11.7.2020

 Jim opened our new Ring doorbell today and did some investigating about how to go about installing it.  We had some hilarious moments in the living room as he was downloading software and we were playing with it.  Yes, you had to be there!  It's always hard when you have to drill holes in the house, but a necessary evil.  First Jim had to find the perfect spot - he has steel strapping in this area and needed to be able to run the wiring so he had to drill right underneath the steel.

Perfect!

Running the wiring...  He had to buy a special transformer and current-limiting resister so that only low voltage would go to the doorbell.

Doorbell is mounted...

 

Wired in and the lights are on.  And can I say how gorgeous it is?  Love the oil-rubbed bronze look - Jim did a lot of research into which kind of these doorbells to get and this one is perfect!  

Another gorgeous day, so we headed out into the woods.  Check out this giant rock near the side of the property!  

Continuing to cut up fallen trees...

That's a huge tree and a lot of wood!

We walked back into the woods a bit following the boundary rock walls.  Although we've found them before, we want to get all the pin locations marked on Jim's phone.

The wall just goes on and on...  Amazing to think that they were built hundreds of years ago.

Looking back at the wall...

This area looks so much better already and we haven't even gotten any of the cut wood out or branches chipped!

High 69/Low 40 - gorgeous!

11.6.2020

Jim took the Mini out this morning and headed to the electric supply company to pick up the rest of his order.

The generator has about 100 hours on it so Jim wanted to change the oil before winter.  He got everything done and all cleaned up so it's ready if we need it.

It was just a beautiful fall day - we're going to spend the next week doing some outside work in the afternoons.  We headed back to clear the path to the old stone wall.  This is a huge twin pine tree that lost one side so Jim started cutting it up.  We'll move the wood out later - today was just the chain saw work.

You can see both sides of the stone wall in this picture - this is our property line.  However, it also used to be a snowmobile path so they moved all the rocks in this area.  This is where we plan on putting our pile of rocks to build this wall back up.

Continuing some clean up...

This was the strangest thing - you can see that this branch was broken off at the top but one of its shoots grew into the ground!

These huge pine trees are just so majestic...

High 65/Low 43 - beautiful!

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

11.5.2020

We had to move things off the landing this morning so that Jim could skim coat.  While this section was easier than the other side working over the stairs, still challenging with the slanted walls and tight working spaces. 

Working around the side...

The skim coat sure makes everything look clean and finished!

Jim carved out a couple places for receptacles in the front wall of the metal shop...

But the temperatures are so nice right now and for the next few days, so we have a list of outside things we want to do.  Jim wanted to get rid of the pile of small gravel - some went along the edge of the driveway by our rock area...

The rest he took up to the top of the hill for the next occasion we need it.  Then he was able to flatten the area where the gravel sat for so long.  This is a pretty section of woods too - we walked back in a bit and decided that we will remove some trees that fell and use the rest of our rock pile to kind of rebuild the boundary rock wall from ages ago.

Jim picked up a 500' roll of 4 strand, 10 gauge wire at the electric supply company yesterday that he will use to run electric to the pole barn.  We needed to cut it into 4 equal pieces so we first used the surveyor's wheel to measure (and double check) 125' feet and then Jim marked that spot.  Then he started unrolling wire while I held the other end...

After doing that two more times, we have our four lengths of wire.  Getting all of this to go through the conduit to the pole barn is going to be a huge challenge!

We were treated with just a glorious sunset - this was the view from the top of the hill.  You can just barely see the lights in the stairwell in the foreground of the picture.  Breathtaking!

High 62/Low 42 - beautiful!

11.4.2020

I headed into Saratoga this morning for some errands - Jim had an order to pickup at Lowe's and I bought lots of tubs for dish storage! 

When I got home, he had gotten the top of the stairwell all skim coated - it really looks good.  This was an obviously difficult place to do having to work off stairs and at weird angles.

Jim continues to work downstairs too, going through a few boxes and planning out his electric...

He spent time on the phone again with the other electric supply company that's local; they had what he wanted at a good price.  So in the afternoon, he moved the bucket that was blocking the driveway and took the Mini out for the drive.  They had to order one thing he needed so he will have to go back soon.

I packed away all my Depression glass in tubs for now and brought out all my fall dishes.  Even though the days of having 20+ family members over for dinner are sadly behind us for now, I still love being able to get my dishes out.  I have them put away but will have to wash them all since they've been in storage for over 7 years.  That's a job for another day!

High 51/Low 35

11.3.2020

 Jim continued skim coating in the stairwell today, starting to come up the stairs to the top!

Working past the door to the front corner...

Jim's plans were to go to the electric supply company after lunch but he wanted to call before he went to make sure they had what he wanted.  He kept calling and just getting stuck in loops, never able to reach a real person.  We finally looked online and called a different location - the one near us closed down about 6 months ago, so it must have been fallout from the virus.  Jim then called another company and spent awhile on the phone finding out his options.  He has to ponder things now.

So the rest of the afternoon was spent continuing to work on organizing in the pole barn and metal shop.  He's also investigating how he wants to proceed running electric on the front wall of the metal shop.

He also wants to do a little more insulating in the attic so he took the bag of loose insulation up there today.  Before it was so packed with stuff that he couldn't get to one area so he'll work on that soon.  While he was up there, he started the process of bringing down some of my dishes.  He started with the fall ones so I'm very excited - they haven't seen the light of day in probably 8 years!  

High 37/Low 24

11.2.2020

 Jim continued with skim coating today...

He got up to the middle landing today - sure looks clean and good with that coat added!  

Jim spent time in the afternoon doing more rearranging out in the pole barn and in the lower level.  Things look really good - he got his rebar moved over so now this whole front wall is accessible when he's ready to start with electric and then drywall.

All of our stuff is now moved over to this area - it's really amazing how compact everything is instead of spread everywhere.  That job is basically done - until we think about bringing dishes down from the attic but that certainly isn't a priority.

I went down to get the mail and it was just so pretty to see the sun set through the trees!

High 33/Low 30

11.1.2020

 Can't believe it's November already!  And time change day - never a favorite.  Thankfully, Jim does the dreaded clock changes - this one and the grandfather clock are tricky!

Jim started skim coating the next section of the stairwell...

Looks fabulous!

Then mid-afternoon, it was back to the chore of moving stuff.  But first, we had to move the steel shelf unit.  Jim was so smart and put one end on the small dolly he has so that I could control that end by steering.  Jim had to lift the other end.  But in order to move it, we kept having to stop and move things out of the way.  Plus, there is the beam we had to deal with - that required moving the shelf to one side of the beam, and then manipulating it to the other.  

We had to be very careful because we didn't want to scratch the epoxy floors by sliding the steel shelf across it. we eventually got it into place.  Jim had cut pieces of plywood that we slipped under the bottom areas to protect the floor as well.

Then we moved Jim's steel back to its spot on the bottom shelf...

Once that was in place, we moved another shelf unit over...

We filled that one up and then brought the last shelf unit over and filled it up.

A board on top on we have room to stick a few things on top as well!  This area is looking really good now.

And we unearthed the remaining insulated concrete forms!  This area is clearing out - soon we'll have things in order and Jim can start thinking about doing the electric and hanging drywall in this area.  Eventually this area will be his metal shop.

High 43/Low 30 - rain in PM