16 October 2019
About 9:30, while I was busy picking another two
full bucket-loads of rocks out of the area between the new stone wall and Lake
Dunmore Road, Tammy and Geryll stopped by.
After discussing next steps, the two ladies left again, returning an
hour later with 12 bales of hay. They
then left again, purportedly to go into Middlebury to acquire a hydro seeder (a
device that sprays water, grass seed, and hay onto an area to be planted). That trip, I thought, should have taken them
an hour or so. At 1:30 Nate showed up to
take away Tammy’s Kubota, saying that he had just talked to his boss, who was
in Middlebury, and should be back here “any minute now”. At 2:00 Jake arrived, bringing with him a small
broadcast seeder. Finally, at 2:30 Tammy
and Geryll returned, bearing a 25 pound bag of grass seed, a hay mulcher /
sprayer (not a hydro seeder) from Taylor Rental, a half yard of topsoil,
and a tale of woe involving two flat tires on Tammy’s dump trailer. In the next hour we spread the topsoil (could
have used a full yard, easily), spread the grass seed, and mulched Tammy and
the seeded area with hay.
15 October 2019
Tammy and her guys got here at 9; Geryll
Robinson (just back from a two-week vacation in Europe) arrived an hour
later. Tammy brought me a copy of the
Rutland Herald from Wednesday, 2 October, the front page of which had a nice
picture of the stone wall being built, plus a short blurb about who was doing
the work (Tammy, Nate, and Jake) from Goshen Mountain Landscaping. Nate continued building the wall front and
back faces; Jake dumped stone rubble into the wall void as needed, then he and
Geryll began the arduous task of cleaning the work area of all the “extra”
stone; Tammy and I continued putting caps on the wall top. By early afternoon the wall was complete,
including a short extension of the Lapidus’ existing wall (built by Tammy years
ago) so that the Lapidus’ and Perkins’ walls meet at the property corner
stake. Then the fun began in
earnest! Tammy used our Kubotas (one at
time; she’s good but…) to aggressively grade and groom the area between the
stone wall and road in preparation for topsoil and grass seed. Let’s just say that us grunts (Geryll, Nate,
Jake, and I… and grunt we did do) removed many, many tons of stone stirred
up in the aftermath of Tammy’s efforts. Back breaking work! All that “extra” stone was dumped into a
once-hollow just off the driveway.
Tammy, Jake, and I finished the final topsoil spreading at 6:15. Don’t know about the others, but I’m PDK
(translation: pretty darn knackered) tonight.
14 October 2019
Tammy, Nate, and Jake arrived about 8:30 to
continue wall building. While the two
guys concentrated on building the outer wall faces and filling the inner void
with stone rubble, Tammy and I scavenged and placed the top caps. By the end of the day, all but 20 feet of the
wall was complete… and looking PDG (translation: pretty darn good).
11 October 2019
Returned to Fern Lake with all fingers, toes,
other body parts, Delores, and the Kubota intact after two weeks of working in
the woods. Got out 7 cords of saw logs
and 6 cords of firewood, the sale of which should at least partially assuage
the trials and tribulations endured. On
a very positive note: there were only a few occasions when the Kubota was
balanced just on three wheels.
Unfortunately, those occasions caused more than a few strands of Chree’s
hair to turn gray. Oh, well! Expected to find the stone wall complete, or
the Goshen Mountain Landscaping crew hard at work. While the wall was much further along than
when we left, there was still about 40 feet left to go… and Tammy’s crew was
among the missing. A good sign: there
was a dump truck load of beautiful topsoil deposited by the wall at the top of
the driveway. Tammy did call later that
afternoon to explain her absence… and promised to be here Monday morning to
continue work.
27 September 2019
Nate got here just before 9 and we continued
where the wall building left off yesterday.
