Tamaracks!

While it's true that we completely failed to take any pictures of the construction at the end of this season, I do have some excuse: I had just discovered that we have a stand of tamaracks on the farm, located just north of the building site. They are, hands down, my favorite tree.

I love their name, from the Algonquian for "wood used for snowshoes." (Their other name, larch, is nowhere near as evocative. Practically meaningless, in fact.)

 

How can you not love a conifer that looks like an evergreen until it deciduous-ly drops its needles in the fall after a stunning display of dark gold color? They are pretty fine looking in the spring and summer, too, with their whimsically curving branches.

Somehow, all my previous visits were timed such that I missed their spectacular fall show, and so I never knew they were there until this year. You can see them from quite a distance as you drive towards our property, making them a temporary fall landmark. Although, as my daughter pointed out after over-reliance on traffic cones, your landmarks in a new place should never be orange.

~t

SNOW!

An hour ago, I was enjoying the big beautiful moon. Now it is snowing!

Actually it is a rain/snow mix, the kind of snow we used to call 'corn snow'--tiny, white pellets. The weather folks say we will receive showers throughout the night and will have no accumulation.

This is what "no accumulation" looks like:

Sheetrock 1

Sheetrock? We don't even have the basement fully sealed up, why sheetrock now?

I will need the electrician in as soon as possible so I can have some light and possibly some power for heat. The main electrical boxes will be fastened to the wall, but by code, the foam on the wall will need to be covered. So, sheetrock it is...


...except for the area where the electrical panels will be; that gets plywood.

Only the wall with the electrical works gets covered now. The rest will have to wait.

It's a Ladybug

A reason to not be anywhere near a soybean field after harvest: Ladybugs !

Some around here refer to it as the Asian Beetle, which is actually close. After all, these ladybugs are beetles and they are from Asia. They like my white trailer, especially the screen door when the solid door is open. That won't happen again until after the next hard frost when they go somwhere (hopefully not my trailer) to chill out for the winter.

We will find a way to deal with them.  Or, we will go visiting during soybean harvest.

No pictures. Somethings one just doesn't want to have memories haunting one's every waking (and sleeping) moment.

A Moose for Gram

Yup! A female moose, just strolling along across the road. "So you think you have a big blue truck. Huh! I squash them for sport."

"I love it when a second truck almost smashes the first one."

"My grammoose has always wanted to see a truck."

So, Nephew L arrives in town (um, farm). We head into town to do a bit of grocery shopping and get a bite to eat. Of course, being a good uncle, I start to explain that one needs to be alert because deer often cross the road at this time of the evening, especially in the fall.  At that point, I notice something about the blackness in the ditch. It seemed to change shades, or move like something out of Startrek. I began to apply my brakes, as did the truck behind me, probably not knowing why.

Then the strange blackness came up onto the road into the headlights of my now quickly-stopping truck. Again, the truck behind me quickly copied my actions, and again, probably not knowing why.

The strange blackness turned out to be a full-grown female moose.

I commented how lucky I was to have noticed the movement in the ditch. L pointed out that my senses were alert at that moment because I was talking about deer making surprise appearances when I noticed the moose.

Yes, Gram, there really are moose.

Coffee in the Open-Air Dining Room

Coffee break, anyone? I have a table ready in the dining room. Just let me fetch another chair and cup with some milk and sugar.

Enjoy the view out the window. Don't worry, you don't need iPod, iPad, Windows, Google Chrome, Firefox, Ding, Kindle, or any other electronic gadget or program. This is pure nature in the buff with only a little bit of human landscaping in the foreground. 

The swampy area on the left across the road is home to a number of Sand Hill Crane. They make some of the most non-tweety-bird sounds I have ever heard. Compared to them, geese could perform the Sound of Music.

Floor Update and Stairs

 The stairs are in. For temporary treads, I used one 2X6 and one 2X4 cut about two inches shorter than the finished treads will be. This will allow me to easily slide the sheetrock past the stairs when the time comes. Then after all sheetrocking and painting are finished, the temporary treads will be replace with nicer permanent ones.

 

Joists are in, mostly. So, even though I have a few more chores to do around the edge, I started installing the sub-floor. As mentioned before, I am using 3/4 inch tongue and grove plywood.

I had help from my brother and sister-in-law getting the first two rows started--it's been too many years since I last did that. Back then, tongue-and-groove was not the norm; neither were screws nor glue. However, now as then, it is essential that the first row of sheets be installed in a straight line. After that, with a little care, all the rest sort of slip into place. (Figuratively speaking, of course--it takes a bit of oomph to help them slip into place.)

Starting the 5th row. This will give us access to the stairs.

