Wednesday, September 17, 2014

As I wait on 6 loads of laundry....

Boy of boy we've had a BUSY week!  We are working really hard to get the outside completed. 

As of today, we have all (but 4) panels of the main roof up!! The last 4 panels we will be adding once we have the western facing gable end completed with the siding.  We also have both the north and south facing sides (the long sides) completed with the board part of the siding.  Last night we started working on the mud room - we still have to do the angled sides, but we did get the eastern facing side completed before we tuckered out.

This past week we also laid out 85 of our 100 boards for the siding and I got both sides of them stained/sealed so they are all ready to be put up. Some of them, or rather most of them, will have to be cut to go around windows or to fit properly to the roof line. 

We are getting there! We are getting so close to having the outside 100% completed.  Boy that will be the day:)

A couple days ago, we had finished just over half of the south facing roof, when Scott ran out of screws.... So we took an afternoon break and went to Billings.  While there we were able to purchase some of our inside stuff too! He bought most of the wire we will need on the inside, got our breaker box, and we also got a shower stall pan so we can take 'showers' now.  Keep in mind we still don't have running water, so we are still taking 'showers' from a bucket of water.  However, we also have a solar water bag that Scott hung from a rafter above the shower pan.  But at least now we have a place for the water to drain.  Before, we just set an extra blanket on the floor so the water would soak up there. 

We have noticed this week a funky smell coming from the drains - keep in mind that we now only have the toilet, bathroom sink drain and now the shower drain hooked to something, so the kitchen sink drain and the washing machine drain are still not hooked up but are taped over.  I think Scott figured it out - we've been using the toilet but since we don't have running water, and because it takes an entire kitty litter bucket of water to flush the toilet, we only been flushing about once a day.  I know that probably sounds gross to most of you, but it's a heck of an upgrade from using a bucket, even if we don't flush every single time!  Anyhow, Scott thinks that because not a lot of water is running through the plumbing, that some of the TP and excrement isn't getting pushed all the way to the septic tank and the smell is coming through the drains.  UGG!  Good thing its not a very strong smell and it's not continuous.  All I know is I will be SO thankful once we get all our plumbing hooked up so we don't have to worry about random smells anymore.

It was actually funny when I realized there was a funky smell.... Scott and I were laying in bed getting ready to sleep and he was reading.  All of a sudden I smell something unpleasant and something I've not smelled before and start going, 'Ew! Oh that's so gross... etc'. Apparently Scott had just farted and he lost it laughing because he thought I was talking about what he had done! HAHA.  Well we hadn't realized where it was coming from and since I was in bed when I smelled it, we started pulling out the mattress, pulling out the rack with all our clothes on.... all the while thinking maybe we had a snack and left the trash somewhere and the cats had knocked it off.  Well, after we made a mess out of everything we realized it was coming from the drains.  Scott used up all the water we had flushing the toilet several times, then we used one of the empty buckets to cover up the drain in the shower for the night.  Let's just say I'm SO thankful we figured out what it was and where it was coming from!

While we were roofing, we did have 2 minor mishaps... and both happened to me!  When we do the roofing, I get each panel, peel of the plastic coating, and hand each piece up to Scott who is standing on the top rungs of the ladder.  He then pushes the panel up onto the roof and then gets on the roof himself.  Once he's up there, I climb the ladder to the top of the wall and when he sets the panel, I am there to check that each one is even with the previous one.  Then I hold the panel in place while he puts in 2 screws.  Once those 2 screws are in place, he uses a rubber mallet and hammers the panel's lip over the previous panel's lip.  Then, once hammered in place, he goes back through and screws the entire panel down.

Minor mishap #1 - Scott had a metal T-Square on the roof and when I had come down the ladder and was getting ready to hold the ladder for him, the T-Square fell off the roof and hit me square at the base of my neck where my neck meets my shoulder! Boy did that hurt! But I'm just fine... no bruise (surprisingly) but I'm just a little sore from it.

