Cellar: Before and After

 Starting to extend the east footing. Heavily undermined! 

False Spring

Warmth, gentle rain...and almost no snow now at the end of February. It won't last: March is a treacherous month! Still, this encouraged me to start digging in the cellar. The winter concrete pour WILL happen!

Crane

 Finally, one with a remote control. It is designed to fit on a boom, like the scaffold attachment one I have, and it should make everything a bit easier.

Moderate Winter

 We are well into the winter, and while it is hardly a green season, it is moderate. We have had a number of snow storms, some heavy, and the plow has worked well (except when I tried to draw snow back from the garage doors--it came off!). After a few days of cold, we have a warmer spell and we get a chance to chip the ice off the deck. The worst so far has been -21C: a chilly night but an isolated one.

Wild Turkey

 A rafter of feral turkeys seems to have staked a claim to our yard. We sometimes surprise them as we come up the drive or step out of the door. It is clear that in our absence they explore every path we have cleared--their tracks are everywhere, even up on the deck of the workshop!

(If they are wild creatures, the collective noun is "flock," but farmyard ones cluster in "gaggles" or "rafters." Ours former farmyard turkeys turned out into the wild....)

Local Warming

 

I was pleasantly surprised to find a very modest oil bill hanging from the door, as I recalled the days when we dreaded trying to pay off massive sums for heating. Of course, since that time we have

• gutted the house to insert R-22 fiberglass and vapor barrier,
• replaced all doors and windows,
• rebuilt all the rear foundation and part of the front,
• installed high efficiency wood and pellet stoves,
• rebuilt the north wall from sill to attic.

It took some time to climb this hill...

End of Season

 That's the end of the building season, I suppose. Oh well...at least the roof's on.