Digging, it's good for the heart

Doing a little survey work to place the shop. This will determine what trees have to come down.  That should happen next Wednesday after the weekend. I had do create a measuring stick that would stand on its' own.

The digging never ends. This time I am finishing off the drain line for the house foundation.  Not a big deal except that this pipe is crossing over the trench for the underground service to the house. I have to dig it deep enough to go under the electrical service. At least the weather was dry so digging was "pleasant."

The intersection

A drop of 16 inches to go under the electrical

Well off to the coast to visit the in-laws and a little break.  Back to work next week.

Len

And then there were none

Still sprucing up around the old Ponderosa. Everything is ready for the truck.  He came around two and left around three so all the planning was worth the trouble.  I had 15 sheets of 3/4 tongue and groove plywood left over from the house floor and I made a deal to sell it to the lumber yard that sent the truck out.  Should easily cover the moves and then some. So here is what it looks like now all empty and ready for digging.

The covered pile on the left are the shop doors I mentioned and I have been placing all the lumber that was left over from the forms, up along the fence line out of the way,  so they can be reused for the shop. The piles of lumber and siding are now relocated.

All the siding

Soffit materials

I tried digging with a shovel and found the frost level only a few inches down.  It really needs to warm up some more, I don't think the backhoe would do much just yet.  Maybe after Easter.

We bought a half year membership at the hills guest ranch where we all went sledding and skiing that winter.  I go there for a shower and ease my muscles in the hot tub.  It's very nice and fairly convenient as far as things out here go. I took this photo the other day, I'm sure Cathryn and Victoria will remember this barn and all the horses that were there.

Off to bed now and I'll see about removing some trees tomorrow.

Len

Trucks a comin' ma

Well I earned my keep today. Started out with finishing the move of the loft floorboards.  I decided to manually move them up to the loft instead of just repositioning them again.  1870 pounds of lovely 1 inch tongue and groove fir.

The pile I am moving is on the left and the blue tarp is the two shop doors I built last year.

You can see the two piles of flooring up in the loft with the plumbing and electrical stuff

Once that was out of the way I repositioned the shop doors off to that side.  All this is to make room for the shop excavation.  The piles of siding and soffit material will be lifted to new digs on Monday when the crane truck gets here. I have everything ready to go.

More places for the piles to go

This is what it looks like now.

The only fly in the ointment for digging the shop foundation will be the removal of more trees.  I am hoping to have a couple of them milled to become part of the main staircase to the loft. I know a fellow out here who I hope will help in the falling of the bigger ones. I have marked them with ribbons and will probably get at them the week after Easter.

 I'd like it a bit warmer anyway before I fire up the backhoe to move it out of the way.  More nail pulling and cleanup for tomorrow.

Len

Put the couch there,no, put the couch there,no, put the.......

It was Cathryns' birthday on the 14th so she cellebrated with friends in Vancouver and I went for a walk with Banjo out here.  I did write her a birthday poem.  She really liked it. Here it is, it's so romantic.

Roses Are red, violets are blue

I like you but I don’t like stew

Have a great day, I know that you will

Have wine without me, I’ll love you still.

Well I'm moving lumber again. We have decided to put the shop on the east side rather than the north.  This will mean moving all the lifts of siding, flooring and soffit materials out of the way, of course not too far away so we can access them when the time comes.

This is where the shop will be eventually

These piles are too heavy so I'll get the truck in from the building supply to lift and reposition them.  We'll also have a lot of dirt to deal with as I want to bring the shop down to the height of the driveway. If you know of anybody who will need some dirt give me a call.

I meant to tell Cathryn that I will have to do all that counting and labeling of piles over again, hmmmm, Too bad you weren't here.  Victoria you will be happy to know that I am using the nails that you pulled out of that lumber last summer. I am making those walls in the last blog with those nails.

We have a great cappuccino machine, one of Dave's cast-offs, so life in the 108 isn't completely back-woods. We do however,  have to turn off the electric heater to make coffee so we're happy that it works quickly. Then I plug the heat in for a while, then I unplug it again to make a couple of pieces of toast, then quickly plug it back in again.  This will all be gone as the weather warms up.  It stays a comfortable 10-12C inside when the sun is not shining.

Anyway here are a couple of pictures of the 2 tons of lumber that I moved one piece at a time yesterday.

The pile on the left is all of the pre-painted trim and the one on the right is the heavy fir 2x12s etc

New spots for the lumber when it is repositioned

More moving of lumber and preparations today.

Len

Note to self, build house 'then' move in

Hi everyone

Well we're back at it for this year. I'll be your tour guide to start out as Cathryn has skipped town, something about wanting to sit through numerous boring meetings instead of being here where it's cold and the work is plentiful.

My first task has been to organize the chaos.  The ground is pretty mushy yet so we're walking on plywood. There has been some drying this week which makes a big difference.

We put most of the stuff in the garage as we won't be getting to that for a while. I reassembled the shelving from the laundry room and the workshop.  It was soon completely full.

Now that I have all my tools here and have set up a work area things are starting to get done.

I have done all the blocking for the drywall on the main floor and am now building a 2x6 wall along the west side of the great room.  I have to build it in sections on the loft floor and slide it along the beam to its new home.  Should be done this tomorrow.

We have done some preliminary work on the shop location but it's still too wet to get the backhoe involved.  More on that tomorrow.
Len