Mishap #2 - We had just a few panels left and Scott was at the peak of the roof getting the panel lined up to securely attach.  He pulled on the panel a little harder than he thought and my end abruptly moved about 2 ft!  Keep in mind, my job at this time was to hold onto it and that I was at the very top of the ladder (~15' up off the ground).  And also realize that I'm terribly scared of heights!  When the panel moved, luckily I didn't freak out too much and I did have a secure hold on the ladder, but it scared me so much I was shaking and yes, even crying.  I'm admitting it because if you are someone who is not scared of heights it is hard to understand just how scary this situation was for me.  I'm married to a man who's not scared of heights and not scared of falling, but he did say he's afraid of hitting the ground.  He's a monkey on the roof and I know it's been taxing on him this whole time that I am scared of heights. But, needless to say, we made it through both of these ordeals in one piece.

Otherwise, not a whole lot new to report... just working really hard to get things completed. We are really looking forward to getting electricity.  We are also thinking about getting things ready for the winter. 

So far, the foam on the house had done wonders for us temperature wise!  Last week, with the days we had snow, the temperature got down to a low of 22 degrees one night!  Even then, the lowest the temperature got in our house was 51 degrees, but even then, it was comfortable inside and didn't at all feel like it was cold.  Our neighbors gave us a portable propane (for indoor use) heater, and Scott did use it that morning following the 22 degree low.  Within 40 min of having it on, the house heated up nearly 10 degrees and stayed at that temperature the rest of the morning.  And when we cooked our lunch on the propane stove, using it for just 20 min, the house heated up another 5 degrees!  I'm really anxious to see how much we really need to use a wood burning stove to keep it about 65-70 degrees (at the very most) in the house over the winter.

Also, over this past weekend, Scott and I went up Chief Joseph Highway, up on the mountain, to try to see the Northern Lights! But after snoozing in the car on and off till 1am and not seeing a thing, we called it a night and headed home.  Our friend, Zane Wetzel, said that they could be seen up in Maine.  Maybe we'll see them next time!

Also, we got our 4th rattle snake.... He was curled up at the entrance to our property on the road itself.  Scott tried to run him over, but it just made the snake mad. So we got the shot gun and that's all she wrote!  Unfortunately, the blast took his rattle completely off, but below is the before picture of him. Scott had to remind me not to stick my head/body out the window to get the picture because this snake was all coiled up and ready to strike something!

Enjoy these few pictures! I'll be sure to get more the next time.



Thursday, September 11, 2014

The Mother Load of Updates, Pictures and Fun Stories!!

My goodness, where do I even begin!!

First, we have our first visitors!!!  Our neighbor in OH, Charlotte, and her sister Jackie came to visit! Charlotte's daughter actually lives in Cody - (side story - when we came out 2.5 yrs ago to buy our land, we let Charlotte know and at that time had no clue her daughter lived out here!).  She flew into the Cody airport (the smallest airport I've ever seen!).  Her daughter Amy let me know when she was coming in and Scott and I was there to see her.  However, we made is a surprise.  We sat with our backs to them as her family hugged and greeted them first.  Then Amy said, 'Mom, I have something to show you this way....' and as Charlotte walked around the end of our bench I said, 'Hey stranger!'.  I thought she was going to lose it!!  She had to sit down and just couldn't believe we were there to see her too.  She was so shocked that when she went to call her husband she kept fumbling with the numbers on the phone.  I was on a natural high that night because of the wonderful surprise for her!

Charlotte and her sister came out to see our place on Monday and we had a lot of fun with them!  They had a first hand look at our progress, we surprised them by showing them that the north side of the roof was completed (yay!), then we went to the Silver Tip restaurant in Belfry, MT where we had the infamous Wimpy Burgers.  Finally, I just had to show them an up close view of our gorgeous mountains, so we went into the Clark Canyon.  There was a surprise there for Charlotte - her daughter Amy is an amazing photographer whose passion is for bears.  There in the canyon is a bear informational sign with lots of Amy's pictures.

House Update
We are making progress! We have the entire north side of the roof on.  First we added the top 'board' as a trim piece (we'll do the same at the bottom but after we have the batten added).  Then Scott added the roofing fascia. Once that was up we started on the roof panels!  The first day we had about 2/3rds of it up, but I think it was a few days past before we could finish it because of the wind. 
Since then, we really haven't had much to do because we were waiting on the last 100 pieces of our siding (it arrived this past Monday) - however, because of the cold, rain, and yes, even snow, we haven't been able to put on the sealant/stain yet.  But it looks like sometime tomorrow afternoon we should be able to.  It's supposed to warm up to the low-mid 60s tomorrow.

