Wednesday, May 23rd
Our third construction season!
The return of the warm weather is finally giving me the energy and courage to get back to work and to the chronicles. We'll once again be moving our quarters to the shelter by the river and that's where things are under way so far. It's like spring cleaning: move everything around, open the windows, put away the winter sweaters and take the bed outdoors!
Monday, we planted 22 trees the city provided for a program to reforest the shores of lakes and rivers. Red oaks and red pines, 2 species that we don't have in our forest and that will help fill in some areas that had been cut a few years back. It had left large bare bands where the machines went in and the fierce winds we've had this year brought several trees down. I also went to a half-day seminar at the end of March where they told us about the different people and programs to help revive privately owned forests. We're considering having a ten year plan drawn out to help us with this task that we really have at heart. In the spring, before the raspberries and other plants cover the ground, it's quite depressing to see all the stumps and fallen logs. It looks like total chaos, I sometimes call it the war zone.
Back to the construction, one of the first things we have to do, is to open the ceiling on the second floor to check the extent of the damage caused by the roof ventilation problem I described in my previous chronicle. Because the indoor air was drawn into the roof where the humidity is a lot lower due to the temperature differential, a lot of condensation occured. We'll probably have to change some of the insulation material where the cellulose was soaked, namely under the turbines where ice was forming and then melting down on sunny days. We think we have figured a way to fix the problem by reversing the air flow in the roof void. We'll use the tubes from the turbines as air intakes and place louver vents on the front face of the roof to let the air flow out at the highest point.
After that comes the bathroom plumbing, the 3 cement steps and the stone border of the planter. Then we will move the electrical system into the stairwell and build the wooden steps to complete the staircase. There's also another coat of mud and the stabilized earth floor on the second level to be done at some point. Of course, we'll call you to the rescue since slinging mud is everyones favorite chore! And for those of you who want to learn how to pack tires, we still have a few on the exterior wing walls to do before we can finish the perimeter insulating umbrella and get going on the landscaping.