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Clean Up and Winterizing: fixing the pump shack window

/ Re-Farmer / 11 Comments

Today, my goal was to board up at least one of the broken windows in our old pump shack.

Which was not an easy job. (Photo heavy post ahead!)

You see, in order to fix the window, I needed to be able to reach the window.

In order to reach the window, I had to cut back some self-sown maples growing in the way.

To be able to reach the trees, I had to clean up this.

You can see part of an old freezer, over on the left. Next to the old furnace is a partially dismantled modern washing machine, next to part of an old wringer washer, and beyond that, a second fuel tank.

It’s hard to see in the above photo, but there is a black electrical cord coming out of a hole under the eaves, about in the middle.

This cord is eventually buried, and extends to the storage shed, which used to be my late brother’s workshop. Though the cord is plugged in inside the pump shack, it was actually easier to plug my extension cord into the other end of this cord, in the storage shed!

I… don’t know what this is.

I’d moved it aside, only to realize I needed to clean out the stuff I’d just put it on top of. It’s quite heavy, so I just moved it by the old freezer for now.

While following the cord until it was buried, I found all sorts of things. Including this old wiring, which I just put on top of the old furnace for now.

I went to move one of the tanks, and found another mystery item was propped against it. No clue what it is, but it says “Ohio” on it. :-D

I also discovered the electrical cable was not actually buried where I thought, and was still on the surface, under the tank!

The tanks were quite light, so I rolled them completely away, near the storage shed.

Under the big white tank labeled “purple gas”, I found this.

It was on top of those two tires flat on the ground, and propped up by the other stuff.

While cleaning up around the tires, I found the window pane! It had simply fallen out and didn’t break!

Once I moved the big tractor tire, I found a collection of seats from old farm equipment under it.

I ended up having to cut away that tree to get them out, because it had grown around some of the metal pieces.

I decided they could be salvaged and wanted to put them somewhere out of the elements. I decided the old chicken coop was the best bet for now.

I am not looking forward to cleaning this thing out! But, if we have any chance of salvaging the building, it has to be done. The beam across the doorway is sinking, and a board that used to be above the door is now over the door. There’s room enough I can move the door to one side, but it can no longer be closed fully.

Also, there is another maple at the corner that needs to be cleared away.

To get to the old coop door, I had to first clear away a forest of burrs with the loppers.

They attacked me.

Actually, just one of them. Once it caught on my sleeve, that was it. Before I knew it, I had burrs all over the front of my jacket, both sleeves, my pant legs, my butt, and even my hair!

I had to ask my daughters to help get the burrs out of my hair! The burrs did NOT want to let go!

That tractor in the background is another thing I need to clear. It has trees growing through it. :-(

As I was getting the old seats out, I found…

… a cast iron frying pan!

I ended up putting it in the pump shack. Where the wood burning stove used to be, there is a tiny electric stove (I doubt it works) that has only 2 elements on it. I just had to put the pan on it! :-D

There was one last seat I was struggling with. It was still attached to something, which was buried, and part of it was stuck in the tree I had to cut away, and other parts stretched out further.

I was eventually able to drag it all out.

I… have no idea what this is. Or was, I should say.

There was no way that was fitting through the old coop door, so it got set aside elsewhere.

Once it was cleared enough, I took a look at the old kitchen sink, leaning against the corner of the pump shack.

I love this thing!!! I have got to find some way to use it somewhere. :-D

For now, I just tucked it closer to the building. I don’t dare move it until I have someone to help. I don’t want to chance breaking it.

After clearing more stuff away, I found this bar sticking out of the ground.

I don’t know what it’s attached to underground, but it was not moving. It could turn a bit, and I could wobble it a bit, but that’s it. I could not pull it out,

No clue why it’s there.

I made my way to the old furnace, moved another tire and found and an old kettle! LOL Then I went to move the old steel… container of some sort, and found more stuff in it. It doesn’t show in the photo, but at the very bottom, there was a roaster lid.

Just the lid. :-D

As I pulled more stuff out from under the dirt and leaves behind the old furnace, I found some other odds and sots.

