Since last I wrote many encouraging things have happened.
Eloise has run like a champ, keeping the grassy areas looking neat and trim. Her sharp turning radius has been a nice surprise and I really haven't had to do much trimming around trees and bushes because she can get in so close. That is especially interesting because she's well over 50 years old!
The ol' gal has also done wonderful service as a skidder. I've unlimbered my chain saw and gone to work on a grove of sumac trees on the north end of the property. My neighbor on that side is delighted. She said the smell of those often was overpowering in her house. I lost count of how many major trees I took down, probably in the neighborhood of two dozen. Many were close to 50 feet tall and made a good thump when they hit the ground. Some were in very awkward places but Eloise, with a 20 foot logging chain and a come-along, has been able to drag all of them out. It's a grand feeling to chain up an entire tree to her and have her just walk away up the hill with it.
The sumac trunks and limbs have been stacked into two piles, each about ten feet in diameter and more than ten feet high. One is up the hill by the chicken shed. The other is north west of the barn, near the property line. I plan to let them dry out through the fall months, then try to burn them sometime in the winter when the air is still and everyone is indoors. Hopefully the hot air will rise so high no one will notice the stink. Should be quite a set of bonfires! :)
The Stihl chain saw I bought off eBay last summer has done marvelously. It just eats through those trunks and limbs like they were overcooked spaghetti. The only problem was with the operator. He didn't have a manual and didn't know that there was a "parking brake" on the the chain so it wouldn't turn. I took it to the local Stihl dealer and felt about two inches high when he just went "click" and the chain moved freely. Nice safety feature. Need to buy and read the manual someday... :) If I had the time to haunt some farm sales and buy a peavy it would make this job easier, but we muddle through.
So I've got three pretty good sized wood piles. Two of sumac, one of walnut and other non-sumac wood. At some point I'll start taking down limbs on the trees along the road. They have grown up into the phone and cable TV wires there. Once we tear into them we'll have even larger piles, I'm sure. Much of the larger stuff we'll stack for burning in the fireplace in days to come, but there is a LOT of little stuff that'll have to go. Weenie roast, anyone? :)
I've also gotten the best of the hedges thanks to my friend Justin. Only one set along the driveway needs to be done on the back of one side. The others are all hacked down to manageable proportions. It'll be spring before they begin to green up again and recover from the surgery I put them through, but that's ok. There's a massive pile of privet clippings just NW of the house that'll be a big blaze when we touch it off. (Can you tell I like burning brush? :)
The two apple trees on the place have produced a fair number of apples. Most are very gnarly (in the old sense of the term) and not worth much. I think with proper pruning and some judicious dormant oil spraying they can be made to produce more though. I'd like to plant a bunch of fruit trees over where the sumacs were, with some nice bushes or vines to screen the neighbor's yard off and provide cover for birds. There are tons of birds here and I don't want to remove their habitat.
The house water still isn't on. I know, I know... But it seems there's always something either more fun or more pressing and I never get into the basement to get that up and running. Since freezing weather will soon be upon us, we may only be able to get it up and running, test it out, then winterize it... We'll get that back porch washed out one of these days! The good news is that the smell in the house is less noticable due to the cooler weather.
The really big news on the house itself is that we have preliminary plans! We should be able to sit down in the next couple of weeks and make the changes we want. Then the draftsmen will incorporate those into the plans and eventually generate some construction drawings for us by late winter. I'm so excited I can hardly stand it.
We've lots of decisions to make in the next few months, but it's so energizing to see something on paper that's to scale so we can play around with it.
I've got a line on a guy that does concrete so we can get the floor poured in the barn for the workshop. I'm hoping we can do that before winter weather sets in, but I've a few things to tear out before we get there. Old rotted wooden flooring, an old workbench, some odds and ends that looked too good to throw in the dumpster, etc. all have to be removed before we redo the floor.
It would be nice to rebuild the barn loft floor before doing the ground level floor but it gets into a Gordian knot, recursive causality thing after a while. At some point you have to just toss a dart at the dartboard and say, "We're doing this first."
I've a ton of pictures to upload but can't get that done tonight.
May all your mudpuddles be small ones,
Doug
Thursday, September 28, 2006
Friday, August 18, 2006
Eloise is home and working!
Greetings, family, friends and others,
I think I have some inkling of how Cheops must have felt when he capped off his last pyramid. Two weeks ago I finally got the tractor onto the property. But in driving it over from the previous owner's home the fan bearing burned out. So I've been delayed in getting it actually to mow until tonight. I bought a new fan assembly and it arrived at the dealer up near Gettysburg on Thursday (yesterday), we installed it late last night by droplight but it was too late to mow. As we were driving home my wife and I were discussing names for the tractor. I thought "Fanny" would be pretty good. (Replaced the fan, get it? :) ) She didn't think that was very funny, so we settled on Eloise. Nice dignified name for an old gal. The tractor is circa 1950's. I haven't looked up the serial number to peg it precisely, but will one of these days.
I bought an aftermarket accessory for her this week. The original tractor design did not have a water pump in it. Heat from the engine and cooling from the radiator drove the water around a thermosiphon loop. ( I found out today that it consequently tends to overheat when heading down a long hill. The "cool" is below the "hot" so the loop shuts down and she blows a little steam. ) Someone figured out how to add a water pump to the loop without too much difficulty and had one for sale on eBay so I bought it. Should be here next week I hope.
This afternoon after school and after running a few errands, I FINALLY got to mow my yard with the new tractor. It's been almost a month since I bought Eloise but it was worth the wait. I mowed the better part of an acre in less than a half hour. It was magnificent. The place looks totally different.
Afterwards I fired up my "mechanical goat" (Stihl brush cutter) and cut a lot of weeds around the back of the house where the tractor would have hit a lot of rocks. Our ground has a lot of limestone rocks poking up all over the place. I'll be happy when we get some real sheep in there to do the job. Year after next...
All the tasks that I mentioned in my last post remain undone. Water pump, deck, siding, etc. It's been a rough three or four weeks.
First the dog bites proved to be more of an impediment to activity than I'd thought. The bruising was pretty bad and I was more stiff a few days later than I'd thought I'd be.
Then I had three molars scheduled to be pulled the following week, so I went ahead with that. And that was the week it was so unbelievably hot. So between the bites, the molars and the heat I laid by the air conditioner and took pain meds most of that week. :) They really had to cut me up to get the molars out. I could only drink liquids for the longest time and that sapped my strength. I lost ten pounds in two weeks and I'm a scrawny fella who can't afford to do that.
After that it was time to start picking up loose ends around my present home and prepare for the school year ahead. So it's been an uphill fight lately.
I did get the hedges along the driveway trimmed again a week or so ago. I had been afraid that when I cut them the first time they'd just give up and die back, but just the opposite was true. They sprouted and grew all over the place. By early August you couldn't tell that I'd cut them at all in May. Such resilience is heartening.
I have to cut back more of them around the place. The hedge along the upper driveway towards the chicken coop and the forsythia along the road on the south end of the property need to get wacked pretty badly. The path out to the barn needs a good treatment, as does the strip along the east side of the barn. There's a few hours work there...
But the BIG news is that Eloise is up and running and works pretty hard for an old gal! I feel like dancing a jig. :)
I took her for a turn up on the hill behind the house (what I think of as the "back four" because it's just shy of four acres). Eloise and I cut some paths through the briars and brambles where I'd run through with the little backhoe in June. I kept the mower deck raised to avoid the rocks and it worked out pretty well as a light duty brush hog.
I'm going to need another session with the backhoe just to fill in holes and cover rocks around the place though, I can tell.
I have to say, the feeling of cruising up and down that hillside, amongst those trees and fields was almost sublime. I experienced a deep sense of gratitude and accomplishment, all at the same time. A profound sense of "all's right with the world." It was a touchstone with "home" for me. I always enjoyed running the tractor around my folk's place when I was growing up and this was so much like it, it almost took my breath away. Happiness, the deep, profound kind, is a rare thing for me, it only comes in little spurts. However, I've been blessed to have several of those instances at Walnut Hill.
Thanks for celebrating with me.
Doug
I think I have some inkling of how Cheops must have felt when he capped off his last pyramid. Two weeks ago I finally got the tractor onto the property. But in driving it over from the previous owner's home the fan bearing burned out. So I've been delayed in getting it actually to mow until tonight. I bought a new fan assembly and it arrived at the dealer up near Gettysburg on Thursday (yesterday), we installed it late last night by droplight but it was too late to mow. As we were driving home my wife and I were discussing names for the tractor. I thought "Fanny" would be pretty good. (Replaced the fan, get it? :) ) She didn't think that was very funny, so we settled on Eloise. Nice dignified name for an old gal. The tractor is circa 1950's. I haven't looked up the serial number to peg it precisely, but will one of these days.
I bought an aftermarket accessory for her this week. The original tractor design did not have a water pump in it. Heat from the engine and cooling from the radiator drove the water around a thermosiphon loop. ( I found out today that it consequently tends to overheat when heading down a long hill. The "cool" is below the "hot" so the loop shuts down and she blows a little steam. ) Someone figured out how to add a water pump to the loop without too much difficulty and had one for sale on eBay so I bought it. Should be here next week I hope.
This afternoon after school and after running a few errands, I FINALLY got to mow my yard with the new tractor. It's been almost a month since I bought Eloise but it was worth the wait. I mowed the better part of an acre in less than a half hour. It was magnificent. The place looks totally different.
Afterwards I fired up my "mechanical goat" (Stihl brush cutter) and cut a lot of weeds around the back of the house where the tractor would have hit a lot of rocks. Our ground has a lot of limestone rocks poking up all over the place. I'll be happy when we get some real sheep in there to do the job. Year after next...
All the tasks that I mentioned in my last post remain undone. Water pump, deck, siding, etc. It's been a rough three or four weeks.
First the dog bites proved to be more of an impediment to activity than I'd thought. The bruising was pretty bad and I was more stiff a few days later than I'd thought I'd be.
Then I had three molars scheduled to be pulled the following week, so I went ahead with that. And that was the week it was so unbelievably hot. So between the bites, the molars and the heat I laid by the air conditioner and took pain meds most of that week. :) They really had to cut me up to get the molars out. I could only drink liquids for the longest time and that sapped my strength. I lost ten pounds in two weeks and I'm a scrawny fella who can't afford to do that.
After that it was time to start picking up loose ends around my present home and prepare for the school year ahead. So it's been an uphill fight lately.
I did get the hedges along the driveway trimmed again a week or so ago. I had been afraid that when I cut them the first time they'd just give up and die back, but just the opposite was true. They sprouted and grew all over the place. By early August you couldn't tell that I'd cut them at all in May. Such resilience is heartening.
I have to cut back more of them around the place. The hedge along the upper driveway towards the chicken coop and the forsythia along the road on the south end of the property need to get wacked pretty badly. The path out to the barn needs a good treatment, as does the strip along the east side of the barn. There's a few hours work there...
But the BIG news is that Eloise is up and running and works pretty hard for an old gal! I feel like dancing a jig. :)
I took her for a turn up on the hill behind the house (what I think of as the "back four" because it's just shy of four acres). Eloise and I cut some paths through the briars and brambles where I'd run through with the little backhoe in June. I kept the mower deck raised to avoid the rocks and it worked out pretty well as a light duty brush hog.
I'm going to need another session with the backhoe just to fill in holes and cover rocks around the place though, I can tell.
I have to say, the feeling of cruising up and down that hillside, amongst those trees and fields was almost sublime. I experienced a deep sense of gratitude and accomplishment, all at the same time. A profound sense of "all's right with the world." It was a touchstone with "home" for me. I always enjoyed running the tractor around my folk's place when I was growing up and this was so much like it, it almost took my breath away. Happiness, the deep, profound kind, is a rare thing for me, it only comes in little spurts. However, I've been blessed to have several of those instances at Walnut Hill.
Thanks for celebrating with me.
Doug
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
Wow, this is going slow... :)
No earthshaking progress on the house to report this week. Seems like every time I get over there either the lawn needs mowing (using the little walk behind mower) or I drift off into drawing plans for the barn or whatever. Still haven't gotten the pump hooked up to see if the well actually works. :(
The end of last week, the 21st and 22nd, I helped my buddy Todd out with the basement walls for his new addition. It was a lot of work laying concrete block in that hot sun but we had a great group of guys there and the kids pitched in and we did ok.
Earlier this week my sister and her husband were passing through town and I was on my way to meet them for a late lunch when I spied a nice old tractor for sale along the interstate. Just the sort of thing I've wanted. Took a picture and came back to locate the house (it's close to the interstate but durn hard to find on the ground). The owner, Carey, and I talked and we struck a deal. I was going to come back Tuesday and drive the tractor over to Walnut Hill, which is only a few miles by road. All's well. It's a c. 1960 International Harvester "Super A" that has been refurbished and runs great. It has a wonderful three bladed mower deck on it and cuts a five foot swath at one clip.