Tammy and Jake arrived late morning to join in the fun. Shortly thereafter, Dave Todd, our
across-the-road neighbor, came over to tell Tammy that the D&F Paving stone
and gravel pit was again selling to other contractors. Tammy called the pit and, after some
pleading, was allowed to buy a load of (somewhat dirty) A-stone, which Nate
promptly went to fetch. At lunch time,
my wall building career came to an end (at least for this season), as the
afternoon had to be spent loading Delores for our annual logging trip, which
starts tomorrow. At quitting time for
this week, another 84 feet of stone wall was complete, bringing the two week
total to 179 feet constructed; only 133½ feet to go. The lake level now is 13½ inches below the
top of our dock and the lake temperature still is a very swimmable 64°F.
26 September 2019
You’ll recall (I’m sure!) that on 5 February 2016 Jim Ploof moved a
mountain of “excess” rocks from by the house out to what became three large
piles on the edge of the woods by the road.
We used up the first pile building the stone walls along the south side
of the driveway and southwards along the road.
Much of the second pile was used earlier this week. However, as of yesterday, if the wall along
the road is built any further northwards, access to the second pile will be
blocked. So, when Nate appeared today at 8:30, I was busy moving the rest of that
second pile from in the woods to the road side of where the wall will be built. Nate fired up Tammy’s Kubota and we attacked
the pile in concert, salvaging several bucket-loads of prime topsoil, which we
used to backfill behind the wall on the north side of the driveway. That mostly done, Nate and I continued
building wall… ever higher, ever longer.
Tammy and Jake pulled in mid-morning and went to work building the
gravestone steps outside the Shop door.
Shortly after they finished that job, it started to sprinkle; then it
started to rain. Time for lunch! By the time lunch was over the rain she was a
pouring! So Tammy and her crew packed up
their tools and the extra gravestones, then departed, as hoisting heavy,
slippery rocks onto a stone wall is simply a great way to get hurt. Since I had a raincoat on (and am not too bright), I then spent a
delightful (sic) hour completely cleaning up the area where rock pile #2 had
been. After that, I gave the Kubota a
much-needed hose bath and headed for the showers myself.
25 September 2019
Found, when I opened up the barn this morning,
that Tammy and her guys had not only gotten soaked yesterday, they also had gotten
VERY muddy, as evidenced by the condition of my Kubota. Tammy’s machine, in contrast, was fairly
clean, having been left outside in the rain last night. She and her guys got here about 8:30. We spent the morning building the steps for
the barn’s people door. Those steps,
built from the 2′ x 1′ x 4″ gravestones Nate retrieved the other day, span a
linear distance of 6 feet and have a vertical rise of 20 inches plus ¾″ of
additional rise due to pitching the stones ⅛″ per foot for drainage. As the stones stack on top of one another to
form the steps, obviously we started with the stones furthest from the barn,
building upwards towards the building.
Equally obvious, placing that first stone precisely in the right spot was
critical to the steps reaching the door threshold perfectly. Enter the pro from Goshen, Ms. Tammy Walsh,
whose magnificent craftsmanship resulted in the top stones on the steps sliding
under the threshold with less than ¹/₃₂″ of gap. WOW!!!!
We then moved around to the backyard in order to build steps for the
Shop’s exterior door, coming up one plastic pail short of the drainage stone
needed for the base of those steps. So
back to wall building we did go. By the
end of the day (1) we had the wall along the north side of the driveway
complete except for two capstones, (2) 20 feet of the wall base along Lake Dunmore
Road was done, and (3) we all fully understood why one uses A-stone vice 6″
minus to fill the inside of the walls… what a pain in the rear it is working
with the latter.
24 September 2019
While Chree and I were off gallivanting around
Lake Winnipesaukee, New Hampshire (on a tour sponsored by our bank, during
which we did see the mother of all retaining walls), Tammy, Nate, and Jake
continued wall building. Obvious once
the wall on the south side of the driveway was built, the monster boulder that
defines the wall corner at the northeast corner of the driveway was too high
and too close to the driveway. Using her
Kubota, Tammy was able to reposition and reorient that critter to match its
counterpart on the other side. That she
was able to accomplish that feat is truly surprising given how Bob LaPorte
struggled with that same rock with his much bigger backhoe. The team then built quite a bit of the wall
between that boulder and the oak tree before getting thoroughly soaked by a
rainsquall that hit just before quitting time.