Score!!!!! Oh, I was so excited! That bar with a point at one end is solid steel and very heavy for its size. I could have used something like that in the past few years! There used to be a bar like this, except more like 4 or 5 feet long, but it is among the things that disappeared. This is a bit short, but it’ll still be very handy.

The other stuff joined the hub caps and other weird scraps on the junk pile.

This is as far as I could go, though. That metal is under the old furnace. I’ll have to, at the very least, tip the furnace to be able to get it out.

Not today.

This is as far as I got today!

Under the window, coming through the concrete, you can just see a pipe. That is a drain pipe. Back when we were still using the well under this shack, and had no running water in the house, we had a claw footed bath tub in here. We would heat water on the wood stove for our baths, and this is where the bath water would drain out. I have no memory if there was more pipe, so it wouldn’t drain right at the foundation.

There’s a bit of stump in the middle that I am leaving for now. My poor little reciprocating saw was really starting to struggle by this point!

I could finally fix the window!

The glass pane fit perfectly in a recess in the frame. It looks like it was held in place by a single nail at the top! The metal side, where a stove pipe used to go through, has about a dozen nails holding it!

As the cats go through that hole, I screwed scrap boards across both halves to hold them in place.

Also, I’m short. I found the cinder block by the storage shed to stand on, so I could reach the top of the window. When cleaning up later, it joined the 5 or 6 glazed bricks that I’d also uncovered by the old furnace.

I keep finding those, absolutely everywhere! I would not be the least surprised if I move the old furnace, and find more of them under it.

One of these days, I need to remember to ask my brother if he knows where they all came from, and why my parents got them! Or maybe my mother might remember.

Now, what am I to do with all the tires I dragged out?

Why, drag them back again, of course. :-D

The stack on the left is covering that bar that’s sticking out of the ground, so no one will accidentally hurt themselves on it. Those tires all have rims. The others are by the window so the cats can still get in through the opening. The ones lying flat have no rims, so they can potentially provide critter shelter.

Yeah. I’m a suck.

I am keeping a fair bit of the maple I cut. I’m sure I will be able to find something I can make with them! :-)

There is still a small window at the end of the shack that needs to be fixed. It’s made up of 4 squares of glass, framed by a + of wood in the middle. One of the three squares is gone, but I have yet to find it on the ground, so I don’t know if it has broken or not. I’m just assuming it’s broken, since I saw the cat that jumped through it.

Tomorrow is going to be our last warmish day for quite some time, so I’m hoping to be able to get that done. I might end up just boarding that one up completely. We’ll see.

That’s assuming my body is up to it. I’m feeling pretty sore right now! :-D

The Re-Farmer

Winterizing: clearing an old roof

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One of the things I’ve been wanting to get done in the outer yard, was to clear some trees from what used to be a chicken coop, when I was a kid. Getting things done in the outer yard has now been pushed back another year, but the last wind storm we had left more damage to the roof. It’s a job that needed to get done sooner, rather than later!

Since this involved some rather larger trees, I figured I would finally use the chain saw I got repaired last year!

Of course, I had to test start it, first. It’s been a very long time since I’ve used a gas powered chain saw, so I appreciated that it has each step written out, right on the machine.

Oops.

Yeah. I pulled on the knob, and the whole piece broke off!

So much for using a chain saw.

This meant dragging out a 100 ft extension cord and the reciprocating saw, instead.

This is what it looked like before I started.

Someone went through all the effort to cover the original roof with corrugated steel, only to have so many pieces get torn off, because no one cut back the self-seeded maples.

This is not a small tree, either!

Yeah, I had to cut my way through burrs, first, just to reach it!

The other corner had tree problems, too.

You can see how both sections of tree are rubbing against the corrugated steel. On the side, it at least bent into a more rounded shape…

This one was growing around a sharp end!

I started off cutting the lower branch that was tearing the metal sheets off on the south side, then trimming it back, bit by bit, until I had to cut the trees from this side, to be able to reach the rest.

This is where they were rubbing against the roof.

Once the smaller ones were clear, I could reach more of the larger tree and get that one clear, too.

I had to move other things around, too. The sheet of metal is still buried somewhere; I could only lift and bend part of it to get access. I am not sure, but I think roots have grown over the buried end. !!

After I reached this point, I spent some time trimming branches and cleaning up.

This is where I stopped for the night. I might not take the rest of the trunk down. I haven’t decided, yet. Left alone, all of the stumps will start growing again, and I really want to prevent that. This log building is remarkably solid, and it’s the only log building left that isn’t collapsing outright, so we really want to protect it as much as we can, until we can possibly even restore it.

I don’t know what to do about this section of roof, though. We might have some sheets of metal roofing material large enough to use, lying about, but no safe way to get up there. I will have to consult with my brother. We likely can’t do anything until next year, but with the branches gone, it will at least not get ripped apart in high winds, anymore.

It’s hard to see, but in the tall grass are piles of smaller, thinner branches I trimmed off.

These larger branches have been set aside to be trimmed, and I will keep the larger pieces.

Some logs are already trimmed and set aside – including a pile of wonky shapes, in the back!

Maple is quite a heavy wood to drag around! That last, biggest piece of trunk was pretty awkward to move, too. It is, however, large enough that I might be able to get some long, shallow bowls out of it. I’ve ordered a gouge that I can use to carve deeper than with what I have now, and I hope to be able to carve some cups as well as small, deeper bowls. I might be able to do some small dishes, too.

I clear branches off differently now, compared when we were first clearing trees away. I no longer cut smaller branches right at the main branch. Now I leave longer pieces that may end up being the handles for ladles, or long handled spoons, with the crook of the branch being the bowl for ladle or spoon.

A lot of this wood, in a variety of sizes and shapes, will end up in the basement for potential future projects. Some pieces will join the apple wood by the fire pit, and what’s left will go into the piles for chipping.

I was losing light by this point, so I will continue tomorrow. By the time I put all the tools away, it was full dark – and only 5:30 by the time I got inside! It felt like 8 or 9. :-D

If all goes productively, I’ll be able to clear more, smaller, maples that are growing up against the pump shack, giving access to the windows the cats broke. Some of the mamas have had their kittens in there. One of the windows was only half a window. The other half had a board with a hole cut in it for a stove pipe. My brother took the stove itself away, because it was getting damaged. The cats had been jumping through the hole for the stove pipe, but over time, the stress of that finally broke the other side. Meanwhile, another window lost its pane when I walked into the pump shack, not knowing a cat was in there. The poor thing panicked and jumped through part of the window. :-( At least it was an old, single pane window that was barely holding together already, so the cat was completely uninjured.

We’ll see what we can find to patch those up, tomorrow.

The Re-Farmer

Winterizing: window fix

/ Re-Farmer / 1 Comment

I got a couple of bigger jobs done in preparation for winter. The smaller one was taking care of a window on one of the sheds. This is the one my brother and I had patched the roof of earlier in the year, and is one of the few sturdier sheds left.

My original intention had been to simply board it up, but the window is pretty much the only source of light in the shed, and I had a vague memory of seeing a window in the barn that was about the same side. So I took some measurements, then went looking around.

I found the window, and it turned out to be almost exactly the same dimensions!

And when I say “almost the exact dimension”, I mean the hole in the wall. The frame makes it just barely bit enough that it doesn’t just fall through!

It also looks like it came off of a storm door.

I grabbed a piece of salvaged wood and cut a new “frame” for the window.

If you look at the first photo, you can see the parts of the window that would have been used to slide it up. One of them is flush with the outer edge, the other is flush with the glass. The one flush with the outer edge will be resting on a piece of wood at the top.

This is the window opening. It is, literally, a hole cut in the wall, between two joists.

I also picked up as many pieces of the old window as I could, and some of the bigger pieces of glass. I couldn’t get all of it, though. They are too buried in the grass. This concerns me, as the renter’s cows could hurt themselves. I’ll have to do something about that.

Since I didn’t feel like fighting with an extension cord to the barn, I pre-drilled holes in the wood and put the screws partway through, before I brought everything over. I even cleaned the dirt off the glass, too! :-D

I forgot about the cladding creating gaps, though. I ended up having to replace the screws in the top and bottom pieces with longer ones. I didn’t bother changing the screws in the side pieces, since they don’t need to support anything; just cover any potential gaps from the uneven cut of the opening.

I ended up moving the side pieces in a bit, butting them up against the metal strip on top of the bottom piece. It made them a bit more secure.

There’s one screw at the top right hand corner I couldn’t screw in all the way. I think I hit something in the joist; probably a nail.

Speaking of nails, if you look around the window, you can see several bent nails. There’s two at the top, one on each side, and two at the bottom. I’m pretty sure they’re all that held the old window in place! Well, that and the board hammered onto the wall underneath. No wonder it fell off!

I’m rather happy with how this turned out – and very happy not to have to board it up.

Now I just have to board up some windows in the pump shack. I don’t think I’m going to luck out and find old windows to fit, like I did with this one! That, however, will wait for another day. For today, I had a much bigger job to move on to, and that one will get it’s own post! :-)

The Re-Farmer

Well, it’s all we can do for now

/ Re-Farmer / 6 Comments

I had to bring the van to the garage for 9am, so I was outside, doing my rounds, earlier than usual.

I usually wait until it isn’t dark anymore, but of course, it’s staying dark much longer now.

That didn’t stop the kitties from coming out for an early breakfast, though!!

Things didn’t quite work out at the garage, though. When I got there, I asked if it was okay if I could stay in his office/waiting area. With all the restrictions, there’s no place to just sit, and it’s too cold to stay outdoors.

It turned out, however, that he somehow double booked. My appointment wasn’t written in his schedule! He remembered what I was booked for, but he had someone else scheduled.

On top of that, the lift he needed to be able to access my tires was occupied by a truck that was supposed to have had only hours of work, but has instead been there for days.

Considering he had my mother’s car on a lift for almost a month, I could only appreciate the situation.

He asked if I could come back in the afternoon, but with my needing to go to the court office, it wasn’t an option. I could have gone in the morning, but I had no way of knowing how long it would take. I might not have been able to get back in time.

So we re-booked me for Monday. A quick stop top

pick up breakfast at the grocery store, then the gas station before driving the 30-40 minutes to the small city it’s in. While I was inside, nowhere near anyone, waiting to pay for my gas, a masked customer came up to me – so much for physical distancing! – telling me that there was a sign at the door saying we had to wear masks. There is no mask mandate in this municipality, but I just told him I was medically exempt. He slunk away with a snarky “isn’t that convenient” type of comment. I told him, “… and that’s harassment.”

At least he had the decency to seem embarrassed.

The clerk behind the counter wasn’t wearing a mask, either.

A tree, keeping watch over my van in the parking lot! :-D

When I got to where I needed to go, the court itself, in a different area of the building, was in session, so there were two security guards in body armour at the door. Though the mask mandates were supposed to expire two days ago, they got extended (is anyone surprised?). The guards were wearing cloth masks that matched their uniforms. I got questions about why I was there, if I had any symptoms or have been around people who tested positive, etc., and about masking. They accepted my exempt status, though I don’t think they believed me. I was the only person I saw, anywhere in the building, without a mask. Since I had everything prepared and needed only to have things signed, witnessed and to swear on the Bible, that part went by quickly. The lady behind the counter was surprised by my typed affidavit, and I explained I was told I could do that, so she accepted it. I then had to wait outside the doors until someone came to me.

The chairs had been taken away since I was there on Monday, so I tucked into a little cubby in the wall next to the pay phone, opposite the security guards. Which was… interesting.

One of the guards, who was wearing thick cloth gloves, kept pulling at his mask and adjusting it. Because of this, I could see that it wasn’t even layers of fabric, but little more than a single layer of interlock knit (t-shirt material) over his face. Cloth masks are confirmed as being the most useless type of mask to begin with, but this was about as flimsy as could be! Still, they satisfied the mandate. :-/

Then I saw him repeatedly use hand sanitizer.

