Winter and The Barn With a Roof

Well winter has finally come to the north country. We've had a bit of snow, probably 3-4 inches in the last several days, and the temperatures have dropped quite a bit. After temps in the 50's and occasional 60's for most of November it waws quite a change to have a high of 10 degrees on Friday. We went out to walk a property with a client on Friday and you could definitely see your breath.

We got the rest of the roof on the barn the last week in November and I got most of the tractor attachments and some of the logs moved over to that area. We also spent time leveling out, and seeding along the driveway where we messed it up all summer. It still needs some work but that will have to wait until next year from the looks of things at this point.

In the pictures from today you can see the new roof though obviously it's covered with snow. It is "coffee" the same color as the one on the shed. You can also make out the cross bracing on the cable ends which we installed the weekend after Thanksgiving. Don't know if they will make any difference in stablizing the building but they sure were exciting to put up.

Today we spent our time putting up a layer of plastic on the rear wall to hopefully slow down the wind and also the snow. It was a bit dark by the time we were done to get any pictures. Don't know if it will stay up but hopefully it will help keep the mill dryer. We are hoping to do the same on the front wall to do the same. The gable walls are going to be a bit more problematic due to their height. I figure with the long sides closed off it should solve a lot of the problem. Of course it might also just create a wind tunnel effect and blow everything around.

Half A Roof Is Better Than None?

As things get closer to being finished the slower they seem to go. We've been ready for three weeks for the roof to go on. The person who is going to do it just hasn't gotten to it until today.

We've been cleaning up around the site and on other places on the property. It has rained quite a bit for the last couple of weeks so it has been difficult to get to some areas which we would like to work on.

Last week we took a day and burned our brush pile. It took awhile since the pile was huge and the wood was wet. We were there for 12 hours and finally left with the fire still burning some. We went back the next day and pushed things together some more and the fire burned some more. Made a big difference to the field. For awhile you couldn't really see across it the pile was so large. I'm sure we'll start right back in with building another pile.

The other thing we started work on was a floor in the barn. We need to be able to have the sawmill level and stable so we figure we would but a wood floor in part of it. We are putting 6 x 6's down on the stone every two feet and then nailing 2 x whatevers on top. It feels pretty stable and hopefully will make it easier to mill than it has been.

Yesterday I moved the mill onto the floor. We don't really have all that much floor as of yet but I figure we are running out of time before the snow comes. I'd like to get the area around the shed cleaned up and I can't do that with the mill in the way.

I disassembled the mill and then picked it up with the forks on the tractor. Went pretty well though like all things it took about three times longer than I thought it would. Fortunately I didn't have to adjust it much after moving it as the floor is pretty level. I figured we'd let it settle for awhile and see if it needs more adjusting. I figure we'll lag bolt it to the floor to hold it in position. Should be interesting to see what happens to the whole setup when we drop a 2000 lb. log on it.

As mentioned at the beginning they started roofing today. Got the back half on and hopefully they will be back tomorrow to finish up. We went over to check on things this afternoon and they were already gone at 2 pm so I would think a full day would allow them to finish.

It sure will be nice if we can keep the mill out of the weather.

Apparently they weren't happy with the feel of the building as they applied braces back to front. We picked up some steel for cross braces on the gable ends today and have started painting them. Hopefully we'll have them up before the end of the weekend if the weather permits.

Ready For Roof

After quite a few delays due to weather, and lots of sweat due to me being on the roof, we are finally ready for the roof to be put on.

Today we finished up the fascia around the perimeter. The metal roof will overhang this trim so we had to get it on before the roofing was put in place. Hanging over the edge of the roof while holding up 2 x 7 boards is not my idea of fun. But we got it done. Caroline held the bottom edge of the boards by standing on the ladder while I held the top edge and used the nail gun to nail them in place. Neither of us is moving very well at this point after using muscles which haven't been used in years.

Last week we got the cross bracing between the bents lag bolted into place. They are made up of 1/8" x 1" pieces of steel which we then painted blue. We had the local welding shop cut them to length and drill holes for the lag bolts. They also drilled holes in the center for a bolt to hold the cross together. We still want to cross brace across the gable ends to strengthen the building in that direction. We'll probably go with steel for that also.

I talked with a contractor a couple of weeks ago about putting the roof on for us. He said he could probably do it in 2-3 weeks which is about where we are at this point. It would be nice to get the building undercover before we get any significant snow. The next step for us on the building will be to put a wood floor into the section where the sawmill will be sitting to make a level spot for the mill, and us, to work on. I'd like to get the mill moved in the next little while so that I can clean up along the driveway before the winter. As always it's a case of what to do first. I'd like to move the mill but I need to mill lumber to make the floor to put the mill on.

We are hoping to move on to getting wood for next year's firewood and putting that in the barn so that we can split it this winter. We are also hoping to get a number of logs so we can mill during the winter and hopefully cut beams for the cabin which we hope to start in the spring. For those of you who have been following along for the last several months we decided to cancel the installation of the septic system this fall. It was looking like it would be $8000-$10,000 to do it and we decided we didn't have the funds at this point. Most likely we will put a composting toilet in the cabin rather than a full blown septic system. A composting system will probably be in the $2000-3000 range and we figure for the amount we will be using the cabin it will work just fine. We've always been a bit interested in the composting technology so it seems to be a good time to try it.

Purlins Finished

Tom and Austin finished putting purlins on the building today. Very exciting! We also got another load of stone which should help us level the site. It is starting to look like we might actually got a roof on the building before winter.

I also got the injured hoses off the grapple so hopefully I can get replacements.

Quick work with the purlins

Tom and Austin arrived last night and started working on the roof this morning. They did a grant job getting the purlins up and have about 2/3 of the roof finished. If the weather allows the rest of the purlins should be up by the end of tomorrow. That would be a major step forward.

Caroline and I spent the day supplying them with material and milling more purlins to keep ahead of them.

I had an accident yesterday with my grapple when it came off the front loader attachment and broke some of it's hydraulic hoses. I'll have to get new ones and install them before I can use it again. I'm hoping to find a roofer who has time to work on the building in the next month or so.

All Bents Up

We got the last bent up today. It wasn't looking good for most of the day with heavy rain for a couple of hours but finally it let up and we were able to get it raised. It makes a big difference to have them all up. First off it makes us feel like we got something accomplished. Secondly, it gives you much more of a feel for what the building will look like when it's done.

We have to mill a bunch of 2 x 6's at this point for the purlins, which are the boards on top of the rafters. We have the 16 needed for the first three bents but need another 30 or so for the rest of the purlins. We will also need more for the extensions to the roof which will make up the overhang.

I'm figuring probably 60 12-13 foot 2 x 6's will get us most of the way done. That will take a few more trees. Fortunately we have a number of pines which have volunteered to be lumber since they allowed their tops to be blown off. All we have to do is cut them and mill them. Sounds easy but will take some time.

I'm hoping to be ready for roofing by beginning of November. My brother Tom is hopefully coming up this weekend. He is always helpful with ideas and manpower. He has a lot more experience building than I ever will. I'll spend most of the day milling tomorrow so we have lumber to work with.

Slowly Getting There

We've continued to work on getting the bents up. As of today we have six of the seven up.

We've currently run out of timbers for rafters. We will have to decide what tree, or trees, come down next. There are several we've been eying Since their tops have broken off over the last couple of years. The problem with most of them is that they are rather large. Obviously that is good for the amount of lumber we can get out of them but it makes it very difficult to handle them.

We will probably concentrate on milling 2x6's this week to get more purlins up and make the building more stable. We are also hoping to spend some time up at the cabin site to get that cleared up better. The contractor who is putting in the septic system hopes to start some time this week if the weather permits. Currently it is rather wet on the approach to the site but drying out fast with the weather we've been having.

Third Bent Up

Yesterday was a gray, foggy, rainy day but we managed to get one bent up between the rain drops. It was the first time Caroline saw the tractor boom in action and since there was a little hiccup in the raising of the bent she was concerned for awhile. I managed to move the "curl" on the front loader attachment a bit too quickly and the whole bent sort of bounced up and down for a moment. It all held together and we got it up without a great deal of difficulty.

Today went much smoother though with going to real estate open houses we didn't get over to Waterville until about two o'clock. Having done the bent yesterday we knew the procedure and it went up without a hitch. I think I figured out the proper procedure for lifting at this point so hopefully the rest will go well. Of course every day I think I have things figured out. Never quite do.

We also got the first purlins and girts on to help support things. They are predicting upwards of 40 mile/hour winds tomorrow so it seemed like it would be a good idea to get things as stable as possible. It really is starting to feel like a building with the three bents up.

We're still not exactly sure how we will do a number of things but just seeing what we've gotten up in the last week makes us feel like maybe we can actually do this building thing.

We are going to have a bit of a hold on erection progress since we need to mill more rafters before we can proceed any further. We are hoping to get a couple of more bents ready to go by the weekend. Feel like we are running out of time with the leaves changing color and falling off the trees. Snow is just around the corner. It sure would be nice to get the mill under cover before the snows come.

First Bent Up!!

Yesterday I got the first bent up for the Sawmill shed. The day started out slowly with our goats deciding that they were no longer interested in staying in their designated field space. Caroline was home alone and had an appointment to show property so she was a bit concerned about the situation. Fortunately I had just left and could come back home and beat the little critters. Just kidding. After a number of attempts to convince that they should hang out where they were suppose to be I finally moved them up to the winter quarter area above the house. Fortunately they have not escaped as of yet. As I'm writing this their lower field has been taken over by the turkeys. There are about 20 of them roaming around down there.


As far as the bent is concerned, I used the pallet forks on the tractor to hold up the sections of rafter and get them hooked into the hardware. It worked pretty well with little lifting involved. I then squared it up by measuring the diagionals (thanks to that old Greek Pythagoras) and put on the braces. Last time we tried to raise the frame the nails I used for the braces were obviously too short. I had much longer ones this time.

I then hooked up our homemade boom and attached it to the strap I had around the top of the rafter. The boom worked great, lifting the bent with little trouble. The bent did a little bit of jerking due to operator malfunction as I got to the top of the arc. I then got off the tractor, checked the sides for plumb, and put on braces and screwed in the bolts at the bottom of the post. The picture to the left is after I had things braced.

The tricky part was getting the top of the boom rested against the top of the bent after I braced it so that I could climb up the ladder to unhook all the straps. Fortunately the climb went well and as you can see by the second picture the bent is now freestanding. An interesting day all in all.

It's raining off and on today so I'm not sure how much we will get accomplished today. I think now that I have some idea on how to do things we should be able to get the two additional bents we have ready to go up in a couple of hours. We'll see.

It should also be interesting getting the purlins up on the rafters. It sure looks high once the bent is stood up.

Building a Boom

We started working on a boom to help pick up the bents for the shed yesterday and I finished it up today. It probably should have more lag bolts in but it seemed to hold together okay for lifting a half a log which I'm guessing weighed 800-1000 lbs. We didn't seem to lose any nails or bolts. The boom didn't seem to bend too much which I think is the result of the cables back to the grill on the fork attachment. The one problem I found was that I couldn't get the loader to "curl" which I'm sure is the result of the amount of weight I was trying to lift. I don't think the bents will be nearly as heavy. They will also not have to be lifted off the ground on either side.


I measured the height I could get with the loader at maximum height and I was at 19 feet 6 inches. Hopefully that will be high enough. I could make the boom longer but I would prefer not to have to cut another timber just for the boom.

If this works out it might be worthwhile looking at a metal boom which would be stronger and hopefully lighter than the current one. A big problem with booms is the lever arm of the boom extending out which dramatically reduces the amount of weight you can lift.

One thing I found was that we made the pockets for the forks to big as far as height. I shoved 4x4's in under them to tighten things up. Ideally there should be 5 x5's slid in under them and nailed into place. The problem with doing that is that there would be very little margin for error in getting the forks into the pallet portion of the boom.

We'll have to see how things go but I'm pleasantly surprised that it worked as well as it did today.

Updating Waterville, Near Disaster and Big Tree

First off the goats have had visiters. It may be tough to see from this picture but Georgia is following behind a flock of turkeys. The turkeys have visited a couple of times. There have also been deer hanging around which seem to interest the goats quite a bit. They stand and watch each other. Herbivores, there just isn't any understanding them. We took down a couple of trees since we were having problems with our internet connnection (radio frequency, line of sight). It didn't help the situation but the goats have really enjoyed the pine branches we throw to them on a daily basis. We did finally get the internet connection working again but then Caroline's computer's hard disk crashed taking all her data with it. We have backups but not as current as she would like them. I need to look at internet backup again.

We've done a lot over at Waterville since the last update we have made significant progress on both the sawmill shed and the cabin site.

We have spread all the crushed stone we had on site. We need to get probably the same amount to finish things off but at least we have eliminated most of the mud problems. We also dug a trench around the upper perimeter of the shed and placed drainage pipe which will hopefully help keep things drier. We also got all the posts cut off to the proper height and placed the post top hardware. The hardware was a bit more involved than we would like due to it not really fitting well. I suspect it was a result of the posts being exposed to the weather and a bit swollen from being wet. Caroline chiseled down the sides to make things fit. Unfortunately some of them still needed some persuading and we had to pound on them with sledgehammers. Building is such an exact science. As a result of the pounding a number of the posts ended up lower than we wanted them and we will be adjusting the upper posts to compensate.

We did some milling to get enough posts and rafters to start erecting the bents. Due to my inexperience we had milled the original posts to actual 6 x6 dimensions. The hardware requires that they be 5.5 x 5.5 so we went back and milled them down further. Wasn't big thing but took time. We then attached the hardware that we could to get things started. The joint connectors are pretty solid and can be tough to manipulate when you are trying to line up a couple of 6 x 6's. We also discovered that the wood members had be positioned in the hardware at a certain point and not shoved in all the way. It was a tough learning process but I think things will go faster now that we've assembled one. The picture to the left shows one of the rafters on blocks during assembly. You can see the ridge hardware and the "clips" for the roof purlins. These suckers are heavy, especially once you attach the roof hardware so we are learning to minimize the amounts we have to move them and to use the tractor whenever possible.

We got luck to have friends volunteer to come over and help last Sunday. Scott and Chrissy, our neighbors, and Don, a friend, and client, came over to help us get organized and work out how to do things. They had some good ideas and caught some mistakes we had made. It is good to have other input which is looking at things from another angle. Also more muscle power is helpful. Both Scott and Don have more experience than I with building so they could get things done without me having to figure out what to tell them. I don't think we would have figured out the bracing and the hardware connections without a lot of trial and error without them.

The idea was to get up one bent and get it braced. We figured that would give us a boost to have something actually up in the air after all the months of work to get prepared. Ideally I would like to get three bents up as quickly as possible since the end purlins span the three bents. That would tie everything together. Unfortunately we only had enough timbers for three rafters. We are finding it tough to mill 16 foot 6 x 6's. You need a pretty big log to get even one 6x 6 out of it and to get a tree which is straight enough to get a 16 footer is unusual.

The plan was to use the tractor and the logging winch to put raise the bent. We got everthing organized. Put on the bracing and straps to raise it and placed everyone in their respective positions. I started the winch and the bent went up without much difficulty. Unfortunately it started to go too fast and I let off on the winch. This allowed slack in the pull rope and the frame snapped back and collapsed to the ground breaking both rafters in about the middle. You can't really see if from the pictures but the rafters cracked when the hit the blocking we had them supported on for the lift. Fortunately no one was under the frame when it came down but it certainly scared everyone. So it is now back to square one as far as the frame. It was a real shame to lose two rafters, neither of the timbers is salvagable as a post due to where they cracked. I'm sure we'll find a use for the larger pieces but it means milling two more rafters.

After the fun Sunday I decided to take a break and work on some other things for awhile. We need to figure out a better way to get the bents up. One idea is to attach a cable to the rear of the tractor and just pull the tractor ahead slowly. That should give us a controlled ascent. I think the winch was a bad idea. It just moves too fast and is difficult to control in small increments. Great for pulling a 1000 pound tree out of the woods, not so great for carpentry.

I started cleaning up the cabin site a bit more. We expect that Steve Manosh will be by in the next little while to put in the septic system and the more we can get done prior to his arrival the better from both a financial (less he has to do) and from a possible damage to the septic system standpoint. I took down a couple of midsized spruce trees and yesterday we took down a larger pine which had it's top blown off this winter. We saw our neighbor afterwards and she said that she heard it hit the ground. She was probably a half mile away when we took it down. I don't have any pictures of what the cabin site looks like at this point but hopefully I will get some this coming week.

