old house

Bathroom remodel prep work

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Winter can be seen from our house, the foothills of the Blue Mountains are covered in snow and on top the local snowpack is 175% of normal. It’s 44 F today at our house and the most we get is rain on a fairly regular basis now. It is supposed to rain almost every day this week. Of course I never bother to look at the weather person predictions unless we are spraying or cutting hay so I thought it would be a great idea to move some dry wood around on the farm.

Mr Rainman had emptied out one of the old grain bins and the plan is to get all of the rough cut black walnut and maple out there and store it until it is needed for some project. All of the trees were obtained from family or friends for the labor of removing them from the property. I had them custom cut into slabs at our local mini mill. The hardest part is having the space to sticker them and let them dry out. We have had the maple for over 15 years and some of the black walnut for eight years. I have one massive piece of 10 foot black walnut that is 20” wide with one raw edge and 18’ thick, ten feet long. It has split in two almost dead center so that there are now two pieces with a live edge. It has another 5 years to dry out, you only get 1” per year when air drying. The large crack will help it dry out faster as it is almost 1/2” in width. I wanted to get it all in one spot where we do not go, it won’t get damaged so we can use our other spaces. I have about 1/3 of the old chicken coop full of rough cut wood. I would like to get that wood all moved out, do some slight rearranging in the chicken coop and then I can move out most of the tools and storage from the old house. This will give me an open room for projects near the house. A lot of what is in the old house is in bins for various types of activity. There is a bin for working sheet rock, bin for installing ceramic tile, bin for painting, shelf of finishing nailers and supplies, several bins for wiring a house, various organizers for parts, nails, screws and a shelf for ice fishing. I have not been in 20 years, but there are a lot of mini rods!

Gingerman and I went out yesterday and started to load the flatbed with black walnut boards, 1” thick, then 2” then we got to the 3” slabs that are ten feet long and those are heavy! We got the first load all onto the trailer and had a plan to come back for the maple. The rest of the black walnut is in the main barn off of one of the hay rooms and is not currently in the way. We drove to the grain bin over the sketchy culvert I have in the barn lot. It really needs to be dug out and reset as the water is going through, under, and alongside it. This is causing the dirt to collapse so I keep jamming large boulders alongside the culvert to prevent anything from falling into the gap. I have a couple more years before total failure hits. We ended up needing to take out the door metal supports on the grain bin, these add structural strength to the door so it does not blow out when grain is in the bin. I swept up and as we were finishing cleaning it started to rain. So now our dry wood is getting wet and I did not bring enough stickers to put between the slabs. We hustled and got all the wood in and set some leaning on the perimeter to be stacked next time we try and move wood.

I really want to get this done in the next week so I can build the bathroom cabinet in the current storage room. It would help immensely.

Since it was raining I decided to back to working on the new bathroom vanity. Gingerman helped me and we got the holes for the sink and faucet placed on the dresser top. I had found some boards out in the old chicken coop to use on the dresser transformation to vanity. The dresser is made out of oak but I am not adding oak pieces for the transformation. I will stick with some Douglas fir and stain it. I was able to get the large drawer put together with nails and glue, it needs to spend the night in the office to dry. I will be able to cut the back out of it once dry and it will still work as a partial drawer, over one half was able to be saved. I have a small drawer on the top that will only be about 3-4” deep. I may put a couple of 2” long spots on the side, I have not decided yet as to whether they would actually be usable.

We were fortunate enough to get more baby chicks on Friday from Mr Horse Tamer. He has an incubator and started 30 eggs, we got 29 straight run chicks. I spent Friday evening putting down new bedding, food and water in the baby chicks area for them. One had splayed legs and he told me to tape the legs together for 24 hours and it sometimes gives the hip muscles time to firm up and the chicks will do well. Gingerman and I took the tape off the next day and the chick is moving around and doing great. We had one yellow chick just die but everyone else is doing great. They have a heat lamp and a heat shelter so even though they are in an unheated coop they are staying nice and warm. I decided to use the heat lamp in conjunction with the shelter as it will also keep the water from freezing solid if it gets that cold.

The check came from the auction and we were gloriously surprised! Those 18 whethers weighed on average 98# and sold for $160/each! They killed it, the auction website said the average price for lambs was $55-150. We scored, those sheep looked amazing, the timing and quantity all rolled up to form the perfect circumstances.

Winter works

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It is officially winter now, despite the record high temperatures. We have had over half an inch of rain in December already. The new mud boots are coming in handy now that the barn lot is a pig pen. The nice thing is it has been so warm that about half the barn lot has sprouted grass and that is really cutting down on the mud. I had plans on getting the barn door fixed but the mud and tractor combination is not very exciting so I am waiting until it gets freezing cold to go work on the door, which is its own special kind of hell. But it’s better than getting stuck in the mud with the tractor.