On his cloth gloves.

It was the strangest thing!

I think I waited for about an hour before someone came out and handed me some printouts.

The application was denied.

The letter explained why. It came down to two related things; one of which I might have been able to dig up old emails to meet their standard of evidence, but the other… I just don’t have it. Since I’ve cut communications off with our vandal, I am not in a position to know those sorts of details. At least not to the extent they need.

So that is that. Unless/until something else happens, I will not apply again. As much as he needs the help and won’t get it himself, there is a reason these mental health applications are hard to get, and I do appreciate that. Too many people already abuse the court system for their own personal vendettas. To force someone to have a psychiatric evaluation, the application absolutely must have the evidence to back it up.

I really should have done this when it was first recommended to me, 2 years ago, when the worst of it was still happening.

Ah, well. Live and learn.

One thing that helps is, my family is very supportive of me in all this. When I got home, one of my daughters made lunch for me. As I spent time writing related emails and making a call to get legal advice (I love my Legal Shield!) for the court date, my husband and I had a chance to talk about it, and I updated my brother. As he now owns the property, what our vandal is doing is against him as much as against us! Later, my daughters put together a charcuterie board for us to share for supper, as we watched an episode of The Edwardian Farm. That did get cut short when my lawyer called back. We didn’t talk for long; he asked me to email him copies of the court form about the peace bond, will do some research, and get back to me next week.

Among the things I need to talk to him about is that our vandal has been dropping hints for some time that he’s planning to sue… someone… not sure who. When I first heard of it, it was in a voice mail directed at my mother, but now that my brother is the owner, perhaps that who he plans to sue? Of course, we are “making” him do this but I have no clue what grounds he thinks he has that he can sue any of us for. He apparently still thinks everything has been “given” to me, and by “everything”, he means all the stuff on the farm he feels entitled to because he helped my parents, way back when. It seems he honestly believes he owns it all. When we moved here, my mother expressly stated that we were to treat everything and use everything here as if it were our own, and my brother is on board with that, too. Even so, the stuff that’s here belongs to the farm. It’s not “ours” any more than the farm or house is. It’s a sort of package deal. :-D Of course, there’s more to it than that, which I can’t get into here.

What a mess!

With all the stuff we’ve discovered since moving here – like needing a new roof and a complete renovation, possibly needing a new well, not having the tools and equipment we should have had had to take care of the place, and so on, in the end, this is really the only major problem with living here. In the end, that’s really not too bad. It’s still better than what we left behind.

Life is good.

The Re-Farmer

Blogversary! We’re three!

/ Re-Farmer / 7 Comments

The Re-Farmer blog is three years old today!

“What are you looking at?”

A few more weeks, and we’ll be celebrating three years of living here.

Three years and 2,324 posts! That’s a lot of documenting our journey, and recording how things have been changing in our lives since moving out here. As of today, we’re even up to 410 followers, which is amazing to me. Thank you to you all for joining us on our journey, in our little corner of the world! :-)

Our journey has certainly taken some unexpected turns. Among them, I was not expecting to spend this day filling out the form and typing up an affidavit (then editing, tweaking, and editing some more!) to get a mental health order for our vandal. I’ve given him several days to respond to my email, asking him to get help but, at this point, it’s time to take the next step.

I’m also realizing that I’ve forgotten to eat both lunch and supper today. *sigh*

Time to grab a quick bite, then head to bed early. Tomorrow, I drop the van off first thing in the morning to get the winter tires put on, along with an oil change. From there I’ll head back to the court office and finish filing for the mental health order. Hopefully, I’ve included enough information this time.

“Happy” Blogversary. :-(

The Re-Farmer

A little bit further

/ Re-Farmer / 10 Comments

Let’s start with some adorable kitties, having breakfast!

They’re just a great way to start the day! :-D

As for the rest of the day, things were just… tiring.

