under construction

I've done it. I made it through my Beginning Construction class. Rather successfully, I might add. While I may not be able to DO construction, I can now much more intelligently talk about and comprehend the basics of building. If construction were a language, I wouldn't be anywhere near fluent, but I'd certainly be able to stumble through most of the key words and phrases.

Here are a few pics of our last lab on May 10, when we nearly completed the two sheds we had been working on throughout the semester.

Views of the sheds we built:





Damon (our instructor):



Damon, Angel (a sweetheart), and Karen (the only other woman who made it to the end of the course -- there were five of us at the beginning):



A hanger-on on Duke's back:



On Saturday, May 17, we celebrated the completion of our course with a graduation BBQ. But first, we did what we should have done months ago: we completely reorganized the tool shed. Guess who supervised? Unfortunately, I didn't take a "before" picture, but trust me when I say that it was a complete disaster -- tools, nails, hard hats, tool belts, etc., strewn willy-nilly everywhere. The first step in dealing with the chaos was to gut the entire tool shed and all the contents of the tool belts. We proceeded to sort the entirety, placing all like items in piles. It looked like this:



Once sorted, the newly organized tools and equipment found proper homes in the drawers and shelves of the cabinet Damon pilfered from some nearby classroom. It was a perfect solution:





Here's Damon pronouncing us officially graduated and entitled to a hearty BBQ lunch:



Our class picture in front of our impressive sheds: