Work Day 29 - RG Project

I went and got to work a little after 9am. I didn't last 2 hours before I was out of there. I did get some more of the walls down. Would have like to have done another row but I was already soaked and it felt like about 90 degrees. I didn't want to ruin things for tonight or tomorrow by pushing it took much. So here is some pictures.

Look back and compare, I took out another window too.

Yes, we do have a mess all around the building.

So I loaded the truck up with 35 block and when home. I upload them to make this raised compost bin. I got to get some worms and make a top for it. Oh, tomorrow I will finish the block, and see what I can come up with for a top.

It is 2'x18' inside dimensions.

OVER THE WEEKEND

We did get the some plants in, m parents and I. The asparagus bed didn't do well and we only have three plants, right in the middle of the bed. So I tilled the ends and put in...

1st. pic: Kohlrabi and Brussels Sprouts. 2nd Pic: Bell Peppers and Broccoli. And the chicken wire is to keep the rabbits out. Cross you fingers. Bottom pic's that won't go where I want them and some "wild flowers" I planted last year.

I have a Lee County Genealogical Society board meeting to go to. So I have better get ready.

Friday

I didn't do much today, just took it easy for the most part. Took some pictures, along the Rock River, at Seward Park in Rock Falls. I also went down to the Hennepin Feeder Canal, near Tampico, and got s few nice shots. I sure do need practice.

Seward Park, Rock Falls, Illinois

Hennipen Feeder Canal

Hennipen Feeder Canal

I got a call from Jim about the building, I haven't been there since Monday and I guess he was beginning to wonder if I got lost. He has gotten a lot more of the block down and took out another window. I will be back at it on Monday whether I am ready or not. I hope to recover more over the weekend.

Round Grove Project, looking north

Then last I went home and got the fence around the garden. We have a lot of plants ready to go in but the rabbits will get them if we don't fence it off. I hope it will be enough, I have seen rabbits get though this type before. Turned out to be 15'x48'.

I talked to a friend who had tried to take have grown wild rabbits and pen them up. He said they just died. It must be too much for wald rabbits to cope with. I really want to get some ducks and geese. I would have to have the back yard fence in to do that anyway. Most of it is done, except the one side that you can see above. One more tree needs to come out and all the stumps ground out. It happens to be the tree in the center of the picture. 

In another few weeks I should have the Round Grove project done and be laying the block for the greenhouse.

Thursday is the Family Tree Center

Every Thursday I'm at the genealogy societies library, The Family Tree Center, up in Dixon. I am the VP for the society and I run projects also. I have been Projects Chairman for about 15 years and this year they need a VP so they got stuck with me. I do enjoy genealogy and have gotten a lot done over the years.

Tonight I worked on the index of the Dixon Daily News, 1910-1914. There are almost 100,000 entries in this newspaper index, about 800 pages printed on both sides. I should have it ready for the shelf already but I have been busy with other things....

One of the other tings is the garden. I got 30 plants in this morning, 15 Okra and 15 Sunflowers. I put them in the Grove St. bed. It is along the fence that is along Grove Street, of course. Then I got a second fence up to keep the rabbits out, I hope. I even did some mowing and mulched some of the bed.

It is kind of hard to see them but they are there. The Okra is on the right and the Sunflowers are on the left. The Sunflowers should get to be 3 or 4 feet tall and the Okra 5 to 6 feet.

If it stops raining long enough tomorrow I will get a fence around the garden. I have 15 Kohlrabi, 13 Bell Peppers and 7 tomatoes. All of which I love to eat. There is nothing like eating a fresh picked Bell Pepper. You know, like an apple.

I do like JJ's idea of catching the rabbits and putting them in pens and eat them. Rabbit is good but I don't know how they react to being in a cage. It is better that by buddies idea of feeding them to his snake. And I really don't like shooting them. I shot one last year, no thanks.

