11.30.2018

Jim worked quite awhile today putting his old 4Runner back together and getting it ready to hopefully sell tomorrow.  He had taken apart the console and gear shift box to investigate the lack of 4WD, so all that had to be put back together.  Plus. since it was his work car, all the other seats were out of it so he had to put all those back in.  Once he got it cleaned up, we decided it looked so good we should keep it!

He did get out to work on the pole barn some this afternoon.  His first steps were to make and install all the corner blocking on the front corner...

And the back corner...

Once that was done, he was able to cut and install the front edge siding piece.  He got the back one cut but it got too dark to finish.

High 35/Low 22

11.29.2018

Jim put on his auto mechanic hat again this morning to do an oil change on my car.  He is so happy to work in this space with lights in the auto bay as well as room to move around.  Things will just keep getting better and better too!

Speaking of making things better, Jim also worked on plans for getting power into the metal shop.  Way back when we put the deck on top, Jim made pass throughs by putting pieces of conduit through our concrete pour stops (you can see one in the right side of this picture).  He started putting boxes up today on this side of the beam - he already has them on the first beam.  

Even though it's sloppy and cold out, Jim was determined to do some pole barn work.  That required first going out to the truck to get the metal ledge pieces.  Then it was putting up the first piece of siding on the north side of the barn!

Marking screw points on the second piece...

Another piece up in place...

End-of-the-day picture - so nice to see siding going up!  Makes it feel quite different inside too.

 This morning, Jim took the leap and listed his old 4Runner on Craigslist.  Within minutes, he had already gotten 2 texts from interested people.  Someone is coming Saturday to look at it.  So he pulled it into the shop to clean it up a bit and put the seats back in.  We'll see what happens.

High 38/Low 22

11.28.2018

Jim worked this morning on finishing up his steel frames for scaffolding parts storage.  He had to weld them all together and then spot painted the welds just to keep them from rusting.  Here's all the assembled frames...

Then here they are hung up in the pole barn!

Now they are all filled with all the scaffolding parts - they are out of the way and organized yet easily accessible for when we need them again.

Jim did a lot more organizing as well - putting a lot of things up in the attic and inside.  He hung up the spreader...

The rest of the afternoon, Jim spent putting up and attaching the remainder of the hurricane clips (you can see them in the above picture).  So all of the clips are now done!

High 38/Low 30

11.27.2018

Well...we woke up this morning to the sound of the computer battery backup systems beeping - meaning we had no power.  Jim looked out the window and was astonished to see that we had another 6-8" of fresh wet, heavy snow!  It was beautiful but not expected and always a worry to lose power, which means losing heat and water as well.  Thankfully, the power came back on about 4 hours later. Sure makes you thankful for all those people out there working in the bad weather to fix things as well as for how we take for granted that things will work as well as they do!

Jim was supposed to go to the doctor today for a follow-up on his kidney X-ray - we canceled that appointment this morning while we were waiting for the power to come on.  Because all the snow meant that Jim had to spend hours plowing and snowplowing the driveway.  He had to clear around the mailbox through all the pile up at the street from the plows...

Since the weather has turned so snowy, we decided to leave our trash cans at the end of driveway instead of hauling them back up by the house.  Jim got that area all clean as well.

Jim spent more time than I'm sure he wanted to helping me fix a bug on the fire school website as well.  It's wonderful having my own IT person (wonderful for me, not so much for Jim!).

Once he was finally able to do some work, he spent time on his steel frames to hold the scaffolding parts.   He finished drilling the holes - there were over 80! - and then he put together 2 frames and got them welded.  They look really nice - can't wait to see them up in the pole barn!

High 37/Low 31 - 6-8" of new snow!

11.26.2018

It was another very foggy, drizzly day so Jim worked inside.  He's busy getting wood ready for window frames...

He also finished all the insulation and blocking around the man door in the metal shop.

In addition, he bought these door seals that he mounted on the outside to keep any drafts from finding their way in hopefully!

He's starting another project to help with storage in the pole barn.  He's making these steel frames to hold the cross braces and various scaffolding parts.  He will mount the frames to the ceiling so the scaffolding parts will be out of the way yet still accessible.  Plus they will all be in the same area - right now, they are kind of all over the place!

He's going to make 4 frames - so that's a lot of steel parts.  Plus he had to use his drill press to drill holes in the pieces so that took awhile!

