Finishing Nails

    During the past few weeks I have been working on building a greenhouse. Unlike the greenhouses that you see made of light aluminum and plastic, I decided to use the wood and posts I had used from my hanging garden in NC. Needless to say it has been a job. I want to thank those that have helped.
    When we as men take on projects like this we get all our tools together, and think things through to make sure that when we start we have a good solid understanding of what it is we are trying to accomplish.
    It took a couple of weeks to put eight posts into the ground as we live on top of a a fairly solid limestone hill. Since the structure is going to be an experiment this year we decided not to cement the post in the ground and we built it with the terrain rather that worrying about leveling the ground. The greenhouse is turning out pretty nice in my opinion and I am excited about this New Project.
    I have always enjoyed a garden and as most people that have a garden know they are a lot of work. You have to work and care for your garden each day or you end up with a nice plot of weeds. 
    Two years ago I was very successful in growing an upside down hanging garden. Nothing was planted in the ground and I didn't have the back breaking work of bending over or weeding. I really enjoyed it, so I am attempting to accomplish the same thing with this greenhouse.
    Anyway, as I progressed through the process of building this greenhouse, it went from a planned 8'X8' to a 21'X8' enclosure. At first, I was going to make the back higher than the front and just have a sloped roof. However, in the process of putting the first post in the ground it was quickly decided that we either needed dynamite to get through the rock or we were not going to dig as deeply as we planned. We opted for option number two. We didn't plant the poles as deeply as we planned. However it all worked out well. I just modified my mental plans for the greenhouse and adapted everything into a new plan.
    Wood today is not as cheap as it once was when little projects like this were more fun. Still it is reasonable and allows for modifications. I had decided to use a 4 mil plastic as the skin on the greenhouse and it too was fairly inexpensive. With the change in plans, I changed the roof to 1/2" PVC pipe, as you can build anything with PVC. I bought 10' lengths to span 8' which made a nice arch for the greenhouse and it actually gave it a professional look in my opinion.
    I wanted to make sure that I didn't rip my plastic by just stapling it to the wood so I wanted some 1/4" wood slats to hold the plastic in place. I was shocked to discover a 10' piece of 1/4"X2" wood cost more ($3.29 ea), than the 10' piece of 2"x4" ($2.37 ea). So again I had to adapt. I bought some extra 2"x4"'s and ripped them down with the help of my friend's father-in-law. I easily saved $175.00 by ripping the wood myself.
    When the time came to build, I went into my storage room and began looking for some nails. After a through search I was really shocked at the 1000's of finishing nails I had. I have finishing nails of all colors, silver, black, tan, white, and blue. I could not find the first nail larger than 1" and it really bothered me. Had I honestly started this many projects in my life and never finished them?
Where the hell did I get all of these finishing nails?
    This project has made me stop to reflect on all the different things I have built in my life, at least the ones I could remember. All the left over parts, and the 1000's of finishing nails are all metaphorically changes or adaptations from my life.
    When things didn't fit, or the plan didn't fall into place as it was supposed to, I adapted or modified my life to make things fit. More often than not I have used the bigger hammer theory to make things to fit. If I still could not force it to fit, I either discarded it, or cut it out of my life. As a result, I have 1000's of finishing nails from projects I obviously have never finished.
    As I continue this project, I am trying to think of all the projects in my life that I need to finish right now. I do not want someone coming into my house one day after I have died, finding all my finishing nails. It would be a sign that I was a failure in life. It would be a sign that I was a man that never put the finishing touches on things and that would be an embarrassment to me.  I think I am better than that.
    Starting today, I am going to put the big hammer and the saws down. I am going to start going by the plan as I believe my maker has designed it. I am going to put each piece into place as it was designed and I am going to finish this project called life as I have been told it is supposed to be. If it doesn't fit into my life without modification it was not intended to be in my life.
    So if after today some of you no longer hear from me please know it has nothing to do with you personally. It's just that I am tired of modifying my life and going out of my way to accommodate you. You either fit into my life naturally or it is obvious that you were never intended to be in it. I am going to go back to old projects and finish a few before starting any new ones. I am going to try and use up all my finishing nails before I leave this earth.