Journal of Progress--June 11-17

Monday, June 11, 2018

Another “slow” day. Had visitors. Nevertheless, got the “landing” out of the root cellar, which make lots more room there, and I can use the landing for the porch landing, with extensive modifications. I do have enough scraps left over from flooring the porch to cover the landing, so it’ll look like it belongs there. Made the X braces and 2x6 top rail for two bays, before running out of 4x4 posts. Took a long time, as the brace members had to be compound cut on my table saw, which necessitated multiple trips to the saw with each member. The first one went comparatively fast, as the exact height didn’t matter. But all the rest had to match exactly, or the top rails would not match, or would not be level. Or both. Did finally get them all done, just as my neighbor Dan came over for a visit. He was impressed. Ended the day installing bolts in the beams. Started with the hardest beam first, and got it done. Three more to go for the porch. Barbara wants to know why I don’t bolt all the beams (including the ones that are actually headers in the bearing wall. I suppose I could, if I don’t have anything better to do someday!

Tuesday, June 12, 2018

My goal for today: three items:

* Finish bolting the porch beams.

* Finish the basement door.

* Get my tooth with the missing filling fixed.

Doesn’t seem like much, does it? Here’s how it played out. 

Started with the beams. Discovered after about an hour that I had shorted myself 21 bolts when I bought them. I was counting, got interrupted, and never went back to counting. OOPS! 

Don didn't mention it in his journal but he realigned the entry way which was off because he moved the wall.

Changed to the basement door. I’ve been lifting it off and replacing it whenever I want to go into the basement. Not fun. I’d bought the hinges, bolts, screws, nuts, washers, lock washers, handle, and cable and assorted hardware for a counterweight system, so Barbara can open and close it too. But when it came time to start building, I couldn’t find the handle or the nuts. I don’t have spares. Made a wooden handle and improvised a way to use screws instead of nuts and bolts temporarily, until I can find or buy some nuts. 

When I cleaned up, I found the missing handle and nuts!

Finished in time to go to the dentist in Nephi, about a 45 minute drive from here. New dentist. I really like him! His hygienist uses a manual scaler! (I hate the electric kind, AND I don’t think they do as good a job.) The dentist says I need a crown (about $900), but was willing to just replace the filling, and he did it without anesthetic, which I also like. No, I’m not addicted to pain. I dislike trading a few seconds of pain for hours and hours of discomfort from the anesthetic. Anyway, there was no pain at all! Win-win. And he bought one of Babara’s books.

Right next door to his office is a ranch and hardware store. Bought the missing bolts for the porch beams, and some seismic ties for the house corners that I have been unable to find any where else. Got home in time to finish the beams AND the door. I rebuilt the basement door with bolts where they should be, instead of screws, but I didn’t replace the wooden handle with the metal one. I decided I like the wooden one better.

All done for the day!

Thursday, June 14, 2018

Got so little done yesterday that I forgot to record it. Put up some more mending plates, and added two posts to the one for the power meter. Dan and Garret Cones helped me bring the landing frame up from the root cellar, where I’m not going to use it, ‘cause I put in straight stairs. 

Today I put up more mending plates, laid out the stair stringers for the porch steps, and started dadoing them for the treads. Instead of cutting the stringers in a “stair-step” pattern, I’m dadoing them to hold the ends of each tread. They will be attached by screwing lag screws into the ends of the treads, like the stairs Homer Hatcher built for Jj and me for our little house in Fruita. I don’t have dado blades, so I’m doing it the slow way, making multiple cuts with the worm drive saw, then chiseling out the scrap. Almost finished one side. 

Went to Provo with Barbara for the DAR flag day ceremony, shopped at The Home Depot with Guenivere, and ate dinner with the Shannons. At The Home Depot, I got the posts and anchors I’ll need to finish the porch stairs, plus a bunch of 2x2s for blocking edgers of my own design. After I finish the stairs, I’ll start building jigs for the blocking. Very soon, I’ll be ordering joists.

Fridge pilot light keeps blowing out. I tried and tried to restart it with no luck. Called Margaret and asked her to come do it, which she did while we were gone. Barbara threw out the shrimp and salmon-- afraid to eat it. Goat milk in the fridge is a little off, but I’ve drunk worse. Also, the trailer water tank ran empty. Usually fill it by making a water run with Patrick’s gray water barrel, but I’ve filled it (from Patrick’s water truck) for the Milnes’ teenage daughter Elizabeth to use for watering the tree while we are gone to the Famiversary next week. So, I got to fill it by hand. One. Gallon. At. A. Time. At that, I had to invent a way to get water into the tank, as the barrel is not high enough to gravity flow or siphon with a hose. I “borrowed” Barbara’s biggest funnel, then cut off a couple of feet of garden hose and jammed it on the end of the funnel. Then, I could fill a gallon milk jug from the other barrel (Margaret’s red barrel) and carry it over to the trailer fill spout, about twenty feet, and pour it in. Tried using a five gallon pail and got soaked. Quit after twenty gallons. Maybe not a good solution, but it worked.

