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.