We had a good day today. We’re starting on a new project, putting up the parapet. For me, starting new projects is more fun than finishing ones we’ve been working on for a long time (especially ones that I thought were already done like the roof panels. We spent most of the day yesterday putting more screws in the roof. I think it’s really done now.)

The parapet is especially of interest to me because it needs to be done before we can put the waterproof paper up on the roof and walls. (After that, we stucco.) Building the parapet entails putting down a long 2×6 and then putting a 15″ 2×6 perpendicular to that every 16″. Then two more 2×6 longways on top. (I’ll take a picture in the next few days.) The tricky part is that, because our roof is low slope, we first had to rip the bottom 2×6 on an angle so that it ends up laying flat. The parapet runs on three sides of the house. It will take several days to do all this.

On the weather front, it’s been really hot…107 today. One lovely thing is that the inside of the house is quite cool now even in the hottest part of the afternoon. There have been thunderstorms blowing through almost every afternoon, which cools things down a bit. About half the time, it actually rains where we are; the rest of the time we just enjoy the show.

On the wildlife front, we had the pleasure of seeing the baby bobcats (now getting quite a bit bigger) climbing in our big oak at the front gate. We also saw momma bobcat hunt and kill a bunny. Not quite so nice…