I got a phone call early in the day. Well, any phone call at all is unusual for us. ;-D

It was my older brother, letting me know he got a phone call from our vandal. My brother was at his work office, so he didn’t answer, but once he heard the message, he wanted to let me know about it, right away.

Amazingly, after making some nasty digs about not being allowed in the property anymore, he had the nerve to request written permission to come on the property.

There are some 2x4s in the barn, and he’s building a shed, so he wants them.

Unbelievable!

My brother was able to send me the file and I got it transcribed before I had to head out. So that was helpful, though ultimately, I never made use of it.

My first stop was at the garage to get the broken shield on my mother’s car fixed.

The tip of it was broken off. The shield had been held in place with a plastic clip that was still holding the tip in place. Since the length was changed, he ended up having to drill and screw into a new hole.

The whole thing, including the time to drive the car in, use the lift, fix it, then drive it out again, took 5 minutes.

I offered to pay, but he wouldn’t bill me anything for it.

What an awesome guy!

Since it took so little time, I was able to drive to the nearer small city and go to the court office to apply for a restraining order and involuntary mental health assessment for our vandal.

The municipality the court is in is under a mask mandate, so I had to go through the usual questioning about my not wearing one, but there were no issues when I said I was medically exempt. I explained why I was there and got the two forms explained to me, but I had to leave the space to fill them out, since the area around the counter was small, and they could only serve one person at a time. I ended up standing at a garbage/recycling station to have a flat surface to work on. Which was fine by me.

I wasn’t able to pass on any of the printouts I brought, but I was glad to have them, since as I filled out the forms, I could use them to get exact dates and remember key details. Not that there was room for much.

After passing the completed forms back, answering a few questions, swearing on the Bible (which was in a clear plastic bag, and got sprayed with sanitizer first) and getting my signatures witnessed, it was back out the door to sit and wait.

Surprisingly, it was the mental health order that was dealt with faster.

Someone came out to talk to me and, in a nutshell, she could not grant the mental health order. She did, however, tell me exactly why and what I needed, then gave me a new form to take home, so I could reapply. The biggest question was whether or not he’d been told to get help, and refused it, very recently – as in, within the last 24 hours or so. I’ve certainly told him to get help before, but I haven’t had direct contact with him in ages for a reason! All in all, she was very helpful. I think, even with how little I could fit into the form, she could tell that this was a real issue.

Then I had to wait about the restraining order. When I got called in for that, I was given the sheet that would go to the police to go over; after some details were corrected, I signed it.

I now have a court date in November.

He will be served by the police some time soon. Which means we will have to double down on keeping an eye on things, because this is likely to trigger him.

The whole time I was there was very stressful. I’ve actually had to go through some of this before we moved, but it’s very different when the person is not someone you used to be close to. My body was so tense, I had to go to the bathroom three times, just because of how much my abdomen was cramping up. My hands were shaking so bad, I could hardly write, and I felt like throwing up, all from being so physically tense. And yet, I was actually pretty calm about the whole thing, mentally. There is still that physiological response to stress, and I just had to push my way through it.

I am glad to have at least been able to get the process started. I have steps to take, and can try again with the mental health order once I get those ducks in a row.

The next while is going to require being on high alert. I thought I knew this person very well, but now, I have no idea how he will react once he’s served with the court date.

It has to stop. The process, however, is so very slow.

This is no way to live.

The Re-Farmer

Tired

/ Re-Farmer / 6 Comments

Sunday is supposed to be a day of rest.

Instead, I’ve just spent roughly 6 hours, going through old emails, video and image files, and transcribing voice mail messages.

I’m not quite done, but that’s it for digging through old stuff.

If all goes well with my mom’s car tomorrow, I’ll be heading to court to file for a restraining order right after, and hopefully the psychiatric evaluation, too.

Transcribing the audio files was the most draining. I’d forgotten about some of the horrible things our vandal had said about us. Worse was having to listen to bits, over and over again, to try and transcribe things that were almost gibberish. Likely, he was drunk. There was some pretty crazy stuff in there. My guess is, he has Paranoid Personality Disorder.

