30 April 2015

After a trip to Brandon to exchange / procure lag bolts (and restock a dwindling ice cream supply), spent the remainder of the day assembling the sauna woodshed framework.  The Goodro Lumber truck showed up right after lunch with the first (of, assuredly, many) $1,000+ load of “stuff” for the house… in this case the front entry door and sidelights.

29 April 2015

Quick run into Brandon right after breakfast for victuals and lag bolts.  Then finished making sawdust all the pieces for the sauna woodshed framework. Spent the rest of the morning carving rock with my dying Skilsaw and the ever-useful diamond tipped blade.  Needed to create a massive contusion on my left thumb while chipping rock with a cold chisel level spots for the two front posts to sit on and a trench for the 2x4 to sit in that will tie those posts together at the bottom.  After lunch, started putting the woodshed framework together, discovering in the process that, while I got sixteen 3″ and twenty-eight 3½″ lag bolts at the hardware store this morning, what I really needed were sixteen 3½″ and thirty-six 3″ lag bolts… and some adult supervision.  Marty and Merry came up for the Wizard’s Stew created yesterday… and seemed nonplussed by the eye of newt ingredients.  Spent a delightful evening with them catching up on a winter’s worth of news.

28 April 2015

As the weather forecast yesterday was that the rainy weather wasn’t supposed to clear until noon today, had planned to spend the morning cooking a sumptuous repast for when the Lapidii return from their current journey.  The weather all morning was gorgeous, of course, while I was inside tending to the bubbling cauldron.  Now is it eye of newt and toe of frog or vice versa?  That done and Delores’ tank topped off with another 13.2 gallons of propane, started fabricating the corner posts for the sauna woodshed.  The radial arm saw seems to have come through the winter just fine.  At lunchtime found that Jimmy Ploof had arrived with his mini-excavator to grade the north side of the house for well drilling purposes.  Had him build a quick 25 foot long by 3 foot high retaining wall, extending the existing wall (that he built last fall) north to tie into a natural ledge feature, thereby leveling off the area around the northwest corner of the house.  James arrived mid-afternoon with their big loader and moved most of the fill from the east end of the driveway around to the north side of the house, which Jimmy then converted into a superhighway for the Spafford’s well drilling rig to use.  Jimmy also dug a spoils pit and built a berm along the north property line so that the crap spoils that come out of the well don’t run down to the Lapidus’ property.

27 April 2015

Spent the first part of the morning doing more chainsaw work and the Kubota’s 160 hour periodic maintenance.  Tyler Maynard arrived at 11 to review the location changes I want for the septic system and wells.  He didn’t like where I was proposing to locate the leach field, but said the area where we originally wanted to put the second well (up by the road on the north side of the driveway) would be quite suitable for the field.  He had me dig four moderately deep pits in that area to verify the soil composition. After a late lunch, backfilled the four pits, then culled through the lumber salvaged from the old dock shack for material to be used in the sauna woodshed.  Super chlorinated Delores’ fresh water tanks and water lines today, hoping that might improve the hot water pressure.  Finished that whole rigmarole, turned on the faucets and got a weak stream on the heretofore strong cold water side and virtually nothing, I say again, n∙o∙t∙h∙i∙n∙g, out of the hot water side.  ^%$&#$ !!!!  Fortunately for my continued sanity (not to mention cleanliness), once I closed a system drain valve that I had inadvertently left open, full pressure was restored to both sides.

26 April 2015

Spent the entire day taking down six beech trees on the north side of the house and cleaning up the resulting detritus.  The annual burn pile already is quite large!  The good news is that none of the six trees hit the house, the wood shed, or the sauna on their way to terra firma.  The bad news is that I hung up two of them.  The worse news is that the first tree I tried to fell hung up worse than any tree I’ve ever hung up before.  Took every logging trick and tool I possess and the entire morning just to get that one tree on the ground without serious bodily injury or catastrophic property damage.  As the sun was setting, enjoyed the first G&T of the summer with Kate… which did wonders to alleviate the aches, pains, and tension from a strenuous and somewhat stressful day.

25 April 2015

Woke up at 4 am with thoughts a swirling in my brain about how to redesign the potable water supply and wastewater disposal system to, fingers, toes, and any spare appendages crossed, hopefully avoid the ochre problem Kate is encountering.  Also found that I had captured the first mouse of the season.  After arising again quite a bit later and removing said mouse to the Silver Lake parking lot tree stump, spent the morning depicting the new design with spray painted crude pictures on the ground and wooden stakes in key locations, figuring out as I went how to comply with all setback requirements, of which there are at least a zillion.  That’s why it took all morning.  So the new grand scheme: two wells to be drilled about 50 feet apart off the north end of the house (at about the same longitude as the Lapidus’ well… which produces lots of good water), septic and pump tanks moved south and west, but still on the west (lake) side of the house, and the leach field to be rotated 90° and moved to just east of where my trailer now is parked (about 50 feet on the other side of the stone wall from the leach field’s “original” position.)  Tom Williams came by just after noon and told me what trees need to be removed and what grading needs to be done so that he can get his rig to where I want the wells drilled.  Called Jimmy Ploof’s voicemail (this being a Saturday, after all) to request expeditious help with the grading portion of Tom’s requirements.  Will call Tyler Maynard on Monday to determine how we go about getting square with the State with these changes.  Spent the balance of the afternoon straightening up the woodshed “workshop” where I had dumped a truckload of tools upon arrival on Tuesday.  Found 6 more mice (a mama and her very clingy newborn babies) living inside my partial bag of Type S (for strong) Portland cement.  They, too, now reside at the Silver Lake parking area.  Kate, Lynne, and Perry came for another fabulous lasagna dinner.  After talking well drilling options with Tom today, Kate needed some viniferous restorative, which just happened to be on hand for just such occasions.