Tuesday I ran errands (bought some dandy books on housebuilding) and picked up the money for the tractor. I headed up there so I could arrive after he got home from work. Long story short, they had two boxers in the yard behind a chain link fence and as I tried to talk to his wife (he wasn't home yet) they got out of the yard and attacked me. I've got some dandy puncture wounds on my upper arms and legs and I got to meet some lovely people on the ambulance ride and the local ER too. I'm feeling like I was a bit beaten up, but otherwise ok. Visited my MD today and she said I'd probably heal up ok. I'm on an antibiotic and I have some pain meds if I need them. Other than the soreness, the downside is that I have to stay out of the sun with this antibiotic. :(
The good news though is that, Lord willing, I'll have the tractor at Walnut Hill by Thursday evening so I can begin to really whip the grass into shape. I may be "mowing by moonlight" but at least it'll be mowed. Now if I can just figure out how to put headlights on my hedgetrimmer... :)
Life's an adventure!
My grandmother used to say, "Life's easy if you don't weaken." She had her share of trials and I've had it pretty easy by comparison, so I'll take her advice.
Friday I'll be gone to a 3 day teacher conference, and next week I'm having some teeth removed on Tuesday so my work days are fast slipping away. School classes start four weeks from today, so my summer is fast drawing to a close.
I hope to get the pump going and the barn deck/stairs and siding done before I have to start focusing on school, but we'll see how far I get. My left bicep has gotten pretty sore and isn't much help to me at the moment. I'm hoping I can hire some kids from school to do some of the heavy lifting and stuff I'll need to do.
Stay tuned. You never know what's coming next! :)
Blessings,
Doug
The end of last week, the 21st and 22nd, I helped my buddy Todd out with the basement walls for his new addition. It was a lot of work laying concrete block in that hot sun but we had a great group of guys there and the kids pitched in and we did ok.
Earlier this week my sister and her husband were passing through town and I was on my way to meet them for a late lunch when I spied a nice old tractor for sale along the interstate. Just the sort of thing I've wanted. Took a picture and came back to locate the house (it's close to the interstate but durn hard to find on the ground). The owner, Carey, and I talked and we struck a deal. I was going to come back Tuesday and drive the tractor over to Walnut Hill, which is only a few miles by road. All's well. It's a c. 1960 International Harvester "Super A" that has been refurbished and runs great. It has a wonderful three bladed mower deck on it and cuts a five foot swath at one clip.
Tuesday I ran errands (bought some dandy books on housebuilding) and picked up the money for the tractor. I headed up there so I could arrive after he got home from work. Long story short, they had two boxers in the yard behind a chain link fence and as I tried to talk to his wife (he wasn't home yet) they got out of the yard and attacked me. I've got some dandy puncture wounds on my upper arms and legs and I got to meet some lovely people on the ambulance ride and the local ER too. I'm feeling like I was a bit beaten up, but otherwise ok. Visited my MD today and she said I'd probably heal up ok. I'm on an antibiotic and I have some pain meds if I need them. Other than the soreness, the downside is that I have to stay out of the sun with this antibiotic. :(
The good news though is that, Lord willing, I'll have the tractor at Walnut Hill by Thursday evening so I can begin to really whip the grass into shape. I may be "mowing by moonlight" but at least it'll be mowed. Now if I can just figure out how to put headlights on my hedgetrimmer... :)
Life's an adventure!
My grandmother used to say, "Life's easy if you don't weaken." She had her share of trials and I've had it pretty easy by comparison, so I'll take her advice.
Friday I'll be gone to a 3 day teacher conference, and next week I'm having some teeth removed on Tuesday so my work days are fast slipping away. School classes start four weeks from today, so my summer is fast drawing to a close.
I hope to get the pump going and the barn deck/stairs and siding done before I have to start focusing on school, but we'll see how far I get. My left bicep has gotten pretty sore and isn't much help to me at the moment. I'm hoping I can hire some kids from school to do some of the heavy lifting and stuff I'll need to do.
Stay tuned. You never know what's coming next! :)
Blessings,
Doug
Monday, July 17, 2006
Not steady, not even slow, this last week
I've been away at a conference most of this last week. James Madison's home, Montpelier, offers summer training for teachers on how to teach about the U.S. Constitution and it was a WONDERFUL four days there. Check out www.montpelier.org, fabulous place. Fri-Sun one of my students and I helped out a friend with a Civil War reenactment two states away.
I was only able to visit the house briefly on Friday morning and mow the front lawn. My sister and her husband came by on a brief visit while passing through that morning. But that's been it for the last week.
Today I hope to get that shallow well pump up and running! If I can do that, I'll feel like I've done a lot in today's heat. The list after that is a mile long but I'm running out of summer. Stay tuned! Thanks for reading.
Doug
I was only able to visit the house briefly on Friday morning and mow the front lawn. My sister and her husband came by on a brief visit while passing through that morning. But that's been it for the last week.
Today I hope to get that shallow well pump up and running! If I can do that, I'll feel like I've done a lot in today's heat. The list after that is a mile long but I'm running out of summer. Stay tuned! Thanks for reading.
Doug
Thursday, July 06, 2006
Slow, but steady
This week I purchased the shallow well pump, but it's taken forever to get it set up and working. First I was missing Teflon tape for the threads on the fittings; now the pipe to hook to the house supply AND the wires for the power are both too short to reach. I'll gather supplies tomorrow and make a final assault on the thing then.
Today I burned the trash/brush pile by the pool, reducing a car sized pile of privet clippings, old chairs and boards to about a five gallon bucket of ash. I experimented with using kerosene in a garden sprayer to get it going and "burn off the dampness" and it worked pretty well.
I also experimented with cutting tires today. I ended up using a hole saw in my big hammer drill as the best solution for boring drainage holes in one sidewall. Now they will not collect water and next year when I grow sweet potatoes in them they won't get soggy. I bored five holes in the sidewall, wherever the "low point" would be when they're flipped over. My hole saw is one of the more heavy duty type, good on both wood and metal. Tires with thick sidewalls can take a while to bore through, but the result is worth it. A fair amount of smoke gets generated, so I was glad I could work outdoors on a breezy day. The hole saw gets coated with molten rubber, so expect that if you try this. As for how to bore through, it's a balance between pressure and speed. The harder you press, the more the drill bogs down; back off the pressure and the rpms come up, but you get a lot of smoke. Alternating pressure and rpms seemed to work ok. Also "wobbling" the drill worked, putting pressure on mostly one spot at a time of the circle you're cutting out.
