Waterline Wrangling

• 

  The Ash clock is counting down.

• 

  Xander inspects my work at “mouse corner”; well packed with rockwool.

• 

  Then dressed up with corner-round. And the same for the S wall and the E wall to the front door.

• 

  The boss and I discuss saw safety when up on the mountain.

• 

  The boss is still in-frame as I start to unload.

• 

• 

• 

  A 3rd 1/3 of a cord.

• 

  A deeper load than it looks from the front.

• 

  Full cord in round-stack.

• 

  Might as well dig out the waterline.

• 

• 

  Two old rusted out steel waterlines ran parallel; one from the house springbox, and the geysering one from up the hillside to run the yard water / corral trough. A bit bent up and cut loose. They leaked and sweated like sprinkler hoses.

• 

  I wouldn’t want you to think I dug it out by hand. No. Here is our local WaterWitch, Dan (no relation), using his telekinetic tractor (backhoe).

• 

  He started adding the body gesture for the kids at the local expos. It does add to the drama!

• 

  The springbox to the house and the torn out waterlines. Prior to this E filled every container in the house with water.

• 

  O.K. Maybe I didn’t dig it out by hand. And maybe Dan’s telekinetic skills don’t have any practical applications. It was all Dave and his amazing skills with a backhoe. The green shovel is mostly for leaning on.

• 

  Two 50′ lengths of pex-line is laid in. One connects the springbox above to the corral; the connection is against the house springbox and is white pvc with the same still-good compression connection my Dad had put in at some point, on the other end we add a compression connection to the good steel pipe near the road that runs higher than the house-water and to the south. A filter and shut-off valve is added to the house springbox, and connects to good steel pipe just as it dives deep under the road. The pipe is like new where is hasn’t lain in the spring bog for 70 years or more.

• 

  This is about where the upper line nests up against the springbox to the house. It took us awhile to find it…

• 

  Dan with waterlines and Dan with the leaning shovel.

• 

  Dave and the working shovel.

• 

  Leaning shovel and working shovel.

• 

  Water through a waterline!

• 

  I zip-tie the lines together.

• 

  Now we just have to reveal the steel lines and make our connections.

• 

  A huge dirt covered boulder is mid frame, marking where the new line ties onto the old, about 3′ deep.

• 

  Dave pulled back-hoe loads of heavy clay and we packed it around the water tank that I had wrapped with pond lining, as the metal is getting a bit porous. Dave then brought in clean fill-dirt from a sidehill road-cut near the corral. One more trip will cover it all.

• 

  The water is slowly filling back in, and has just covered the new shutoff valve (yellow) and screen filter (blue).

• 

  We try to squeeze the springbox back to round with a pair of wire stretchers after a little bump from the back-hoe.

• 

  All the previous waterline work was done from 5pm til dusk. Now we’ll tidy things up, and Dave and Dan will head up to fix two pasture spring-box issues up on the West side.

• 

  Dave carefully makes a half-moon in the marsh above the springbox, redirecting the spring to pool directly above the box, then percolate through the soil and into the box. It works perfectly.

• 

  Nora does her inspections from the road.

• 

  Old waterline bent up from the backhoe, and the big pipe is the old overflow line (now white pvc).

• 

  Next Dave positions old concrete slab around the springbox, now opening the box no longer means standing in a bog.

• 

  Dave and Dan head out for much more straight-forward jerbs.

• 

  Concrete slab around the springbox. This glass beer bottle magically emerged from the ground, unbroken by the backhoe as it pulled out a long-buried wooden springbox for the house water. Other beer cans emerged from different era’s: an old triangle push-cut beer can (’50s), and few pull-tab beer cans (’60/’70s). Many eras of beer-hydration, as there were no leaning-shovels back then.

• 

  The overflow needs me to cut a little trench, but all I have is a stick…maybe I could get the leaning shovel and… Nope. Stick.

More whatevers, now in yellow and red, no pumpkin flavor available.

• 

  The backyard Ash Tree is popping gold.

• 

  E’s shot here is swirling as a Van Gogh.

• 

  The fall light at this latitude magically backlights everything all day long.

• 

  The Ash was mostly green when we arrived, then we had a frost and she got things changing.

• 

  A few days later and her green is nearly gone for gold.

• 

  The hillsides are putting on a sunset show under a cloudless sky.

• 

  We head up the hillside to shift more water to the corral/yard, and continue on for a little hike.

