Today Things Were On Fire

It's been a good couple of weeks. The weather has been nice. I rebuilt the batter boards. I'm getting everything leveled out. I've poured about a ton and a half of cement in the ground. I have a large stack of cinder blocks and am preparing to get them in the ground.

This evening as I was finishing up, the farmer that owns the surrounding land came out and started some controlled burns. At first I thought it strange that he would start so late in the day. However, when the sun got low in the sky the flames and smoke were just stunning to look at. I grabbed my camera and shot some images to share.

While shooting this I saw a squirrel on our land for the first time. We have a lot of hawks and eagles out here, so small eatable creatures tend to lay low. This little guy, however, was tearing through the tree tops as fast as his little squirrel legs would propel him. I believe he was saying in squirrel language, "Shit, shit, shit, shit, shit, HOT, shit, shit shit."

While on the roof of the little house, I also took a shot of the build site. I think I'll be taking progression shots from up there as things progress.

More as it happens.

Update on the Foundation Redesign and Other Things

After what's felt like a horribly long time of getting nowhere, things are finally coming together. We've had a break in the rain. The trench was cleaned out, the sides have been mostly repaired, and we're just about ready to have another inspection.

After talking with the inspector, he had a suggestion that would speed things up and make it a bit easier on us. Instead of pouring our footings 10 inches thick, we're pouring it up to 24 inches and laying a cinder block stem wall on that. It's costing us a little more and requires us to do a bit more rebar than the original plans. I've been a bit stressed out about that because I've never done rebar like this nor did I have a lot of time to go over the code. I really hope I got it right, because there's not much time left before cold weather sets in. No pressure, right?

This required three pieces of rebar running horizontally and vertical rebar placed every four feet. The verticals had to be placed just so since they will be running through the cavities of the cinder blocks. To make sure I was on the mark I ran the lines on the batter boards and checked my placement with a template of the cinder blocks.

Jack decided that cats are more interesting than rebar. I agree.

So here's more Jack:

Beyond the rebar, we've just been enjoying a quiet summer on the prairie. Our garden has done pretty well for the first year. We have a tiny black cat that has been hanging around. We're calling her Beyonce. She loves to sing, and since all our cats are boys she is the single lady.

No photos of her yet. She's still very skittish.

We have some prairie sunflowers that have grown on the property. Normally, I dislike sunflowers. A lot. Sunflowers are what interior decorators use when they want a place to be Kansas-y. I always associate them with truck stops, gas station bathrooms, kitschy gift shops, and the girls locker room all throughout the 90s. OK, that last one was just Elizabeth Arden's Sunflowers, but it still sucks.

These sunflowers, however, are MY sunflowers, so they're totally different. I love them. The bees really seem to like them too so they are definitely staying.

Edgar is still doing well.

I put up our mailbox and started decorating it. I'm painting mushrooms from my favorite 1970s enamelware set, and yes, the stems look like dicks. Ha ha, dicks.

diiiiiiiiiiicks

The farmer that owns the surrounding land came through and hayed. Now we have large hay bales.

Yeah, they're really not that interesting.

Not us though. We don't really want the grasses cut and hauled away. We're letting it grow wild for now and will be mulching it so we can help restore the top soil.

Damn long-grassed hippies.

I've done some work down in the tree line. There's flat spot that I want to turn into a meditation garden. It sits under a huge oak tree and next to our little stream. Right now it's full of flowers...

Awwwww.

... and a giant honking orb spider.

EEEEEEEEEEEE

That's pretty much it for now. I've had some new stuff happen as far as the trenches go since I started this post, but that will wait for now. Hopefully I'll be sharing some concrete pouring in the next week or so.

Holy Crap, Things Are Happening

Yes! Things are happening. We've had our little house at the build site for a couple months now and thing have been steadily moving forward. One of the latest additions is a mobile wifi hotspot so that should make keeping the internet up to date much easier.

So, let's catch up.

We have actually been ready to start digging the foundation since mid-April, but the weather has been quite uncooperative. It rained.

                                   

                                                OH MY GOD DID IT RAIN

This month we've received about ten inches of rain, which is more than three times the normal monthly average. On the plus side, we've learned where all the low spots on the property are. On the down side, some of our neighbors have had their fields flooded.

The excavation we dug for our root cellar has become a pond.

                          

Complete with tadpoles.

Tiny sperm-frogs!

With all this rain we've only had four full days of sun. Why so little sun? Oh, because we expanded our solar electric system and mounted the panels on a nifty solar optimizing swivel mount. Of course. Mother Nature gives zero fucks about my ability to produce electricity. I know how it is.

Now with 90% more swivel

Jack does not approve of solar energy. Jack wants to watch the whole world burn.

We have our cats out here with us now. I was afraid that they wouldn't like the change, but that has not been the case. Jack has really enjoyed the new stomping grounds. He has effectively murdered all the rodents that were holed up in our shed. Given the poop and damage they were inflicting on our stuff, I'm not terribly upset by that.

Sweet, sweet murder

I've kept busy getting the gardens started. I started a bunch of plants from seed earlier this year. This year I was pressed for time so I just cut three garden plots. Eventually, I hope to have several raised beds.

Tomatoes, peppers, and okra

It's been tricky keeping all the plants happy with all this rain. The tomatoes and pepper are doing well, as are the rhubarb, melons, strawberries, and brussel sprouts. The okra doesn't seem to like the cooler weather, the onions the goji berry bush have gotten too much water, and I lost the sweet potatoes to root rot. Plus with the ground as wet as it is, weeding has been a pain in the butt.

Gutter berries

If the weather people are not lying to me (YOU BETTER NOT BE LYING *fistshake*) the weather should be clearing up soon and we can start the foundation. We tryed mowing the grass down and it was so wet that it destroyed the drive belt. So, I took the grass whip to the build site.                          

Whip it good

I braved the western swamp to measure out our setback and get the first stake put in place. Once the ground dries up a little more we can put up the batter boards.

Until then, we'll just relax a bit and enjoy the scenery.