Unfortunately, in spite of going to three different stone pits, Nate was
unable to get another load of A-stone, and had to settle for 6″minus crushed
rock… which is twice as large.
23 September 2019
What a day!
Started out without Tammy and crew… which was not expected. About 10:30, while solo wall building, Fran
Viko (Tammy’s partner) showed up, bringing news that the Lapidus’ needed some
urgent help. [Later got the voicemails Merry
had left on both my home and cell phones.]
Upon returning to Fern Lake a couple hours later, found Tammy and Jake
continuing where I had left off. Nate
arrived an hour later (he was mowing lawns all morning) and was
immediately dispatched to the local gravel pit for another load of desperately
needed A-stone… which the pit owner (D&F Paving, yes, the same company who
did a great job laying our asphalt driveway and then wanted to charge me triple
a reasonable price to sealcoat the asphalt last year) closed to other
contractors as of today. Grrrrr! So Tammy sent Nate down to RMG in Castleton
to pick up a pallet of Government-rejected military gravestones which we will
use to build steps into the barn and shop.
When Nate returned (amazingly, given how the day was going) with the
gravestones, Tammy sent him up to the Carrara Concrete facility in East
Middlebury, ‘cause they have huge stockpiles of crushed stone. Nate got there just before 4; they closed at
3:30. Double grrrr! In spite of all the drama, we got 24 feet of
the wall along the north side of the driveway completed. Over the weekend and today, many, many people
stopped by to complement the beauty of the wall finished thus far. Go team!
20 September 2019
Worked a few hours this morning hand raking the
area between Lake Dunmore Road and our beautiful new stone wall. Removed a full Kubota bucket load of small
rocks and the glass from many broken beer bottles, ‘cause we all know just how much
fun it is to motor down the highway at a zillion miles an hour and toss your
empty out the window onto a stone wall.
Such a great sound that makes!
Chree acquiesced to using the stone from a tumble down wall that is deep
in the woods on our property between our driveway and Lapidus’ driveway, once
all the other stockpiles are exhausted.
Fingers crossed that that will give us enough to complete the wall along
the road! Mr. Jonsered and I spent some
quality time cutting dead limbs in that area to create a tractor-worthy access
route. As one limb came down, rather
than let it hit me on my hardhat protected head, I fended it off with my bare
arm. Predictable result. Tammy and Jake arrived at noon, having been
seriously detained by another client.
During the afternoon, we started work on the stone wall along the north side
of the driveway, getting 20 feet of the base course laid down. Tammy’s Kubota being off on another job with
Nate today, she used mine to move material around. Afterwards, she offered to trade me her
Kubota (2,070 hours on the meter), plus the cost of this job, for my Kubota
(480 hours). I politely declined…
19 September 2019
The Goshen Mountain Landscaping crew arrived
about 8:30. Tammy and Jake worked until
lunch putting the front walkway back together… even more beautifully arranged
than the original. Now that the slate is
resting on a proper compacted stone and stone dust base and sloped to drain
back towards the driveway, we expect it to last much longer than the first
attempt. While that was being
accomplished, Nate and I continued work on the stone wall along the road south
of the driveway. After lunch, Tammy,
Jake, and I finished that section. In
four days of effort, we have completed 95 feet of wall, or about 28% of what
needs to be constructed. Doing the math,
building the entire wall will take about 14 work days. The bad news: both Tammy and I are convinced
that there isn’t enough stone for what is planned in what I thought were our
vast stockpiles.
18 September 2019
Tammy, Nate, and Jake arrived about 8:30 as I
was busy scratching away with the Kubota, digging up more small rocks for use
inside the stone walls. Over the next
several hours, we finished the stretch of wall along the south side of the
driveway. Marty, Merry, and Chree came
out to inspect progress mid-morning.