Mr Rainman was able to get the office slider doors done one rainy day. I had not seen them as I am not in the wife’s office very often. But I did have to go in her office today and the doors look amazing! There is almost nothing left to complete in the office, I still have to fix the trim around the cords going to her router up the wall. It is truly the only thing left, except for building the shallow shelves on her central table arrangement so she can sort her new wood sheets out easier. But after that it will be completed!

We spent one whole day doing nothing but cleaning up the old house and machine shed. The organizing was sorely needed and had not been done in quite a while. We even managed to get the old DeWalt radial arm saw from the 40’s moved out of the old house and into the old chicken coop. That meant we were able to move the toolbox from my future room into the project area. We also moved one upright cabinet. The cabinet has a lot of rust on the bottom half but it is an upper and lower piece so I think we can ditch the lower piece and move the upper piece out into the machine shop. This will open up some more space and allow me to move the last big thing from my future craft area. Once I get that space emptied I can finish getting the electrical outlets wired and the light installed. Once that is done then I can finish insulating the last two walls then put up the inside wood.

After Thanksgiving we decided that more external light was needed over the bridge. We purchased some rope lights and were going to install one on each railing. The wind and cold meant that Mr Rainman and I only managed to get one side installed before calling it quits. After it got dark I was glad we only had one side installed. One was incredibly bright, I cannot imagine how bright two would be. We are going to see if we can use a Wi-Fi controlled electrical plug to control the bridge light. We can program the plug or turn it on/off with our phones when needed. We have not tried it out to see if the Wi-Fi extends that far out into the yard yet.

Freezer room closing in

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I had a plan on Sunday to get the freezer room almost done. I knew I would not be able to install the insulation in the ceiling as I need it purchase one more roll first. I figured if I could get the last section of the wall covered and then I could use something on the ceiling to hold the insulation up. I wasn’t sure what but I have two full sheets of wood paneling and 1/2 sheet of 3/16” plywood. I think it’s enough to cover the ceiling. After I got the siding up, four separate pieces of varying types and sizes of siding, I figured I could use the scraps of 1×4 boards I had used for trim in the office. I had just enough to cover the ceiling liberally and make it easy to install the paneling. Paneling is not designed to be hung upside down and it will need a lot of wide headed screws to hold it up. This took a lot longer than I had anticipated. Piecing things together may not cost much in materials but it does cause you to use a lot more screws and a lot more time.

I cut off a little piece of the thick bathroom future countertop, after sanding two edges I glued them together. I need to cut a triangle shape and was missing about two inches of the tip of one triangle to complete the top. I will leave it glued and clamped for a few days as I will not be able to work on it until then. I will need to put a new blade on my skill saw before I cut the triangle. I plan on sanding it all down first up to 80 grit, cut the proper shape and then finish sanding it. I was hoping I could crawl underneath the counter and screw up from the bottom to hold it in place, but I don’t believe I will be able to do that. I don’t really want to just use glue. I may have to drill four holes in it, about 1/2’ deep and then attach it directly from the top then fill it with a walnut dowel glued in and sanded down. I am going to have to use a polyurethane coating to seal the top. I need something that can get dusty and will be easy to wipe off when its cleaned. This is still an idea that is incubating, hopefully by the time its sanded down I will have finalize my attachment and finishing plans.

I have two very nice pieces of three foot by 20” chunks of two inch thick black walnut. I am unsure where I am going to use them. Once the freezer room is done and the freezers are moved I will start working on my office area. I have the inner door (old wooden exterior door), it just needs a new opening created that will hold it. My current door opening is not square and about an inch too short and too narrow. I will have to reframe the top and one side to make it fit correctly. I keep fluctuating on what I will setup in the man room. I believe I am going to setup the reloading equipment on one side and then start working on a jewelry bench on the other side. I will need to keep an eye out for a scrap kitchen hood to use as a soldering exhaust hood. Annmarie is so happy with her indoor “grow” super quiet vent fan that I think I will use that as the suction source for the ventilation.

This will get the room closed up but I will still need to buy a new back door and a new window. I need to fix the back porch as one corner is trying to fall apart. I will also need to line the entire inside of the room with boards. Needless to say it may take me a while to get this done!

Annmarie spotted our barn owl! Their used to be a pair of them but in the last few years we have only spotted one. Their was a mated pair on the farm for over 30 years. Maybe the pair is just hiding so well that we only ever spot one at a time?

Freezer room moving right along

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Mr Rainman came out on Sunday and we moved a ton of hay from the machine shed back into the barn. There was some green hay poking out of the machine shed pile and once we started digging into the pile we managed to get a flat bed load of really nice hay out of the middle of the pile. Between both sides of the barn we have enough hay for the winter.

