McAlpine Clan's Best Friend

You've been wondering; what kind of dog would THEY have? Well, now you know that our pup is a long-legged Jack Russell Terrier named Danny. This is a young breed and has a lot of variation. Danny's littermates were mostly the common, short-leg variety, but his ranginess harkens to the English branch of the breed - and the combination of long legs and manic Jack Russell energy makes him quite a runner. Danny's coat is a combination of wiry (on his back) and smooth (everywhere else). Lee Ann wanted to name him Kramer, after the Seinfeld character with similarly unruly hair, but he already had his name and it stuck.

Danny is now four years old, weighs 20 pounds, and enjoys long walks on the beach, sunsets, and fleeing in terror from our three cats, who like to beat him up. It's a good thing he is fast.

Back Porch - At Long Last

I put off repairs to the back porch here at our Lebanon house as long as I possibly could, but now work finally is underway. Last Friday I propped up the roof, then tore out the rotten decking and disintegrating deck frame beneath that. By yesterday (Tuesday) I had the framing back together and new floorboards in place and finished. I used some 1" thick tongue and groove white oak flooring that I had left over from a previous project, so this is probably the stoutest porch floor in a three county area (excluding the concrete ones). It sure is nice to work with good materials.

The porch had been enclosed with half-height walls and screens above that, but we are planning a more weathertight arrangement with actual windows. I'll post pictures when we get that far.

Here's Where I Work (Scott)

I work for a great company (The David J. Joseph Company)! They allow me to work part-time, which now is three days a week. And when I am not traveling to scrap yards I go to my office in beautiful downtown Cincinnati, Ohio.

Today I took my camera to work and got a couple of shots of The American Book Building, where we have our offices. The building was built in 1904 and housed (no surprise here) The American Book Company for many years. These are the folks who published and printed McGuffy's Readers, the famous textbooks that your great-grandparents probably used in school. Because it originally housed big printing presses and stacks of books, the structure is very stout - there are support columns spaced at 12 feet on center throughout the building.

I also took a photo of the park where I walk on nice office days, which runs for maybe three miles along the Ohio River. Across the river is Kentucky. I can walk from my office building to the park in about three minutes.

Cincinnati has a sort of bad reputation among people who live someplace else. In fact, there are a lot of dangerous and run-down neighborhoods. But the central business district is really nice.

Getting In On the Ground Floor

This is the front parlor floor, the object of my current efforts at the Tower House. All the original floorboards were covered decades ago with the thin strip oak flooring you see a few remaining sections of in this photo - then termites moved in. Now that I am removing the damaged oak boards we can see the original floors for the first time in a couple of generations. Next we will try to restore the original surface. Surprisingly, the termites did more damage to the oak than to the older underlying boards. But they also did damage to the joists below, so I have placed a header on jackposts below to resupport them and will reinforce the weakened joists as the project unfolds.

Lee Ann's Pond - After Pictures

What a difference a few weeks make! Lee Ann finished digging, put in a heavy-duty liner, worked her magic with some rocks and plants, and voila - the pond is "done." There are still things to do, but the water is in and wildlife has flocked to our little wetland - water insects, cool dragonflies, and lots of thirsty birds.