Jim has been closely monitoring our propane gas usage because our small tanks were getting low.  Every night, he switches over to the underground tank and then switches back in the morning so that we don't run out in the middle of the night.  He was not sure how accurate the gauges were on the tanks, especially when the gas level gets so low.  As I was taking my shower tonight, Jim noticed that the furnace seemed to be struggling to keep up with the usage - our small tanks were drained!  He switched over the underground tank for the winter now.  If weather permits, he'll call the company to come pick up the tanks but their trucks would have to get up the driveway, so we'll see.

High 41/Low 36 - rainy

11.25.2018

Thankfully, we didn't have the ice that was predicted; however, we had light rain.  That along with warmer temps made for an absolutely wet, miserable work day.  

Before he went outside, Jim went up into the house attic and brought down all of the Christmas decorations.  And I have a lot of Christmas decorations!  I have to be selective in the carriage house - there isn't enough space without making it look like the inside of a Hallmark store!  

However, when I opened one tub that had been stored at the barn, I discovered mice had gotten inside and eaten all of the stuffed decorations inside.  This snowman has been in the family for awhile - I got him from a coworker once and Kyle said it was frightening and named it Chucky.  Every time he would come home for Christmas, he would hide Chucky in various spots the whole visit.  You'd turn down the comforter to get into bed, and there was Chucky.  You'd open a cupboard, Chucky.  Now Chucky is no more - ha!

Like I said, it wasn't the best day for outside work but Jim was bound and determined.  Everything Jim touched was wet and cold, so his gloves instantly turned wet and cold.  All of the steel was wet so he couldn't use chalk or pens to mark the steel.  But he got the final piece on the side cut and installed, plus he put the rest of the fasteners in.

Next he installed the Z-channel - this allows a connection between the upper and lower sections so that water can stay on the outside of the building!

He cut the first piece for the upper section...

Then carried it over and up the scaffolding...

Putting it in place...

 Putting the first fastener in...

The sun never made an appearance today - it remained very foggy due to the change in temperatures, so no hope of anything drying off a bit.

High 42/Low 29 - foggy/drizzly

11.24.2018

Since it's a couple days after Thanksgiving, first a turkey story.  We see a lot of wild turkeys on the property - a grouping of 11 is somewhat typical.  We hadn't seen any in awhile until this morning there were 9 in the less snowy parts of the yard.  However, when Jim went out to warm up the 4Runner for church, he counted 24 (and he figured there were more) up on the hill!  That area is always covered with turkey tracks - now we know why.  It was definitely a turkey party on the hill!

While it was a bit warmer today, it was still around freezing which is, well, freezing to work in.  Jim did some inside work first.  He wanted to do a little work around the man door in the metal shop for insulation and ease of drywall installation later on.  He stuffed insulation next to the door frame and then used scrap lumber from the pole barn to make a frame around the door.

This side is all finished...

He also used scrap OSB to make some door spaces for the man door in the barn.

Then he brought the door over...

And put it in place...

Once he got a couple screws in to hold it, he made sure it was all level and plumb...

Sure makes the barn look more finished!

Jim had to figure out the best way to cut the siding, because there is a lot of cutting to come.  He was hoping to use his electric shears, which worked fine for the flat areas but not for the ribs.  He tried a few different methods - pneumatic nippers, hand shears - before falling back to the good old grinder.  Here he's cutting the angle for the top end piece.

The end piece is all attached!

High 36/Low 31 - winter weather advisory for freezing rain tonight

11.23.2018

I had put off grocery shopping all week because of the snow and bitter temps but really needed to get to the stores today.  A bad decision on Black Friday!  I know some people really like it, but I couldn't wait to get home to peaceful Angel.  We're not big holiday shoppers anyway and that's what online shopping is made for!  Anyway - if you went out, hopefully you survived and got what you wanted.

It was still bitter cold - it got down to zero overnight.  So Jim picked up where he left off yesterday and went back to working on rebuilding light ballasts and getting them wired up.  He got the other two in the auto bay ceiling working...

Then he started working on the back wall lights - these will be perfect to illuminate his work bench.

By the end of the day, he had all the lights installed and working - it looks so amazing in the auto bay!  These lights give off great light with absolutely no shadows.  Jim really likes them in the wood shop and they'll be perfect for working on cars.  It's so nice to see lights in the metal shop area!

Jim had me pick up another plug and he rewired the pigtail plug that he is using for temporary power.

High 23/Low 15