We hauled the base of the pine tree down to the mill (thanks to the new tractor). I would have to say that it is the biggest log we have milled. We measured it at 27" at the butt end and 21" at the small end. We jacked up the small end so that we could make a straight cut and milled just above the center of the log. In the pictures you can really see the difference between the sapwood on the outside and the heartwood in the center. Besides the taper to the log it fortunately is rather straight. The next segment of the tree which I haven't hauled down yet is definitely more twisted. I don't expect to get nearly the wood out of it that we have with this log.

Believe me without the new tractor this log would not be milled by us. There is no way that the old tractor (now refered to as Caroline's tractor) would have lifted this onto the mill. It might have drug it down the road but it would have been a struggle. The new tractor managed to pick up the log and carry it from the cabin site. Mind you it wasn't overly happy about it but it did it. The grapple for the tractor is great. It picks up all sorts of things much easier than pallet forks or chains and bucket. I'll have to get some good pictures of the tractor and post them. So far I have used mainly the grapple but will probably have the bucket attached in the near future to get the cabin site level and at least the semblence of a road to it. I just haven't had time to try the various attachments with trying to keep the shed and cabin moving along. Hopefully at some point I can take some time to just play with the tractor and see what it can do. I would like to get the post hole digger hooked up and get some posts sunk for a firewood storage area. Ideally I would hook that up to the old tractor so I don't have to take the backhoe off the new one.




In the picture to the left you can see the first cut down the middle of the log. We figured that 1/2 of the log was the most we could handle. It also made it easier to figure out what order to cut out boards and timbers. Once it was cut we could manage to stand it on it's side and start slicing boards out of it. We took the top off with the grapple on the tractor and laid it aside while we worked on the first half. I don't have a plan to be able to access the mill with the tractor grapple which might be a mistake. I don't see anyway to do it without the shed being a lot larger. Maybe I could use the backhoe to lift tops off. I'll have to think about that.

In any case we are very happy with the amount of wood we have gotten out this log so far. We still have the other (smaller) half to do but we have gotten 3 rafters and a post out of this half as well as a couple of 2 x 6's. We expect to only get two rafters out of the other half but that will get us well on our way to putting together three of the seven bents. There are a couple of other big pines which have to come down so hopefully we can get all the timbers milled over the next couple of weeks. Famous last words, everything seems to take longer than planned.

Catching Up -- It's been a long time

It's been a while since I've posted since we were away for Labor day and then our internet connection was down for almost two weeks. Dial-up sucks and I wasn't up for trying to post with that sort of connection.

Our trip down to the Mid-Atlantic states was good though there was a lot of rain with the remnants of Ernesto passing through. We spent Thursday before Labor Day at my Aunt Jane's in New Jersey and then went down to Philadelphia to visit with Caroline's mother. She is doing well though Jim, her husband, is on the long downhill slide. We only saw Jim for a brief time.

On Saturday we headed back to New Jersey and attended a party with most of the family since Judie was in from Washington State. The only sibling which didn't make it was Donald but we at least got to talk to him from Georgia. After the party on Sunday we headed back to Vermont. It seemed like we were gone for a long time and it was great to sleep in our own bed again.



On the Waterville front things are moving slowly forward. I got my injuried tractor back before our trip. Fortunately it wasn't as bad as feared (only cost $500). Could have been a lot worse. We've been working on various areas of the properties but mostly concentrating on the Sawmill shed. At this juncture we have gotten all the posts in, have started getting the hardware on top of the posts, though that is a slow process. We have found we need to chisel down the pressure treated posts a bit to fit the hardware on. In the case of the first post we put it on we still haven't managed to get it all the way on. There has been a lot of pounding with sledgehammers. The posts are probably six inches lower than they were though that is something I really don't want to know. We added some crushed stone to the center of the shed area today and will hopefully get more in over the next couple of days. I'm also digging a trench for a perimeter drain to try and catch some of the runoff from the hill above the shed before it gets to what will be the roofed area.

