new siding

New siding work in progress

Steve HardinLeave a comment

Well the contractor did their part and came out and started tearing up the house. They had the siding off in a week. The 60’ boom truck is a little rough on the yard as it sinks in as it moves and the tracks are about 4” lower than the surrounding yard. This works well for Annmarie as she wanted to redo the front yard anyways and this will just move that project up on the timeline. The nice thing is the gate can stay closed so we have not had to move the dogs. They just harass the worker to throw the ball for them. The problem with that is they never get tired and would keep that up all day long. We are installing LP SmartSide siding on the house. We need to have to not paint before we die in 30-40 years and it looks good and is durable. This will be the test. I was able to drive by a house and see it before choosing this contractor. I really liked the final product and I think it will look very good on our home. For the price I sure hope so, but anyone who has had to hire a contractor recently knows they are very expensive. My advice to you is to do your due diligence and find someone who is very reliable and does good work. Don’t skimp out, get it done right the first time. Because paying for it twice or to get it repaired will cost more than doing it right the first time.

I had to call for more farm diesel and again they only filled one side of the tank. It has two 65 gallon tanks in the large tank. It came from a trap wagon so one side had diesel and the other gasoline. I only want it to hold 125 gallons of diesel. So when I sent the check for payment I asked if they would come out and fill the other side. The salespeople keep telling me that both sides should be filled by this is the second time only one side has been filled. So I bought a paint stick, cleaned off the diesel and wrote directions directly on the tank. I am pretty sure they will get it right now.

Parts for “Little Dumper” (1957 truck) keep trickling in. The $44 seat cover arrived and I got it installed. This was not easy to do considering you cannot open the driver’s side door yet. The front left fender needs to be moved forward about one inch to allow the door to open. It needs a little adjustment but it is way better than the original seating. I may still throw a horse blanket over this to keep it protected. But before I can do anything else inside the cab the driver’s side door has to be fixed. It was hard to be inside the cab and contorting myself enough to get the straps in place. The Gingerman is still working on the engine so until that is up and going the door issue is on hold. Plus, we really need the new tires on the vehicle to get it off the ground enough to be able to crawl around under the truck. I have been at the shop twice weekly to get things going but the parts are not easy to find.

Getting ready for contractor

Steve HardinLeave a comment

Last weekend I had to start getting things ready for the contractor. They were going to come out and start tearing the old vinyl siding off and get ready for the new LP Smartside siding. The trouble is I needed to get some things done. I had to remove everything away from the house so ladders, boards, some TREX decking I had left over were moved away from the house. I had to take down the temporary fence on the North side of the yard. I really just rolled it up most of the way. I had never set the posts yet or added a gate as we knew any contractor would have to get over on this side with equipment.

They wanted to bring in a 60’ cherry picker and that meant getting across or through the front spring. I had created a crossing for the septic pump truck but the driver did not want to chance it and was able to reach the tank from our driveway. I had dug out the large rocks I had used for the crossing. So I tore down the temporary crooked fence I had stopping the horse and sheep from getting out of the main barn lot. I filled the crossing with 2-3” rocks and packed it all down by driving over it with the tractor. Some of the water is flowing through the rocks but mostly it is crossing a wide spot with about 2” of water. I used part of the temporary horse corral panels we had blocking the narrow creek side of the barn lot. This can only be temporary as I need those panels to block off the spring access when we run cows through the barn lot. So I may have to insert a small fence. I am thinking about just making a wire gate. We will almost never use this crossing but it is nice to have the option. I am tired of buying new metal gates at $350/each. I need about another 10 gates and am now going to be selective in which ones get a metal gate. I did find three more metal gates while I was out and about on the farm. It took me a few hours to get all of this up and in place.

I salvaged what honey I could from the hive that died in early winter and was able to collect five half pints. We had them all sold in about ten minutes. We could easily sell 5-10 gallons of honey annually we just cannot produce anywhere near that! We are looking at getting another Nuc and starting a second hive this spring.

Every once in a while I find one of these salamanders when I pick up a plank that has been on the ground for way too long! I am pretty sure we have one living down in the main water shutoff access hole. They are pretty calm. I no longer disturb them and just let them wander off on their own. We are so looking forward to getting the siding completed.