Chree particularly liked how we incorporated a maple tree into the
center of the wall… with lots of room for it to grow ever larger. Chree was not so happy (the day’s
understatement) that I authorized Tammy to buy a load of A-stone, which is
crushed rock in the 2″ to 3″ size. The
not-so-crazy reason for buying rock in Leicester is that we were spending
increasing amounts of time trying to find those size rocks anywhere on the
build site (at many dollars per hour for labor) when a couple of yards of
A-stone cost twenty bucks or so. Not
only was that far more cost effective, but the A-stone, being all jagged, makes
a much more solid wall than the round stones native to our property. Nate left after lunch for an
appointment. By the end of the
afternoon, we had laid the base for the wall along Lake Dunmore Road to the
south of our driveway and had the next course of stone pretty well done.
17 September 2019
Tammy, Nate, and Jake pulled in just before
9. A wall building we did go. By the end of the day 40 feet of the wall
along the south side of the driveway had been finished. Chree blessed the construction style, though
she wasn’t exactly in raptures. What’s
left of me is here to tell you that trying to physically keep up with two guys
⅓ my age for two days is just a tad exhausting… but so much fun!
16 September 2019
A very busy day!!!! Tammy arrived shortly after 8:30, followed
soon thereafter by Nate and Jake Grandfield, another of her strong-backs. After getting two rocks laid for the terminus
of the wall on the south side of the driveway, Tammy left for a meeting in
Brandon. Nate and Jake used that hiatus
to mow Kate’s and Marty & Merry’s lawns, for which Goshen Mountain
Landscaping has standing lawn care contracts.
I chalk-marked the slate front walkway, then took a picture of the
layout so that we can reassemble it once a proper underlayment has been put
in. Nate and Jake removed the slate,
whereupon I excavated three Kubota bucket loads of dirt and a thin layer of stone
dust from the walkway. Nate fetched a
yard of ¾″ crushed stone with Tammy’s dump trailer, a portion of which was
compacted into the walkway hole. That
stone base was covered with filter fabric, then a full inch of stone dust. A few minutes after Tammy’s return, Bob
Laporte arrived with his super-sized backhoe.
He quickly moved the monster cornerstone rock and it’s siblings out of
the way of the significant depression that existed on the northeast corner of
the driveway. I then drove Bob back to
his place (a mile down the road) to fetch his dump truck and 7 yards of bank
run gravel, which was deposited into said depression. Under Tammy’s direction, Bob used his backhoe
to reposition the five huge rocks that there was no way our Kubotas would ever
move. Just before he departed, Bob
pulled a bunch of good wall building rocks out of the woods on the north side
of the driveway, as they were beyond the reach of our Kubotas and too big to
retrieve by hand. Is it lunch time
yet? After inhaling some sustenance, we
spent the afternoon laying the base rocks for the stone wall on the south side
of the driveway, getting 30 feet (about half that distance) done by quitting
time. Chree arrived home from a week’s
journey in the midst of that work. When
she toured the build site after Tammy and the guys had left, Chree had some
concerns about how the wall would look when complete…
15 September 2019
With my Kubota, demolished an old stone wall on
the south side of the driveway and prepared the dirt base for the new
wall. After lunch, removed brush that
has been impeding play on the 16th fairway of our Frisbee golf
course. The lake level now is 13″ below
the top of the dock and the water temperature is 65 degrees.
14 September 2019
Eight o’clock found me up t’ Tammy’s, shoveling
crushed stone into 4½ gallon plastic
buckets… eight of them this time. Returned
to Fern Lake and excavated the area under the Shop exterior door threshold
where the too steep (and thus much too slippery) gravestone ramp is being
replaced with shallow gravestone steps.
(Note: At the time the ramp was being built, I was told in quite strong
terms that was a bad idea. Lessons
learned.) Tammy wants 8″ of drainage
stone under the steps, so once the hole was the right size and depth, I dumped
in all eight plastic buckets so carefully filled this morning. One guess as to whether that was enough
stone. So, late morning, I returned to
the scene of the crime (good thing Tammy lives only 10 minutes away) and stole
another eight buckets of stone. Fingers
crossed that this will be enough to finish the Shop door steps base plus the
house drip edges. Saw Tammy this trip
and we decided that she’d better bring another whole load of stone when we work
on the front walkway and barn steps.
