Civil War Battlefields and aching feet

Facebook wants to know what's on my mind. 

what is on my mind? My feet and back. The insoles in my hiking boots have given out and I ended up with a blister on two toes and major pain in the ball of the foot.

Why?

Because we went up to a Civil War battlefield and took a small hike after seeing a small set of exhibits and store. A gentle 1 mile trek and we stopped often to take photos or drink water.

I can see myself doing it again but after I buy some insoles. The boots are good for working in the yard and protecting my feet from the weed whacker but not for hiking right now. I love those boots too. I wore them during Hurricane Katrina, Rita and Wilma relief efforts (no, I'm not a hero, I sat behind desks so others could go out and be heroes.)

We bought two books, hiking staff medallions, a map of Civil War battles and I bought a watch. I fancy pocket watches and this is nice.

We got some of that flooring boards that click together for Jackie's room. She started to lay the underpad and boards and, because the subflooring has bowed or warped (and NOTHING was squared off, leveled or measured correctly when building or repairing this place), the boards weren't staying clicked. We did NOT want to remove the thick, press on tiles that were probably laid when this place was built. Removing those is a backbreaking, tedious mess! Another solution could be to get plywood, screw that down through the tile into the subflooring. Not easy to screw down and we weren't sure how we'd get the plywood into the house. Neither of us are 19 anymore and our days of breaking our backs lifting heavy items are LONG past us!

Then I had an idea: we had laid some thick rubber mats in the kitchen to reduce the need to mop and scrub the floors every other day down to twice a week and to take pity on our bodies by giving us something a little easier than ceramic tile to stand on. I looked at the mats, looked at Jackie and smiled. "Hell, put these things down in your room. They have just enough give to where the flooring should stay clicked together but not enough to separate the boards. There's also the value of increased insulation and sound dampening.

Went online to where we bought the mats, compared the larger to the smaller and figured out how many we'd need, prices and all that. We thought it would be a challenge getting 5 of them home in a Honda Fit.

But then......

Meanwhile, back at the ranch.... Jackie receives notice that her car is being recalled. Something about the driver's airbag deploying too soon, too quickly and too violently - i.e. shrapnel! Okay, we take the car in and they send us to Enterprise for a rental car (we might get the car back in the "summer" was the vague timeline quoted. They pay for the rental car and mileage). I suggested we ask if they have a small pickup. Jackie thought that was an excellent idea and we ended up with a Dodge Ram - one of the big ones.

Cool. Getting the mats home worked grand. The mats fit in the truck bed perfectly and are 3/4" thick made out of recycled rubber = HEAVY. We would roll the mat and desperately try to tie that down with belts = not easy. Then roll the mat off the bed of the truck onto a dolly. Then pull said dolly up three steps, me pulling, Jackie pushing = crippling. Guide dolly through the house, drop the mat as close to final position as possible and then try and undo the belts.

Now, if we needed to cut the mats, that is an entirely different story! Measure twice (or more), go outside, decipher writing. Measure twice (or more), mark the mat and then score with a box cutter (is that blade dull or am I just weak as hell after months of pulled shoulder and arm muscles and arthritis?). We would have the mat draped over the end of the truck bed so gravity would help pull the mat away from the cut, much easier to cut the mats that way.

With a bread knife. Hey, it works.

Take said piece into the house and place. If said piece doesn't want to cooperate, use a mallet. If that doesn't work, put the edge of a board over the offending area and hammer with the mallet. Do trimming as necessary.

Thank the cats for their supervision (Oscar crawled all the way under the stool that was under the mat that was under Jackie. He's a boy!

Jackie put a couple of the boards down but that was the point where we both said we were done for the day.

Some of that Southern ingenuity I seem to have when it comes to figuring out something that might be unconventional but will work.

Reading reviews on the mats: LOTS of people are using these mats for gym floors - they are thick and don't move easily and they're half the price of mats sold to gyms. Some use the mats on walls as sound dampening for recording, some for flooring in garages or around tool benches. Someone used a mat under the washer and dryer to keep them from taking walks across the floor (at half the price you find from appliance and hardware places).

Haven't seen where anyone has used the mats as subflooring but, hey, we're pioneers that have little money, few resources and tools and minimum insulation in the attic and none under the floor between the family room and garage. Score

we'll see if it works

Note the horrible tile underneath. Paint drips, plaster splots, chipped and some even missing. We discovered this after ripping up the carpets.

Jackie's views on whether we would do another mat yesterday.....

No, she's not sawing her hand off. She's trimming an edge with a bread knife.

 Oscar, Oscar, Oscar

Ta to the Dah!