• 

  This is the head of the coulee for the house spring. The bear has been living here all fall with a bumper-crop of choke-cherries, old logs to grub, and a springbox full of cold clear water. At the top of the forest there is a shady glade of sweet bright grasses, a sign of the spring water beneath. The bear has decorated the green carpet with a random and thorough design of novelty-large berry-scat.

• 

  Nora takes the lead upon spotting the ranch house down the valley.

• 

  The ladies make long afternoon shadows in the glowing landscape.

• 

  E has to get back to the virtual office.

• 

  It has been July/Aug temps of 75+ for nearly two weeks, with dry winds; and mystery smoke probably from one of the summers nearby fires which are officially out, though still smoldering.

• 

  I got around to cleaning out this center bay of the garage and discovered that the support pillar at left was rotten.

• 

  The wooden framing on the concrete slab has rotted away, and the bottoms of the support pillars are rotten as well. This is why none of the doors have ever worked quite right; it has been on the path to ruin for at least 30 years.

• 

  I’ve gathered all the pressure treated wood remnants, and am pretty sure I can come up with a solution without having to drive the 80 mile trip to town.

• 

  Pretty good.

• 

  The door swings up and is in the way, so I can’t lift straight up. I come up with this wrong answer. The wall lifts and travels toward the jack binding the jack in place when lowered.

• 

  At least it settled part way onto the new wooden support, though it is part way off the concrete and far out of position.

• 

  I rig up the come-a-long and pull the wall back to position.

• 

  Under tension and the jack can come free.

• 

  I remove my bad idea, and realize I’ll have to span a 2×4 on the inside across the wall to hold a ratchet strap that will tie to the truck to pull the wall back out. Then I’ll set the jack under the opening for the rolling door next to the column. This should float everything up and allow me to adjust position before lowering down onto the new support structure.

• 

  Worked.

• 

  The concrete has a scrim of dirt, but the board is set clean to the concrete.

• 

  The third layer of thick old salvage plank was needed to make up for more rot in the uprights. They split, but are toed in place and sturdy.

• 

  After our singular run to town for all things; there are blue-screws for pinning it to the concrete, more rot and part of the split support salvage are replaced with 2×4 at R, the board at L helps hold the old upright together as it was compromised by the spring tension.

• 

  Also, a faceplate of pressure treated 1×6.

• 

  The door opens easily and square, and the big rolling door to L is a breeze to manage now as well.

• 

  All this cleaning and fixing was to make a spot to bring in log sections for future firewood-

• 

  An old wagon axle/wheels are under the tarp, with a welder and odds and ends. Bisecting the two bays of the garage is a stash of old salvage lumber.

• 

  The big bay can fit a full size truck, or hang all of Rodney’s game during hunting season.

• 

  All good from the inside.

• 

  I scraped and painted this a few years back. It could use some redux- but there are 3 other sides…

• 

  A wall length of wild rosebush leads to a bundle of wire anchored by the biggest rosebush of the lot. I have to use the come-a-long to pull the ball of fencing wire til I can cut away the roots of the bush.

• 

  Then the pickaxe clears down to the cement footing. And take note of the scrub tree at the corner.

• 

  The sawzall and I decide the rangy scrub has overgrown the corner for too long.

• 

  Plus, it is one less place for errant cows to hide.

• 

  I have a length of webbing under the stack, and once it is about 3x this big I’ll put a towing chain over the top and fix it to the truck and drag it over the spent woodpile in a near pasture.

• 

  If E and Nora were cows, we could easily push them sans bushes.

• 

  The garage is feeling much better, inside and out.

• 

  Ash leaves burrowing into the long grass. Time to mow.

• 

  A short mow for fall.

• 

  Now all the leaves sit on top.

• 

  E and I set up lawn chairs and keep the tree company.

• 

• 

  I start the short fall mow out front.

• 

  This bit was all scarified with the Sun Joe three weeks ago- it was as far as the extension cord would reach.

• 

  Even cut short, it is looking good!

• 

  Here is three weeks of growth, and the short cut line.

• 

  Out beyond the cord reach, here is the same cut line. Not so good.

• 

  Looking straight down at the unscarified lawn.

• 

  I brought up a 50 foot 10amp cord as a first leg to the 100 foot 12 amp cord, and could finish scarifying the entire yard. I removed hundreds of pounds of bound up mulch.

• 

  Short mowed and scarified.

• 

  The boss makes a close inspection. Good enough to poop on.

Coatsville Steps Up

• 

  The edges have all deteriorated, so they were all chipped off exposing the bracing for the porch and the railings. Here I have the form for the top section and have just poured new cement. The old mix was made with river rock, sand, and lime- with a bare minimum of cement. It tends to go soft after 60 years.

