The Patio Rises

The patio that I tore down last year or maybe two years ago, is starting to emerge in its new form with a sloped roof rather than flat. With no wind I was able to clamp the basic frame members to see how the design on paper would hold up in reality.  Dix saw that the beam needed to be raised six inches to spare the forehead of our friend Travis. I even added a couple inches for his hat.  Neighbor Bob advised how to mount the rafters to the garage and to use hurricane clamps.  I marked the columns where I need to cut them with a hacksaw.

Dix read where an old penny went for some multi-thousand dollar price, and wondered if there was anything of value in her mom's piggy bank where she had saved pennies in the futile hope of buying a Cadillac some day.  It weighed about thirty pounds. We dumped the thousands of pennies on the kitchen counter and began inspecting them with a high power penlight and a magnifying glass. We found that after she died, her husband Ben continued the tradition effectively diluting the treasure with pennies from the 1990's. But there are some nice specimens from the 60's that according to the websites can bring 30 cents to a dollar per coin. One 1959 coin can bring a buck-20. Dix's hand got tired and I started sneezing and the pile of pennies sits on the counter for further sorting.