Gone Fishin'

Taelyn was so happy about the work I'd done on the Lighthouse, that he gave me a boat for Christmas.

I loaded the boat into my jeep and headed for a fishing spot that my Dad had told me about.

It was a long trip, but I was pretty excited about trying out the boat.

The boat was easy to handle and I had it in the water in short order.

It was nice to be fishing again. I'm going to have to take more time for this kind of activity.

Excuse me, I think I just got a bite.

"Darmit"! You caught me. The boat drifted to far away from the camera. The lakes are all frozen around here, and this was the only way I could test out my boat.

A great philosopher once said "Give a man a fish and he will have a meal. Teach a man to fish, and he will find a thousand ways to avoid working". At least that's what I think he said.

I'm going back to dreaming of catching a five pound Bass. See you later.

A Home for Miss Hitty (Part 2)

I'll been working on Miss Hitty's house, pretty much by myself. It will be Christmas tomorrow, and the crew have been taking time off to shop. Luckily, I planned ahead, and all my shopping is done.

The barn doors are all over-sized, and I'm putting in some frame work to allow a conventional door to fit.

Sometimes on a tight fit, a tap or two with a hammer helps.

For the door to function correctly, I have to make sure everything is square.

A few more inches and we'll see how well I've lined things up.

Not bad, if I do say so myself.

I have to do the same type thing where the side doors were located. Instead of a door, these will now have windows.

I've got to leave now. The "creepy sisters" (they live in the Sea View) want me to make sure their chimney is not clogged or to sooty. They don't want Santa to get dirty, or have any problems getting through their fire place.


Happy Holidays to you and yours.

A Home for Miss Hitty (Part 1)

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This is what Miss Hitty's house looked like when we started the remodel project.

First thing we did was have Tarin remove all the shingles.



Then Lefty and Wright removed the front sections of roof. Miss Hitty's bedroom will be on the second floor, her canopy bed needs the extra clearance.



We built a scaffold, and I cut a section out of the front wall.



Once it is removed, I'll repeat the procedure on the left side.



Here is what the place looked like when we knocked off for the day.





As you can see, all the molding strips, doors and etc. have also been removed.



We need to cut some openings for the new windows and size-down the areas where the old doors were. By seeing you.

Clean-up and Misc.

After completion of the lighthouse, it was time to clean up the work bench.



So I got out the front loader.



Heavy equipment sure speeds up a clean up chore.





At Pixielated Builders we try to save all usable materials for future applications. The items in the truck will be sorted and may find a home on a new project.

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Well, as usual a new job has come up. Actually it is a complete remodel project. Sometime ago my Dad built a special structure for a little girl . It was a barn for the young lady's pet unicorn, UNI. I don't know what happened to the unicorn, the barn now belongs to Miss Hitty.

I meet with Miss Hitty, she seems like a very special lady.



We discussed some of the options. As you can see, it will take a lot of work to convert this to a home suitable for Miss Hitty.



Miss Hitty had some ideas and plans. I'm going to take them home and study them. I think we'll be able to do a nice remodel job for Miss Hitty

The Light House (Part 9) "TheTower of Taelyn"

I've been very busy lately. For some reason I've gotten a rash of "service calls" (but that is a different story). Also, there have been a great many request for me to put up Christmas lights on the various houses.

Taelyn has become a little impatient with the progress on his lighthouse. Dad decided that he and the Phist bros. would complete the job. Actually, I think Dad may be a little bored with not being more active.



I turned the key over to Taelyn, which made him very happy. I also asked him to give you a tour.

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Taelyn: Welcome to my new home. Come on in and I'll show you around.



This is the first floor, and will be the kitchen/dinning area.




I'll have this very nice fire place on the second floor. This will be my living room.



The third floor will be my bedroom. If you don't mind, I'll carry my mattress up on the way upstairs.



C.J. added this trapdoor to the beacon house catwalk.



That concludes the tour of the "Tower of Taelyn" (I think that is what I will call it). I hope you enjoyed it and will stop by once all the furniture is in place.

A Day on the Links

The Phist Bros invited me to play a round of golf, something I had never tried before. Wright was sure that I would find the experience, very interesting. Since I am trying to develop a better boss-employee relationship with the boys, I agreed to give it a try.

I had discovered that I am by no means a "natural". Wright seems to be pretty good, and Lefty better than me.



After the first nine holes, Wright said he was close to par (whatever that means).



Lefty had taken less swings at the ball then I had, and seemed very happy about that.



Lefty then gave me a nickname, he called me "hacker". I'd never had a nickname before and was kind of pleased, that I was fitting in.



By the 18th hole, I had improved a great deal. I hit the ball in the hole in very short order.







Lefty seemed to get worse as we went along. On the 18th hole, he kept yelling "four", even though he was well over four swings at the ball.
That's when I figured out what Wright had meant by finding golf interesting.



When Lefty doesn't do well, he gets angry and breaks his golf sticks. Wright and I snickered, we did not laugh out loud however, since he still had some unbroken clubs.

I don't think this is a game that I'll be playing again.

The Lighthouse (Part 8) Who would have guessed?

I was surprised that you haven't been by for awhile. Dad explained that you visit by way of the Internet. It seems that one of the bills that I customarily just put in the desk drawer was for Internet connection. That's all straightened out now, and I'm glad to see you again.

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We are ready to install the roof on the Beacon House. Alonzo made arrangements for a crane, with which I hoped we could do the job.


I practiced operating the levers and such, and when I felt confident, we hooked the cables to the roof.
A problem with using miniature equipment for miniature building, is that such equipment does not convert well for handling scale loads.


First the crane tried to tip over.

Then the boom gave way.

This caused a problem, as I had planned on lifting the completed Beacon House on to the main structure with the crane.



Dad said that I complicated the beacon house roof project. His solution has always been to "let the Phist Bros. do it".

They are more useful then I had thought. The roof is on, and looks good. I guess I'll need to rely on Lefty and Wright a lot more.