I don't think we will be ready but there are a number of friends coming over Saturday to check our progress and to help if possible. I would love to be ready to raise the first bent but I just don't see how it will be possible. We have tomorrow to get things done and still have a whole bunch to do. We actually have the posts ready for the first couple of bents but we don't have the lumber for the rafters. It has been hard finding 16 foot logs which are straight enough to saw 6 x 6 out of them. Ideally I would like to get the first three bents up in rapid succession since they get tied together with 13 foot purlins. They should be relatively self supporting once the purlins get placed. Of course that means sawing out quite a few 2 x 6's for the purlins.

Our brush pile continues to grow as we are moving branches etc. out of the area which has been designated for the "cabin" and it's associated leach field. There is still quite a bit of clearing to do, hopefully before the contractor comes to put in the leach field. There is no way I wanted to try to accomplish that job. There are a couple of big pines which have to come down before the leach field goes in so they don't hurt it later, or fall on the cabin.

It is difficult to show the cabin activity in pictures. It looks mostly like mud with some trees interspersed. I think it will be nice if it ever gets finished.

On the subject of what has Jerry convinced Caroline to let him buy now; we are getting a new tractor to compliment the current one. It is going to be another Kubota, a model they call a L-39. It is setup to be a good backhoe and loader machine which is something the current tractor just hasn't been good enough at. We will probably keep the current tractor in Hyde Park most of the time with the new one being in Waterville. We have a lot of digging to do over there with me planning all sorts of projects and Caroline cringing.

In case anyone doesn't know today is Caroline's birthday. I'm afraid it wasn't a real exciting day for her but at least she got to get muddy which is always a highlight.

Circus Smirkus and Waterville progress

It's been awhile since I've posted. We worked quite a bit over at Waterville and also have been doing some real estate. Caroline has a closing tomorrow and I hopefully have one at the end of the week. Not much else on the horizon but at least we will have some funds coming in.

We got the first line of posts completed towards the end of last week. The weather cooperated and things were moving along well. I also got the first hole for the second row of posts dug after much calculating and measuring to make sure we had things squared up. Hopefully we do. Then Disaster struck over the weekend.

I had taken time out from the building to put in a culvert up in the woods. It's been an ongoing trouble spot, always wet and difficult to traverse. They were predicting rain for Sunday so I wanted to get it in before things were too wet to get it done again. While working I noticed a bolt on the ground. Looking around I couldn't figure where it was off but then I noticed some leakage from the rear axle. I quickly took the tractor out of the woods to the shed to make sure if it died it could be towed out of there. I then took a closer look. It appears the frame for the backhoe lost a number of bolts and finally came down on top the rear axle. I think it displaced it enough that hydraulic fluid is leaking out of the transmission. Actually, I don't have a clue but that sounds good. I called the kubota dealer today and they are going to go pick it up. I suspect we are looking at big bucks.

Unfortunately not having the tractor is going to slow things down quite a bit. Much of what we do requires the tractor to make it feasible. The ATV ("Red") can help but doesn't compare with the work the tractor can do. Hopefully it won't take too long to get it repaired.

Last night we went to see a Circus Smirkus show over in Greensboro. We've talked about doing it for years and finally Deb, who Caroline works with at Food Share, got us tickets. It was a lot of fun. Pretty amazing that these kids put on 70 shows over the course of the summer after only 3 weeks of rehearsals. Very impressive. It was the last show of the year so I think there was more passion in the performance than usual. Definitely worth going to see. Bring dinner if you go. They had some food but a picnic would have been better before the show.

Habitat and Posts

Last Saturday we went down to White River Junction and helped with the Habitat for Humanity House. It was interesting but entirely too many people and too few places to nail. Caroline and I finally stepped back and let the people who were rushing around do things. We actually ended up leaving early (not until after lunch of course) because we felt like we weren't accomplishing much and the day was too nice to just stand there. It was an interesting project. Basically we helped build the framing which then was taken apart and shipped off to New Orleans. The Realtor organization is going to help put a bunch of houses together in November during the annual meeting in New Orleans. We won't be attending but it sounds like a good idea. That's Caroline with her hands on her hips if you didn't recognizer her.

We've both been busy with real estate for the last little while. Moving some transactions along and showing property to clients. No new contracts but hope springs eternal.