Digging the "plug" of rubber out of the hole saw after every two or three holes was important. Otherwise the saw couldn't get down far enough to be effective. Pry the plug up while it's hot. Once the rubber cools it's harder to pry it up. I ended up with dozens of really neat rubber grommets of varying thicknesses. Could be good for shock mounting motors or any number of things.
My buddy Charles came by for a visit and we walked the grounds and I told/showed him what we'd accomplished so far and the plans for the future. It was a real treat to have him there for a couple hours.
Tomorrow I want to burn another brush pile in the morning while the dew is still on everything, then get the dang pump functional so I can actually get some cleaning done! :)
Did I mention that the cistern pump is now able to crank out some normal pressure? If you let it run long enough, it'll build up to 50 psi and shut off, like it's supposed to.
In looking at the kitchen layout I want, it occurs to me that we might be able to mount a hand pump from the cistern right to the kitchen sink. It'd be neat to have a hand powered water supply if the power is interuppted!
Lots to do, but to bed for now. Nite all!
Doug
Today I burned the trash/brush pile by the pool, reducing a car sized pile of privet clippings, old chairs and boards to about a five gallon bucket of ash. I experimented with using kerosene in a garden sprayer to get it going and "burn off the dampness" and it worked pretty well.
I also experimented with cutting tires today. I ended up using a hole saw in my big hammer drill as the best solution for boring drainage holes in one sidewall. Now they will not collect water and next year when I grow sweet potatoes in them they won't get soggy. I bored five holes in the sidewall, wherever the "low point" would be when they're flipped over. My hole saw is one of the more heavy duty type, good on both wood and metal. Tires with thick sidewalls can take a while to bore through, but the result is worth it. A fair amount of smoke gets generated, so I was glad I could work outdoors on a breezy day. The hole saw gets coated with molten rubber, so expect that if you try this. As for how to bore through, it's a balance between pressure and speed. The harder you press, the more the drill bogs down; back off the pressure and the rpms come up, but you get a lot of smoke. Alternating pressure and rpms seemed to work ok. Also "wobbling" the drill worked, putting pressure on mostly one spot at a time of the circle you're cutting out.
Digging the "plug" of rubber out of the hole saw after every two or three holes was important. Otherwise the saw couldn't get down far enough to be effective. Pry the plug up while it's hot. Once the rubber cools it's harder to pry it up. I ended up with dozens of really neat rubber grommets of varying thicknesses. Could be good for shock mounting motors or any number of things.
My buddy Charles came by for a visit and we walked the grounds and I told/showed him what we'd accomplished so far and the plans for the future. It was a real treat to have him there for a couple hours.
Tomorrow I want to burn another brush pile in the morning while the dew is still on everything, then get the dang pump functional so I can actually get some cleaning done! :)
Did I mention that the cistern pump is now able to crank out some normal pressure? If you let it run long enough, it'll build up to 50 psi and shut off, like it's supposed to.
In looking at the kitchen layout I want, it occurs to me that we might be able to mount a hand pump from the cistern right to the kitchen sink. It'd be neat to have a hand powered water supply if the power is interuppted!
Lots to do, but to bed for now. Nite all!
Doug
Sunday, July 02, 2006
Long Weekend, Long Day
To one and all,
Lots has happened since I last posted. Yesterday I spent about 11 hours on the place, doing a variety of things. It was one of those days I seemed to bounce from task to task based on the heat and my energy level. That had a very "organic" feeling to it, which I enjoy, but the list below doesn't sound like I accomplished anything big. So in roughly chronological order:
-Tinkered with the plumbing and got the cistern pump up to 32 psi. I'd hoped to get up to the hardware store and get a new pump for what I'm calling "the shallow well" but I kept puttering and the day slipped away before I made that trip.
-Replaced the P-traps on both kitchen and first floor bathroom sinks, they looked like sieves.
-Tried to unclog the kitchen sink with liquid drain opener once the new trap was in, but with marginal success. The standing water did go down after several hours but I didn't have time to flush it as the directions recommend. (I'll know more when I can turn on the water heater and get some fresh hot water flushed down there.) I used that "foaming plumber's snake" stuff, which did foam but the rest remains to be seen.
-Scrubbed out and flushed clear both toilets so at least we have two of those that are functional, if not totally "Lysoled" by this point.
-Swept out the back porch and rearranged the tools I've had stored there helter skelter so they're more visible and organized and I'm not hunting for things. It needs a good pressure wash and a scrub with disinfectant to get the goat smell out of there. (The previous owners had a goat living in a cage there, I was told.)
-Discovered that there were two dead birds in the woodstove in the kitchen. I scooped them out with a shovel and gave them a decent dumster burial. I'll need help to get the stove out of the kitchen though, it weighs a TON.
-Picked up miscl trash around the place, just policing up little bits of plastic and debris that make the place look junky, even when the big things are gone.
-Carried out three or four boxes of "leftovers" from the house that I can use in the barn/shop. Old dishes and silver ware I'd never use for food might be cleaned up and put to use to store hardware and stir paint.
-Discovered that the kitchen cabinets were not as empty as I'd thought. I pulled two full garbage cans of old kitchen dishes, old food and miscl junk out of the cabinets.
-Tinkered with the electricity, trying to figure out which circuit breaker works which plugs. There was an old radio in the house so I turned it on real loud and kept moving it around the house. When I flipped a breaker and it went off, I marked the panel. It's a mish mosh, but a more identified mish mosh now. ;)
-Dragged off dead limbs and small dead trees and brush hogged a section of weeds on the north side of the barn with my push mower. It borders my neighbor John's lawn. He'd come over with his riding mower the other day and did my whole front and side yards. That saved me from doing it all with my push mower. (I still haven't found a riding mower that fits my needs and budget.) So I figured it was the least I could do to repay the kindness.
-Cleaned out the junk from the basement I'd missed on earlier "trash roundup" missions. Sleeping bags, old video came console parts, rotted wood, potting soil, you name it. There are still about 75 empty mason jars but I'll leave them there for now. The basement stairs also still need a lot of work (the bottom five steps had rotted away and you have to climb down onto a stack of cinderblocks right now) so hauling the junk out was a little more work than I'd hoped it would be. Lots of it I was able to toss out the window, but some had to be lugged up the "stairs."
As I was shoveling a somewhat large pile of potting soil into some five gallon buckets my brain began to ponder why someone would dump potting soil in a totally dark, damp basement. And then I glanced to my left at this funny little room we'd noticed. It was all painted white inside, white stone on the floor, and plugs in the ceiling with these little pulleys in strange places. All of a sudden it all clicked into a meaningful pattern. Somebody'd been set up to grow pot in the basement! I'd heard about places like this over the years. Since the place had been let go to "pot" it makes sense...