Wyoming Weather
Last night, September 10th, it was in the forecast for us to get snow! I personally LOVE snow - the peacefulness, the beautifully made snowflakes, how it transforms the land into this winter wonderland.... to me, snow is just magical!  Well, lets just say I couldn't wait for it to snow at our house and since we were already cooped up I told Scott I wanted to go to Red Lodge to see the snow.  Red Lodge is quite a bit higher in elevation than we are as it's a mountain town, and they called for 100% chance of snow by 8pm!  And we had a recommendation to go to Foster's and Logan's Bar and Grill - by the way it was so good.  After we ate we went and sat in the parking lot of the Visitor's Center (they have free wifi) and sure enough, shortly after we got there the snow started falling!  On the way home, once we were out of the Red Lodge area, it turned to rain, but when we arrived home it was basically really wet snowflakes. 

I was really hoping that when I woke up this morning we'd be in a winter wonderland, but not a single snowflake on the ground near our house.  However, we were blessed with a view of the beautiful snow covered Beartooth Mountains!

Today's Adventures....
I didn't feel like staying at home, not with the first snow and all.  First we wanted a better up-close look at our snow covered mountains so we ventured into the Clark Canyon to see first hand.

Afterwards we went toward Cody and ventured to South Fork (the North Fork is the road into Yellowstone, where South Fork takes you around the other side of the lake).  This area got a lot more snow!  The lake was just beautiful with the steam rising from it.  We even saw some fish jumping up out of the water, a duck swimming then taking flight, and even a 'v' of geese flying above.  As we continued on past the lake there was a field of deer and antelope.  And finally, after we had turned around, we drove over a bridge that had a creek under it.  Way up in a tree over looking the lake was a Bald Eagle!!  What a symbolic way to remember September 11th with today.

Fun Stories
In the pictures below you will see a pack rat... Notice where he is! Under the hood of Scott's truck!  Out here you have to check your vehicles frequently because the pack rats like to get in there, make their nests and even chew up all your hoses.  He also left us some 'presents' of pieces of cacti - that's the interesting thing they do.  To discourage other animals from getting to them, they put pieces of cacti all around where they are nesting.  We tried scaring the thing out of there and he just wouldn't budge.  So Scott moved the truck and all it would do is hop from one part of the truck to another.  I hate to admit this, as I'm very much an animal lover, but in an effort to get him out of the truck he wasn't very quick/smart and got ran over.  So much for trying to save him and just discourage him from being in the truck!

Two days ago (9.9) it was too cold and windy to work on the siding, and we had to go to Bridger, MT anyway (to pay for our siding), so we did a little more exploring.  Unfortunately I don't have any pictures, but we took the long way to Powell and ended up by the Pryor Mountains. This was such a cool drive.  Sometime I'll have to get pictures to share with you all of this area to show you all it's beauty!

During that same 'exploration' day, we passed a lot of farm fields that were being harvested.  We saw the sugar beets being dug up by an interesting machine that digs them up the beets ride this circular conveyor belt and it dumped in a wagon.  We passed lots of trucks that were leaving the fields.  We discovered that they were taking the sugar beets to an empty field where they were dumped in these rather large piles.  I asked my older brother Darren about this - he said they will leave them in the fields and they will freeze.  As long as the beets make it to the factory before they thaw it will be ok, but if they thaw first then they become mush.

We also saw several MT corn fields being harvested when the fields were still very, very green.  I haven't seen this done before so I also asked Darren about it. He said that if they took the stalks, which I do believe they did, then it was probably silage for feeding the animals.

Farming out here is so different than in OH.  I don't think I've seen a single soybean field.  There are pinto beans, sugar beats, the occasional corn field (mostly I've seen them in MT), sunflowers, different types of oats, and lots of hay.  When they bale the hay out here, all the bales, even the square bales, are left in the fields in rows.  Then later a special tractor comes and gets the bales.  Here they make round bales, really big square bales, and then the smaller square bales (what I'm used to).

Let me just tell you, every day out here is an adventure!

Here are LOTS of pictures of everything I've described above.  Click on the first one and it will scroll through them all.  Enjoy!