We have managed to do some work over at Waterville. I'm having a couple of adjustments made to the sawmill at the local welding shop. Basically adding some strength to the log dogs which have bent.

We actually got the first post in for the sawmill shed today. One down and 14 to go. I buried it as deep as I could before I hit ledge. It's down about 4 feet. The plan is to put all the posts in then we'll mark the elevation for the tops and cut them off in place. With the differing depths I know I'm going to end up being able to dig to I can't think of any other way to do it. The weather will hopefully cooperate for the next several days and we can get all the posts in place. The next step would then be getting stone to bring the ground up to the proper level. First we'll put in some drain pipe and geotextile cloth.

O What A Tangled Web We Weave

I went outside today to spend some time with the goats and noticed that the large lilly in the "well head" garden was blooming so I grabbed the camera and snapped a picture. Also took pics of the other lillies currently in bloom and I noticed a large yellow marked spider with a web between a number of flowers. She was very cool just hanging out upside down waiting for breakfast. I had to snap some pics of her which you can see below. The markings on her back reminded me of an alien with it's hands on it's hips. I posted a question as to what type of spider it was on The Electronic Naturalist site and was told it was an Argiope spider. Apparently it is literally a garden variety spider. I hope she doesn't catch one of our humming birds. That would really bum us out. Apparently if they build their webs out in the fields they are great eaters of grasshoppers.

We spent some time over in Waterville this afternoon cleaning up brush and chipping. I started working on a large stump behind the shed but still have a long way to go in order to finish it. Also started putting a culvert up in one of our swampy areas in the woods but ended up spending more time getting the tractor out of the muck than putting the culvert in. We'll have to wait until things dry out a bit more to finish that job. We also are having some problems with our hose to the pond. I suspect it is just too small and is getting clogged with crud. We'll have to figure out something else.

Tomorrow we head down to White River Junction to help with the Habitat for Humanity house they are going to ship off to New Orleans. Should be interesting. I'll try to get some pics to show the progress. Putting together a whole house in one day is going to be a hoot. Or maybe we'll be too tired to drive back tomorrow night.

Chipping and Retaining Walls

We borrowed our neighbor's chipper and took it over to Waterville yesterday. Scott was also kind enough to load our ATV ("Little Red") into his pickup truck and bring that over for us. Caroline has spent the last couple of days chipping various branches and also doing a fair amount of brush mowing. We figure we'll use the chipper for about a week and then return it. We could chip for the rest of our lives and still not be done. We've been trying to make the area around the shed more attractive and while we could put everything on the burn pile it makes sense to try to keep some of the biomass on the ground to supply nutrition for the remaining trees. It's shaping up to be a busy real estate week so not sure how much we'll actually manage to get done.

On a "bummer" note the pond continues to lose water. We measured the output from the hose yesterday and it is only about 1/3 gallon per minute. Obviously not enough to make up the losses. Don't know if we are looking at a leak or all evaporation. Also don't know how we would figure that out.
I got the last of the stubborn stumps out at the sawmill shed site yesterday. I leveled things out and started on the rear retaining wall. Today I basically finished up the wall though we still need to backfill it and level out above it. It isn't pretty but also doesn't look terrible. I expect it will do it's job. Next step is to do an exact layout for the building and start digging for, and setting the pressure treated posts. We are also planning to add some drainage pipe to try to keep thing dry under the roof.

While we were working over on one corner of the property moving rocks and a stump. I managed to uncover a yellow jacket nest. There are advantages to a backhoe since I didn't get stung. I don't think the hoe was very impressed by the bees. I figured we would leave the area for awhile. Next time over I might try leveling the area and adding some dirt. Hopefully the bees will have moved on.

A Reel Hose Job

Yesterday Caroline and I went up to Waterville to attempt to add some water to the wildlife pond. As you can see by the brown area around the pond we have been losing water. I think the major problem is evaporation with the heat we've been having. Our neighbor up there had told us there was a spring on our property which they use to use. So we went searching a couple of days ago and found some run off at the bottom of a hill about 1/2 the way to the high point of the land. Yesterday we took a shovel and hose and headed up into the woods. Caroline worked on damming the runoff and I laid some hose out. In total it took 400 feet of hose and we figure we had roughly a 80-100 foot drop over that distance. We got the water running reasonably well though Caroline had to give up a pint of blood to the local mosquitoes.

