#stewartcreeksomethings

Supposed to be working on office

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I had great plans for the weekend. Due to the weather I figured we would be able to get the office ceiling and wall completed. This was the fabulous plan! On Friday, I had to take the pickup back to the shop to fix the hydraulic leak, it was pouring down rain so no outside work was going to happen anyways. Sarah followed me we went over to a friend’s house to borrow their pickup. I needed more insulation for the office and I was hopeful that the window place would call me back. I managed to get a hold of them in the morning and they were going to check and see if my two windows came in. I bought enough insulation to finish the walls and the ceiling. The window place never called back so I waited for a break in the storm to unload the insulation (the pickup bed had a shell cover) into the new office and then we took the borrowed vehicle back to its owner. Mind you there is plenty to do before the windows stop us.

On Saturday, Annmarie asked me to put the lamb back in the barn lot. We have one lamb that keeps getting out of the barn lot then the little bugger runs along the fence screaming to get back in. I have let it back in four times this week already but I thought it was sneaking out the end of the chute in the corral. Now I have no reason to think this other than the hole is big enough for a lamb to get through. So after chasing it back into the barn lot I really inspect the barn lot fence. It has sheep sized holes everywhere. I tell Mr Professional we have to repair the fence first before we can go finish the office roof and he then informs me it is the horse making the holes! She is lifting her foot and raking it down the woven fence to open up holes big enough to stick her head through to reach the grass on the opposite side. We end up installing new woven wire, tightening the entire fence and adding in wooden stays every four feet.

This took a couple of hours and I was Jonesing to get to the ceiling. I happen to casually mention the weather as we are packing up our tools and I am told that we are under another flood warning! The problem with this we wanted to get the bull away from the cows. We had our second calf and we would like the new bull coming in July to be the father of our new calves next year. If we were going to get the bull we need to do it before the water raises to raging heights. I could not get across the creek, the water was too high in every place I tried. I ended up walking back to the house and using the crooked bridge. Mr Professional suggested we just take a bucket of grain and try and lure the bull back to Alcatraz. We got the cows to a place where I could walk up to the bull. He was pretty hesitant but after a couple of mouthfuls of grain he started to follow me. I stopped fairly frequently and slowly stretched out the food stops. He followed me all the way down to the barn lot. I did have to get wet crossing the creek, even with my muck boots the water was too high to stay dry. I set the bucket down and went to go shut a gate while the bull contemplated crossing the water for grain. It did not take him long to just force his way across the water and eat more grain. He went into Alcatraz with very little prompting. Three hours later it was raining and the back creek was uncrossable. We did manage to get a few boards installed on the office ceiling

I went to look at the yard fence over the front spring on the front hillside, I was walking down to it when my muck boots slipped. I ended up with both feet in the air and landed flat on my back! This led to me wishing that my lungs would work and that life giving item called air would enter my body. While I was wishing for air I realized that I had ended up in the spring and miraculously landed feet first and did not get wet even though I was crouched over my boots struggling to make my chest expand. Within a minute my body remembered how to breath and I cleaned out the fence and straightened it out so Mouse would quit sneaking out of the front yard to go down and terrorize the cats at the mother-in-law’s house.

Office progress made with minimal interruptions

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Monday I wanted to really make progress on the office. There was no way we were going to be doing anything outside. We did walk around the farm to see how much damage was inflicted by the water and surprisingly, not a lot. The breakaway sections we built two years ago will need to be reassembled and much weaker clips used so they will actually break away this time. The posts and anchors we installed all held!! This was the plan and the reason we put so much work into getting the anchor points installed. Unfortunately, it will take more than a week for the upper fields to dry out due to the amount of water that was on them. Of course it is scheduled to rain again on Thursday or Friday. This summer we are going to have to clean out the willow areas down by the schoolhouse. A huge lake was created due to the amount of debris backing up in the trees.

Mr Professional wanted to look at the pickup and see if we could get it out of the ram pasture and back out to the front driveway. We had to fix the hydraulic leak that did not get repaired and it would barely engage into gear. We managed to milk it along until we got to the front parking lot and parked it. I am not sure how I am going to pick up the windows this week without it. Hopefully, the windows will fit in Annmarie’s car.

I really wanted to get on the office so we went back at it. It would have gone much smoother if the guy cutting the angles could get it right, five hours of cutting and I would get about one out of four pieces right. I got so frustrated I just wanted to hang it up for the day. Mr Professional just kept badgering me and we just kept cutting more boards. It is mighty hard to get those warped, misshapen and cracked boards up on the ceiling. We joked that it we had to pay extra for character. The problem is that is exactly right! The ceiling is coming together and it doesn’t look like a plain old wooden ceiling. It does have character, it will be unique and it will elicit oohs and ahhs. We almost made it to the halfway mark, I think another five hours and the ceiling will be done. We have one more idea that is going to be tricky but its a surprise for the wife.