• 

  The forms are held with clamps and bar bells.

Forms are removed and all the structural elements are secure. I add a skim layer, which mostly works.

The steps have new noses and I ground things down a bit with a diamond wheel. Cement is 25$ per 50lb bag right now, so I stretched that with a few bags of concrete I had in storage. Safe for walking up and down, I’ll get to pretty someday…

“Fresh Up”

• 

  The horses unearthed this out in the pasture and brought it near the gate for me to find.

• 

  “You like it, it likes you” was original to the brand from 1934. “Fresh Up” refers to curative properties for a hangover.

• 

  The bottle date is 1960.

• 

  The big storm window in the bee bedroom went back up today, waiting since last summer.

• 

  This section of the front of the house is as finished up as it gets.

• 

  We’ve had more than 3 inches of rain in the past week, and she is holding up nicely.

• 

  To the far L are the kitchen windows. I removed the summer screens and hung the storm windows again.

• 

  The storm windows are heading into their second winter since refurbishing.

• 

  Big afternoon thunderstorms brought pea hail.

• 

  With nighttime lows dipping into the 30’s, a reminder that the first snows of fall are just weeks away.

• 

  Evening view out the kitchen window.

• 

  E and I went on an early evening tour around the W side of the land on the 4Wheeler. Lots of antelope and deer. On the E side last night we were joined by a flock of at least 30 Bluebirds.

• 

  Tomorrow is a big roundup, so get ready for noisy cows!

• 

  Peaceful twilight.

Quiddler Poem: This Toy Guy

IF a GUN is a LIE / then a PITHY CLIP is ME. / and if a hermit crab is a DREDGY CLAW HUT, / is HE able TO be RUDE about those BODY JAGS / and offer IT a TANNIN RARER even than LIFES CODE / GROVE within his triggered SON / THIS TOY GUY / so WHEATY he must be TRUE.

Suit Up For Fellerin’

• 

  Rain comes in tomorrow, so time to gear up and see if I can find the little leak I “fixed” from the inside in May.

• 

  A three ladder climb.

• 

  Hitting all the possible leak spots, with no definitive “ah ha- found it”. I’ll head upstairs when the rain starts and see if I got it.

• 

  Might as well hand paint a few layers over the sprayed layers…

• 

  I removed 8′ of corner trim- starting to dry rot, softening up the backing panels as well.

• 

  All the old nails pulled, sanded out, and treated with a penetrating rot-sealant.

• 

  I wanted to pick up a PVC board in town, but will have to bring it up from SLC. Meanwhile, the old board will go back up after treatment.

• 

  Smelly little can of clear mystery fluid, with its own brush that won’t dissolve in the goo.

• 

  Set back in place.

• 

  Next time I have the paint out I’ll do some touch-up.

• 

  The smoke rolled out at day’s end and E and I took Nora over the hill to clean Bluebird houses of the season’s spent nests.

Rickety Ladder

We drove through wildfire smoke for 540 miles (I installed a near-Hepa rated carbon filter for the truck which kept our air in the cab much cleaner), and emerged to clear skies on the north slope of the Little Belts 20 miles from the ranch (we rolled down the windows!). The clear skies lasted a few days, then Canada’s firesmoke blew in. Just one more day of hot smoke, then clear skies and rain are in the forecast with daytime temps in the 40’s and overnight in the 30’s. On our last clear night the annual Nighthawk convergence moved up the valley to fly around the ranch house and surrounding forest from sunset to dusk. They pinwheel in groups of 15 or so, with around 50 birds in the flock, riding the thermals as the sunlight creeps up the east hillside pushing moths into the cooling twilight. The Cedar Waxwings that arrived as we left in July, have hatched chicks in their regular spot in the lilacs. The House Wren is tucked into her birdhouse, working on another brood. Goldfinches and Wilson’s Warblers flit through the hedges. The Snipe drops into the yard to stroll along the creek edge. The creek is still running through the yard with ducks in the little pond; a part of the magic green microclimate at the top of the valley.

In July I covered these windows and scraped the old paint, meaning to get on to painting. The painting didn’t happen so I pulled the covering off to keep the wind from pulling it while were gone. Now it goes back up, as this time I’ll get the painting knocked out first thing.

The border of the window frames are taped off, then the plastic is taped in place.

Upon setting the ladder high up the wall, I got about this far up and came back down in disbelief that in July I had climbed extended even higher and run a paint grinder up there. I made my usual declaration to finally buy a new ladder, stomped around the yard a bit, then got back on the ladder. My new bracing at the top makes working with windows much easier, and makes things 100x more stable, which is the reason this peak can finally get got.

