Auguries

I'm sure it means nothing...nothing at all! We had no really violent storms this summer, and neither drought nor heavy rain. It will be fine....

Blossoms

 

The snows are long gone and the trees are in blossom. The sky is blue, cold and troubles seem equally distant, and in all it's a fine day.

May Be Hot

 This is a little hard to believe: March started off colder than -29, but by the middle of May it was...this! It's no wonder large heavy things like chimneys, foundations, and...ROCKS are always heaving and splitting. 

Spring!

 This is the view out the kitchen window--at the end of April! Brrrrr.....

Done

With the last shelves built, sanded, and stained, we decided the kitchen was finished--so Joanne took pictures to send to the cabinetmaker. I think the beam came out quite well in the end. 

Work Table

My old, old work table is slowly being gentrified. First built out of scraps (i.e., garbage) found in the woodroom of the Chicken Shack in a Ditch in 1989, it has now been in service for 32 years! I gave it three new four-by-four legs, heavy duty casters, and an oak board to fill the gap along the back edge. And below, you can see more oak boards and the end vise has oak plates. Having done it, I now know why I didn't do it 32 years ago....

Having done all that, I then rebuilt the vice end, set in large dogs in a new tailpiece, removed the Record bench vice and added a wood vice, added four-by-four feet, and replaced the front casters with lockable ones. 

Reno

We watched an episode of a renovation show featuring a couple who restored a rather grand stone building on a shoestring. For the most part, it was a roofless shell, so it looked like a much more daunting task than our own project; however, in our time here, we have replaced or refurbished

-the entire foundation of the rear section

-the electrical system

-the pump, plumbing, and drains

-the seepage bed

-sixteen feet of the wall of the rear section, together with the floor joists, floor, rafters and roof deck, main beam and posts, and more

-the main roof

-the siding

-all the windows and doors

-the back stairs

-chimneys and woodstoves

-most of the floor surfaces

-the kitchen and both bathrooms.

The biggest difference was that we did this over time, always having a livable house while we worked. Also, we had to tear out the old before we put in the new. It would have made lousy TV.