My friend Tim dropped by and I showed him my little discovery and it made sense to both of us. His basement flooded this week with all the rain so I offered him some dumpster space to jettison his trash, which he did.
The dumpster is due to be picked up Monday, and I'll be interested to hear what the final tally on it's weight is. There's got to be a couple tons of just dirt from the burn pile in there, and I'm only allowed three tons before they charge me extra. But I'll gladly pay it, just to get that stuff off the property and into a landfill. What a mess!
That's about all I can recall at the moment for yesterday. Thursday my buddy Todd came over and we worked about four hours clearing up junk around the back "door" to the fenced in yard. Right now the opening in the wall has plywood nailed over it, that's why "door" is in quotes. But it looks 150% better outside now. We hauled all sorts of rotted lumber to one of three burn piles on the place. Each pile is about the size of a medium sized car. When we get some more rainy days, it'll be bonfire city, now that I can get some reasonable water pressure out of the house.
Earlier this week I pooled some birthday and Christmas money and bought myself a first class "mechanical goat." I got a Stihl brush cutter, with the big "bicycle handlebars" and it's a dream to cut brush and weeds with. It just zips through them like they were nothing. It's sort of like scything, but with more horsepower. :)
Today I head to my cousin's house at the lake for some time with family and then down to my sister's for a few days, through the Fourth. May you all have a wonderful time with family and friends, see lots of fireworks and attend a parade or two.
But most of all, remember that the freedom we enjoy was purchased at great price. Please stop and say a prayer for the men and women, and their families, that have given so much to us all.
I've seen various authorship attributed to this, but the point remains true:
"It's the Soldier, not the reporter,
who has given us freedom of the press.
It's the Soldier, not the poet,
who has given us freedom of speech.
It's the Soldier, not the campus organizer,
who has given us freedom to demonstrate.
It's the Soldier, not the lawyer,
who has given us the right to a fair trial.
And it's the Soldier who salutes the flag,
who serves the flag,
whose coffin is draped in the flag,
that allows the protester to burn the flag"
poem by: Father D. E. O'Brien
I would only add that we owe a HUGE debt to our Founding Fathers for bestowing on us a system that is capable of operating on the "golden mean" between chaos and repression. We are so blessed to have a system that can produce "ordered liberty." It's never perfect, but it only works as well as we do. Get involved and be persistent.
Gratefully,
Doug
Lots has happened since I last posted. Yesterday I spent about 11 hours on the place, doing a variety of things. It was one of those days I seemed to bounce from task to task based on the heat and my energy level. That had a very "organic" feeling to it, which I enjoy, but the list below doesn't sound like I accomplished anything big. So in roughly chronological order:
-Tinkered with the plumbing and got the cistern pump up to 32 psi. I'd hoped to get up to the hardware store and get a new pump for what I'm calling "the shallow well" but I kept puttering and the day slipped away before I made that trip.
-Replaced the P-traps on both kitchen and first floor bathroom sinks, they looked like sieves.
-Tried to unclog the kitchen sink with liquid drain opener once the new trap was in, but with marginal success. The standing water did go down after several hours but I didn't have time to flush it as the directions recommend. (I'll know more when I can turn on the water heater and get some fresh hot water flushed down there.) I used that "foaming plumber's snake" stuff, which did foam but the rest remains to be seen.
-Scrubbed out and flushed clear both toilets so at least we have two of those that are functional, if not totally "Lysoled" by this point.
-Swept out the back porch and rearranged the tools I've had stored there helter skelter so they're more visible and organized and I'm not hunting for things. It needs a good pressure wash and a scrub with disinfectant to get the goat smell out of there. (The previous owners had a goat living in a cage there, I was told.)
-Discovered that there were two dead birds in the woodstove in the kitchen. I scooped them out with a shovel and gave them a decent dumster burial. I'll need help to get the stove out of the kitchen though, it weighs a TON.
-Picked up miscl trash around the place, just policing up little bits of plastic and debris that make the place look junky, even when the big things are gone.
-Carried out three or four boxes of "leftovers" from the house that I can use in the barn/shop. Old dishes and silver ware I'd never use for food might be cleaned up and put to use to store hardware and stir paint.
-Discovered that the kitchen cabinets were not as empty as I'd thought. I pulled two full garbage cans of old kitchen dishes, old food and miscl junk out of the cabinets.
-Tinkered with the electricity, trying to figure out which circuit breaker works which plugs. There was an old radio in the house so I turned it on real loud and kept moving it around the house. When I flipped a breaker and it went off, I marked the panel. It's a mish mosh, but a more identified mish mosh now. ;)
-Dragged off dead limbs and small dead trees and brush hogged a section of weeds on the north side of the barn with my push mower. It borders my neighbor John's lawn. He'd come over with his riding mower the other day and did my whole front and side yards. That saved me from doing it all with my push mower. (I still haven't found a riding mower that fits my needs and budget.) So I figured it was the least I could do to repay the kindness.
-Cleaned out the junk from the basement I'd missed on earlier "trash roundup" missions. Sleeping bags, old video came console parts, rotted wood, potting soil, you name it. There are still about 75 empty mason jars but I'll leave them there for now. The basement stairs also still need a lot of work (the bottom five steps had rotted away and you have to climb down onto a stack of cinderblocks right now) so hauling the junk out was a little more work than I'd hoped it would be. Lots of it I was able to toss out the window, but some had to be lugged up the "stairs."
As I was shoveling a somewhat large pile of potting soil into some five gallon buckets my brain began to ponder why someone would dump potting soil in a totally dark, damp basement. And then I glanced to my left at this funny little room we'd noticed. It was all painted white inside, white stone on the floor, and plugs in the ceiling with these little pulleys in strange places. All of a sudden it all clicked into a meaningful pattern. Somebody'd been set up to grow pot in the basement! I'd heard about places like this over the years. Since the place had been let go to "pot" it makes sense...
My friend Tim dropped by and I showed him my little discovery and it made sense to both of us. His basement flooded this week with all the rain so I offered him some dumpster space to jettison his trash, which he did.
The dumpster is due to be picked up Monday, and I'll be interested to hear what the final tally on it's weight is. There's got to be a couple tons of just dirt from the burn pile in there, and I'm only allowed three tons before they charge me extra. But I'll gladly pay it, just to get that stuff off the property and into a landfill. What a mess!
