A Surprise Cherry Tree!

A week ago, Hal surprised me by having taken his tractor and its brush mower to the weed trees and brush, (tag alders, Russian olives, golden rod, etc) along the slight dip at the edge of our future back yard. This exposed the ridge behind it where Luna is buried. as well as the small trees we have planted there. It gives us a better view from the living room and kitchen. It also exposes the low spot we hope to turn into a small pond someday. 

He also exposed a nice cherry tree  which he mowed around. So besides the 2 apple trees I planted this spring, we will have a nice little cherry tree in the backyard.

Luna is buried near that white tree protector on the right of the photo. The daffodils I planted over her should be visible next spring.

A Garage Floor!

Prep work started last week, adding sand, tamping it down, placing a 2 x 4 barrier,  then spreading vapor barrier on top of the sand. Friday the first 3rd of the garage floor, a 12' x 36' section furthest in was poured.

This photo is from when it was just poured and smoothed out, it was cold outside (40s) so they added a 1/2% solution of chloride to speed up the process and they couldn't leave till 7:30 pm. They had started at 9.

While they waited for concrete to cure, they prepped the remaining section of the garage and poured the next day, yesterday. This time they added 1% chloride to the mix and they were done by 6 pm though the late afternoon rain and wind made them unable to do a final skim so there will be tiny fiberglass hairs sticking up which will eventually wear away. The fiberglass is the thing they do now instead of rebar and metal wire mesh in the bottom to help prevent cracking. Hopefully, this will last the rest of our lives, may they be long enough to enjoy this house!

Speaking of Vapor Barrier...

Speaking of vapor barrier, Hal had put down 2 pieces a couple months ago, and 2 days ago I helped him put down 2 more. Today we laid out the 3rd piece and  a small piece in an odd corner. So the vapor barrier in the crawlspace is down! We still need to secure it along the exterior walls and to the inside posts but we need more tape which is currently "in the mail".

Prior to this exercise of crawling through small spaces, Hal got to work on other important house things like running electric feeder cable to the house from the panel at the utility pole next to our barn. He rented a trencher and made a ~250 foot long trench about 30 inches deep into the garage and up to the new electric panel in what will eventually be the utility room.

200 Amps

After laying in ~$900 worth of 4/0 aluminum cable and then getting the inspector to come out to check it over and then tell us we also need to run a ground wire between the boxes (on this point the national electrical code is fuzzy, Hal had already done ground wire with ground rods at each end per his interpretation of code but the inspector wanted his version), so another $200 later we were able to fill in the trench and start preparing the garage for concrete. 

The other thing before concrete are floor drains. He installed one for each garage door, essentially one for under his vehicle and one for under mine. One will drain out the front and one to the back. This is mainly for snow melt off of our rides. Now we wait for the concrete guy to fit us in sometime this month.

Settling In, Sort Of

So we've been in the farmhouse a month. I've unpacked a few boxes, don't want to unpack much as there isn't a lot of room to put things. Can't find a lot of things, like my DVDs, I didn't pack them, didn't pay attention to the SIL packing them but I can't find a box labeled DVD so it looks like I won't see them till we move into the new place. Can't find my flashlight which is also very annoying. Fortunately for Kaylee, all her toys are accounted for! Hal got rid of my broken recliner, I'm using one of our old wingback chairs we managed to stuff into the family room along with my glider rocker and my dad's old recliner. Everything else makes my back hurt.

In the only room they're allowed

Because the fenced in area isn't attached to the house I have been taking the dogs on a short wal very early evert day, usually before 8 am, then we come back and they get dinner and eventually another walk before they get to go in the pheasant pen. Some days they have no problems being in there for hours, other days the whining and howling starts up pretty quickly. Today they will be coming with me to the build because 2 of Hal's brothers will be in the pen knocking down the tall poles that used  to hold up the netting. They have to behave and not crawl  under the floor joists with us while we lay down vapor barrier.

It's Done, We're Moved, The House Sold

So we did close on August 28th and took 5 days to finish moving out and cleaning the house. We were out on the September 2nd and the new owners arrived the next day. Heard from the wife a couple of times about internet and how to turn the heater on, they used the thermostat for the wood stove rather than the propane furnace, I forgot to mention they were separate systems. 

We are in the farmhouse that was Hal's parents' and is now owned by Hal's older brother, MSS. Plenty still left to unpack but things are a little tight because the small kitchen attached to the family room as well as a part of the family room has stacks of things purchased for the vacation home MSS and wife are building right next door. Hal's sister, C, is also staying here for a bit (leaving today) and has been extremely helpful with the cleaning of the old house and and unpacking and finding places for things. I'll have to take some photos later of the chaos.

The dogs are a little confused. We've been here a week but I'm pretty sure Ziggy thinks we can go home anytime. Kaylee seems to be handling it a bit better, but she only lived there  2 years, Ziggy, more than 9. But they got to see my neighbor and Seamus 2 days in a row when they came for a visit, so that helped. Plus as there is no fence around the house, they have to stay in the old pheasant pen which is very large and grassy but as they can't run in and out of the house anymore, they spend a lot of time barking, howling and whining. I hope they get used to it, but we're too close to a busy road to leave them loose, and Hal's cousin, who has lived in the mobile home across the driveway for more than 20 years, seems to be afraid of dogs and threatened to pepper spray them, so, better safe than sorry. Just makes things more stressful.

Hal is finally getting back to work on the new house today, he rented a trencher for laying the electric cable between the utility pole and the house, so that is a good thing. He hopes to have it done soon so the garage floor can be poured and the large doors attached so we can heat it in winter and work all winter long. We shall see.

Time for a walk.