30 April 2018
28 April 2018
Finished creating the stone wall footer. Of more significance, Chree and I reached an
acceptable compromise on what to do about the Tiger Lilies that are growing
right where the stone wall needs to be built… that is if the wall is to be a
steady 24′ 9″ from the road centerline.
Compromise: dig up the flower bulbs that would be under the wall and
transplant them to between the wall and the road, with a promise from me not to
mow that area. Towards that end, started
removing overburden from the barn-build site, transferring that mix of rich
topsoil and sand to the flower bulb transplant area. As unbelievable as this may sound, the barn-build
site is mostly sand, with the exception of that one monster boulder and a scattering
of other nuggets. That is soooooo NOT
Leicester soil!
27 April 2018
Made one more attempt to excavate the large
stump that remains where the barn is to be built. Not sure why I even tried… Scratched around with the backhoe in the rock
pile for a few hours, creating some more of the level footer where the stone
wall will be built alongside Lake Dunmore Road.
26 April 2018
Moved all of the lumber that Toby delivered
yesterday into the woodshed, ricked for drying.
Final counts: 84 good 2x4’s (of which I need no more than 76 for wall
studs), 16 flawed 2x4’s (which can be cut up for window jacks and cripples),
and 6 okay 1x6’s (which will become shelving somewhere in the barn). Add that all together (quickly now) and it
comes to 50.9 board feet of lumber, for which Toby was paid $4.91 / board foot
(which included the pickup and delivery charges). Said another way, each 2x4x9′ 4″ board cost
me $2.91. Similar quality 2x4x10 lumber
from Home Depot would have cost $5.22 each.
However, using lumber from one of Chree’s favorite trees: priceless!
25 April 2018
Only two small pieces of stump remained on the
ash pile this morning… and they were quickly coaxed back into flame. But then, as forecast, it started raining… Late afternoon, just as Chree and I were in
the throes of getting ready to host a dinner for Marty & Merry (neighbors
to the north) and Lorynda Fish (temporary neighbor to the south who’s been
staying in Kate Middleton’s house since last fall), Toby Rheaume arrived
bearing all the lumber he produced from the hemlock logs. Working as quickly as possible in the rain, used
the Kubota to move the lumber off the trailer and onto the driveway in front of
the woodshed. Threw a tarp over the pile
and scurried to get showered (sans clothes this time) before our guests
arrived.
24 April 2018
Burn, baby, burn!!!! With a nod from the Leicester fire warden,
spent the day letting fire consume all the slash and stumps gleaned from the
barn site clearing operation and stone wall preparation work. By dark only a few stumps remained, and,
pushed together with the tractor, they were busy devouring each other. Found a whole bunch of wire fencing in the
ashes. Where the heck did that come
from? While paying close attention (sic)
to the fire, I finished clearing the miscreant growth along the road frontage,
adding that bracken, roots, and other woody items to the conflagration as they
became available.
23 April 2018
Being a rather stubborn old coot, tried once again
to dislodge the last remaining, extra large stump at the barn building
site. No joy… the Kubota just doesn’t
have enough power to even wiggle that beast… or the boulder with which it is
bonded in true Vermont civil union. Spent
much of the afternoon digging out small saplings and their rather lengthy roots
along our frontage on Lake Dunmore Road.
What does that have to do with building the barn, you ask? Answer: nothing… but one of the (many) other
projects on the list for last summer was to build a New England style stone wall
along the road, using the copious supply of rocks with which we are blessed (or
cursed, you choose). Where that rock wall
needs to go (3 rods or 24′ 9″ from the road centerline) is completely
overgrown, said overgrowth needing to be excised before a wall can be built. The good news is the growth is all small
enough to be ripped out of the ground with the backhoe. The bad news is that obviously there used to
be a stone wall along the road in that location and the growth’s roots are all
tangled around, what is now, stupendously rocky “soil”. The backhoe teeth are gonna need replacing…
soon!
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