 This is a job that seems to go rather quickly, after all, one sheet is 32 square feet. However, I decided to use screws instead of nails. The result is a lot more time, but a much better floor.









Just a quick note. That 32 square feet of flooring goes on quickly. However, moving it is not easy. Sure, I only need to carry it across the 34 foot garage, tip it over and place it on the link so I can get to it from the house. Then I mark it every 16 inches along the edge to make it easy to line up any joists that may have bowed. A lot for one person, but it is doable. However, that becomes a completely different task when Mother Nature adds a rather blustery 25-35 mile-per-hour wind.


After the first day of installing the flooring:

Notice the landscaping: The piles of dirt have been moved and placed around the house and driveway.

I Have a Problem!

Like most any other place, we have flies here. So, I bought a fly swatter, nothing strange about that, right? I use the fly swatter to swat flies to make them dead and get them out of my house. That's what we humans do, right?

So...

why do I feel compelled 

to free the fly that, 

on its own,

 stuck its head through the fly swatter 

and got stuck?

Ihava--a-achoocold

...the kind where one feels one's get up and go getting up and going.
Stocked up on chicken soup (not the same as spousal soup), day and night symptom treatments, and throat lozenges.

...and I have four more joists and 50+ sheets of flooring to put on as well as finish getting half of the north 40 ready for seeding in the spring.

What are They?

J found a vine with blue berries in  tight, ball-shaped clusters growing among our lilacs, but we do not know what they are. Suggestions?

More Joists and Stairway Opening

Hmmm...

Joists are nearly all in place. The process is a bit slower than for a square house--lots of angles! The blue blob in the center is the plywood that will go on next.

Notice the opening for the stairs in the central foreground.

I decided to use 3/4 inch tongue-and-groove plywood for the floor instead of oriented strand board (OSB). Although OSB is becoming the industry favorite (around here almost 100% of homes use it for floor, exterior wall, and roof sheathing), it has its drawbacks: When used on the floor, there is enough give when walked on to crack ceramic tile; It is not good for hardwood flooring; and, although it is sealed at the factory to protect it from the weather and moisture, cut edges loose that seal and will absorb moisture and swell. On this house, there will be a lot of cut edges.

Plywood has its drawbacks, too. It is more expensive, though not as much as I thought--about $300-400 for the entire project. The biggest concern is that it can delaminate when exposed to water for a long time. So, I will need to protect it until I get the house up, especially if I don't get the dome up this fall. The plan is to cover it with something waterproof and to heat the basement, even if the dome isn't up. That will help with the moisture from the top as well as from below,

Vine-ripened Tomatoes

I planted asparagus three years ago, an act the deer really appreciated. But, since I planted it for us, I fenced it in to keep out Mother Nature's critters, big and small. This spring, I noticed that there was a little bit of left over space, so I stuck in some Roma tomato plants. With very little care and a watering now and then:

 Notice the asparagus plants on the left.

Curl-your-toes good!

Yes, they are as tasty as they look!  

                  And, with no pesticides, artificial fertilizers, or additives of any kind, they can be eaten right off the vine.

Short Days/Long Days

Short Days: The sun is no longer up when I get up at 4:30, and it is set by the time I finish my work outside at around 8:00. And, there is a chill in the air when I go out and when I come back in. Hmmm...something's amiss.

Fortunately, my sister likes driving tractor as much as anyone who likes driving tractor. She has two of them and has been getting my fields ready for the winter. You know, take off the old coat and smooth out the bumps, to get them ready for a new winter coat that will come off in the spring in time for a shiny new ten-year crop of many plants (a mix of five native prairie grasses). She has been on her tractor weekends getting things going. But, now she is away serving our country.

And that brings us to Long Day: When the sun starts going down, house building gets put to bed--around five or six in the afternoon. I then gobble down some food and hop on the tractor until eight or so. It's a good thing the tractor has lights.

Storms

It is a dark and stormy day. Two 42-foot joists standing on their edge on top of the rest of the installed joists cannot hold back the wind. They topple over. 42 feet of 12-inch manufactured lumber flopping onto their side over an open cavity. Nothing damaged. Well, other than the dent in the ceiling of my camper where I hit my head when I jumped.

The thunder from the storm is not nearly so startling!

On the other hand, my tomatoes have started to turn. This rain will help the little ones grow a bit more, not that the ripening ones are turning down the opportunity to partake of nature's purest.

Oops!!!

     When the trailer wiggles this much in the wind and the power blinks off and on, I suppose it is time to go...

  ...somewhere...

All is well.

Storm is gone, sun is out, temp is pushing 95 with all the rain trying to evaporate.

