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!!!!
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