the words a friend shared with me as I was bolting a new floor to the bed of my small lawnmower trailer.

The little trailer, which is about five feet long and about four feet wide, was left derelict long ago. Its rotted bed of plywood was torn off by one of my friends, who subsequently brought it to me and donated it to my cause. I figured that plywood would just rot out again, as well as it not being as sturdy as a thick, treated board.

The friend who gave it to me also gave me a few pointers on putting it together, one of which was the possibility of making the sides removable. That one proved important, since the lawnmower that it is being built to haul would likely strike the sides of the uprights. I almost forgot the fact that he helped me wire it up and replace the tail light lens that I broke when I accidentally backed into the trailer when it was sitting alongside the driveway.

I got my first surprise of the project when I went to the building supply store to buy two treated boards, which measured 2”x12”x12’. The cost was about $41 with tax.

Then I had to buy some bolts to attach the wooden boards to the metal frame, I figured about 20 would be enough. Guess again. I soon realized that I was going to need at least double that many, but not soon enough to head back to the local hardware.

That’s one thing that really bothers me as a ‘weekend warrior’ in the building trades. There really isn’t anywhere (that I know of) in the county to go on a Saturday afternoon and pick up a handful of bolts or a few planks.

So, when I run out of whatever it is that I am working with, I end up driving to some other county to get more supplies. I suppose you might argue that I should prepare better and all that stuff. If I knew what I was doing, do you think I would only be in demand working for myself on weekends? Think about it.

I also had a little helper for a good part of the project, who helped herself to several of my tools (including attaching a tape measure to her pocket that nearly pulled her pants off). With a big carpenter’s pencil shoved deep in her pocket, she was very proud to help.

I finally attached the trailer to the truck and pulled it around the driveway in a symbolic victory ride just before stopping to put all the tools away. After that, I attached the two ramp brackets on the back and drove the lawnmower up on the trailer. I didn’t need to take it anywhere, I just wanted to see how well it fit. It’s like putting the icing on the cake. Since I didn’t get the sides attached, I was a little scared to try and haul the mower around on another victory lap.

I started the trailer around 2 p.m. and didn’t get the deck on it until around 8 p.m. I wasn’t exactly running, but I didn’t stop working on it either.

Several holes had to be drilled or re-drilled and a few of my measurements didn’t work out exactly like they should have. That’s another problem with doing this sort of work only on a sometimes basis. At least I didn’t mess up any of the cuts on those $20 boards. Next time, I’m going to go to a sawmill somewhere before I start working on a project.

By Sunday, I went over to my parents’ house for a visit. I was happy to see that my father is recovering from his bout with pneumonia. He had been weak and sleepy-eyed the last time I saw him; an oxygen hose routed through his nose. He even mentioned that he might not be around much longer.

It’s hard to watch anyone get sick, but it seems harder when a strong man becomes weak. With the help of another round of antibiotics and about two week’s time, he looked like a different man on Sunday. His color, once near purple, was back to a more-normal reddish hue. The oxygen machine, now discarded, was back in the bedroom, its once-sinister lines that fed support to his nose now harmlessly coiled around the machine. I suppose it had lost its symbolic meaning to me after it was rolled away from beside his favorite chair. It was always little more than a box with a hose coming out of it, but when I saw it the first time, it was more like a harbinger of bad omens.

I was as glad to not see it in the living room as a child would be to see the monsters disappear from the closet. However, I know that my monsters will need to be dealt with one day.

I went to see another friend later that evening, who saw fit to give me a large slab of black granite and a smaller chunk of pink granite. The larger piece looks like it could be the better part of a countertop. The other piece may be a small chunk like a gravestone blank. I think I will use the pink granite for a marker of some sort, while the larger piece will soon find its way to my living room as a coffee table.

Since it weighs about 200 pounds, I want to make sure I don’t have to move it any more than necessary. Loading it on the truck was work enough for me, since I had to carry it about 20 yards before sitting it down on the tailgate, huffing and puffing.

They were easier to unload, since it as all downhill.

By Monday evening, I finally got part of the sides attached to the new trailer, putting in the last bolts just before the sun set over the big pine trees behind my house. I figure I can also attach a back gate and use the trailer to haul firewood.

With the price of gas, I’m trying to get as much as I can on each load. I bought gas for $1.99 at a station in Virginia Sunday and thought it was cheap. That’s scary if you think about it.

I figure heating fuel will be outrageous this winter. That just makes my firewood stack look all the better. If I had it stacked up already, it would look better.

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