Then: Second week of July 2008
The men from the well drilling company came up to put in the pump. It is a really hot day and there is no shade where they are working. They have to put 600 feet of pipe down into the well, then lower the pump down. The sun does its work and in a couple hours one of them is down and almost out. Some cold water and rest in the shade gets him up again. Turns out our little generator does not have enough "juice" to run the pump, so I will have to wait til August for water when JB gets here to buy our much more powerful back-up generator. I'll just keep filling my water jugs at Safeway.
The end of May I had brought up a birdhouse from storage and a male wren moved in. Shortly thereafter he found a mate and soon there were eggs in their nest. I saw at least one baby, but I noticed they were gone today, so I assume the baby finally learned to fly. I found an egg shell, and also an unhatched egg - so tiny!. I will certainly miss them.
I worked a bit on filling the big trench from the pump to the cistern. This is a really big job with just a shovel and my arthritic hands. Maybe I can con my brother and nephew into helping me. . .
The best part of the week is that my Jeep is finally ready, and just in time too, as I need to use the trailer. I turned in the fancy, new SUV and got back my trusty, scratched and dirty vehicle.
I had ordered our front door and screen from Lowe's and I received a call telling me they both had arrived. It is a double, glass door that opens outward and has blinds inside the glass that can be raised and lowered, opened & shut. The screen will be inside the house. The two sides of the screen meet in the middle and pull back, winding up. I hitched up the trailer and went Down There to Lowe's. Also bought an outside door for the loft, a small window for the kitchen, and vapor barrier for the 2 ft crawl space under the house. Had to drive very slowly on the way back up.
Since I already had the trailer hitched up, after I unloaded the doors and all, I filled it up twice again with branches and hauled them up to the burn pile.
The best news of the week is that our contractor is going to start building on Monday!
Now: June 12, 2011
As it turns out, putting vapor barrier down in the crawl space probably was not a very good idea. It tends to hold in moisture, and with all the rain we've had, we have some water under there. A couple days ago I started putting a fan down the trap door and running it all day. Will probably have to do than for a few months. And I have to get under there and pull all that plastic out. Under there with all the spiders and who knows what. I can hardly wait
The screen for the front door is still in the box as it turned out to be quite a bit more of a project than we had anticipated. Maybe we'll get it installed next Summer. . .
Yesterday JB made a "speed" run to town to get cement for the three deck poles so it can set before it rains again (nothing is very speedy about going to town from Up Here). But he picked up the mail and we had received several items we had ordered, plus we were running low on ice cream. As I mentioned, we always try to do as much as possible when we go to town.
We got all three poles cemented into the ground and maybe today we can start putting up the plywood. It looks like a beautiful day, with no rain in the forecast until tomorrow.
There is a great article in the June issue of Outside magazine entitled, "Natural Intelligence, Get Your Mind Dirty." It is written by Richar Louv adapted from his new book, The Nature Principle. It concerns his idea of "nature-deficit disorder," and is fascinating. Here is a quote: "As a species, we are most animated when our days and nights are touched by the natural world. While individuals can find immeasurable joy in a great work of art, or by falling in love, all of life is rooted in nature, and a separation from it desensitizes and diminishes us." If that isn't the truth, I don't know what is! The change in both of us while living on the mountain for the past three years is proof enough.
The men from the well drilling company came up to put in the pump. It is a really hot day and there is no shade where they are working. They have to put 600 feet of pipe down into the well, then lower the pump down. The sun does its work and in a couple hours one of them is down and almost out. Some cold water and rest in the shade gets him up again. Turns out our little generator does not have enough "juice" to run the pump, so I will have to wait til August for water when JB gets here to buy our much more powerful back-up generator. I'll just keep filling my water jugs at Safeway.
The end of May I had brought up a birdhouse from storage and a male wren moved in. Shortly thereafter he found a mate and soon there were eggs in their nest. I saw at least one baby, but I noticed they were gone today, so I assume the baby finally learned to fly. I found an egg shell, and also an unhatched egg - so tiny!. I will certainly miss them.
I worked a bit on filling the big trench from the pump to the cistern. This is a really big job with just a shovel and my arthritic hands. Maybe I can con my brother and nephew into helping me. . .
The best part of the week is that my Jeep is finally ready, and just in time too, as I need to use the trailer. I turned in the fancy, new SUV and got back my trusty, scratched and dirty vehicle.
I had ordered our front door and screen from Lowe's and I received a call telling me they both had arrived. It is a double, glass door that opens outward and has blinds inside the glass that can be raised and lowered, opened & shut. The screen will be inside the house. The two sides of the screen meet in the middle and pull back, winding up. I hitched up the trailer and went Down There to Lowe's. Also bought an outside door for the loft, a small window for the kitchen, and vapor barrier for the 2 ft crawl space under the house. Had to drive very slowly on the way back up.
Since I already had the trailer hitched up, after I unloaded the doors and all, I filled it up twice again with branches and hauled them up to the burn pile.
The best news of the week is that our contractor is going to start building on Monday!
Now: June 12, 2011
As it turns out, putting vapor barrier down in the crawl space probably was not a very good idea. It tends to hold in moisture, and with all the rain we've had, we have some water under there. A couple days ago I started putting a fan down the trap door and running it all day. Will probably have to do than for a few months. And I have to get under there and pull all that plastic out. Under there with all the spiders and who knows what. I can hardly wait
The screen for the front door is still in the box as it turned out to be quite a bit more of a project than we had anticipated. Maybe we'll get it installed next Summer. . .
Yesterday JB made a "speed" run to town to get cement for the three deck poles so it can set before it rains again (nothing is very speedy about going to town from Up Here). But he picked up the mail and we had received several items we had ordered, plus we were running low on ice cream. As I mentioned, we always try to do as much as possible when we go to town.
We got all three poles cemented into the ground and maybe today we can start putting up the plywood. It looks like a beautiful day, with no rain in the forecast until tomorrow.
There is a great article in the June issue of Outside magazine entitled, "Natural Intelligence, Get Your Mind Dirty." It is written by Richar Louv adapted from his new book, The Nature Principle. It concerns his idea of "nature-deficit disorder," and is fascinating. Here is a quote: "As a species, we are most animated when our days and nights are touched by the natural world. While individuals can find immeasurable joy in a great work of art, or by falling in love, all of life is rooted in nature, and a separation from it desensitizes and diminishes us." If that isn't the truth, I don't know what is! The change in both of us while living on the mountain for the past three years is proof enough.
No comments:
Post a Comment