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Proving your 'Man-hood'

My father-in-law is a white-collar, work in an air conditioned office mon-fri, CFO. You wouldn't know at first look he's actually a stubborn Irishman who would rather be covered in dirt and cement like his father and every generation before. His mother wanted a different life for him so he got it but on weekends and vacations he reverts to his genetics.

I came from a family where we had repairmen for everything on speed dial. Since coming into this family, there's been a learning curve. Now I work alongside him learning their family traditions on how to do home renovations, outdoor fencing, carpentry, and concrete work. Sometimes my brother-in-law comes by to help - or make sure dad doesn't accidentally put me in a hospital by overestimating my skills...

A dead tree was getting ready to fall over and cause serious damage so the 3 Great Ones came together to get it down safely.	A dead tree was getting ready to fall over and cause serious damage so the 3 Great Ones came together to get it down safely.	A dead tree was getting ready to fall over and cause serious damage so the 3 Great Ones came together to get it down safely.
We had to build a privacy fence but could not dig into the ground because there were AT&T lines too close to the surface. We built concrete blocks on top of the ground to anchor the poles then ran beams horizontally to connect them and put pikes on top. Voila, fence!	We had to build a second fence in a different area but still had a problem of cable and gas lines being too close to the surface so we couldn't dig down. We employed the concrete box method again and built everything on top of the land.	A 3rd fence we needed to build was thankfully not near any in-ground lines so this was a lot easier in some ways because we just had to dig holes in the ground for the main poles rather than build concrete boxes and wait for them to dry before proceeding.
We are in the process of renovating our bedroom. We have pulled up the carpet. Next we're repairing the cracks in the concrete then we're going to paint it.

Proving your 'Man-hood'

A dead tree was getting ready to fall over and cause serious damage so the 3 Great Ones came together to get it down safely.

A dead tree was getting ready to fall over and cause serious damage so the 3 Great Ones came together to get it down safely.

A dead tree was getting ready to fall over and cause serious damage so the 3 Great Ones came together to get it down safely.

We had to build a privacy fence but could not dig into the ground because there were AT&T lines too close to the surface. We built concrete blocks on top of the ground to anchor the poles then ran beams horizontally to connect them and put pikes on top. Voila, fence!

We had to build a second fence in a different area but still had a problem of cable and gas lines being too close to the surface so we couldn't dig down. We employed the concrete box method again and built everything on top of the land.

A 3rd fence we needed to build was thankfully not near any in-ground lines so this was a lot easier in some ways because we just had to dig holes in the ground for the main poles rather than build concrete boxes and wait for them to dry before proceeding.

We are in the process of renovating our bedroom. We have pulled up the carpet. Next we're repairing the cracks in the concrete then we're going to paint it.

Joe Mingura

Co-Creator of Artistic Bent