26 April 2010
Easy 8 ½ hour trip up from Virginia, helped, in part, by hitting 38 green stoplights on US 206 (okay, so some of them were a pale yellow…). Steady rain showers until reaching Vermont… where the sun came out. Hopefully a good omen. Delores started right up, as did the Ranger. No sign of mice in the “usual” utensil drawer. Just as I was feeling smug about putting a bunch of cat hair in the void behind those drawers last trip (Alverta’s idea), I opened the door below the bathroom sink to retrieve the Kleenex cleverly stored there so the mice wouldn’t use it for nesting material, and found that the mice are way more clever than I am. In a further fit of cleverness, rammed a wood splinter under a fingernail while unloading forming materials from the car. Fortunately, after a plentiful dose of anesthetic (Fat Bastard Chardonnay), was able to extract the sucker... and also feel much better about the mice situation.
16 April 2010
The weather forecast was for showers and light rain today. Arriving back at Fern Lake from Middlebury, conditions looked reasonable, so Josh came over and we continued building and placing the footer forms. I also arranged with Tammy Walsh to come back with her loader / backhoe mid-afternoon to backfill the holes she dug on Wednesday... plus remove the large mound of dirt and rocks that Josh and I had piled in the middle of the cellar hole while installing the footer forms. Now well and truly committed to getting the job finished, it began to rain steadily, OF COURSE! But, by 1 o’clock the footer forms were in place (definitely not level, somewhat wiggly, and probably not square), the Big Feet and Sonotubes (round cardboard tubes used for forming concrete columns… and, in this case, as an extension for the Big Feet) were in position and partially backfilled, and we were soaked to the skin. During lunch a wild turkey walked by the RV. Could have used a shot of the liquid variety at that point. However, some hot soup and change of clothes soon swung the comfort-meter back into positive numbers. Tammy showed up as promised, completed the backfilling the deep holes, then spent an hour removing the dirt pile that had taken Josh and me two days to create by hand. Tammy (who is an expert on such matters) said that the 24″ wide footers should be fine. She also hired Josh to work with her doing landscaping work for the next couple of weeks.
15 April 2010
After breakfast, went to make a sandwich for lunch and discovered that someone had taken a bite out of the top piece of bread in the package. “How cute”, I thought, surmising that Chree had been up to her usual mischief. Then I noticed that the plastic bread wrapper also had a hole in it. The bread, now and henceforth, is being stored in the freezer vice in the compartment over the microwave (whose cord, apparently, makes a very nice mousy highway). Josh and I continued building and placing footer forms. My original plan had been to have 24” wide footers on all three sides. Based on some reading done a month ago, had revised the plans to incorporate 36” wide north/south footers. As soon as we started putting the north/south forms in place, discovered that the cellar hole is just not wide enough to accommodate 36” wide footers in that direction. Rather than do another major excavation, went back to the original plan. Got a bit more than half the forms in place before quitting time. The Lapidus’ once again offered the gracious hospitality of their table for dinner, which was deliciously accepted.
14 April 2010
28° when I arose… but it was a dry cold, so quite pleasant. Josh LaFlam was here all day helping to dig out shed footer trenches. Tammy arrived at noon with her Kubota loader / backhoe. In 15 minutes she finished digging out the second half of the shallow footer trenches that Josh and I had been working on by hand all morning. Tammy then tackled the two deep holes needed for the Big Foot footers that will prevent the north end of the shed from being affected by frost heaving. She uncovered and removed a half-dozen Leicester nuggets of the half-ton size. Needless to say, if Josh and I had attempted to dig those holes by hand, we’d still be at it come Christmas... 2011! Having Tammy do that work was one of the smartest moves I’ve EVER made! Further evidence (are you listening, beloved wife?) of why I NEED my own loader / backhoe. On her truck Tammy had the mechanical tamper that I was going to rent tomorrow to pack down the footer trenches, which she let me borrow to do that job. The first black flies of the season made their appearance, but were not bothersome. Built and began the placement ritual for the south end footer form. “Placement ritual?”, you ask. Remember the ledge that Bob LaPorte uncovered when the shed cellar hole was dug? Well, the footer form had to fit around a piece of that ledge. Obviously, we had to recite the proper imprecations as part of the placing of that form, hence the ritual. After skipping lunch, a steak, slightly seared over the fire pit, went down real easy, helped by some Standing Stone Winery vin rosé. Afterwards, somehow forgot to call younger son to wish him a happy 27th birthday. Me one bad Dad!!!! L!!!!
13 April 2010
Ran some errands in Middlebury in the morning. Cleaned out the RV stove vent fan. Found out why Delores is using so much propane for heating… ALL of the RV’s insulation was packed, and I do mean PACKED, into the vent fan housing. Captured one mouse during the clean out process (who now resides at the Silver Lake parking area) but saw at least one other escape my evil shop vac. Alverta came down for lunch and to help with surveying the shed layout. Marty Lapidus was having his Jelly Bean Place driveway sign replaced, so wandered over to see if the woman doing the work (Tammy Walsh from Goshen Mountain Landscaping) did cement masonry work. (I already knew from Marty that she specializes in dry-laid stone work.) In the course of our chat, while she was NOT enjoying digging the post hole by hand, I mentioned that tomorrow I faced the task of digging two 6 foot deep footer holes in the same soil. “Would you like me to bring over my backhoe tomorrow to dig those holes”, she asked. After exactly one heartbeat, I answered in the affirmative. Late afternoon, Alverta drove me up to Junction Auto to retrieve the Ford Ranger. Bill was $500 more than I was hoping for… Ouch! And that didn’t include $600 of needed body work that got deferred to another day.
12 April 2010
A fairly easy 9 hour trip up from Virginia (almost exactly to the minute… but that would be a former-Type A driving). Would have been at least a half hour faster but for an accident (in the SOUTHBOUND lanes!!!!) that caused four miles of stop and go, followed by another two mile backup due to construction, both events in the Philadelphia area. There are 44 stoplights along the 24 mile stretch of US 206 that I use as a shortcut between I-95 and I-287. (Counting stoplights? I think somebody needs to get a life!) Delores started right up on the first turn of the key! Took her over to Lynne’s to refill water tanks. Mice had nibbled some more on the remaining pot scraper while I was away...
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