To think, he’s been leaving messages like this, and worse, with my mother for almost a decade. Not about me all that time, of course, but other stuff. I’m just the first person who’s in a position to do something about it.

The last thing I want to do is write an impact statement. I don’t even know if any of this will be needed. I was selective in printing out old emails between me and my family that documented some of the crazier stuff – I even have some that predated our move! – and still ended up with a stack an inch thick. Granted, that’s with lots of formatted spaces and larger fonts, but still. The package for the restraining order is much, much smaller, but when it comes to applying for a psychiatric evaluation, I’d rather have more available than less, even if they don’t end up needing it all.

For now, I’m taking a break.

It’s time for a big pot of tea.

The Re-Farmer

Fixed!

/ Re-Farmer / 3 Comments

We have a working washing machine again! :-D

This is the new panel he put in. All of this is behind the touch screen in front. At the far end is the power button, then where the knob pops on, the start/pause button, and then the controls for temperature, spin and soil. There is no load size control; the machine senses that itself and adjusts the amount of water accordingly, but at the far right of the panel, you can do things like add a soak time, and extra rinse, or even tell it to add extra water. All of these can change the time, which is where the digital display comes in.

Of course, he tested everything before he started, and it was exactly the same as before. After switching out the panel, but before putting it all together, we tested it.

Power? Yes.

Knob for wash cycles? Yes.

Start/pause? Yes.

Temperature? No. Spin? No. Soil? No!

But, of the buttons on the far right did work.

Just one!

So he opened it up again, tested them without the front panel, and everything was working.

He put it back, and it was working.

Best guess, there just wasn’t enough contact between the touch screen and the switches, the first time he put it on.

Of course, we kept testing it over and over, as he put everything back in place!

It’s all working fine now.

Hopefully, it will stay working!

I have a sudden urge to do laundry…

I’m sure if I ignore it, it’ll go away, though. ;-)

The Re-Farmer

A new Q!

/ Re-Farmer / 4 Comments

Have I mentioned that my brother is the best?

I just can’t say it enough.

My brother is the best!

I got a call from him, early this evening. He just finished loading up their big BBQ into his truck and was ready to bring it over!

This was something he had offered to us when I told him about what we’d done with the fire pit, for outdoor cooking. They got themselves a smaller BBQ, as their older one was too big for just the 2 of them, and it was just sitting there, unused. Today, he up and decided to deliver it!

There aren’t a lot of places we can put a BBQ right now. Basically, there’s the concrete and patio blocks in front of the sun room where it can stay for the winter.

So I quickly went out and moved the shelf I was planning to moved now that the sun room door is finished. It would be much harder to move it, with a BBQ in the way!

With the shelf moved away, you can really see how much the concrete under the rain barrel has sunk! This is likely from years of the rain barrel being allowed to overflow.

Which might have something to do with why the sun room has been shifting, and why I had such troubles with the door!

Ya think?

Since it’s that time of year, anyhow, I took advantage of the situation and emptied the rain barrel into the old kitchen garden.

After breaking through ice about an inch thick!

It will be much easier to go through here to the old kitchen garden, now that the shelf is moved. We had originally intended to put the shelf in storage, with most of the other stuff that belonged to my parents, and had put it aside until we could bring the van over to take it. It was so handy, we left it. :-)

Inside the shelf are the pieces of rigid insulation that had been used for the “cat condo” we made for the cats in the sun room last winter. We will likely use some of them for the kibble house, under the food containers. We also plan to leave the two bottom shelves empty, except for some pieces of insulation on the “floor”, for the cats to be able to tuck into it for shelter. We did that last winter, and they made full use of it.

There it is! Our new Q!

We’ve never had anything bigger than 3 burners before; this one has five. It’s so big, he had to take the lid off to fit it under his truck cap! My brother even fired it up to test it out, including the extra burner for pots and pans on the side. It even starts better than any BBQ we’ve had before. :-)

Chances are, we won’t be able to use it until spring, but at least now we have the option! We don’t have any BBQ tools, but with all the summer stuff on clearance right now, this is probably the best time of year to get more. :-) I really look forward to using it!

