Aug 20th- 3 day weekend project

Long weekend, semi-vacation this year. We hauled up a BBQ grill and 2 new windows plus the window salvaged from Emily's house. Went to Home Depot and loaded up on wood and supplies. Started work on chimney for woodstove and then had to decide on what windows to pull out. Saturday blew up and was spent mainly watching clouds and trees, too stressed to work. After church I decided the front window was a doable project with limited time and limited energy. The back 2 windows are the same size windows but it requires a good thinking head to build the frame and install all 3 windows at the same time.
The suction cup holders worked great, was able to pop the window completely out with no troubles. Need to bring glass cutter and cut them into two pieces. Picture here shows old glass windows pulled out. Not much was holding them in. Sunday saw ledt two windows out then Monday got the last one out.
New front windows put in. Hank providing colorful accent to front yard.
Note- need corkscrew at cabin....... I was resourceful and figured out how to pull the cork...... :-) And a very nice wine, smooth flavor not too dry like typical Reislings.

August 14th Bye bye old loft!

We removed the front of the old loft today. Called in heavy artillery and had Josh come up and camp out the night before.
New floor joists going in. Optical illusion the joist on the left side is actually in the corner of the house by the doorway, that is how much the front is pulled out on the north side. The old window was pulled out, it was already rotted out, and we will need to make a frame and lower the replacement window hole to fit the new room height.
Old remaining loft is holding the center walls together till we get the new loft built. Note how we lowered the new loft to allow more height for the loft.
Kids wiped out due to the humidity, 80% this weekend, yuck.
Nice early morning rain though, that was relaxing. Acorns are starting to fall so the drum of acorns is not too far away which means fall is soon to arrive.

Camp BearBuck 2011 -- August 1st

Maria snuggling in for a nap. Just what was needed !!
Our campers for 2010. Hank was not thrilled to stay in the picture.
Testing the load capability of the hammock. It needed to be stretched out so the kids loaded up. Whole weekend was very low speed, no work was allowed, just eat, sleep and eat. Oh and sleep..... Weather helped as we had several really nice rainstorms to sleep too, nothing too crazy, just a really good patter on the roof.

We loaded up on supplies to finish the bathroom and get the water lines in. Hauled up 8 gallons of water and ran out due to the kids flushing the toilet. Last flush was good drinking water to make sure it was clean. Hopt shower was the cry this year at camp.

Camp BearBuck 2011 -- July 31st

Live bloggin at Camp BearBuck 2011!!! We really need t-shirts next year...

Arrived at 6ish after the insane traffic, forgot to provide sleeping solutions to some of the campers ( sorry Emily!!). We call it roughing it for a reason.

Made some delicious grilled cheese sandwiches ( not like you might think) for a dinner snack and had a good time slowly decompressing with a movie rental.

Early risers on Saturday had coffee and danish , rain moved in around 7:30am and whole place went back to sleep.

Will work on pictures later. Time to check for eyelid leaks.

We have volcanic flush!!!!

July 18th and 19th work progressed really well. There was a really nice nap on the 18th and rain storms to sit and listen too in the cabin. Very relaxing....

We got the floor done on Sunday . Toilet is just sitting there for looks.

On Monday, our Jr. Plumber came in and set the toilet flange ( oh I know it's called a "water closet") .

I was asked to provide a little more weight to set the wax ring on the water closet. The unit was tested and no water leaks!! Good flush too...

On Monday we built the window frame and installed the new window, boxed up the old window space, and then began prepping the wall for siding. The tar paper will come off once we seal the frame around the window, did not want rain or bugs getting in. We will cut the bottom off the tuff-r and 1 by trim pieces for the bottom edge on the wall. I tacked up two pieces of the cement board to see how they look on the wall.

Finished wall. new window, and working toilet.

cutting the pipe July 17th

The floor joists are in and it is time to cut the pipe! As in the toilet flange.
Ben and I geared up and prepared to cut the old broken flange off. Took 2 metal blades to get the thing off but now we are ready for the floor.



Today's phrase was "siphonic flushing". That toilet was $258 dollars and we are not sure we need "siphonic flushing" so we settled for the mid line toilet with max flush rating.

July 4th!!!!

Wow was it hot....... not like last year and flannel shirt season all summer.



Junior carpenter installing insulation in foundation.


Completed foundation, insulation installed and spray foamed into place. Ben was disappointed we did not cut the flange but it can wait a bit...



Saturday we tarred the wall to help prevent water damage. The black area will be finished with a river rock looking finish. But that is for another day.

This weekend began as very excited as we could see real progress on finishing the bathroom wall/floor project. Saturday hit a ton of bricks and by mid day a tension headache set in and work ground to a halt. The tar really stunk up the place and might have helped push my buttons a bit.

Hank stayed in the kennel out back on two occasions and was a very good dog, actually was sleeping one time we walked to the backyard and woke him up.

We need more windows if it stays hot like this, very little air movement in the cabin and it heats up by afternoon.