After a few more miscues and an ending that dragged on and on, the porch is finally 99 percent complete. Now I wish I could say the same for the painting job that I recently took on for a family member.

I applied the final porch rail to the front steps, attached the metal roofing and fascia board, put the siding on the house wall and cleaned up most of the mess on Saturday. I probably won't apply any stain or other wood treatment to the boards until they have had a little time to season.

I still lack putting something under the porch to keep the weeds from growing there, but I'm not in much of a hurry to do that with winter coming on. I also need to clean up some of the still-useable materials from the scrap pile I've made below the porch.

Even though the job is now done, the back porch managed to suck most of the life from my meager checking and savings. So, with other unforeseen cash obligations arising, I found myself in need of an economic shot in the arm. While painting isn't exactly my specialty or my favorite thing to do, I'll take any port in a storm.

Yes, I had plenty to do already. Yes, I know that it is now October and my potatoes are still in the ground and I don't have an adequate supply of firewood ready to burn. I also haven't cleaned off the garden and the weeds behind the house are now dying voluntarily, possibly death by boredom from waiting for me to come and chop them down. See, if you ignore a problem long enough, it will disappear on its own.

It was sometime around the first of September, after consulting with my starving bank book, that I agreed to do the painting work in my spare time. On the following weekends, I worked for the newspaper, worked to finish my porch, attended the Mountain Heritage Festival, helped organize a birthday party and endured a rainy day or three.

Now the calendar is pointing an accusatory finger at me in the shape of the word "October" and reminding me that I may have bitten off more than I could chew. I can easily see now that it is coming on fall with lower temperatures, more damp weather and lessening daylight. But around the first of September, it was hot and sunny and everything looked rosy.

I hope to actually start applying paint this week sometime, after about a month of delays.

The top of the trim is brown and needed to be grey, while the middle is white and is remaining that color. Finally, the bottom also is brown turning to grey.

I have purchased one of those rollers for extra-rough surfaces, you know, the ones that look like you're rolling a sheep down the side of the house. While they do apply paint quickly, they also tend to spatter paint very effectively also. I might have to find someone else to man the roller while I work with the trim painting.

There is good reason for me to do the cleanest job possible. When painting something, I find that I usually end up painting me more than the something, even if I try to be careful.

Even knowing this ahead of time, I still sometimes fail to wear appropriate attire before painting something and add more rags to the cleaning bag at home by days end. A perfect example would be the last time I spray painted an appliance and ended up getting over-spray on my shoes. I have discovered a cleaning chemical called "Goo Gone" that will remove most of my mishaps. If you're sloppy, it's very important to find these sorts of things.

Anyway, when heading off to paint this time, I hope to be careful to don one of my worst pairs of bibbed overalls. I will indeed be well anointed with grey and white by days end. The paint may even help cover some of the threadbare spots and make them last longer. After all, six years isn't very long for a set of overalls to last. I feel sure grandpa got at least 20 out of his.

I'm now just hoping that there will be some free and clear sunny weather coming up to help me get this job done. Painting requires a certain amount of warmth and sunshine, so I will be hoping for some 70-something degree days with lots of sun. And not only for this job, since there is still lots to do at my own home.

If this year is anything like last year, it's hard to tell which month I might find myself outside working in. I recall January of last year had a number of mild and sunny days on which I cut firewood and took on other tasks in my shirt sleeves.

Of course, this year might very well prove different. We are about due for a ‘real' winter sometime soon. Adding to my financial burden,

I also need to fill my kerosene tank behind the house before things get cold again. Thankfully, there's no real rush since I still have half a tank left from last year.

I use the wood stove as my main heating source, but on cool mornings in the fall and spring, when it would soon be too hot for a fire, I usually rely on my little programmable kerosene heater. It also kicks in to help the stove only on really cold nights if the fire dies down.

Only using the kerosene part time, I get by on about 150 gallons a year. With the cost of heating fuel per gallon, I fear that I may find myself looking out for another house to paint this winter. On the bright side, the prices have come down a great deal, a fact that should help make things a bit more tolerable. Even so, I don't expect to buy my fuel for $1.65 like I did last time. After filling the tank, I may need to find another house to paint.

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