Sadly, they were not able to stay for long. I’m glad my SIL made it out; she hadn’t been able to for a while, as she recovered from surgery. We did get a chance to walk around the yard, and show them what we’ve been doing. Technically, my brother is my “landlord”, so it’s probably a good idea for him to know what’s going on. ;-) Unlike my mother, they are actually quite happy with how things are shaping up, and are not offended by us doing things like using mulch. :-D

Somehow, they found my glee, as I demonstrated opening and closing the sun room door repeatedly, very amusing. :-D

It’s probably a good thing they didn’t stay any longer. They’ve got a long drive back, and wanted to make a quick stop to visit our mother along the way. From what I’m seeing on the live feed for the security camera, there are strong winds and snow right now!

I’ve gotta get that kibble house done!

The Re-Farmer

Progress: the sun room door is don… AAAAAAaaahhh!!!

/ Re-Farmer / 7 Comments

This afternoon, with the help of a daughter, we hung the replacement door back up onto the newly painted frame.

We lined the hinges up with where they were before, except further in as far as we could go. Just to be on the safe side, my daughter held the door in place while I marked the holes for the screws, then I drilled pilot holes for just the top hinge. We screwed in the top hinge, then double checked the locations for the other pilot holes and re-marked accordingly.

As you can see in one of the photos, the entire frame looks like it’s pulling away from the wall! It was like this when we moved here, and the gap doesn’t seem to be getting any bigger, so I don’t think it’ll be a problem. At least not any more than anything else is! :-D

Also, we only had the old screws available, since none of the new screws we have were the right size, and there were only 6 of the same type. So each hinge is missing 1 screw! I still drilled the pilot holes, though, for when I pick some up.

Of course, as soon as we got the top and bottom hinges secure, we tested the door, just in case.

Aaannndd…

Really???

The door was hitting the frame again! It had to be forced closed!

We decided to finish hanging the door, though. Once it was in, I tested it again, which is when I noticed this…

The door latch was now higher than it was before.

Keep in mind that we did NOT raise the door when we put it back. The hinges were lined up with where it was hung previously. The only change was mounting them further in the frame than it was before. Apparently, that was enough for the door latch to be about half an inch higher than it was before!

Using where the blue paint marked the frame as a guide, I went back to trying to reduce the wood in those spots. I used the shaver, a chisel, a rasp, and even some of my coarsest sandpaper. For some of the tools, it was hard to get right into the corner. Time and again, I tested the door, and it still was hitting.

Finally, I started shaving wood off the door itself. That wood is so much softer than the frame, I could do in moments what took several minutes, and a variety of tools, to take off the same amount of material.

I took these photos when I figured I was done, but then went ahead and took off more material. Just in case!

I also gouged out more of the hole for the latch. After testing the door again and again, I finally put the latch plate back on.

That mark on the inside of the frame by the latch plate?

It turned out part of the door handle assembly – I just looked it up and now know it’s called a “rose” – hits it. So I used sandpaper to gouge out a recess there. That wood is also very soft compared to the frame pieces I’ve been fighting with!

The door now closes, easily and properly!

In fact, it’s probably the smoothest working door in the entire house right now!

I had one last thing to attach.

The stop chain!

I started screwing it in where there were pre-existing holes, but realized the bent part of the plate was extending beyond the wood, and the door would be hitting it. While moving it over, I noticed the plate for the chain on the inner door had only one screw holding it in place, so I fixed that, too.

Now, there is no chance the door will bang open too far. It doesn’t even hit the shelf behind it anymore, which means no risk it’ll hit the window. I can now move that shelf to the other side of the door, in front of the cracked window.

Tomorrow morning, I’ll be touching up the paint that I scraped off, including the door; thankfully we still have some of that blue left.

Once I was done hanging the door, I just couldn’t help it.

I stood there, opening it and closing it again, and giggling to myself. :-D

I am easily entertained!

This door was so much more of a problem to replace than we could have imagined!

The Re-Farmer