I've been receiving a bit of information stating that some of my readers have grown a bit tired hearing of my construction exploits. In fact, one of my good friends joked with a staff member that I needed to find something else to start writing about.

But no matter how tired everyone else is of hearing about construction, they couldn't be any more tired than I.

I've hammered, screwed, nailed, painted, shoveled, carried and floored in nearly every afternoon or day I've had for the past month or so.

If I wasn't working at construction or at the newspaper, I was organizing, purchasing, planning or overseeing work. In between that, I usually think or dream about it.

It's my sincere hope that I can one day tell everyone that I've officially paid off all my debts, saved up enough to put the kids through school and now can go ahead and stop working so much. But that day doesn't appear to be too close in the way of proximity to the present.

Dreams are like that. They seem to materialize out of the smoke or mist of thought slowly and in such a way that they come to pass without one realizing it.

I guess the process is so slow that it's hard to see these things actually happening until you look around and realize that they have. Maybe I don't always see things coming because I'm already on to the next thing.they happen before you realize that they aren't

If everyone will bear with me, I'll do my best to talk about something else other than the only thing I've been doing. Now there's a challenge for you.

Let me explain, I spend 80 percent of my time at three pursuits: working at the newspaper, sleeping and construction, most likely in that order. So, it's not always easy to find all that many unusual things to talk about. I never promised you a rose garden.

In my defense, I might note here that I did talk about birds last week, not construction. But the only day this week on which I didn't work on construction projects was Sunday and I bought a few supplies at the really big store that day.

I buy most of my supplies in town here, but when it comes to some parts of the job, the things I need aren't available.

That being the case, I can still usually find most everything I need here in town. Just not everything.

I'm getting closer to the end game, so maybe after this one I'll wait for it to sell and then take a break to enjoy some fun with the family this summer. We've been looking at getting away on the river for a boating trip for a good while and I've also been considering a camping outing. The kids love both, but the boating and playing in the river are probably the highlights of their summer.

For some reason, we only manage to take one or two big fishing and boating outings a year, despite living within just a few miles of the river. And camping? I have two nice tents, an inflatable bed and lots of sleeping bags. All I really lack is motivation and time off.

My daughter and I went fishing once so far this year, which isn't very much for a fellow with a lifetime fishing license and a kid who doesn't even need one.

We started off by hunting for bait around the house, including a good number of ‘red wiggler' worms and a few grubs and crickets.

We usually fish in local trout streams, but it's getting harder each year to carry her from place to place. Most of the streams have brush and briars along at least part of their banks and that makes the going a little tough on the shoreline.

"I need some big boots like you have," my daughter said when noticing my waders. I have the ones with felt bottomed boots and canvas uppers that just cover my legs. They're the only ones that really hold up to the briars around here for any length of time.

"I don't think they come in your size," I responded.

I later looked and found ‘boy's sizes' on the Internet with little chest waders, but they were about $100 a pair. Mine didn't even cost that much and I've had them for three or four years. And I bet my little fishing buddies would be wanting pink with flowers and polka dots. And if I buy one pair, I might as well count on buying two, since I have two kids that are "fishing age." That's getting a little expensive.

I'll just have to continue doing things the way I am now. That involves going to the creek and carrying them across to the other side and back and forth as necessary.

The way I fish is usually a solitary style. That makes it a little bit hard to take the kids along. For starters, I usually travel upstream instead of downstream. It's much easier for kids to fish downstream. It's also more safe since every cast is life threatening.

Just in the few hours we fished the other day, I was hit in the head, poked in the eye and nearly hooked twice. And that was just from my own actions. As you can see, if the kids are dangerous, they come about it honestly.

As for the expense of trying to outfit the entire tribe for fishing, it's probably not going to be happening this year.

The girls are getting to the age where they're getting harder and harder to carry, though. There comes a point where it's really difficult just to keep them from choking me to death as I lug them across the obstacles in a creek.

And, as you might imagine, children's interest level isn't quite as high as that of an adult. After some half hour of fishing, they usually are ready to get going on something else, like hitting things with a stick, turning over rocks and playing in the water.

But it's really not that much of a problem as the season goes on, since the water eventually gets warm enough to walk in. As long as it's warm outside, I can tolerate walking in the cold water. However, when one is about half the height and less than one-third the weight, I'm sure it's a little tougher. We'll just keep getting by.

The main thing is that they spend some time outdoors and, more importantly, with me.
 

Get the whole story - read this week's edition of The Alleghany News!