More lessons learned. Went to
Goodro’s after leaving Tammy’s to buy back the Loctite PL Premium®
construction adhesive and the Geocel Pro Flex® clear flexible
caulking that I returned for credit after finishing the front steps
project. Just ‘cause I could, spent the
afternoon playing with the Kubota.
Completely took apart the remnants of a stone wall that bordered the
driveway north side inwards from the road.
Purpose of that oh, so satisfying destruction was to establish a level 4
feet wide base for a rebuilt stone wall that will connect into the one along
the road. Also removed a hillock between
our mailbox and the roadside phone pole.
Rocks in that hill have been the nemesis of my lawn mower blade all
summer. Nevermore!
13 September 2019
Tammy Walsh (owner of Green Mountain Landscaping) and her long-time helper, Geryll Robinson, got here just before 9. We toured the property discussing the long list of one major and nine minor projects that have been awaiting Tammy’s availability. The big one is to construct a 3′ high by 330′ long stone wall along our Lake Dunmore Road property line and part way down our driveway. Tammy and Ger left again to get 5 cubic yards of crushed gravel needed to finish the surface between our asphalt driveway and the barn’s overhead door. While they were gone, completed most of Delores’ reactivation checklist, as our annual logging extravaganza is but two weeks hence. Mouse damage this year was very limited until a couple of months ago, as we used Sniff ‘n’ Stop® packets throughout the RV over the winter (my sister-in-law Mary’s recommendation). Unfortunately, didn’t notice the note on the box that they’re only effective for six months or so until far too late. Once Tammy and Ger finished spreading the crushed gravel, I used Tammy’s plate compactor to flatten the bejesus out of the dirt while the two women started repairing damage to our concrete paver patio. Four areas had settled (the worst being in the critical area around the drain that catches water coming off the roof valley) and the polymeric sand used to bind the pavers together had not properly bonded when the patio was constructed, leaving many deep cracks. Nate Clark (one of Tammy’s other employees… and her nephew) showed up early afternoon and was promptly dispatched to get a load of ¾″ crushed stone, as I needed a small (sic) quantity to fill in roof edge drip lines around the house and to top off the stone and wood crib walkway down to Marty & Merry’s. I took six plastic buckets worth of stone off Nate’s load, thinking that would be more than enough for my needs. Before sending Nate up to her place in Goshen to dump the rest of the load, Tammy asked me at least three times if I was sure I had enough. You can guess the correct answer, which I came up with right after Nate left… By quitting time, our patio was completely repaired and I had a long list of tasks to complete over the weekend which will expedite the work starting Monday morning.
15 August 2019
Steve Ingram came over shortly after lunch. Four hours later we had rebuilt the house’s
gravestone front entry steps. Still had
(just barely) all twenty fingers when the job was done! Used five 10 fluid ounce tubes of Loctite PL
Premium® construction adhesive to bind the gravestones together and
two 10 fluid ounce tubes of Geocel Pro Flex® clear flexible caulking
to seal the seams where water could get between the stones, freeze, then push
them apart. The north end of the steps
came out perfect, of course, ‘cause that’s the end that nobody will ever
see. While the south, very visible, end
is less than perfect, Chree says nobody will ever notice but me. You’ve been warned!
14 August 2019
Battled my way through numerous construction
zones on US 7 and finally made it to Lowe’s in South Burlington an hour and a
half later… 50% longer than “usual”.
Returned $700 worth of driveway sealer and defective outdoor spotlights. Then forgot to buy replacement spotlights for
the barn until I was miles away headed south.
Stopped on the way home to pick 7 pints of blueberries. So yummy!
13 August 2019
Removed, disassembled, and cleaned up the front entry
steps concrete pad 2x4 form. Backfilled
around the edges of the pad and replaced (poorly) the front walkway slate
disturbed during this latest bout of construction. That walkway, too, was falling apart and already
on the list to be rebuilt. Spent a
couple of grueling pre-lake hours (oh, my aching back!) this afternoon chipping
off all the PL300 construction adhesive on the 20 front step gravestones, using
my Rockwell Sonicrafter® tool, which happens to have a special
attachment made just for that purpose.