That's about all I can recall at the moment for yesterday. Thursday my buddy Todd came over and we worked about four hours clearing up junk around the back "door" to the fenced in yard. Right now the opening in the wall has plywood nailed over it, that's why "door" is in quotes. But it looks 150% better outside now. We hauled all sorts of rotted lumber to one of three burn piles on the place. Each pile is about the size of a medium sized car. When we get some more rainy days, it'll be bonfire city, now that I can get some reasonable water pressure out of the house.
Earlier this week I pooled some birthday and Christmas money and bought myself a first class "mechanical goat." I got a Stihl brush cutter, with the big "bicycle handlebars" and it's a dream to cut brush and weeds with. It just zips through them like they were nothing. It's sort of like scything, but with more horsepower. :)
Today I head to my cousin's house at the lake for some time with family and then down to my sister's for a few days, through the Fourth. May you all have a wonderful time with family and friends, see lots of fireworks and attend a parade or two.
But most of all, remember that the freedom we enjoy was purchased at great price. Please stop and say a prayer for the men and women, and their families, that have given so much to us all.
I've seen various authorship attributed to this, but the point remains true:
"It's the Soldier, not the reporter,
who has given us freedom of the press.
It's the Soldier, not the poet,
who has given us freedom of speech.
It's the Soldier, not the campus organizer,
who has given us freedom to demonstrate.
It's the Soldier, not the lawyer,
who has given us the right to a fair trial.
And it's the Soldier who salutes the flag,
who serves the flag,
whose coffin is draped in the flag,
that allows the protester to burn the flag"
poem by: Father D. E. O'Brien
I would only add that we owe a HUGE debt to our Founding Fathers for bestowing on us a system that is capable of operating on the "golden mean" between chaos and repression. We are so blessed to have a system that can produce "ordered liberty." It's never perfect, but it only works as well as we do. Get involved and be persistent.
Gratefully,
Doug
Monday, June 26, 2006
A day of waste disposal triumphs!
Dear family, friends, and others,
I had a backhoe to play with on the property today. Most of the rest of the trash was moved into the dumpster. A huge pile of bottles, cans and other debris from the former owner's "burn pile" disappeared there as well. It's amazing what you can do with one of those little machines...
A vast number of thistle plants were laid waste by the backhoe as I made trips around the property, some were over eight feet tall! I felt like I was driving through darkest Africa with that bucket in front of me, pushing down the weeds before me as I thundered through some "not yet mowed" parts of the property.
The Lord worked out a wonderful timing series today too. About mid-morning my friend Tim called and asked for help with his basement that had flooded. I went over with my little pump and we worked a while, then I came back to Walnut Hill to get a shop vac and assorted other tools. While I was there it occured to me that I needed to uncover the septic today because the guy was supposed to come pump it at some point. I knew where the tank was, but wasn't sure where the access hole was, so I ended up scraping the dirt off most of the tank before I found it. Now I know that from the SE corner of the house it's 39' due south, then 3' due west and dig. Buried treasure, of a sort. Anyway, I'd just uncovered the access hole when my cell phone rang and the septic guy said he was coming down my road and could he come by now. Worked out perfectly. He was in and out in about 20 minutes. He said the tank is old fashioned (c. 1949 with the house, probably) and will have to be replaced at some point in the future as they tighten regulations. (I figured as much.) But for now we're good to go, we made it under the deadline of July 1.
It took longer to cover up the septic than it did to uncover it. (Capt. Murphy came to call.) There had been a depression in the ground above the septic before, and I wanted to replace the dirt I'd removed and add to it while I had the backhoe there. So up the hill I went with the backhoe to a dirt pile I'd found. (An old 4wheeler jump.) But the rocks on the path down the hill were so bad that I had to put about eight buckets full of dirt on top of them so the machine wouldn't tip over coming down with the _two_ buckets I needed for the septic hole. So it took me about 90 minutes to do a 10 minute job. Go figure... :)
Dinner with Tim and his wife was pleasant to relax and unwind with good company at the end of the day. The water was receeding in his basement and the shop vac no longer needed. But I had brought a broom/squeegee combo that turned out to be just the ticket for corraling the final dribs and drabs.
Between removing the "burn pile," dumping much more trash I'd picked up, helping a bit with Tim's basement and getting the septic taken care of, it was a productive day.
I'll probably work with the machine a bit in the morning, filling the odd hole around the place with dirt before they come to take it away. It needs a good pressure wash at the moment and I don't have one... yet. First I need to get a new pump hooked up to the well so I have running water. Probably Wednesday or Thursday I'll tackle that chore. Then we'll see how much pressure I have and whether it'll do the job.
With all the rain, my "almost dry pool" is now about six to eight inches deep again. I'll need to pump it out and start over. We needed the rain, the ground was/is very dry, but it's a pain to have to repeat a chore.
Thanks for reading. More updates as we make more progress,
Doug
I had a backhoe to play with on the property today. Most of the rest of the trash was moved into the dumpster. A huge pile of bottles, cans and other debris from the former owner's "burn pile" disappeared there as well. It's amazing what you can do with one of those little machines...
A vast number of thistle plants were laid waste by the backhoe as I made trips around the property, some were over eight feet tall! I felt like I was driving through darkest Africa with that bucket in front of me, pushing down the weeds before me as I thundered through some "not yet mowed" parts of the property.
The Lord worked out a wonderful timing series today too. About mid-morning my friend Tim called and asked for help with his basement that had flooded. I went over with my little pump and we worked a while, then I came back to Walnut Hill to get a shop vac and assorted other tools. While I was there it occured to me that I needed to uncover the septic today because the guy was supposed to come pump it at some point. I knew where the tank was, but wasn't sure where the access hole was, so I ended up scraping the dirt off most of the tank before I found it. Now I know that from the SE corner of the house it's 39' due south, then 3' due west and dig. Buried treasure, of a sort. Anyway, I'd just uncovered the access hole when my cell phone rang and the septic guy said he was coming down my road and could he come by now. Worked out perfectly. He was in and out in about 20 minutes. He said the tank is old fashioned (c. 1949 with the house, probably) and will have to be replaced at some point in the future as they tighten regulations. (I figured as much.) But for now we're good to go, we made it under the deadline of July 1.
