Building

Dad and I spent 9 hours yesterday building the deck. Ok, so I was mostly a holder, a measurer, a straight-edge plyer, a board carrier, a fetcher, an eyeballer to make sure the spaces were even, etc. I did get to pound in a few nails, and didn't break a finger doing it. I was also pretty darn good at all my tasks, I must say. No splinters!!!
We have to put on the stairs and the railing, but the rest is pretty much finished. And of course it is pouring today, so no deck building.
It was pretty cool to see it start to go up. Once we actually got going with the building, time flew by. My knee was very upset with me, though, and I had to take massive amounts of Ibuprofen.
Brandt came home last night and so Mom and I stayed up and talked to him until midnight. He was involved in a fire in Helena that tried to burn this little community in the middle of town, and Brandt and one other firefighter saved the grizzly bears at the Fish and Game headquarters. Of course, in the papers, the game wardens got the credit, but it was really Brandt! I like hearing his stories.