Planting.

A day of planting and transplanting ensues. Winter's last gasp of 30 degrees last night can't stop the garden now. Plans have been hatched, seedlings germinated. It all gets committed to the ground today to see what this clay soil can produce with the help of several yards of horse manure. And afterwards, a regression, a going home. I will negate all of my carbon-footprint shrinking efforts all at once and wing my way across the states for a visit to black fertile soils of the Midwest. Whilst KT is on an island, I will be landlocked among the lengthened vowels of my closest of kin. We will probably enjoy beer-boiled bratwurst as we cheer the Brewers (if they are playing).

---w---

News from the Country Estate - May 23

Greetings,

-Naps have been taken in healthy quantity today.

-The garden will be tilled and planted this weekend come hell or high water.

-The boat trailer will be painted as well.

-KT is going a retreat on Isle au Haut. I am flying to Milwaukee on Wednesday and staying until the next monday.

--that is all--

-w-

News from the Country Estate, May 17

Greetings,

I mentioned an impromptu trip to New Hampshire with a tractor in tow. It was this tractor, dwarfing my puny Chevy 1500. I was a little nervous, but I was assured that an F150 with a smaller engine had made the trip. We estimated that the tractor and trailer weighed double what my truck weighs, probably topping 10,000 lbs.





She made it ok. It was a little slow going and a little bouncy with the hydraulic brakes traveling a few inches before engaging, especially around the Gorham/Standish area. When we disconnected the rig it was like a great weight had been lifted from our shoulders.

I've still got a nasty cough hanging on.

It rains, and rains.

up to

Hokay, so, here are some of the things I've been up to this week:

Finishing up window and door trim at Tandem Glass Studio and Gallery

Sweeping up hand plane shavings. Some of us do it the old fashioned way. (Mainly, I didn't have the power planer with me.

A hand plane shaving so thin that its translucent.


With two small ratchet straps I was able to pick up my snow plow with the tractor.


And drive very slowly and carefully around the back of the carport.

Getting the snow plow into a spot for storage turned out to be a lot less work than I expected.

As I mentioned in the last post, I spent Monday through Thursday out on Swan's Island raising a timberframe for Connolly and Co. I caught a cold on the first day, so I didn't enjoy myself as much I might have otherwise, but it was a very successful raising overall. Swan's Island is located about 8 miles from Mt. Desert island, the home of Acadia National Park. It is accessible only by private boat and the State of Maine Ferry. Here are a few photos of the chaos:

Bent 5 of the barn frame going up.

Bent is now vertical as we walk it over to its proper place.

Bent 4 up and braced off. See the shed dormer taking shape.

Setting purlins in bay 4.

Flying a dormer/post/ridge assembly into place in bay 3. I am at the peak on the left.

Bringing the ridge/rafter peak joint together for a perfect fit.

Raising bent 2.

Flying the last set of purlins complete with the traditional sprig on the last piece.

The crew.

J.R. of J. R. Williams Crane Service. The man behind the levers.

The finished frame.

Close up of shed dormer.

The 4000 sq. ft. log home we stayed in Monday through Thursday.

The Great Room in the log home.

View from the deck at the log home. There is a light house in the distance.

Waiting for the ferry back to Mt Desert Island and home.

Ferry rides are still exciting to me.

Ye olde sailboat in its current condition, in storage that is.

View from the stern under the tarp.

And from the bow.

Looking pretty awkward with its fellow boats out of water.

I've got my work cut out for me this weekend. I pressure washed the boat trailer in preparation for Rustoleum's Rust Reformer primer and a new coat of blue paint. I've got to hook up the lights and bolt down the pressure treated longitudinal rails and the keel rest. I've scribed a template for the hull cradle, but I still have to cut the actual plywood. The stern jacks are still an issue. I don't feel like spending $250-300 on new equipment. This afternoon I'm making an impromptu trip to North Conway, NH towing like 10,000 lbs of equipment.

Next week, more work, more gardening, more boat stuff and hopefully a bit of climbing.

---w---

Back

Back from the island with a bad cold.

I'll post pictures of the frame soon.

---w---

Country Estate News May 9

greetings!

Yesterday we loaded an 18 wheeler with timbers for next week's job on Swan's Island. We leave at 5 am ish from our shop, to catch the 9 o'clock ferry out of Bass Harbor. The barn is a five bent, two-dormered barn in Douglas Fir. I'm told the island has no public services and that we're staying in a 4000 sq. ft. log home while we work. I've never been out to that island. KT is going on some kind of island retreat for work in a few weeks on Isle au Haut.

Here is a silhouette of the sailboat. It is a Bristol Corinthian/19. 19'6.5" Bow to Stern. 6'6" beam. Drawing 2'9" and displacing 2800lbs. Designed by Carl Alberg, there were 712 produced between 1966 and 1980. She is rigged as a sloop. The trailer design has pretty much coalesced to involve a bow stop/winch assembly, a 1.5" thick plywood hull cradle in the front, a keel-rest of steel and carpet in the middle and two jack stands int he back. Now for the assembly.


In other news, everything is green green green. The seedlings are getting bigger and the garden is nearly ready to plant. We just have to do some spreading of horse manure and rototilling. The black flies are out, but not in full force yet. We had a very pleasant fire out back last night under clear skies and a full moon. It was so bright you could almost read by it.

That is all.

---w---

Country estate news May 3

Greetings,

The news from the Country Estate:

H1N1 Flu (aka swine) has not had much effect on us here, but sleepy upside-down chicken syndrome seems to be endemic. Here I tend to a victim of this not thoroughly understood malady that affects pea-brained inverted poultry:


Composting has begun in earnest with a newly constructed compost pile thing. In the background sits the maple syrup stove and the future site of the suga-shack. We've got big plans!


Soil preparation for the garden:


Seedlings, now a week old.


I mentioned a sailboat in the last post. Said boat needs a trailer. Since I don't have $3500 for a custom trailer and I'm arrogant enough to think I can build my own, I recently brought home another rusting piece of metal. This time, the largest rusting piece of metal I have ever owned. A 1970's era Holsclaw dual axle trailer which will be the sailboat's chariot. It needs some work as you can see. I have removed all the old rollers and a few other superfluous components in my attempt to use the chassis to haul a 19.5 foot keel-hulled boat. I plan to attach 4 or 5 jack-stands to support the hull and weld a 6 foot piece of C-channel down the middle as a keel guide.



Lots and lots of rusty bolts. Some succumb to the impact wrench, while others succumb to the grinder.

That is all for now.