12 August 2019
Wore out my two ½″ concrete drill bits boring 4″
deep holes in the house foundation, so made a quick run to Goodro’s to buy a
new bit and some 2x4’s with which to make a form for the house front steps
concrete pad. Used 2 ton epoxy glue to
ensure that the five rebar pins inserted into those holes will never
pull out. Those pins will ensure that
the pad (and, thus, the front steps) won’t move again with respect to the house
foundation. Manufactured the 2x4 form
for the concrete pad down in the shop then carefully put it into position so
that the form was perfectly level side to side, exactly 16″ below the top of
the porch, and canted ½° away from the
house. Cobbled together Used my
last scraps leftover pieces of #4 rebar to reinforce the edges of the
pad. Just before starting to mix
concrete, took the time to read the information on the bags… (surely my male
union card will be revoked for such egregious behavior). According to that info, the concrete pad
would take somewhat over 12 bags of Sakrete®. Oh, dear!
The one thing you never want to have happen is to run out of concrete in
the middle of a pour. So made a second
(high-speed) run to Goodro’s and herniated myself wrestled 4 more bags
of Sakrete® into the Tacoma.
Once the form was filled up (taking, by the way, 12½ bags of the
concrete mix), Chree helped me screed off the form… which came out looking just
gorgeous… if you’re into wet concrete.
11 August 2019
Used the Kubota’s backhoe to excavate the
monster hole (4″ deep by 3′ wide by 7′ long) for a concrete pad under the house
front steps. What’s the sense of having
boy-toys if you can’t use them?
9 August 2019
Put a first coat of white plus stone dust on the
woodshed ramp Triangle Square Circle logo.
Goodro’s delivered 10 bags of Sakrete® high-strength (4,000
psi) concrete mix, each weighing well over a ton (though the bags were
mismarked “80 pounds”, their actual weight was determined by lifting them off
the truck and onto the Kubota’s forks).
8 August 2019
Because Goodro’s doesn’t stock gray paint in
less than a one gallon can, went to Countryside Paint & Carpet to procured
a very expensive quart of Benjamin Moore floor & patio low sheen
latex enamel, code named Englewood Cliffs.
Who comes up with these names????
Applied same to the woodshed ramp upon return to Fern Lake.
7 August 2019
Applied a coat of gray paint to the woodshed
ramp and immediately scattered stone dust over the surface. The stone dust will provide beaucoup traction
to those using the ramp, especially during inclement conditions.
5 August 2019
Did some sanding and hole filling on the
woodshed access ramp. Installed the
first exterior spotlight on the barn’s northeast corner, only to discover that
one of the knobs that locks the light in place was stripped, so the light
wouldn’t stay aimed. Said some bad
words, then took that light back down.
Checked the knobs on the second light before putting it up, only to
discover that one of the aiming lock knobs was frozen, rendering that light
useless, too. This is why I try hard NOT
to buy items made in China! On a
positive note, repairing the barn’s damaged overhead door seal was quick and
simple. Just because I had finally
gotten most of the driveway sealer tar off my body, opened up my can of
foundation tar and liberally applied it to my hands the seam between the
driveway turnaround area asphalt and the stonework on the west side of the
woodshed. Last winter water leaked into
the garage under the woodshed like it was Niagara Falls, with that seam being
the suspected culprit.
2 August 2019
Finished sealing the rest of the driveway, hands,
legs, and shoes. The job used exactly 20
buckets of sealer, equal to 95 gallons because a five gallon bucket is only
4.75 gallons these days. That also
equals 294 square feet of coverage per bucket.
Put an extra thick coat of sealer on the area in front of the 4″ pipe that
drains the low spot on the driveway, as the bottom of the pipe always has been
slightly too high… and can’t be lowered.
A few minutes later, discovered that a chipmunk has been using the pipe
as an underground freeway, as there were fresh footprints in the fresh
sealer. Fortunately, a wet trowel soon
removed the evidence. So, if you see a
Black Footed Chipmunk in the area, it’s not really a new species. The lake level now is 5½″ below the top of
the dock and the water temperature is a balmy 80°F.
1 August 2019
Removed the woodshed access ramp and hauled it down
to the shop for repair and repainting.
