23 August 2014

You know Delores has a mouse problem when you capture two in the same trap.  Yes, that’s right, meece numbers 13 and 14 were snuggled up together when I arose this morning.  How cute!  After releasing them back into the wild, I did the 150 hour servicing on the Kubota while waiting for Kevin The Mason (as opposed to Kevin The Roofer) to arrive.  When he did, at 9, he was somewhat disgruntled that Goose Creek had hauled away all their staging last week.  So Kevin immediately returned to his abode to get his own staging, arriving back at Fern Lake at 11:30.  I spent the morning cleaning / picking up the construction site, then staging concrete block and bags of cement mix where Kevin wanted them (on the future patio).  Staging erected, Kevin got to work raising the house chimney up through the roof with a couple more courses of 8″ concrete block, attaching the second roof hip support bracket as he went. Then he transitioned to 4″ block, using that to build the chimney core up to the required height (3 feet above the roof peak).  I helped as needed, hoisting block and bucket-loads of concrete and cement mix up onto the staging.  Discovered, early on and most disconcertedly, that my New Balance working shoes are woefully inadequate to walking on the roof.  Life was just a little too exciting for a few seconds there!  In between playing mason tender, ran ¾″ PVC conduit in the trench from the top of the wood walkway down to very close to the sauna building… need a few more fittings to finish that job tomorrow.  For future reference, the electrical conduit is parallel to and 6 feet north of walkway section 3, and will be buried about 2 feet below grade level along that stretch.