Rototilling the Garden

First off this morning was a 10am dentist appointment. I got two crowns put in the upper left. They put two temp crowns in the lower right. It was the first time they worked on the lower teeth. So Novocain in the lower jaw. It took forever to wear off. I was in there an hour and it was after 3:30 before I got all the feeling back. Lunch was fun.

So this afternoon we laid out the garden. We being; nephew Todd, nephew Josh, and me. We were trying to get it straight and rectangular. The lot isn't square in the first place and the garden last year wasn't straight ether. We made it longer and now it is about 15'x50'. As soon as it was measured and staked out, nephew Josh disappeared and left Todd and I to mow and then rototill. It took about 3 hours to do everything and I did three passes tilling the garden. It will take at least three more especially for the new ground before it is ready for the plants.

I have the museum in the morning and a 2pm doctors appointment. I'm going to ask for them to up the Prozac. I don't have a lot of hope that they will, but I will try. It seems to "run out". I don't expect to be able to work and 8 hour day but I would like more than I getting now. I have been pushing it, today was no exception.

Anyhow tomorrow I would like to finish the rototilling and get the Grove St. bed along the fence planted also.

There are 6 blueberry plants in a row on the right and the bed I want to plant is along the fence on the left. I have 15 sunflowers and Okra plants each, to go there. I will be putting a fence around them to keep the rabbits out. Wish me luck.

Work Day 28 - RG Project

It didn't rain, it went south of us. So at 10 I was at Round Grove working on the northwest corner of the building. There is a stairwell in the stage and we needed some of the scaffolding to have a platform to reach the block from.

Anyhow it took about 2 hours and I got it down far enough so we can reach it from the outside. We loaded up 40 block into the back of the truck along with the last of the scaffolding and I was done there. I went home and unloaded the block, showered, ate lunch, dug up a rhubarb plant for a Sister at church, she picked it up and then I took the scaffolding back to my friend.

I was tired and had enough for the day so I took a 30 mile joy ride. Bought a Mt. Dew and a candy bar and went north. Driving helps me to unwine, clears my head. When I get back home what do I do? more work. A wood corner fence post, pulling weeds, filling holes in the ditch from the snow plow, and a little mowing and mulching. Now it was about 5:30 and although I could see another dozen things that I want to get done, I go in the house.

I've been thinking about church yesterday. It's ... odd. It is kind of like going home after you have live away, like off to college, or just moved out. Home stays the same, we change.

In Sunday School the lesson was on Moses and how the children of Israel, needed to have things to remind them of God. They must of had really short memories, and easily distracted. So anyhow the teacher is going on how we should have things in our home to remind us of the Lord. Pictures of the Temples, prophets, church mags.... you get the idea. Its good to have those things around. But they don't stop you from doing wrong. You choose who you want to be and how you want to act.

And to forget God. I have talk to other people that have quite conversations with God all of the time. Some people like to drive and talk. That seems to be the most poplar. Now I will admit that most of us don't get Him talking back. At least not in the regular way. But many feel that it helps them make decisions or that they feel inspiration. They fine it helpful in their lives to have this kind of relationship with Him. To be able to talk to Him like He is your best friends

My point is that if you have a good relationship with God, then you really don't need your home plaster with reminders. Put God first, trust in Him, have some faith, things work out. You do the best you can with what happens in your life. That is all you can do and all He wants you to do. Maybe I am oversimplifying this? I don't know. But at church it like they are into the mechanics of it and miss the point of church. To be closer to God and to be as much like Christ as we can.

I know it is going to take me a little time to adjust to going to church every Sunday. They have better get me a calling, (a job to do), really quick. I'm more of the giving, serving kind of person. Not the sit in the pew and don't notice me kind of guy.

Tomorrow morning I have a dentist appointment. I should be back from Rockford by 1pm and then I should rototill the garden. My plants are getting big. Oh and fence out the rabbits.

Two More Trees

Today I cut down two more of the trees that are on our fence line. I don't like using the chainsaw but these had to go so that we can rototill the garden. It is already late, all of the rain and the RG project has put me behind. One of the trees landed in the area we tilled last year and the other in the area we want to expand into this year. We will almost double the size of the garden.

