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
Wednesday, July 26, 2006
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
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