It took longer to cover up the septic than it did to uncover it. (Capt. Murphy came to call.) There had been a depression in the ground above the septic before, and I wanted to replace the dirt I'd removed and add to it while I had the backhoe there. So up the hill I went with the backhoe to a dirt pile I'd found. (An old 4wheeler jump.) But the rocks on the path down the hill were so bad that I had to put about eight buckets full of dirt on top of them so the machine wouldn't tip over coming down with the _two_ buckets I needed for the septic hole. So it took me about 90 minutes to do a 10 minute job. Go figure... :)
Dinner with Tim and his wife was pleasant to relax and unwind with good company at the end of the day. The water was receeding in his basement and the shop vac no longer needed. But I had brought a broom/squeegee combo that turned out to be just the ticket for corraling the final dribs and drabs.
Between removing the "burn pile," dumping much more trash I'd picked up, helping a bit with Tim's basement and getting the septic taken care of, it was a productive day.
I'll probably work with the machine a bit in the morning, filling the odd hole around the place with dirt before they come to take it away. It needs a good pressure wash at the moment and I don't have one... yet. First I need to get a new pump hooked up to the well so I have running water. Probably Wednesday or Thursday I'll tackle that chore. Then we'll see how much pressure I have and whether it'll do the job.
With all the rain, my "almost dry pool" is now about six to eight inches deep again. I'll need to pump it out and start over. We needed the rain, the ground was/is very dry, but it's a pain to have to repeat a chore.
Thanks for reading. More updates as we make more progress,
Doug
Monday, June 19, 2006
Workday! Saturday, June 17, 2006
Today's "I'd like to know" section:
-If anyone has found a good method/tool for cutting one sidewall out of a tire so it makes a large shallow planting bed, let me know. There's got to be a way to do this that doesn't involve $70,000 machines.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
On Saturday morning some friends from church came over and worked like beavers until very late in the day. I had a long list of tasks I had thought up: clear brush, weed, carry out garbage, etc and we accomplished ALL of them as well as some others we dreamed up together.
Among the things we did:
-Took all the bags of filthy clothes from the house to the dumpster.
-Moved all the "left behind" furniture from the house to the barn/dumpster.
-Moved three big "sidelight" door panels (that had been left behind) from the house to the barn.
-Removed the bagged debris from the upstairs of the barn so it's ready to have all it's rat droppings and broken glass vacuumed up. (Yuch!)
-Moved the stack of firewood from the driveway to the chicken coop
-Trimmed the hedge alongside the barn
-Cleaned up around the "burn pile" at the back of the fenced yard. We burned a lot of brush and junk up. (Hope to rent a backhoe later this week to get the residue into the dumpster.)
{I am in love with the local hardware store. They are friendly, knowledgeable and rent all sorts of neat equipment very reasonably. I'm not going to the Big Box store if I can help it. These guys are GREAT!}
-Moved all the tires we could find into piles. Those with steel rims to be trucked somewhere and derimmed, those without rims to be used next year for growing sweet potatoes! (I can never find the kind of sweet potatoes that I really like. Now I have a chance to grow them!)
-Cleaned out the chicken coop of it's "mouse hotel" couch and other assorted debris. We left the push mower cum car tire, lawn chair and parasol as a conversation piece. Only a picture will adequately do justice to this contraption. I have no idea what it is or is for... :)
-A family took on the mission of cleaning all the weeds out from around the pool deck. They worked VERY hard in the hot sun and had it done in no time!
-Last thing of the day we removed the first section of paneling from the living room and saw what was behind it. Nothing but furring strips and concrete block. Zero insulation. Confirms what I'd expected and firms my resolve to make sure this house is made very energy efficient. We might lose some floor space but it'll be worth it, IMHO.
Notes on the pool:
The pool liner is probably going to have to be replaced, now that it's drained. It may serve another season or two, with lots of manhours of labor to dig out the five years of accumulated leaves and whatever else didn't manage to crawl out of the pool...
But then we'll be right back to replacing it, so I'm going to see about just buying a new one from the git go and be done with it. If I have the backhoe there this week I can probably bundle the whole thing up and lift the liner out with the backhoe arm. We'll see. There's probably several hundred pounds of putrifying dead leaves left in the pool. Yuch. Might as well try to work smart, not hard.
Good news- the filter and pump appear to be intact and are the exact same sort as some friends have, so they can teach me how to operate it. The decking needs a good scrub and power wash with clorox, but other than that appears to be totally sturdy and intact. It sits in the direct noonday sun, so some carpeting on the deck will help to keep feet from blistering on it. Whew that thing gets hot!
Someday I want to build a solar heater for it and run the filter water through it. It certainly has a lot of energy falling on it, might as well harness it!
That's all I can think to report for Saturday. It was a wonderful day with good friends who really helped buoy my spirits about the task in front of me.
I'm sure there will be other days of work ahead but the bulk of the "clean up" seems like it's now behind us. Hurrah!
I've got an album of photos I've started to post online at this link:
http://community.webshots.com/user/Stickbug54
Doug
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
-If anyone has found a good method/tool for cutting one sidewall out of a tire so it makes a large shallow planting bed, let me know. There's got to be a way to do this that doesn't involve $70,000 machines.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
On Saturday morning some friends from church came over and worked like beavers until very late in the day. I had a long list of tasks I had thought up: clear brush, weed, carry out garbage, etc and we accomplished ALL of them as well as some others we dreamed up together.
Among the things we did:
-Took all the bags of filthy clothes from the house to the dumpster.
-Moved all the "left behind" furniture from the house to the barn/dumpster.
-Moved three big "sidelight" door panels (that had been left behind) from the house to the barn.
-Removed the bagged debris from the upstairs of the barn so it's ready to have all it's rat droppings and broken glass vacuumed up. (Yuch!)
-Moved the stack of firewood from the driveway to the chicken coop
-Trimmed the hedge alongside the barn
-Cleaned up around the "burn pile" at the back of the fenced yard. We burned a lot of brush and junk up. (Hope to rent a backhoe later this week to get the residue into the dumpster.)
{I am in love with the local hardware store. They are friendly, knowledgeable and rent all sorts of neat equipment very reasonably. I'm not going to the Big Box store if I can help it. These guys are GREAT!}
-Moved all the tires we could find into piles. Those with steel rims to be trucked somewhere and derimmed, those without rims to be used next year for growing sweet potatoes! (I can never find the kind of sweet potatoes that I really like. Now I have a chance to grow them!)
-Cleaned out the chicken coop of it's "mouse hotel" couch and other assorted debris. We left the push mower cum car tire, lawn chair and parasol as a conversation piece. Only a picture will adequately do justice to this contraption. I have no idea what it is or is for... :)
-A family took on the mission of cleaning all the weeds out from around the pool deck. They worked VERY hard in the hot sun and had it done in no time!