A spray bottle with warm soapy water takes out the wasps.

A pokin-stick takes down the nests.

The bigger nest was tucked under the eve. The aluminum ladder is strapped to the deck posts, and this in turn braces the ladder on the pitch of the roof. I am directly over the friendly in-house beehive, they were active in July, but seem to have moved out (or colony collapse hit them…).

The small nest. Wasps that were out in the field when this calamity occurred buzzed and landed on the remaining tiny paper stalactite that had secured the nest to the house. These nests were just little hamlets of Castle Paper-Wasp that reigns from under the pitched roof centered above the porch.

All stripped down and ready for paint.

Painted with a new air-gun brought up from the SLC big-box store (my bday present from the Idiocracy); a great improvement to the old unit (deceased with honors) that had painted the barn, the garage, the grain bin, and the house.

Part of the fun of the AL ladder is the failing latches. I have to climb the yellow ladder and manually shift the latches to let the ladder telescope, then push them securely into place. Just another little facet to the endless fiddling. Oh, and the board crammed between the ladder feet keeps the somewhat crumpled L foot from collapsing inward. The bracing system anchored into the yard was invented when I used this ladder to paint the barn, it keeps the ladder from sliding down the building, and has additions to match a severe slope.

This silly angle was necessary, as there is a height gap between the Al ladder and the Yellow ladder. Tall ladder work takes a lot of time, as the ladder takes constant moving; and safety with this ladder makes every move a fussy endeavor. The wall is finally fully painted, and now will take a few days of drying for the linseed-based oil paint.

This is low-average for our smoke here. You can smell it, and sometimes taste it- 2.5ppm @ 160 to 200-ish. Morning and evening sunlight is pink and the moon is an orange wedge and Venus is Mars.

This is my $100 electrostatic air purification unit for the ranch house. 4 high-end air filters, a fan on top blowing upward, the fan’s box as a base, and our old friend duct tape (white). It works wonders.

another Little Improvement, via The Feller.

Dan’s Mantra: our daytime high today is 10 degrees lower than SLC’s overnight- please don’t make me go back there…

7am @ front porch java-birdwatch: Wilson’s Warbler pair, Goldfinches, Calliope Hummingbird pair, Bullock’s Oriole pair (nesting in Willows), Cedar Waxwing pair (building nest in liliacs), Tree Swallows (nesting in porch box), Wrens (nesting in shed box), Red-Naped Sap-Sucker pair and fledges, Orange Flickers (nesting in barn- sharing barn with 15 pigeons), Mountain Bluebirds (nesting in corn crib), Snipe, Catbird, Meadowlark, Bobolinks, Robins, Eastern Kingbirds, Redtail Hawk, Redwing Blackbirds, also deer in the yard at 6:45am;

dusk @ porch: Nighthawk, Mourning Dove, Great Horned Owl (hooting up in the forest), SawWhet Owl (radar beeping in the forest), Coyotes up and down the valley.

Last summer I rebuilt these bedroom storm windows and added swing hooks that they hang from. Prior to this they had been held in place by 4 bolts I’d outrigged, and had to be removed and stored during the summer (and prior to that they had been screwed in place and sealed with caulk, and the inner windows painted shut). Last summer I ordered antique/vintage stainless steel arms that open and close the windows from the inside, bracing them open as seen here: I just got around to installing them today.

The bedroom is breezy and fresh, with birdsong and the sound of the creek. I had to work the windows a bit more to get them to slide up far enough to fit the screens, prior to this the screens were a bit haphazardly placed with blue-tape holding them against the outside of the windows.

Here the window is help open by the stainless steel mechanism, one on each side of the window.

The long arm has a little groove that latches onto the beak at the sill, and out at the window the arm is swing-hinged.

The arms pull in and swing down, squeezing the window to shut tight.

The long arm provides easy leverage to squeeze the window closed, and is held in place with the little pin-head nail near the bottom.

Just push up the sliding window a bit to pop out the screen, swing the storm-window open / closed, then replace the screen and pull the sliding window down onto the screen frame.

If a storm blows up, the windows can be closed from inside in a jiffy.

BetterStrongerFaster

Steve Austin, astronaut. A man barely alive. Gentlemen, we can rebuild him. We have the technology.

We have the capability to build the world’s first bionic man. Steve Austin will be that man. Better than he was before. Better, stronger, faster.

Upstairzing: Envelope Fixes.

The handrail is set, it took 20 pilot holes to find two studs- the wall needs replacing anyway as it is under the leaky spot from last post.

