10.31.2022

 

Hope everyone had a Happy Halloween!  Nothing too scary around here today - just more work!  Jim welded together the frame for the drop box so it's all one piece now!

In the afternoon, we headed outside to see if we could get another post set.  First, some clean out of the hole...

Getting the beam ready to be taken over to the site...

Here it comes!

Setting it in the pole...

Getting it in the right position...

Jim positioned his string from corner to corner to make sure the post was in the right spot in relation to the others...

It's perfect so time to fill in the hole...

Tamping the dirt into place...

Double-checking that everything is level and plumb...

Putting up bracing...

One more pole to go but it looks great...

It's really tucked into the edge of the woods and looks great from up on top of the hill...

Jim had one bag of old concrete that wouldn't be good for any projects, so he dumped it out on the upper driveway area and smoothed it out with the Bobcat...

High 61.1/Low 34.7

10.30.2022

 Jim worked on the frame for the package drop box today...

Doing some tack welding to start assembling...

Side pieces are going on...

We continue to be blessed with gorgeous fall days, so we are taking advantage of them and heading outside.  We worked on the other side of the stone wall by the street...

We think this is the rebar that we put in to mark the corner pin of the property at the street...

Working a little more on the other side as well...

At this point, Jim ran out of twine in the trimmer so we headed back up.  He put more twine in and then we started working in the woods a bit, clearing out the scrub trees.  Everything has stayed in really good shape here as we continue to keep things under control.  Jim is working in the trees here but kind of hard to spot!

Mom sat out on the porch with Mr. Skeleton and enjoyed the sunshine when we worked in the woods...

Jim continued to do more trimming and then did some grass cutting to end out the day.

High 64.3/Low 29.6 - beautiful!

10.29.2022

Jim continued cutting steel today - now that the bottom frame is done, he's cutting pieces for the rest of the box...

It was another glorious fall day so all headed outside in the afternoon.  Jim had been working on hanging tools up in the lean to...

Then doing some measurements with his laser level to start designing doors...

Then we went down to do some trimming and cleaning up of the stone walls.  I definitely needed to take some before pictures but I was busy pulling down vines!  

Looks so good!

Jim did some more grass cutting to finish off the day before coming in to get ready for church.

High 61/Low 28.9 - gorgeous!

10.28.2022

 Jim spent time in the metal shop this morning - nice that he can "shop" for steel pieces that he needs underneath the steel table!

Jim still has lots of rearranging to do but it's so nice to see space open up in the pole barn!

More pre-winter furnace maintenance - changing the neutralizing beads.  Cleaning everything out...

Putting new neutralizer beads in...

Connecting it all back up...

Jim devoted more time to the treadmill today - moved it over to its spot for now and then making it operate!  It's definitely more complicated than our old one, with much more technology than we need (and not willing to pay monthly for!).  Jim is doing the first workout on it as I write this!

Check out the size of this leaf - especially compared to the "normal-sized" leaves around it!

High 53.2/Low 30.7

10.27.2022

Jim was working in the metal shop when he got the call that the treadmill would be delivered soon.  So he got the Bobcat out, put the forks on, and headed down to the bottom of the driveway.  While we were down there waiting, the city crews were cleaning up the sides of the street - amazing how they keep the roads in such good shape here.  

The truck arrived and Jim took delivery off the back of the truck...

He brought it into the auto bay...

Looks like a lot of pieces...

Looks like even more pieces once you get everything out of the box!

Making progress putting it together...

Looking good...

Wow - this one definitely has more bells and whistles than our old one (cup holders and a big screen!) but it also has lots of plastic compared to our old one that was mostly metal.  Hopefully this one will give us as many good years of service as that one did!

Jim has it all put together but we haven't turned it on yet - very exciting!  It has an actuator underneath that allows you to lift the deck up and then roll it, which will be nice.  However, we may keep it here for the time being to allow more access to the cars while it's still nice out.

It's supposed to get to 27° tonight so Jim had to attend to our outside hose reels to prevent freezing.

High 59.1/Low 49.9

10.26.2022

 Mom and I headed out for some errands this morning; Jim was busy doing more welding work on the package drop box frame.  You can also see that he welded and finished his hook for the car dollies...

Jim brought the mortar mixer back out of the lean to today - he wanted to make sure it would start.  We haven't used it since we did the brickwork on the house, so that's been quite awhile!  It took him a bit but he finally got it started.

Then he got it tucked back into the lean to along with the older air compressor...

He wasn't 100% sure if he could get the chipper in here - it was a close fit at the top but he did it!

Jim also power washed the floor of the pole barn to get it all clean before winter.  He also wants to do a final grass cutting of the season so he did part today.  But we all stopped to admire the gorgeous view - everything looks so good around the carriage house!  It was a picture perfect fall day with temperatures in the low 70s.  Temps are going back down tomorrow so we enjoyed it while it was here!

Even though the leaves are falling, there's still plenty of color and of course those pines!

Hmmm...what kind of creature decided that the plastic handles of the septic tank cover would be something good to eat?

High 74.4/Low 60.3 - beautiful!