22 July 2016

Jim, James, Burt, and Perry here again today.  James told me first thing that he wants to buy Delores to use as a temporary abode while building his own house on the property he bought last year… the one with all the good maple syrup-producing trees on it.  So as soon as could, I moved Delores back over to her normal parking spot and then, when everyone left for the day, spent a couple of hours doing a preliminary cleaning of her interior.  Trust me, you don’t want to know…  Burt hauled in crusher-run stone for the driveway, getting his loads from the Carrara stockpile in East Middlebury because I rejected the first load (procured locally) as being too full of dirt.  Burt also hauled in many loads of Ploof’s #1 topsoil (good, rich, stuff; definitely not sand!).  Jim smoothed out the driveway stone using a special tilling machine.  James spread the topsoil around with a skid-steer and rake, then applied many pounds of sun & shade grass mix.  The guys used the Ploof’s big roller to compact both the driveway and the lawn areas.  The roller has a vibrator built in, which literally shook the entire house foundation whenever the roller was close by.  If the house didn’t settle after that treatment, it’s not going to!  Perry and I finished the storage room shelves, made a new bed board and slats for the storage room bunk beds, then replaced the main entry door bottom seal (which had failed after only thirteen months in service).  That’s the bad news.  The good news is that the new seal only cost $5 and took mere minutes to install.