Mother Nature, Birds, and Forest Fires

I don't have pictures. I'm not sure they would portray the colors in our sunsets--reds, oranges, yellows that seem to reflect the very fires that are spewing the ash into our skies. While some are watching the fires, fearing for their property and lives, we are staring in wonder at the marvelous sight. Doesn't seem right.

Then we have birds. Little birds. Thousands of little birds. They are gathering for their annual vacation in the south. They sit on the power lines, spread out as far as one can see.

In my yard, at the new picnic table, in the only breezy spot on the planet, I watch these little birds randomly picking spots on the wire. Well, I thought randomly:

-Those with white tummies sit on the top wire, those with dark tummies (about 1 in 50) are sent away and sit on the bottom wire.

-They all face the wind/breeze, all lined up like students waiting for instructions to go into the school: Randomly they come to the line and hop into the nearest spot. But wait! Sometimes the ones on the line won't let certain newcomers park there, but later, a different arrival is given the spot. And then there is the occasional bird sitting cross-ways to the rest, taking up two spaces while searching the sky. At last, the latecomer arrives and both now sit facing the breeze like all the rest.

-And as if on cue, they all take off, circle randomly, or not, and begin the parking ritual all over again.

And what to you do when you have a house to build in 95-100 degree weather (that's 100-119 degrees in the sunny, but wind-free basement)? The dew point, by the way, is in the upper 70s.

Mother Nature

Some scenes from Mother Nature:

and some scenes with a little human intervention:

Rhubarb transplanted this summer

My first tomato of the summer

Grandma's Tiger Lilly 

The First Floor

Manufactured lumber--who'd a thought!

Laminated Veneer Lumber (VLV): The beams that will support the joists.
TJI: I-Truss. Instead of 2X10 inch lumber, these I beams are superior. They're lighter and stronger, plus they're straight--they don't warp. On top of them will be 3/4" tongue and groove plywood, glued and screwed to the TJIs. No squeaky floors!!!

More pictures to follow as the work progresses.

Garage Floor

Standing at the back door looking across the garage floor ready for concrete. The holes are reinforcement for supports that will be needed for the upstairs floor.

The pink at the bottom of the holes is extruded polystyrene insulation. On top of that is sand with heat pipes buried in it. These will be used to heat the garage on those cold winter nights.

A Mailbox

If a new house gets a wall, should it not also get a mailbox? How about white (on a newly-painted post, the shape dictated by the US Postal Service):

The red sign is from days gone by. It is the fire number that was given when calling for emergency help. I believe it predates 911. Now we have an actual street address and house number, just like the big cities...I believe we are growing up!

 The mail car passed by the first day, but stopped the next to drop off some junk mail. A couple weeks later, the mail delivered an invitation to the ordination of a special person who is about to become a Lutheran minister. Now, that is snail mail worth waiting for.

A Wall

It's a short wall, and it has not a door, yet, and the studs are not fastened to the bottom plate, yet, but it is a wall!

You see, in my haste to get home with the lumber and start cutting and nailing, I forgot about the need for nails to do the nailing thing! Fortunately, I had a few long screws left over from last year, so the studs are fastened to the top plate and will be attached to the bottom plate tomorrow.




Also, tomorrow will be the day to make the final measurements for the house, lay out for the joists, and build the support walls that will be in the basement.

Basement Floor

At last!

 

No, it's not a swimming pool. I had just wet down the concrete to aid in the curing process. Last night we had light rain off and on which further helped out.

  

The Process

They get paid to play in the mud!

The next two steps will be to put in support walls and posts and to 

get the garage floor ready to pour.

Stormy Weather

The city of Mahnomen, well village is more like it, is the county seat. Roy Lake is a nice afternoon-trip on a hot day. The tornado, EF-2, tore one house apart (no one injured) in Mahnomen, nearby, it threw a John Deere combine against a big bailer, and a few minutes later, was spotted over Roy Lake--no damage reported there.

It missed me! (By about 8 miles, but it missed.)

But, I did get some wind:

Last week I drove under the branch, now I drive around it.

  It is about 12-14 inches in diameter. You can see the new cracks at the Y and along the branch.

 I will cut off the part that sticks down and see if it takes enough weight off so the rest of the branch will survive.

A mile down the road, this field suffered a worse fate:

It might be hard to see, but this field of oats (not wheat as previously posted) should be standing taller than those points sticking up. I'm not sure how well it will recover.

I talked with the man who is farming this field. He said that he planted a new variety of oats that are supposed to me resistant to such damage. The stalks were supposed to bend like a thread of warm taffy around your finger, but instead creased like a straw bent over the edge of a glass. So, not enough nutrition is getting to the heads resulting in poorly fill-out grain that my have little or no nutritional value for man or beast.

Bobcat

If I were to say that I played with worked on a Bobcat for 12 hours today, would this image come to mind?