24 April 2015

Snow showers again this morning.  Been plagued with low pressure from the hot water faucets since reactivating Delores the other day.  Having tried everything else, took her for a spin around the block (she started right up, first turn of the key… Good Girl!!!!).  Figured maybe a trapped air bubble would be dislodged by some shimmying and shaking.  No luck… but the engine sounded strong, and the slide-out behaved perfectly.  Spent the morning using the Kubota to move the big pile of spruce / fir logs (that will become sauna fuel) from up by the driveway (where they would have been right in the way of the well waterline trench) down to the shed lower level wood storage area.  Also cut down two broken-off trees from winter storms, including the one across the wooden walkway.  After lunch, leveled out the area where the sauna woodshed will be built.  Had forgotten just how much fun (sic) using a shovel in Leicester soil can be.  Pretty well beat by the end of the day, so here’s a hot stock tip: Johnson & Johnson, makers of Bengay.

Here’s another hot stock tip: Johnny Walker, makers of JW Double Black.  The “Double” applies to both the whole-body aches and pains and the fact that, 100 feet down on Kate’s well, Spafford’s hit, not water, but the dreaded ochre.  Bad juju!!!!  Very bad juju!!!!

23 April 2015

Into Burlington to return my air compressor to the shop, since it worked exactly once over the winter then refused to start… just like last fall before it was “repaired”.  Lunch with Alverta.  Back to Fern Lake mid-afternoon to find that UPS had delivered a case of special RV toilet paper (Scott’s Rapid Dissolving), which we probably should have been using for the last 5 years…  Started snowing fairly hard while I was at the Brandon Hannaford buying ice cream.  Seemed apropos.

22 April 2015

Was vacuuming acorns off the RV batteries first thing this morning when I saw that one of the terminal wires was not connected.  Amazingly, once that teensy oversight was rectified, Delores started right up!  Humph!  Tyler Maynard from Lincoln Applied Geology, Tom & Tim Williams (father / son team) from Spafford & Sons Well Drilling, and James Ploof (now working fulltime for his father – do we sense some nepotism in the Vermont contracting business?) all arrived promptly at 8.  Tyler, Tom, and I picked good spots (from drill rig accessibility and legal distance from septic systems standpoints) for our two wells (and also for Kate’s new well).  Fingers crossed that we find lots of good water before we get down more than 80 feet!  Why two wells, you ask?  Not because, as some would surmise from observing Chree’s daily consumption, we drink that much (at least, not water).  Rather because we hope to use those wells to supply geothermal heating and cooling for the house, as well as slaking Chree’s thirst and cleansing the occasional pachyderm.  With the drilling spots selected, James graded off the drilling areas and dug 6′ x 6′ x 3′ deep pits to accept the “spoils” from the bore holes.  Sean came by to check on progress and talk about near-term window / door / trim installation.  Presented him with a fresh copy of our House Specifications document, incorporating the hundreds of changes made over the last year.  Sean didn’t seem as overjoyed with that presentation as I was expecting…  Once that was done, I headed to Goodro’s to spend money order the house front entry door / sidelights and the Sun Room French doors.  Also picked up the two too-large Guest Bedroom windows that have been on consignment there all winter, but never sold, though we did get one nibble.  Took two strong Goodro’s manly-men to load each of those windows onto the Tacoma.  Unfortunately, all I had was one Medicare-eligible geezer to offload them back at Fern Lake.  Got ‘er done, but then had to finish off my tube of Ben Gay.  Rained all afternoon, so thoroughly checked Delores’ watertight integrity and heating system finished getting the RV interior squared away and cooked the sauce needed for Saturday night’s dinner.  Also spent a bit of time talking to Tim Combs at Goodro and presenting options to Chree, trying to find French doors that meet Chree’s desires… since what I ordered this morning apparently doesn’t exist, at least according to the door manufacturer (who, I suppose, should know).

21 April 2015

Bid adieu to Springfield at 4:49 am (gack!), with the Tacoma fully loaded per usual.  Made great time to Philly (2 hours 40 minutes), but thereafter encountered mile after mile of stop and go traffic to the New Jersey border, completely inexplicable except for massively poor birth control in that area.  Consequently, the trip took 9½ hours, used xx gallons of gasoline, and required 1,600 mg of Ibuprofen.  Found Delores much as I’d left her, except for piles of acorns on top of the starting/coach batteries and in most of the underneath storage compartments, but also including one half-chewed acorn on the dining settee inside the RV (NOT a good sign!).  The dryer sheets strewn about the cabin (or maybe the resident squirrel(s)?) seem to have kept the mice reasonably at bay, just some droppings and no nests.  However, something (marauding bear, irate squirrel, or snow/ice) bent the passenger side windshield wiper down at a severe angle.  Kate’s lake-source water system being out of commission at present due to a winter freeze up episode, Marty & Merry graciously allowed me to fill Delores’ tanks with their purified (and oh, so delicious) water.  While the water was flowing, tried to start Delores to extend the slide-out.  No joy whatsoever using either the truck or coach batteries!  Rats!!!!  Hopefully the shore power inverter will charge the coach batteries overnight…  The inside of the house shell was clean, dry, and smells wonderful!  Found that a beach tree had a broken and fallen across the wooden walkway, doing no damage due to the latter’s (obviously) superior construction.  The lake water level is 15″ below the top of the dock in spite of a very snowy winter.  The water temperature is a heart-stopping 47°F.