I am trying to get the freezer room completed so we can move the freezers. Mr Rainman keeps trying to talk me into using some of my 1×8 or 1×10 wide pine boards for the walls and ceiling. I keep telling him it’s a freezer room and it only gets the scraps. We had purchased some leftover piles from the stores in town and I am finally using a bunch of the sheets. So the walls in the freezer room are made out of 1/2” OSB (two different kinds), 3/4” OSB flooring, 3/4” oak plywood, 1/2” CDX plywood, some old 3/4” solid wood piece from an old table top. I have 1/2” OSB for ceiling with some new vintage 70’s looking wood paneling! I spray painted some blue on the walls to mark where the wiring was behind the sheets so I would not accidentally hit anything when I install the shelves for this room. All in all a very functional freezer room when I am done. I did have to order an in window fan so we can keep the room a little cooler in the summer. I am going to use a WiFi power plug dongle to control the fan. I will be able to program the start and stop times remotely via the phone.

I managed to get all of the freezer walls covered but one side about 46” wide. So one full sheet of OSB and two cutouts for the outlets and I am done with the walls. I will still need to put some trim in the corners to make it look pretty.

I was sent out to change the bee’s feeding solution. They are getting some sugar water due to the shrinking flower supply. I spent about 15 minutes tossing apples from the ground in the orchard to the sheep. They were all wandering around trying to eat as many apples as they could. I even throw the dried out husks of apples, the sheep think they are dried apple treats. Annmarie has been using a “picker”, this wooden box with a ton of nails at cross angles with a sliding lid with more nails. Basically, it looks like a medieval hand shredding torture device. It is used to open up the alpaca fiber after she washed and sound dried it. It is working and she almost has the entire fleece picked.

The chickens are trying to compete with the sheep this year over who can die faster without a reason. I think the chickens are ahead this year. Another one of my babies was sick. I have to remove them from the coop so they don’t make anyone else sick. It’s usually some type of bird flu. On top of the chickens trying to die I have four broody hens who are refusing to lay eggs but want to sit on everyone else’s. Plus I am only getting 1-2 eggs/day.

Front porch now 96% done

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Annmarie has been working on washing and cleaning the alpaca fleece. She uses a bin and some fabric netting. She has washed this single fleece four times and each time she pulls it out of the water the organic matter gets physically picked out. After four times, actual progress is being made. It will have taken a solid 48 hours to get the fleece dry. Annmarie wants to dry this one before she starts in on a second one. She has some medieval looking device that is full of nails that is supposed to align the fibers and help pull out the rest of the organic matter. Getting the fibers all lined up will make a huge difference. Just being clean has made a huge difference. She will sort it directly into a vacuum bag and can work on spinning it when its cold outside. We cover the fiber with the fine netting and fold it under, all around the edges so that the wind cannot blow it away and the birds cannot steal it for nesting material.

Annmarie and I had been discussing my weekend project priorities all week. The alpaca are pretty high on the list but I have someone who has never helped shear coming out next weekend to assist me. It will be a hoot for them. So that is next week. I need to hammer out the fence around two sides of field one so I can turn the animals loose in there next month. This was my preferred choice. Nope, my number one task will be to fix the front porch decking. We did not get the last board screwed in correctly and it is bowed now. Unfortunately, the thought was someone would have to crawl under the porch and army crawl 40 feet through cobwebs, gravel, dirt and yellow jacks to get to the far end of the porch. The real problem is there is a special decking screw for the TREX decking and I know I have some somewhere on the farm I am just unsure where they are. So Mr Rainman and I proceeded to look for said special screws. After about 45 minutes I came to the conclusion that piling stuff in the old house for the last eight months has made a huge mess and I cannot find anything. So we started to throw away trash and put stuff away. After almost one and a half hours cleaning Mr Rainman found them on the shelf we had both already looked at. On a plus, side the old house is a lot cleaner now!

I did not really want to crawl under the porch. It had a lot of spiderwebs and a Yellowjacket nest under there. Unfortunately, the entrance is fairly small. I did not realize how small until Mr Rainman attempted to get in through the opening. I had to lay on my belly with my arms forward and crawls forward using my feet and elbows only. I was only able to move forward about two inches at a time. We had an old long handle to knock down the cobwebs so you did not have to crawl through them. They can be a little overwhelming. I was about ten feet under the porch when we realized that I could not actually scoot the board over from underneath. I had to back out two inches at a time. We were able to pry it from above and get it screwed down. There was dust and cobwebs everywhere so Mr Rainman pressure washed the entire porch and outside furniture while I went and put away tools in the machine shed.

Mr Rainman did some preventative maintenance on the John Deere tractor. We cut down all the sucker trees from the front yard and tossed them over to the sheep as a snack. We started to work on the floor in the new freezer room. I had measured and cut the new floor boards but somehow am off by a bit. The new floor is not quite level. I will need to cut a little piece for two legs of the freezer so it sits level. I am still not sure how I managed to do this. On the plus side I think I can finish the floor and maybe the siding tomorrow. Once that is done we can move the freezers into this room. They should stay a lot more clutter free this way. Once the freezers are in I will see about adding some storage shelves into the space. The space where the freezers are currently will be for the two tool boxes in my future office space. This should open the space up so it can be worked on gradually. The front porch will be done when I finish installing a door to get under the porch. Currently, it’s a crawl way with the horse mounting block stopping the dogs from getting underneath it. I will work on this also! I will, really…