The ramp detaches from the woodshed by removing five easily accessible
lag screws. Spent the rest of the day
sealing somewhat over half the driveway, parts of my arms and legs, most of my
shoes, and all of my hands. Before
applying the sealer, needed to pressure wash the driveway. In order to reach the Lake Dunmore Road end
of the drive, 400+ feet from the house, had to borrow both Kate’s and Merry’s water
hoses, plus break into Delores to retrieve her holdings. It turns out that the manufacturer
(Gardner-Gibson, Inc. which, amazingly, is actually a U.S. company), knows what
they’re talking about when they say one bucket of sealer will cover ≈300 square
feet of driveway. Thus far I’ve used 9
buckets, which means that I’ve bought almost twice as much sealer as will be
needed. Of course!
31 July 2019
Put the second (and final) coat of paint on the
barn’s exterior trim. Other than
installing two outdoor spotlights high on the east wall and having Tammy Walsh
build some gravestone steps for the people door, the barn is officially
done. (Hold that thought!) Chree headed to Maine to visit her parents
while I hooked up the trailer and schlepped up to Lowe’s in South
Burlington. Among many other items,
procured the two spotlights for the barn.
Also bought a ton (literally) of Black Jack Drive-Max 1000™ driveway
sealer (40 buckets @ 52 pounds apiece), hence the trailer. The cash register clerk neglected to charge
me for 39 of those buckets, which, fortunately, I caught before leaving the
store. Now I may not be too good at
mental math, but when the bill is $1,000 less than expected, even I can tell
something ain’t right! Started to
thunderstorm just as I left South Burlington and was threatening the same upon
arrival Fern Lake. So, in a rush, tried
to back the trailer into the barn before first removing the Kubota. Let’s just say that the trailer now needs a
new sidelight, the south-side overhead door trim is all torn to hell (and back
again)… and I got wet anyway.
30 July 2019
Steve came over at 2:30 and we took apart the
house front steps, which had pretty much fallen apart from settling due to not
having a solid base established when they were built back in mid-August
2016. Good thing Steve is strong, ‘cause
them gravestones ain’t getting any lighter as they age. Took us 45 minutes (in 90°+ heat!). Only 6 of the 18 stones that had been “permanently”
glued together with PL300 construction adhesive were, if fact, still glued
together… and a little “persuasion” from a cold chisel and my big pry bar soon
rectified their reluctance to separate.
29 July 2019
Steve Ingram here at 10. In a couple of hours, we put up the 1x4 Koma®
trim at the top of each wall. After
Steve left, moved the staging around the barn one more time, lightly sanding
the newly installed trim and the vertical corners, then caulking the seam
between the trim and the soffit. The
lake sure did feel good when that work was done.
27 July 2019
Out early to remove the temporary (since last November)
covering over the cupola base (the hole and associated structure at the top of
the barn roof where the cupola is to rest).
Also swept copious slippery pine needles off the metal roof. At 9, Mike & Pikey Many, Steve Ingram and
his good friend Hank Prensky, and Jordan Ahnquist (Kate’s boyfriend) all
arrived. In very short order we hoisted
the cupola (using the Kubota’s forklift) to the top of the staging, and then lifted
and slid it (manually) from there to the top of the barn. Easily done with enough beef! The cupola fit over the base absolutely
perfectly… almost like it had been designed that way! Even better, only two of the eight tie-down
bolts needed any “encouragement” to slide into position. Once the staging was down and everyone else
was gone, I installed the flying pig weather vane on the cupola peak. Then, at exactly 12:58:48 pm, when the sun’s
azimuth was 180° true (i.e., due
south), I aligned and locked into position the weather vane’s directional
indicators. In the afternoon, with some
help from Chree, I cut 45° bevels in the ends
of the 1x4 Koma® trim that will be installed on Monday… the
penultimate step to finishing the barn. Marty, Merry, their daughter Heather,
her daughter Gabby, Kate, and Jordan came up for drinks and shrimp on the barbie…
plus some chicken wings, and dogs, and…
Don’t think anyone wanted dinner after those “appetizers”.
