The Gold Street Cabin In Mammoth, Utah

When we saw forecasts for 32 degree weather, we decided to use the few sunny days left to us to bed the house down for the winter.  It is easier to protect it from the wind and snow flat than it would be with a few walls up--not to mention that we couldn't continue to live in the trailer in the cold weather.

Sunday, September 10, 2017 It was our area conference.  We went to a broadcast in Eureka. Monday, September 9, 2011 Don cut out a portion of the floor over the basement in order to get things in and out of the basement. It will create a window seat in the living room. He also set up his table saw and ripped the boards (this means cutting them to the right width) for the supports going down to the basement and he bolted those boards into place. His third task for the day was to cut a door in the root cellar so that he could get into the crawl space where the pipes are. At some point, late in the day, he was putting more gas in the generator. The day was hot so the gas was hot so it spurted when he went to pour it and some got into his eye. He came into the house yelling “Eye wash! Eye wash.” Barbara didn’t know where it was since he had bought it and put it some place. He found it and began washing his eye out. Barbara went online to see what to do if you get gaso...

Friday, September 1, 2017 We had family and friends visit. Don pretty much spent his time getting ready for our guests. He cleaned up things which might be dangerous for children, he covered the root cellar so no child fell in, and he made a path to the outhouse.   Pat let the grandchildren play with his go-cart. Saturday, September 2, 2017 Don learned when they put the last floor boards on that the house is not square. Using a nail in each corner, string, and a measuring tape, he learned that it is four inches off in one corner. That is actually huge in house construction, and he will have to make some adjustments. He worked on laying the boards for the porch. Sunday, September 3, 2017 Barbara wasn't feeling well and stayed home from church.  Wasps were swarming the humming bird feeder. Barbara even saw the queen. She was bigger than the others and had much bigger wings. When she came, the others scattered and then they stayed pretty much...

Friday, August 25, 2017 Deregulate public utilities? Some conservative politicians, especially Libertarians, have called for the deregulation of all public utilities. Is this a good idea? This was first called for (in my experience) during the Reagan administration. Liberals said it was a bad idea: public utilities like power, water, and telephones should be granted monopolies, in the interest of efficiency, they said. Conservatives stated just the opposite: if market forces are eliminated, the result is always less efficiency and higher prices. Who to believe? Even Ronald Reagan was not able to deregulate water and power, and in most of the U.S. they remain government-sponsored monopolies to this day. Only phone service was deregulated. Most of my readers likely cannot remember a time when there was just ONE phone company, but I am old enough to remember. The continental United States was divided into four regions, and in each r...

Don began by having the backhoe dig a trench. Then he had to build forms for the footings. In places, the trench wasn't straight so he had to dig on the sides. Here he is laying rebar in the trench.  Here Don is building a form for the new foundation wall.  This picture shows vertical supports for the form.  It was necessary to build three separate forms for the wall.  Here you can see the vertical and horizontal rebar very well.  All the forms are complete.  Supports had to be placed so the pouring of the cement would not cause the forms to bow.  Looking down on the rebar in the form.  It's hard to tell from this picture but Don is holding a tie down which will be placed in the cement.  Tie downs attach the house to the foundation and prevent it from blowing away in a strong wind.  The cement pouring beings.  Rocky in the green shirt is tapping the form to prevent air bubb...