Bobcat in a Tree

Even if you know that the Bobcat I used looked like this?:

Bobcat in a Field

Of course, if you have ever used a Bobcat (and remember your first day at the controls) this image probably comes to mind:

Bucking Bobcat

And all I wanted to do was remove some excess dirt from the garage floor so I can get it ready for fill sand, then concrete.

The soil here is interesting; with each scoop, we get a different kind. We have a sand/clay mix; a brown or white clay; and a black, nutrient-rich looking soil with a clay-like texture; to name a few. Bobcat and I purr right along as we move the sand/clay by the bucket load. But, Ol' Bucko has a cockle burr under the saddle for one thing, and them me an' him found chawin' on rawhide to be more productive than trying to move that thar clay.

Oh, for a nice long, warm soak in a deep tub!

References:

 Bobcat in a Tree: Commons.wikimedia.org: Retrieved 21 July 2013 from https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=Szdtvbq_SUXUcM&tbnid=-KS1AZTZ178PwM:&ved=0CAMQjhw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fcommons.wikimedia.org%2Fwiki%2FFile%3ABobcat-Texas-9123.jpg&ei=MoDsUfzALojCrgG-yYCAAg&bvm=bv.49478099,d.aWM&psig=AFQjCNE9SZF18AanaO3JZdPuopDlttgvDA&ust=1374539921751583 

Bobcat in a Field: The World's Best Photos by Dave Dugdale retrieved 21 July 2013 from https://www.google.com/url?sa=i&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&source=images&cd=&cad=rja&docid=NKZeC1vdcnpCCM&tbnid=xERk192pWsIm-M:&ved=0CAUQjRw&url=http%3A%2F%2Fflickrhivemind.net%2FUser%2FDave%2520Dugdale%2FInteresting&ei=vYHsUe3AJoSyqgHlvYCQAQ&psig=AFQjCNElW6swkdMaAdk_n7wwxjkRaDxrnQ&ust=1374540597397563

Bucking Bobcat: Shiloh Musings: November 2012 shilomusings.blogspot.com. Retrieved 21 July 2013 from thttps://www.google.com/search?as_q=bobcat&tbs=sur:fm&biw=1280&bih=923&sei=NIHsUYS-H83FqQG7kYAY&tbm=isch#safe=active&tbm=isch&sa=1&q=bucking+bronco&oq=bucking+&gs_l=img.1.0.0l10.582041.583042.2.586668.8.6.0.2.2.0.202.698.3j2j1.6.0....0.0..1c.1.20.img.ctCBU8GPpM8&bav=on.2,or.r_qf.&fp=8f0cf167ac1e6a39&biw=1280&bih=923&bvm=pv.xjs.s.en_US.c75bKy5EQ0A.O%2Cpv.xjs.s.en_US.c75bKy5EQ0A.O&facrc=_&imgdii=90Xdb3XX2fOHDM%3A%3BvSIF0G51MFPn1M%3B90Xdb3XX2fOHDM%3A&imgrc=90Xdb3XX2fOHDM%3A%3BqZhlc53mEdpB1M%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.artistsuk.co.uk%252Facatalog%252FBucking_Broncho_Frank_Frazetta.jpg%3Bhttp%253A%252F%252Fwww.artistsuk.co.uk%252Facatalog%252FFRANK_FRAZETTA_PRINTS_AND_POSTERS.html%3B412%3B600

Temporary Living

Initially, the travel trailer and motor home were parked near the machine shed. We recently positioned them in the shade around the yard. Now, with both campers opening into that yard, I can take advantage of its shade, grassy--not muddy--turf, and dust-free breeze. Plus, the view out the window shows nothing but nature.

In the mean time:

The heating coils are in and we wait patiently for the concrete folks to arrive and finish the preparation.

If all goes well, we will have a solid concrete floor tomorrow, or by the end of the week, weather permitting.

Rain

An email I sent to my sister:

"...and the skies opened up and the rains came down and down and down...The trailer doesn't leak, but it is rather noisy--a soothing, muffled drum of the "heavy at times". The trouble is, the "heavy at times" is beginning to feel like the norm. I wonder if the trailer floats--my own mini-ark. But, I didn't march the animals in two by two so how will I be able to send out a dove to let me know when it's all over?

So many things to ponder while not building a house!"

Maybe I will calculate the length of my floor joists so I can put in the order.

The plumber is coming tomorrow, Wednesday, to put in the heating pipes for the basement floor. I believe he said that we would be finished by the end of the day. Since he and concrete know each other quite well and work together often, they will work out the schedule for that part of the project.

And when we are finished with the concrete, I will need the floor joists.

More Pictures of Footings

A step back in time to the forms being prepared