Lots of visitors today. One was one of Ralph’s sons who I have not previously met--Kelby. Also an active Mormon, like his brother Cody. He came over to introduce himself, and to tell me that Ralph has run a “dedicated” line of extension cord over to a bush near my Southwest house corner, with a note inviting me to use it any time I run out of gasoline, or even if I just don’t want to make so much noise in the morning or evening. Wow!

Friday, June 15, 2018

Finished building the porch stairs, but did not finish installing them. Couldn’t find enough pieces of 2x10 that were long enough and good enough, so I used 2x12s instead. Only problem with that is that the top one stuck out the back half an inch, impeding the vertical part that lands on the landing, so I had to remove it, cut it down, and re-install it. One of my stringers split when I did so, but as luck would have it, each side of the split is stabilized by one of the two screws holding the step in place, and it’s the side that won’t show when it’s installed. Cut and installed the decorative porch post, in a VERY high, VERY gusty wind. Too much for me. I actually had to hold on to a wall, when I was standing on the porch, to keep from being blown off my feet. Time to quit for the day!

Don had these metal plates resting on the wall where he planned to attach them and the wind blew them off.

This is looking west across the porch.  This is the support to the stairs that Don is building.

This is looking west at all of the dust stirred up by the wind at our normally clear view.

The wind blew the black plastic that we had over the house during the winter up and around the outhouse.

Used some of Ralph’s electricity, from 6:30 to 9:00 a.m. Used the generator after 9:00. Toward the end of the day, I used it again when I just had one hole to drill or one cut to saw-- not worth starting the generator for. I don’t want to use Ralph’s electricity to charge the Yeti, so we need to run the generator at least a few hours a day for that. 

Bought a new drill yesterday at The Home Depot, to replace my old Ryobi, which is dying (intermittent cord short). Someday, it won’t run at all. Meanwhile, I have THREE operational drills, so I can do stuff like keep one with a screwdriver bit in it, one with the proper drill bit, and the other with a countersink. LOVELY! Don’t have to constantly switch bits. Just have to remember which drill has which bit in it, which at my age isn’t a given. 

Saturday, June 16, 2018

Started installing the porch landing and stairs. The landing is installed, but not yet covered with finish flooring. The stairs are not installed. Just temporarily. There are two footings for the stairs, one for each stringer. I only got one dug in. They are tricky, as they have to set at just the correct depth. In installing them, I discovered that I made a serious mistake in installing the landing. The posts that hold it up needed to go on the west side of the landing structure. Instead, I put one on the north side of the northwest corner, and the other on the south side of the southwest corner. They hold up the landing just fine that way, but they get in the way of the stairs. Too late to undo them and redo them. The holes are already located and dug to the right depth, leveled, and the footings are installed. All of those things are BIG jobs. And even though the landing is not yet bolted to the porch frame, it is nailed on, with ring shank nails that are the very devil to pull out. It’s actually easier to just cut through them with a Sawzall. Bottom line: I’m gonna leave the posts where they are. This necessitated a slight re-design of the stairs, with custom fabrication of extra parts. So, I didn’t get the second stringer footing dug. Which means, I can’t attach the stairs to the landing. But I had to remove the temporary steps I was using to get up and down from the porch, so I have temporarily clamped the stairs to the landing and the house. I felt I had to, as it LOOKS like there are stairs there, and if somebody were to come along and try t use them while we’re at the Famiversary, they might collapse. At least now, with the clamps, they won’t injure anyone.

This shows the hinges Don installed on the basement door.

Harry, Biff, Patrick, and I carried Patrick’s old cast iron bathtub he’s giving me from Patrick’s living room to my trailer, then helped me unload it next to the cabin. Patrick doesn’t like it, because it’s a modern style (circa 1950) and not “authentic”. I don’t care about authenticity.  It’s a free, cast iron bathtub. Good enough for me!

Went to Margaret’s to bathe, and visited her in the red-roof buildings next door that she is renovating as a bunk house for the geologists.