26 July 2019
Put a coat of Behr Premium Ultra®
Pure White paint on the barn corner vertical trim and the 1x4 Koma®
trim. Put a section of aluminum ladder
on the south side of the barn roof to allow safe walking access to the peak
from the roof edge, and also serve as a “track” to slide the cupola up. Late afternoon, went over to Mike Many’s to
help load up his truck with staging, then the two of us erected the same on the
south side of the barn (where there is the least distance from the ground to
the roof edge). Proved that the Kubota’s
forks raise high enough to reach the top of the staging.
25 July 2019
The barn concrete floor being completely dry
(finally), got the seven pieces of 1x4 Koma® trim that I’ve been
storing since last summer ready for painting.
Much easier to put a first coat on those pieces with them laying flat on
saw horses than once installed at the top of the exterior walls. Calculated that I won’t need one of the 18
foot pieces of Koma. Riiiight!!!! Maybe I shouldn’t be in a rush to return that
piece to Goodro’s for credit… After putting
the trailer and snow blower back inside the barn, moved the cupola into the
barn as well so that I could put on the final top piece (a small piece of lead
that had to be trimmed to fit) and the base for the flying pig weather vane.
24 July 2019
While waiting for the concrete floor sealer to
dry, sanded the four exterior Koma® corners preparatory to painting
them later this week.
23 July 2019
Stopped by Goodro’s on the way back from
Middlebury Fitness this morning only to find that Tim Comb’s is on vacation… so
unable to coordinate having the Goodro’s boom truck hoist the cupola into
place. Murphy’s Law! Late afternoon fetched the cupola back from
Mike Many’s house / shop with the Kubota.
Looks great! Arranged for Mike,
Pikey, and Steve Ingram to help manually hoist the cupola onto the top of the
barn this coming Saturday morning.
Notice the positive thinking!
22 July 2019
Mike Many told Chree (during her morning
perambulation) that the cupola metal roof is done. So called Mike this afternoon to arrange a
retrieval time tomorrow. With the
relative humidity finally below 70% (it’s been at 98% for the last three days),
put the second (and final?) coat of silane sealer on the barn concrete floor.
19 July 2019
By noon the barn shingling was D∙O∙N∙E,
done! Which is not to say that the barn
is finished; there still is much trim that needs painting and one final run of
1 x 4 Koma® trim to be attached at the top of each wall. Not to mention that the concrete floor needs
another coat of silane sealer. Oh, yeah,
there’s also a cupola down at Mike Many’s that belongs on top of the roof. When the stapling was done, the air
compressor was behaving itself (a small miracle, that) and there were 74 (about
a half box) of full-length shingles left over (53 in the 3½″ to 4½″ range and
21 in the 7½″ to 9″ range), which equates to ≈ 13 square feet of coverage at a
5″exposure. There also are two boxes of scrap
shingles that will make either lovely wood fire kindling or just a great
bonfire. I’m leaning toward the latter… Spent the afternoon putting away tools, cleaning
up the mess inside the barn, removing everything from the barn’s concrete floor
(trailer, tractor, snow blower, BBQ grill, etc.), then power washing said floor. What fun!
15 July 2019
The lake temperature is a balmy 78° F and the lake level
is 1½″ below the top of the dock. Put on
another 17 square feet of west wall shingles today, every one of which had to
be cut to length and, often, to the width needed for a particular spot. Only one more course to go!!!! That equals 9.6 square feet… or approximately
55 shingles of various widths. The good
news: there are somewhat more than 100 usable shingles left.
The bad news: at least half of those shingles are between 3¾″ and
4¼″ in width… not a size that is used a lot.
Stay tuned for the exciting finish!
14 July 2019
Sunday morning chores consumed, surprise,
surprise, the morning. Got one more
course on… the last one that uses full length shingles. Started on the next course, the shingles for
which all have to be cut to exactly 15½″ long.
(Out of the box they all are ±15¾″ long and, yes, that ¼″ is critical to
how the wall will breath.) When the
siren call of the sauna became too overwhelming, another 12 square feet had
been fastened to the west wall.
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