Not much to report as of lately in my world. I've been spending the last week or so just taking it easy and collecting equipment around town and getting it back into winter storage, as well as final touchups and loose-ends for the exterior season. All in all not a bad way to recharge to batteries. On the other hand, I'd like to get as much interior work done before the 2nd week of November because I'm going to Mexico (with my wife, of course) for a week or two. Who knows how motivated I'll be when I get back. The other reason I want to get as much work in is that I've finally got 2 good helpers whom I'd like to hold onto for as long as possible. You know, the rare type who are stable, reliable, & possess the least common of the senses....common sense. Not only that but they don't cost me a fortune. It seems that I can't even get entry level, non-skilled labourers for less than $12 per hour. College kids during the summer even. Two years ago we could get them by the dozen doing masking, scraping, cleanup type work for $8 to $10 per hour. Not that I don't mind paying for good help, but it just seems harder to find good people who want to start at the bottom and work their way up. I'm happy to teach and train anyone if they are interested in the trade,even as a fall-back, but if some of these kids start out making a decent wage (for non-skilled work), what's their motivation, and what's my leverage??? Anyways, they're good, we get along and they work hard.........