My father, Louis, nephew Todd and myself did most of the work. Nephew Joshua helped with the rope and pulling the trees to make sure they fell where we wanted then to. I know it sounds like we don't know what we are doing, but well, I'm not good with the chainsaw and we don't want the tree to go into the neighbors house. It went well and nothing went wrong, they both fell right where we wanted them to.

You can see how far I got cutting them up. I ran out of gas, the saw was fine, I just couldn't cut anymore. I will try to work on it Monday. But of course we are getting more rain on Monday. It is suppose to be dry the rest of the week though. Take a look at the burn up pile we have. Still have a little more to go on it. I will let it dry out the then do a quick and controlled burn.

As soon as I can I will till and fence in the garden area. We do have a lot of plants ready to go in. We have a grow light setup. Okra on the right, kohlrabi on the left. There are bell peppers in the blue cups and sunflowers to their left. We have tomatoes, broccoli, brussels sprouts and celery started also. I hope to get all of these in the ground this week.

There is spinach and lettuce already coming up in the raised bed. The yard is a disaster, but I did get the front lawn mowed this afternoon.

Work Day 26 & 27 - RG Project

We did get a little work in on Wednesday. Jim, Les and I got about 2 hours in. We got the southeast corner down to where we can get at it without the scaffolding.

Thursday was more rain. But not today!! We got a lot done and we had some help from my nephew Todd. Today we worked on the north end of the building. I cut down the ceiling joists and removed the sill plates on the right and left sides. Then went to work on the block.

Before

During, that's Todd, 1:00 pm

After, 5:30 pm

We started a little after 9:00 am, took about an hour to pickup 10 more pallets and eat lunch. Finished up before 5:30 pm and we stacked the block on the pallets. There seems to be more block than I anticipated.

48 blocks per pallet, about 1,700 lbs.

I am feeling a bit better today. Got lots of rest last night and am going to take it easy tomorrow. I have to find my balance, just like everyone else. There is always work to do. But work is to help us have joy, not take all the joy away.

Picture for JJ

I took this picture in May of 1981 while I was serving a mission. It was taken at the Wind Rivers in Wyoming. I hope this brights your day JJ.

Tired...

I wasn't going to post but I thought I should put the good and the bad. I am like that dog that has a 10 foot chain but thinks it is longer. He will run and when he gets to the end he tries to keep going. His head and collar stops but his butt keeps on going and he lands on his back. He is always surprised, like "hey what happened."

Well that's me. I was feeling so good and getting so much done. Then it starts to get hard to keep the pace up. But do I slow down, no. I just keep pushing myself to accomplish my goal. Always hoping that I will get done before I crash and burn.

So here I am, tired, wiped out. I need to just sit and do nothing but rest. But I don't want to rest. There are things to do. I want to get up and get things done. But then I don't feel like doing anything. I don't enjoy the things that I do get done. I don't enjoy anything, I'm just blaaaa. You would think that I would learn.

So I will go to bed early and hope that tomorrow I will be in a better mood. That the sun will be out and I will start to feel like getting something done. Not that I have to get things done. It has been raining all week, so it suits the way I been feeling.

Long Ago - 1963-67

JJ asked how did I learn all this stuff on buildings. So I dug out some old pictures. I have live in Como most of my life. We moved here in 1963 and lived in an very old house until we built a better one, which we live in now. We have a double lot, it's about 3/4 of an acre on the corner of Front St. and Grove St. The Rock River runs just on the other side of Front St. and a line of houses. Its about 200 feet away I'd say.

The old house, my Gramma and nanny goat, May 1966

 

We have never had much money but we always made the best of things. Dad was running the Galt Garage in 1963 and went to work at GE in Morrison about 64. I remember moving to Como in the company car. I thought it was so cool because it had a fold down seat and a lot of rollers in the back. I don't know if I realized that it was made to haul dead people.

