Thursday, February 24, 2011

Warm weather

 Finally, it got warm enough to get some exterior painting done.  I've been waiting all winter to get the rest of the house painted and that week finally arrived.  Candido sent a couple of guys out this week to work on finalizing exterior painting.  The hardest decision made all week was what color to paint the brackets over the windows seen in this photo.  I voted for brown but I acquiesced to Leah's recommendation to go with the light green trim color.  I thought the brown looked more masculine but she thought they'd stand out too much.
Also on the agenda this week was tapping a few what we hope are Maple trees.  Since posting this and another photo on Facebook I have received a flurry of comments concerning whether this was actually a Maple and how to identify them in winter.  No sap is flowing yet but I am thinking that the weather is not quite right.  It has to be freezing at night and warmer during the day to get the sap flowing.  I am pretty sure they are Maples but I guess I won't know until Spring.  Did you know it takes eight gallons of sap to produce one quart of maple syrup?  That's a lot of sap and a lot of boiling.
I also took some time off to go to New Orleans with Leah this week.  I got to eat a lot of good food, see my son and his girlfriend.  We stopped in Ocean Springs MS to see the art of Walter Anderson and his brothers pottery shop, Shearwater pottery.  The highlight of the trip was going to the Fair grounds racetrack to bet on the ponies.  I won a few races but since I only bet $2 per race did not win much.  We did walk out with more than when we walked in though.
Now it's back to the house where interior trim is being put in.  We recently got all interior doors installed as well as stair treads.   Baseboards and door trim is almost finished, so now I have a lot of detailed painting to do.

Monday, February 7, 2011

Playing with Rocks


Jerry Henderson and Dalton came out today with their big Cat and moved some rocks around.  I hadn't planned on doing any landscaping until after I finished the house but he was out there anyway finishing up installing the sewage system.  This is the second sewage system I put in.  The first was placed way out in the pasture about two years ago when I was planning on building a house out there.  I moved the house site out near the edge of the mountain to take advantage of the view (of the pasture) and to get my back into the north mountain side.  Anyway, when I found out how much it was going to cost to run that much drain pipe out to the pasture and how complicated it was to cross the stream with a sewage line, I just bit the bullet and put in a new system.  Now I have an extra sewage system if I need it.

We had a few large rocks left over from the foundation excavation so placed them strategically next to the two entries as large stepping stones.  Jerry dug them in a bit and they look like they have been there for a thousand years.  I did make him move one twice as I changed my mind as to where I wanted it.  At $150 per hour he said he'd move it as many times as I'd like.
Later I had him knock down a couple of old half dead and diseased apple trees, install a culvert in the creek, dig up some rocks that I keep hitting with my tractor when I cut grass and fix the driveway up a bit.  Jerry also told us a number of funny stories at no extra charge.  We are still talking about raising us some hogs and maybe some sheep now.  He also promises to come run his coon dogs on my property in the spring.

 Leah is pouring us some tea in the new kitchen that Joe and I installed last week.  Joe Burkette made the pine cabinets and I got the cherry ones from Lowes.  He is now making the concrete counters for them. 
Thanks to Leah for her help picking out and picking up tile today for the bathroom and for helping me site the rocks.  These are two things we don't want to have to do twice. 

Next up is installing tile and interior doors due in tomorrow.