11.6.2024

Our steel order for the shed came in, so Jim headed out this morning to pick it up.  He could have had it delivered, but he saved the money and was able to pick it up in two loads.  Plus, it gave him a chance to talk to the new rep in person.  It was an on/off drizzly kind of day, so it worked out perfectly.  Back with the first load... 

He unloaded the car, then came in and ate lunch, and headed back out.  Home again with the last of the order... 

The pavilion is now housing all the building materials we will need to build the shed, except for siding and roofing.  

There's always lots of clean up after jobs - Jim's cleaning all the tools and equipment from the generator job yesterday...

Working on making the birds mouth cuts for the last of the rafters...

Doing the hand sawing...

High 70.3/Low 54.3 - little drizzly on/off

11.5.2024

Today was Jim's day to do the tune-up on the generator and make sure it's all ready for winter.  He had ordered special oil and new valve cover gaskets, so with all that ready, he had to really tear into it to get access to the motor...

One side valve cover off.  He measured the gap between the valves - it was supposed to be .002".  Crazy that Jim can measure that!  One was slightly off which he corrected and now everything is perfect.

Getting ready to put the new gasket on...

The back valves were not as easily accessed...

Everything with the valves is done, now it's time for an oil change...

High 65.7/Low 45.7

 

11.4.2024

Mom had a doctor appointment in the middle of the afternoon, so we left to do that and some grocery pickups afterwards.  

I missed seeing what Jim did outside, but he took some pictures.  He first cut branches off a few trees we cut down that were still in the woods behind the shed.  Hopefully tomorrow we'll get to chipping all the branches and smaller trunks.

Then he brought up 4 bucketsful of topsoil that he spread around the shed.  This is the left side view...

The view of the right side and back...

High 47.8/Low 28.5

11.3.2024

The end of Daylight Savings Time means it's time to change all the clocks.  Sure wish the country would pick one time and be done with it!

We did more yard and tree work today.  Jim went up to the topsoil pile and brought down a bucketful to put around our newly-transplanted trees...

Putting dirt around...

Giving them a good drink...

Jim had saved more trees from the wall yesterday, so we needed to get them planted.  Figuring out where they should go...

Starting to dig...

Planting...

Planting another one...

Jim planted one of the little firs that we rescued...

We found this baby oak tree growing among one of the trees we pulled out, so we planted that too!

Digging the hole for another tree...

Getting it all secured in the ground...

We have so many trees that pictures don't easily show the new trees we transplanted, but they look great!

Then it was clean up time - Jim cut all the small branches from the trees he had pulled out earlier...

Then cut the trunks into lengths.  We gathered all the branches into a chipping pile that we'll hopefully get to in the next couple of days.

High 48.8/Low 25.8

 

 

11.2.2024

Jim worked in the shop this morning, sizing the remaining rafters... 

His power trowel dolly works great and Jim was able to get it all tucked away in the pole barn.  Mr. Skeleton is guarding it, because you never know.

After lunch, we headed outside.  Jim wants to get the area behind the shed clear so that he can grade dirt around it.  Eventually, we're going to have to set up scaffolding here, so it needs to be in good shape for that.  He scooped up the trees that we had dug up...

For now, they are tucked out of the way.  We may try and get them planted tomorrow.

The goal for today was to dig up some trees that are growing in the rock wall and transplant them by the upper driveway.  Digging...

Moving the tree down...

Jim set it aside so that we could do some measuring and marking of where we wanted the trees to go...

Digging the new hole...

Filling up the hole...

Digging the next hole...

And the next...

We picked the tree we needed to move and Jim started digging...

You can see how the poor tree is trying to grow amid all these boulders...

Jim had to move all those rocks out of the way and then was able to grab the tree...

You can see how the base of the tree is totally bent where it had to grow around the rocks...

Because of the weird root structure, we aren't 100% sure this one will take, but it needed to be moved so it's worth a try.  Planting...

Getting one more tree...

Planting it...

We have some clean up to do around the trees tomorrow, but they're planted and look great!

Now that the leaves are off the trees, we are back to mountain views.  Angel is gorgeous any time of the year!

High 49/Low 41.3