Galt Garage Company car and Roger?, 1963

We put in this big garden, which we had for may years. I think it was in the 80's that we stop the big garden.

Gordon (me), Tim and Tom my brothers, 1964

Similar angle in 2007, same house in back ground.

Looks primitive don't it, 1964

We need a new house and dad couldn't get a loan. He said he was going to build a house if he had to charge it as Sears and Robuck. So in 1966 we started by digging a hole, for a 32x36 basement. We used hand shovels.

Summer of 1966

We had a rain storm and I remember it filling with water and the sides caved in. More digging. I did help with the digging. It was fun but hard work for a six year old.

Dad laid all of the block himself, 1967

During the winter of 1965-66 we tore down a house in Sterling for the building materials. Dad was taking off the roof in freezing weather. I remember removing the plaster and lathe. It was freezing cold and mom brought hot chocolate.

Winter of 1965-66.

What seems strange now is that I was only 5 years old. "Helping" tear down a house, I must have scared the living daylights out of my parents at times.

To be continued

Work Day 25 - RG Project

What a day. I got started at 8:30am. I was worried that we would get rained out. But in the end we stopped at about 4pm and still no rain. We were both pretty tired. Throwing 35lbs. block as far as you can and trying not to break them can be tiring.

Anyhow I got the scaffolding setup and removed the sill plate on the west wall. I removed all the block possible before I had to deal with the front wall. We still had one joist and rafter set to deal with. It was bolted into the front wall. So I managed to remove the block around the bolt on the west side and pry the rafter from the joists. the joists kind of did the splits and then fell in away from the front wall. We got them out of the way and I removed all of the block I could reach from the right (west) corner. We moved the scaffolding to the middle in front of the door and took out as many as I could get to. 

We move the scaffolding again, as seen in the picture below. We went to lunch and picked up a coupling for the air hose. Mine had worn out and was leaking badly. I was able to get quite a bit down before we had to call it a day. I had to be at a genealogy meeting at 7 and was running out of time. The wind had been getting stronger all afternoon and I had a lot of dirt in my hair and eyes. My eyes are still itching.

We did beat the rain. It was after 7 when it did finely get here. It is suppose to rain tomorrow and we will just have to see if I can get the rest of the front wall down even with the other side. We need to get it low enough so we can take the scaffolding back. There is at least another day of two of work on the back wall before it is low enough.

Work Day 24 - RG Project

The weather was lousy today. It rain last night and by 9am it was over. But it was cold, windy and wet. Despite the weather we were determined to at least get the west wall down as far as the east one. I had to cut and remove the sill plate. The both Jim and I went to work on the block. Without a third person though we had to stop and stack the block. That really slowed things down.

About noon we stopped to run some errands and eat something. We also picked us Les a little after 2pm. Having his help made the things go faster. With him stacking the block Jim and I got the wall down fair quickly.

After that I wanted to go ahead and remove the rest of the ceiling joists in the front. There were eight of them and I was able to get them cut down without a problem. We still have the center support beam which comes down tomorrow. Probably whether we like it or not. I think I have worked out a way to get it down without having any major problems, like breaking my neck.

Tomorrow I would like to take the front down to the top of the door. I will have to see if I can get a third man to help, since Les is otherwise occupied. It would definitely make things go better.

Work Day 23 - RG Project

Today I had to solve a problem. How do I get 500 + blocks from Round Grove to my home in Como, 8 miles away? There are 48 to a pallet, which weighs 1,700 lbs, and there will be about 10 pallets, which is a total of 17,000 lbs. I have no pallets. My truck is too old to haul them, and how many trips would that be and the gas for the trips, and where to put them until I can use them next year.... you see my problem.

Well I was really blessed today. Curt, a friend from grade school, has a trucking company. It just so happens it's about 2 miles down the road. I went a told him my problem. He offered to help me out. He will send a truck that we can load the pallets on. I have someone to load the pallets at Round Grove. He will unload, and store them until I need them at his truck company. I bought 10 pallets from Terry, another good friend, and can get some more.

