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.