The Days After 9/11
Over the last three days I haven’t gotten much work done on the house. The terrorist attacks on America have made working a bit difficult. Every hour or so, I dial up the Internet to find out the latest news and listen to the radio while I work.
It’s a very strange feeling being out here by myself. While taking a few nature hikes, I look at the world around me and nothing has changed. The blackbirds are flocking together before they migrate, the crickets chirping and the deer are foraging just like any other September day. The only thing I notice different is the lack of air traffic flying high overhead. Even out here in the sticks, you can usually hear jet airplanes racing across the country to some city or another. But it’s been eerily quiet. Nature hasn’t changed, but humankind will never be the same.
Here’s a view showing the start of the second floor wall. These walls are about one foot taller than the first floor because of the area between floors that has to be filled.
Sixteenth Wall Gets Completed
Here’s a view showing the start of the second floor wall. These walls are about one foot taller than the first floor because of the area between floors that has to be filled.
Finally the walls are a quarter of the way done. Things have gone pretty much as planned for this summer. I had hoped to be this far by September, so all in all not too bad.
The sixteenth wall is the first wall to be raised on the second floor. (Remember that the front door wall will be built next year.) This wall took a bit more time than expected. I had to make a few changes to the building process and the weather was quite ugly last week. Here are a few of the challenges that I’ve encountered so far with building on the second floor:
The walls are about a foot taller than the first floor due to the space between the floors that needs to be filled. (See photo.)
A floor jack has replaced the use of the Bobcat to raise the window frames into place. Although it works, it’s more time consuming.
Having a three foot deck around the second floor has doubled as scaffolding, but it’s a little tight when using a wheel barrow.
I’ve also had to make some scaffolding to use on the interior of the house for the sections of the house that has no second floor. (The area above the living room and kitchen has no second floor.)
Construction on wall #2 on the second floor begins.
Construction on wall #2 on the second floor begins.
All in all, I still should be able to complete one wall per week providing the weather cooperates. Last week this was not the case. It rained 3.5″ in a matter of two days and time had to be taken out to shape up the road after the rain. I’m hoping to get some grass seed put on the hill before winter. This will greatly reduce the soil erosion problems and prevent run-off from damaging the road in front of the house.
I hope to get a few more walls done before temperatures get too cold to build walls. At that point, I will concentrate on cutting logs for next year and buttoning things up for the winter.
Finally, for my birthday this year I celebrated by purchasing a new add-on for my digital camera. So I hope to bring you some nice close-ups of the wildlife in the area.
Peace to all – Alan
An almost nightly ritual finds deer feeding on the grasses in the area adjacent to the cabin. I can comfortably get within 100′ of the deer before they get a bit nervous. With the terrestrial spotting scope, it looks as if you could touch them.