Today as Jim and I used air chisels to take the block down, Les, yes another friend, stacked them on the pallets. I was really starting to worry about this because I had to start stacking the block on pallets today as we took down the wall. Sometimes you just have to have some faith.

And having the chance to talk to Curt again was great. I have always really respected him, and enjoy talking with him. I hope to renew our friendship this summer.

So I bet you want to see some pictures of what we accomplished today. I was slow in getting going this morning. I stopped and talked with Curt, and had to pick Les up in town. It was around 11 when we got started, had to go to Morrison for parts and lunch, and stopped by 3:30pm. So I think we got about 3 or 4 hours work in. This being Thursday I needed to be at the genealogy society at 5pm.

I had to take down more of the joists, cut through and remove some of the sill plate before we could use the air chisels on the block. The block came apart fairly easily. And there was the moving of the scaffolding also.

Before we stopped, we got everything ready for tomorrow. This wall will mostly be gone and we are gong to work to the left, towards the front of the building. The weather forecasts rain tomorrow, ending about 3pm. Maybe we can get four hours in for the three of us.

Work Day 22 - RG Project

Things went well today. I didn't get as far as I wanted, but the whole place didn't come down on our heads ether. As I cut away and dropped the ceiling joists the center beam started to sag more and more. So we had to change things a little. I had to remove the 2x6x16' rafters that I had used for planks to walk on. Their weight was making things worse. So I had to do it from underneath. There was no way I was going up there again. I had already cut loose at least four joists. The ceiling joists are 2x6's 22 feet long.

The other problem was that I had to remove the boards that were tiring the joists to the center beam. I used the ladder, but it is just a little shorter than I like for that kind of thing. But I did get it done.

In the picture you can see where I cut the joist on the right side, east. And notice that there is nothing on the left side. When the joist would fall it would pull the other end off the sill plate and come crashing down. But the center beam was toe nailed to the joist and I had to pry it loose with a 2x6x16'. I used it like a long crowbar. I got 14 down, one still hanging, and only broke three. One broke in half. I thought, I was walking on those?? There are 18 left. We left the ones above the windows to help keep the walls stable. BTW the walls do move a little.

Tomorrow we will remove the blocks above and between the windows. We will leave the end walls until last. The corners make them more stable that the long walls. We don't want the walls coming down on their own.

We were a little nerves there for a while but, we worked it out. If we could have just gone back on top and removed the 2x6 planks and the center beam, it would have been easy. But that was not an option once I cut loose enough of them and it began to sag. Tomorrow should be fun.

Work Day 21 - RG Project

We worked about 4 1/2 hours today. Did get a little done though and I am happy with the progress. The wind was something else. It wasn't bad at first, but as the day wore on it got a lot worse. I took two avi videos but don't know how to put them on the blog. I am going to have to look a few things up I guess.

So first I want to show you a birds mouth. It is the cut out made in the bottom of the rafter so that it sits on and hangs over the sill plate. I cut straight down to the birds mouth to cut the soffet off.

This is how it looked when I started this morning. I did as describe yesterday to expose the bird mouth. I then cut the soffet off.

As I went down the roof edge I took out every other rafter, by prying at the bottom of the birds mouth. Then I would let the rafter pair do the splits. The other rafter sets had a T brace and I had to remove it before doing the same process to them.

In the end you can see the results.

Facing south.

Facing north.

I left the five at the front of the building for tomorrow. I think I pressed my luck enough for one day. Not to mention the wind kept getting worse. We are suppose to get rain tonight and be over by 9am. I guess we shall see.

Jim got the pile of wood that was in the middle of the floor all cut up. But I can make a mess a lot fast that anyone can clean it up.

Tomorrow I take out the remaining rafters, and the middle support. You can see it down the middle of the building in both pictures. Take all of the 2x6's off the ceiling joists. And remove all of the joists. I hope tomorrow pictures will be a building with only the floor and four walls.