7 May 2011

Except for the FBF (hint: the last two letters stand for “black flies”), a beautiful day.  Normal routine: another course of rocks laid on three of the incomplete west wall sections and two courses on the section with the electrical box, this time without upsetting myself while laying the second course.  Finished hand digging the area for the auxiliary storage area that will be under the ramp into the woodshed proper.  Had to move two big rocks out of the way, one of which (by measurement and calculation) weighed 175 lbs.  That little task would have been MUCH easier with a backhoe, but I got the thing lifted and relocated without destroying any body parts.  Was ready to dive into the lake at that point, but I don’t think the lake is quite ready for diving.  A HUGE boulder that I thought I was going to have to incorporate into one of the footers turns out to be ½ inch clear of where the footer form will be placed.  Had to make an emergency run into Brandon after dinner: was out of honey roasted peanuts.  No, actually, the RV smoke detector (that gets a regular workout from my culinary attempts) was acting like it needed a new battery, even though I replaced the battery on arrival in April.  Well, apparently it weren’t the battery that was bad…  One more thing added to the two page list of things to bring up from Virginia.

6 May 2011

Remember how I said that laying two courses of rock on one section in a day was especially tricky.  Well I was parging in the final rock in the second course of the section with the electrical box, when that rock fell right off the wall because the parging holding it up (from this morning’s work) just flat collapsed.  Many bad words later and I still wasn’t able to repair the damage; will have to wait ‘till everything firms up better overnight.  Perry stopped by mid afternoon to retrieve his kayak from the dock, so I had him record the Parging Master for all posterity. You’ll note that Chree’s (once clean) beekeeper hat is in evidence.  Puzzle of the day: which is worse, working when it is cold and wet, but there are no bugs, or working when it is warm and sunny, and the black flies are absolutely ferocious?  After the rock laying work was as complete as it could be, spent an hour with my round-pointed idiot stick removing rocks and dirt from the cellar hole.  Excellent exercise, however the black flies REALLY get angry when you start throwing dirt around.  They said on the can of spinach that I had with my steak (introduced briefly to a nice black-fly-repelling campfire) that it served 3½ portions.  They were wrong…

5 May 2011

Another nasty, cold, rainy day.  The sun came out for five minutes every couple of hours just to tease me, but I’m wise to that game… kept my raincoat on the whole day.  Laid and parged two courses in the section where the electrical box is mounted.  That is especially tricky since the first course’s mortar isn’t set too well when you start setting rocks for the second course, even though I did the first course first thing in the morning and didn’t start on the second course until after lunch.  Also put another course on the other three incomplete sections on the west wall.  Finished all that work by 3:15, so picked rock for awhile and moved the last of the spruce and fir that was cut for the driveway to the campfire stack.  Now all of the piles of “stuff” that once littered the driveway are gone.  Noted that in the electrical panel Liam labeled the circuit breaker for the shed “Doug’s Man Cave”.  After all the recent rain the lake water level now is maybe ¼ inch below the top of the dock… on the high end of the dock.  On a positive note, Lake Champlain is 3 FEET above flood stage and still rising, making a lot of lakeside property owners over there quite unhappy.  No worries here; Fern Lake would have to rise another 60 feet before Delores’ tootsies would get damp.

4 May 2011

When someone takes a rain check, I always thought that meant they were postponing something because of bad weather.  Seems that Liam and Gary understand things differently.  The significant rain that we were supposed to have received yesterday started just after midnight. (Trust me, when sleeping with Delores, you KNOW when it’s raining.)  Our intrepid master electricians arrived early in what proved to be a nonstop monsoon.  Only time the rain let up, I took off my rain jacket, which action worked just as advertised on TV, i.e., the downpour immediately recommenced.  Gary and Liam roughed in the electrical runs to various lights and outlets, then hooked one outlet up to a temporary feed from the main electrical panel.  And now we have power to the people, I mean, to the shed.  When I was digging, and then later backfilling, the trench across the driveway for the temporary electrical feed, I found many building rocks, many of which I had previously rejected as unsuitable due to their shape.  At this point I am so desperate for stone that if there is the slightest chance a rock once came out of a volcano, I probably will put it in the pile.  After Liam and Gary left, shortly past noon, I finished laying a course of rocks in the four sections not yet complete.  Decided that one of my least favorite activities is parging rocks in the rain.  But, once the cementing was done, a few ounces from the bottle with the black label soon took the chill off.  Delores not being the most posh accommodation in town, only thing I had for my libations was a water glass.  Just perfect…

3 May 2011

Forecast was for heavy rain and a flood watch for this afternoon, so Liam Powers took a rain check on installing the shed electrical lights and power.  Was at work by 6:45, getting the last course on the between-column walls that are exposed to the weather (under where the driveway will be).  Now all the east and south side walls are ready for concrete reinforcement. Wore my rain jacket out to continue work after lunch.  I’ll take full credit that it rained not a drop all afternoon.  Got an additional course on three sections of the west wall… and had done all I could for the day by 4:15.

2 May 2011

 

Was doing the measurements and calculations to determine just exactly where Fern Lake would be on the Vermont rock, when I discovered that I’m even more omnipotent than I had believed.  Seems that I moved the entire Northeast Kingdom to the shores of Lake Champlain.  (If you’re having trouble understanding the subtle humor here…and my embarrassment as a True Vermonter… compare the picture to a map of the state.)  Oh well, once the cement has set, there’s no turning things around.  Laid and parged seven sections of rock walls.  A couple of squirts of Eau de Vermont solved the black fly problem.  Miracle of miracles, the rain held off until just exactly as I was putting the tarp over the tools at the end of the day.  Just for giggles after dinner, punched into a spreadsheet the 236 wall thickness measurements that Alverta and I took yesterday.  The rock walls average 5¼ inches thick, but the range (per the random sample measurements we took) is between 3⅜ and 8 inches.

1 May 2011

An absolutely perfect, sunny, warm day… except that the black fly season started and will last for the next two weeks or so.  They weren’t too awful bad, but this is just the beginning.  Spent a couple of hours scrubbing Delores stem to stern in anticipation of company arriving.  Had just finished laying a course of rock on the between-column walls when Alverta made her appearance.  After touring progress in the cellar hole, she intimated that I have rocks in my head for the effort being put into creating a garage and a place to keep the rototiller… and which very few people ever will see.  Not saying she’s wrong… but this is the first really creative thing I’ve ever built… and I’m sure having a lot of fun (and some frustrations) in doing so.  Alverta and I then took a zillion measurements of the thickness that the concrete reinforcing walls will be so that I can calculate how much concrete to order for that pour.  While we were in the midst, Mark and Karen Evans stopped by to say hello, having kayaked over from their place across the lake.  After lunch, Alverta and I took elevation measurements the length of the driveway so that I can figure out the house elevation relative to the woodshed elevation and how much fill will be needed to achieve a more uniform driveway slope up towards VT 53.  Lynne arrived early afternoon, enabling us to put Hopea Kanootti back in the water.  Later on, Perry and Erin also arrived, whereupon we started to not cook dinner on Doug’s Special Campfire.  We only dropped two hot dogs in the dirt in removing the grill (multiple times) trying to foster some heat.  Hours later, dinner was delicious, topped off with Ghirardelli Chocolate Fudge Brownies (with chocolate frosting) fancied up with a cup of chopped walnuts, and served with Ben & Jerry’s Coffee Heath Bar Crunch.  Too soon the party ended…