Ranging

One can't work on the house and grounds all the time. I found a little time to put together the long-anticipated target range. It is just a target on a pair of clotheslines, but it's fun. The kids were here, and they proved to be excellent shots. It is really too short for air rifle with scope, but to extend it I will have to do significant chainsaw work. In time, no doubt I will. For now, it was another of those quick and fun projects.

June: Excavations

Although the bathroom and kitchen were the main focus of the spring, June involved quite a number of projects featuring the workshop cellar, that hideous space of darkness and decay. I opened up the boarded-up window on the driveway side and put in the ramp from the house cellar; Lucy and I used this to haul several fish buckets of wet gravel up using the low-rider cart.

I replaced the temporary carry beam (after a post kicked out and hit me in the face) with a permanent one: 6 by 6, pressure treated. It is supported on jackposts bedded in deck blocks.

I also installed a vent fan with magnetically closed vanes; this required a new window frame. I hope this will reduce the dampness, though the only real solution is to pour a concrete slab and put in a large, permanent sump pump basin.













I haven't done that yet, but I did re-dig the sump pit and install a temporary sump basin; the permanent one will require MUCH more digging.

Spring

Spring arrived at last--very late. The contrast is remarkable: just three weeks ago everything was snowbound, dead, and white. Now it's all green again, the annual miracle given added force by the late and savage storms of the previous season.