Some scenes from Mother Nature:
and some scenes with a little human intervention:
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| Rhubarb transplanted this summer |
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| My first tomato of the summer |
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| Grandma's Tiger Lilly |
Thursday, August 22, 2013
Mother Nature
and some scenes with a little human intervention:
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.
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!!!
Garage 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.
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!Thursday, July 25, 2013
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.
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:
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.
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:
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.
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