-Last thing of the day we removed the first section of paneling from the living room and saw what was behind it. Nothing but furring strips and concrete block. Zero insulation. Confirms what I'd expected and firms my resolve to make sure this house is made very energy efficient. We might lose some floor space but it'll be worth it, IMHO.
Notes on the pool:
The pool liner is probably going to have to be replaced, now that it's drained. It may serve another season or two, with lots of manhours of labor to dig out the five years of accumulated leaves and whatever else didn't manage to crawl out of the pool...
But then we'll be right back to replacing it, so I'm going to see about just buying a new one from the git go and be done with it. If I have the backhoe there this week I can probably bundle the whole thing up and lift the liner out with the backhoe arm. We'll see. There's probably several hundred pounds of putrifying dead leaves left in the pool. Yuch. Might as well try to work smart, not hard.
Good news- the filter and pump appear to be intact and are the exact same sort as some friends have, so they can teach me how to operate it. The decking needs a good scrub and power wash with clorox, but other than that appears to be totally sturdy and intact. It sits in the direct noonday sun, so some carpeting on the deck will help to keep feet from blistering on it. Whew that thing gets hot!
Someday I want to build a solar heater for it and run the filter water through it. It certainly has a lot of energy falling on it, might as well harness it!
That's all I can think to report for Saturday. It was a wonderful day with good friends who really helped buoy my spirits about the task in front of me.
I'm sure there will be other days of work ahead but the bulk of the "clean up" seems like it's now behind us. Hurrah!
I've got an album of photos I've started to post online at this link:
http://community.webshots.com/user/Stickbug54
Doug
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-
Saturday, June 17, 2006
My First Blog
This is a "first blog" attempt to record the progress of fixing up our "new" old house, which I've named Walnut Hill. I chose that name for the stunningly simple reason that it has a hill on the property which has a lot of walnut trees on it. :) The house I grew up in was called Hickory Hill so it has a certain nostaligic flavor for me too.
Today I arrived around 8:30 AM to help the rolloff dumpster guy place the dumpster on the flat ground near the barn, near the largest trash pile left by the former owners.
After hauling all that into the dumpter, or stacking old tires alongside it..., I cut down overgrown weeds all around the pool. Yesterday I disassembled, cleaned and reassembled the power outlet by the pool and this morning I started the little pump going right away. It's not fast so I was thinking this could take days to drain.
(Earlier this week I found a dead squirrel floating in the pool, which has not been touched in 5 years according to neighbors. Therefore I decided to go with the "replace the water" not the "clean up the water" method of getting the pool usable. Turned out to be a good idea, keep reading...)
I cleared away overgrown privet hedge near the south entrance to the barn, then began cleaning out the room just inside there. I hauled off about 8 wheelbarrow loads of junk and dirt and debris, took the top off the old chest freezer. Have to find a way to get rid of it at some point... can't go in the dumpster they say.
Hauled away all the debris piled by the north door of the barn that I'd tossed out of the upstairs (hayloft). Began to pick at the things inside that doorway. Took away the pink Barbie Lamborghini. Sits atop the pile in the dumpster like a trophy...
While I was taking a lunch break about 2PM I visited the local hardware store. Older model store, not a Home Depot type place. Friendly staff, LOTS of the sort of things I'll be needing, good quality stuff. Anyway, they have a rental business too, and I ended up renting a 72GPM submersible pump which drained the pool to within a few inches of dry in less than four hours. The pool is 25' diameter by about 4' deep. I haven't worked out the volume yet, but it was a lot, I'm sure. Tomorrow I'm going to start shoveling out the five years worth of leaves matted on the bottom and see what I can do to make sure the liner is in good shape. Found a dead squirrel decomposing on the bottom of the pool as the bottom came into view. (Water was very cloudy and you could only see down a few inches.) Thought about naming the pool the "Floating Squirrel Swim Club" in honor of these two fallen furry critters.
{Note to the future, find a way that will give squirrels a way to climb out if they fall in.}
For all the hard work today there seems to be a decent amount of progress made.
Yesterday I priced a new water pump at around $250, so hopefully we can get that up and running soon. It'd be nice to have a hose handy when we start to burning the brush piles that are growing around the place.
I'll try to figure out how to insert some pictures in here as time goes on.
Off to bed,
Doug
Today I arrived around 8:30 AM to help the rolloff dumpster guy place the dumpster on the flat ground near the barn, near the largest trash pile left by the former owners.
After hauling all that into the dumpter, or stacking old tires alongside it..., I cut down overgrown weeds all around the pool. Yesterday I disassembled, cleaned and reassembled the power outlet by the pool and this morning I started the little pump going right away. It's not fast so I was thinking this could take days to drain.
(Earlier this week I found a dead squirrel floating in the pool, which has not been touched in 5 years according to neighbors. Therefore I decided to go with the "replace the water" not the "clean up the water" method of getting the pool usable. Turned out to be a good idea, keep reading...)
I cleared away overgrown privet hedge near the south entrance to the barn, then began cleaning out the room just inside there. I hauled off about 8 wheelbarrow loads of junk and dirt and debris, took the top off the old chest freezer. Have to find a way to get rid of it at some point... can't go in the dumpster they say.
Hauled away all the debris piled by the north door of the barn that I'd tossed out of the upstairs (hayloft). Began to pick at the things inside that doorway. Took away the pink Barbie Lamborghini. Sits atop the pile in the dumpster like a trophy...
While I was taking a lunch break about 2PM I visited the local hardware store. Older model store, not a Home Depot type place. Friendly staff, LOTS of the sort of things I'll be needing, good quality stuff. Anyway, they have a rental business too, and I ended up renting a 72GPM submersible pump which drained the pool to within a few inches of dry in less than four hours. The pool is 25' diameter by about 4' deep. I haven't worked out the volume yet, but it was a lot, I'm sure. Tomorrow I'm going to start shoveling out the five years worth of leaves matted on the bottom and see what I can do to make sure the liner is in good shape. Found a dead squirrel decomposing on the bottom of the pool as the bottom came into view. (Water was very cloudy and you could only see down a few inches.) Thought about naming the pool the "Floating Squirrel Swim Club" in honor of these two fallen furry critters.
{Note to the future, find a way that will give squirrels a way to climb out if they fall in.}
For all the hard work today there seems to be a decent amount of progress made.
Yesterday I priced a new water pump at around $250, so hopefully we can get that up and running soon. It'd be nice to have a hose handy when we start to burning the brush piles that are growing around the place.
I'll try to figure out how to insert some pictures in here as time goes on.
Off to bed,
Doug
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