Don't know if we will actually make any difference in the level of the pond but it was an interesting experiment. The dam that Caroline constructed is not completely water tight. I would guess we could get about twice the amount of water by plugging up the dam and having a larger hose. This is also coming from one of about 1/2 dozen little springs in a row at the bottom of a hill. If we could combine them into one stream it might yield a considerable amount of water. Makes me start thinking about generating electricity from Hydro. I have visions of scooping out a little pond to catch the various areas of water output and putting a microturbine down at the pond. Don't know if it would generate enough to be worth the expense but the increased water to the pond would be a big plus.

We put a stick in the ground at the edge of the current water level. We'll see which way it goes over the next little while. I figure we are getting about 1 gallon a minute with the current setup. Doesn't sound like much but that comes to about 1500 gallons a day.

Hunk O' Beef

My Aunt Jane and her honey Donald are up visiting with us for a couple of days. Fortunately the weather is cooperating and has been rather pleasant thus far. They played golf yesterday and I took them over to see the Waterville property today. At least now they will know better what we are talking about when we mention projects.

I stayed over in Waterville after they left and pulled some more stumps. Actually got out the ones I was working on when the Hydraulic hose went last week. Unfortunately in moving some rocks I smashed my finger and now have some moderately severe discomfort.

I am managing to get the area for the shed fairly level. It's tough to see from this picture but it's starting to look lik I know what I'm doing. Only took 6 weeks so far. Now that the backhoe is working again I can hopefully get the rest of the bank dug out. I will need to put a retaining wall on that side also and then probably take the back blade to the surface to do final grading. I figure another 4-5 full days of excavating based on my speed thus far.

At that point we will be able to lay out the building and dig holes for the 6 x 6 posts which are going hold up the above ground posts. We will also lay in some drainage pipe to help keep things dry, put in the 6 x 6 and get a bunch of stone delivered which will make up the floor.

I'm gradually getting timbers milled but have quite a ways to go yet. I would estimate I'm 1/4 of the way done with the needed 6 x 6's. A problem is getting enough 18 foot logs that I can cut timbers out for the rafters. We have one more tall pine by the shed to come down, then we will have to start looking around for more volunteer trees who want to be part of the building experience.

Later this afternoon we went off to Lamoille County Field days to check out the action and people. We figured Jane and Donald should see some more local color. The ox pull was a highlight. In this picture they are trying to drag 11,000 lbs. All the teams were reaching their maximums at about this point. We also checked out the various animals and saw some baby goats which, of course, appealed to Caroline and me. I had a long conversation with the Kubota salesman who was exhibiting about upgrading to something with more horsepower. I feel like I'm constantly on the edge of what my current tractor can do.

Hydraulics 101

Yesterday we decided to take the Hydraulic hose off the backhoe and see if I could get a replacement. It's amazing how long things can take when you have no idea what you are doing, or the proper tools to do it. I was working on it for a couple of hours but finally got it removed.

It actually was easy to get a new one. Pete's repair in Morrisville actually has a special door for you to enter if you have an hydraulic hose that is leaking. Took them about 20 minutes to make it up.

I then spent another couple of hours trying to put it on but haven't managed to get it threaded through the network of metal qute yet. Caroline is going to go over and help me to see if 4 hands are better than two. Should be a lot of swearing.

Going Loonie

Today we went with our Neighbors Scott and Chrissy on the annual loon count. Once a year Vermont has volunteers count the number of loons they find on their assigned lake. Scott has been counting on Lake Willouby for the last 20 years. We left home at 6:30 this morning and were on the lake before 8 am. It is a long lake and it took us four hours of steady paddling to do the round trip. This picture was taken when we come off the lake looking down the length of it from where we parked. We saw a total of four loons in our travels. Chrissy, and their nephew Christen, didn't make the whole trip as Chrissy was feeling a bit of motion sickness. The wind was blowing pretty hard and there were 2 foot swells at times. When you are in a kayak those seem pretty big.

We also went over to visit clients which we sold a house to last year which is located across the valley from us. They seem to really enjoy their house which makes me feel good.