This spot, in case you forgot seeing this mess.

It is mitigated; drywall over the blow-in section to L, and the adjacent gable roof with new drywall panel. The water catchment saw a few more drips as things dried out, but we have had days and days of rain and it has remained dry. Still drying out.

This area had damage from a leak starting at the chimney, coupled with two planes of roof meeting and ice dams forcing down through the joint and bursting out under the soffit- all prior to the metal roof. I fixed the collapsed soffit a few summers ago, but in removing this damaged bit inside I could see a gap in my fix out there- about a thumb’s worth of hole, and behind the panel were massive paper-wasp nests from prior seasons. So I foamed the hole closed from the inside and set the new drywall panel.

The wind is gusting at 50mph, and the old pink bedroom breathes heavily as those gapped planks are the skin of the house, covered outside by clapboard and the roof. Enormous wasps walk in and out of the gaps with the wind. Sprayfoam. I’ll tidy it up at some point.

The pink board is a manufactured plaster/lathe board, quite a few generations from drywall. The white paint may be “fixes” from holes in the board (water damage) when the room was still occupied. Just going for envelope right now.

In the big upstairs bedroom above the cold parlor / guest bedroom. Long standing water damage to the plaster and lathe, with areas of bare lathe board and loose plaster. On the ladder is my oscillating tool with a cutting diamond horseshoe fitting. It cuts through the aggregate plaster endlessly. I cut away the bad sections to fit drywall.

Peeling off the dead plaster and chucking it in a steel bucket, but mostly it crashes to the floor (onto a thin padded sheet).

One big hole filled with drywall, and little holes to the L and center still needing fill.

This keystone section above the door has five planes. It had been a disaster.

Disaster training.

Already so much better.

Next I ground down to the plaster along all the cracks in the wall, then cleaned the crack itself by grinding along it with the wafer edge of the diamond tool. Next I wiped it clear with a big sponge and discovered that these rooms aren’t painted, they are colored with a tinted plaster/lime topcoat. It dissolves when wet. This also means that if I ever want to paint these rooms, I’ll need to find a plaster/lime solution. Or make one.

Prepped and ready for plaster.

First coat of plaster. Everything is sealed up tight and secure. Uneven and wonky, but no gaps = no bugs and less upstairs funk.

I left this picture from the tear-down, cut-away, and drywall step to show the ceiling lathe board section.

Here is the ceiling and wall with drywall and ready for plaster. The “pie pan” on the wall is a special fitted cover to the old chimney shunt, as this room had a stove at one time. I took a look inside the chimney, and it is full of old honey bee honeycomb (empty of honey). The chimney was unused since at least the 50’s, is enclosed at the ceiling down below, and capped at the roof when the metal roof was installed decades ago.

Mid afternoon rainy darkness, chilly up here, but done. For now.

The other side of the room with all the cracks prepped; and last summers refurbished window.

Cracks plastered. Still the worst bedroom of plaster/lathe trouble- the one with the access panel shown a few days back. I’m low on plaster board screws, as I tightened up the lathe panel boards in the large bedroom with the fixed/drying leak, and that ate quite a few. I’ll clean up in here, bring up the rest of the drywall, and have it ready for next time. There’s always other projects…

Quiddler Poem Generator: Bean Hoax

The FAX default was Aqua / A Meer step from Rain, We Ran / Closer than a Rat scrambling to Get / the COVID Puke Jab / we would Taxi around the Shoddy square / we would Cling like Tiny Bees / Ooh! Dueling / We fell for every Bean Hoax / every Junker Alien craft.

Highline Bluebirding

Guest Bedroom Window. Was in rough shape. Of course. The storm window is repaired with the new paint curing til our next visit. If I’d put it in now the paint would all stick. As it is it is better than it was, even without the storm window up.

The storm window hadn’t been removed for who knows…40 years…more…

Storm window triage. I didn’t remove the glass- but most of the glazing came away easily.

A cattle drive two weeks ago is the likely culprit, or the bear again; last time he just knocked it off the post.

Pre-drilling before resetting the walls with 3.5″ screws.

This evenings Bluebird line is above that hayfield, and on to the North to the end of our property. It is always really pretty up there.

This group of 5 deer watched me clear one house, then moved up. They came back with 4 more at dusk, next to another group of 10.

A steady wind on a perfect fall day.

Tree swallows always nest in these models- just a bit too small for Bluebirds.

The cows are let into the hayfield- a different one than shown at the bear lunchbox.

The last two houses are all smashed apart and take some doctoring.

The staples are just like in surgery- the invasive part is over and staples help hold everything together.