Plans interrupted, second 100 year flood commencing

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Sunday was the day we were gonna really get cranking on the office. It was supposed to rain most of the day so working outside was just not going to be an option. Since we had the new door installed on the new office we could turn on the little heater and get it fairly comfortable inside. I had decided that working on the ceiling was going to be our project for the day. Our rain indicator showed that in the last 24 hours we have gotten 1.96” of rain and the back runoff creek Stewart Creek was running muddy and starting to finally rapidly rise. It was still contained in the banks so I was not too worried. Mr Professional came out and we started our discussion on how the ceiling was going to be installed. It turns out that the Juniper wood we purchased from a local mill has a lot of knot holes and cracks in it. This means there are gaps and holes so we needed the intact old intact ceiling to be able to use the new wood. The best part is the old ceiling will peak through the new ceiling. I wanted to just install it in horizontal rows, while this is fairly boring it is the quickest install. Mr Professional talked me into going across the ceiling in a 45 degree angle. We managed to get about five boards installed when my daughter came out and asked us if we had seen the front spring?

We had not but holy moly! The entire front spring was now a raging torrent. The only way this happens is if the creek has diverted upstream and is flowing down all of the hay fields. Mr Professional and I put on waterproof clothing and started going upstream and cutting the panels loose. The metal clips were supposed to break under pressure of the water. This did not happen, the 500# rated clips were holding back a few feet of raging water. We started cutting the cables and clips or grinding through them to release the water and pressure on the fence. This was done blindly sometimes as the water was very muddy. Luckily, earlier in the week after moving hay I had trouble keeping my glasses on due to all of the sweat. I put on these little silicone wings that grab the ear pieces and wrap a piece of silicone around the bottom of each ear. This was essential to me keeping my glasses during the storm. I cut a panel loose and it scratched across the left side of my face and ripped my glasses off of that side of my face. The only thing that kept my glasses on my head was the silicone piece on the right ear! Mr Professional hollered across the water that I was bleeding. There was a short discussion about the known saying ”all bleeding stops eventually!” The bleeding did stop so we continued on and continued to release the breakpoints in the fence the entire length of the property. There was 8-12” of water across the entire bottom grass fields with three feet of grass, by the time I got to the far end of the field, I was utterly exhausted. Mr Professional had gone back to get the side by side so I could ride back and not walk.

The side by side has some major issues and we have known this. It sounded rougher than normal but I concentrated on drinking water and getting back to the house. Annmarie hollered when we got down to the end of the driveway. It turns out that Star, our only white stripped cow had lain her baby down on the wrong side of the raging torrent of water. We ended up catching the calf, who did not like this and were going to just take the side by side up and around the hill and drop off the calf with her mother. The side by side gave its final cough and died as soon as we got to the driveway. It is dead! It will need some major engine work or a new engine to correct its current state. Now the calf is stuck in the side by side with me waiting for a ride. The pickup transmission problem has it trapped in the ram pasture and it is now pinned between two raging water torrents.

So Mr Professional and Annmarie went to obtain her Subaru all wheel drive vehicle. Clear plastic was tossed in the back of the car, I crawled in and held onto the calf while Annmarie drove us up on the back hillside. I let the calf out and it promptly ran in the wrong direction. Annmarie went out and chased the calf down. It was reunited with its mother and all was well.

I was exhausted. A shower was had, 16 ounces of dip and chips consumed and an hour long nap on the couch was needed. As soon as I woke up I talked the wife into driving into Pendleton to “check on the reservoir level” but as soon as we got to Pendleton we went to Dairy Queen so I could eat a banana split!! I wolfed it down, we went home and it was bed time! Not exactly power food but it sure was comfortable and well received. I was supposed to eat some real food in there somewhere. My scratch got scrubbed clean and bacitracin ointment applied. If It scars then I will have a cool ”pirate” wound.

Office work directed by Mother Nature

Steve HardinLeave a comment

Saturday I took the time to eat full breakfast before heading out to the old house office project. I never stop for lunch on the weekends when I am working on the farm. So I try and get my lunch and breakfast calories all at breakfast time, coffee and the occasional water will keep me going the rest of the day. I headed out to the old house to begin work on the wall, Mr. Professional was scheduled to show up in a little bit. He showed up and we proceeded to finish the dividing wall, roughed in the new bigger door opening and then we set the new door! The best part of the day was that we had the new door set, level, shimmed and installed in under one hour! I have never installed a door at any time in an hour. Outside doors usually take a lot longer than that by the time you get done adjusting everything to make the door work properly.

We decided to keep going and installed the door handles. Everything worked except the deadbolt plate will need to be carved out to fit the metal housing that came with the door handles. The weather was off and on rain coming down all day long. We don’t have enough space in the house to bring in the juniper for the ceiling so it is out on the trailer, covered with a tarp. Some of it is getting wet. I figured once we got it all pinned into the ceiling it can dry in place.

I was super stoked about our progress, so much so that I decided to tackle one more project that evening. It was way past our time to clean the instant hot water heater for the house. I had a sump pump that I had to clean the mud out of as I usually use it for water leak hole pumping. I then had to make two more hose fittings to hook up the circulating vinegar up to the water heater. The first version blew vinegar everywhere and I had to redo one of the hose fittings to a new one. I finally got it to work, we have the correct valve setup that allows us to isolate the heater and run vinegar through it. I had to hang out in the laundry room while the vinegar circulated so the hoses stayed in the five gallon bucket. My worst nightmare was trying to mop up four gallons of vinegar off of the floor. So after two hours of cleaning, I unhooked everything and circulated water through the heater flushing all of the vinegar out. The next day when I went to take a shower I noticed a markedly different heat level. The water felt several degrees hotter than it was prior to the cleaning.