The Erma Bombeck book that we designated as our canary in the coal mine weathered the storms unscathed, so, satisfied with the waterproofing on our Little Free Library, we finally cut the ribbon. We still haven’t got our official designation from the Little Free Library nonprofit, but that’s simply because I still have too much paint on my hands to fill out the form.

We invited neighbors to a Low-Budget Library Gala, where we sipped champagne and watermelon juice. My kids made me literally cut a ribbon, which you can see dangling in the photo.

One neighbor asked what the rules were. Was this a “take-a-book-leave-a-book” situation, or was she supposed to check out a book out and bring it back. I don’t know, ma’am. I’m just the builder. I suppose you can do whatever you want with the books, but when it comes to the dog-poop bags that we put in there for our canine visitors, please just take, don’t put back.

Neighbors donated books, including several copies of recent summer assignments. (Apparently, the middle schoolers don’t realize there are gonna be tests on those things in the coming days.) My more intellectual neighbors helped balance out Erma Bombeck, with some heady volumes by Wally Lamb and some authors I’ve never heard of because they don’t write romantic comedy or books on garden architecture.

Mr. Lenz, the head of the Tennessee College of Applied Technology Nashville, donated a copy of Random Acts of Kindness, which makes me feel warm and fuzzy. Meanwhile, the guys from construction class are still threatening to deliver a stack of porn, which makes me a little uneasy.

My middle son applied for our library to be a geocaching location, but he got kindly rejected by Big Geocache—or whoever makes those designations—because they thought our neighbors would spook if they saw strangers rooting though our garden for a geocache. Point taken.

But we will not be spooked by friends and neighbors browsing the “stacks” of our Little Free Library. We hope you’ll swing by, take a book, leave a book, or just say hi.