I was recently diagnosed as a “go-it-alone” kind of person that doesn’t ask for help – based on a personality test I completed. This was done in preparation for a new leadership mentoring program at work. In order to grow as a leader I need to work on my deficiencies, so I’m here today to ask for your help. The good news is that it takes almost zero effort on your part.
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Time management is the bane of my existence. For all of my ambition, it always seems to come down to my bi-polar propensity to either obsess about or neglect various facets of my personal and professional life. Let’s talk about it. Fair warning, this post may end up being lengthy.
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And other financial ramblings
In reviewing 2018 I decided that the financial aspects of our business should be a separate post. I was curious to see how much we actually earned from Youtube in 2018, so let’s dive into the results.
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Normally this time of year I like to sit down and reflect upon the past year. Along with assessing my personal growth, I like to review some of the goals I had set for myself and compare what I had achieved to what I had not. So let’s do that.
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We wanted to build a porch pergola on the front of our house to add a little interest to the design and to help keep us out of the mud. We settled on the pergola instead of a full roof design because we didn’t want to ruin the passive solar gain we have from the south facing side of the house. Over the past couple of months we’ve been working to create the pergola.
The design incorporates both timber framing and traditional carpentry. The base of the porch is constructed of 6×6 rough sawn cedar that’s half lapped at the joints. The posts of the pergola are 6×6 rough sawn cedar as well with rough sawn cedar braces face mortised into the posts. The posts are also tenoned into the porch and the beam that spans the porch.
The pergola rafters are rough sawn cedar 2x6s that have birds mouths on the porch beam; they are supported on the house end by a cedar 2×6 ledger. Everything is finished up with a penetrating oil sealer.
We’re pretty happy with the results of the porch pergola that we built; this is one of the last projects we have for the homestead until the snow comes, so it feels pretty good to be done with it. The video below is a compilation of the construction of our front porch pergola.
Spring is upon us! At least, if you look at the calendar it says that it is. Where we are, the weather can fluctuate greatly this time of year. Last week it was in the 70’s; this week was in the 40’s. Next week it’s supposed to be in the 70’s again – but at least the snow is gone. It’s time to get started planting our garden. (more…)