Work Day 5 - RG Project

After doing my bit at the Museum, I ate, changed and got over to Round Grove by about 3pm. I invited my nephew, Nick, to come and see the place. A little free labor. :-) Jim was there ready to go and so we loaded the scrap iron. That's the wood burner that is too far gone to save. We got it out of the basement yesterday and wanted to get it out of the way.

We got it over to the scrap yard and weighed in, unloaded, weighed out, and went to the office to pick up the money. 740lbs. @ 225 per ton for #2 cast .... that's $83.25. wow were we surprised. It took about 10 minutes.

But when we drug it out yesterday it heavy and dirty and a bit of a pain. So with that considered it is still good.

So after we got back we finished cutting up stuff of fire wood and I took down the light fixtures, 3 of them. Then we had Jim clear out, he has emphysema, and Nick & I take some of the plaster off the wall. Cleaned up the debris & swept up. It was a bit dusty but not as bad as I thought it would be.

This Picture is a little blurred, but you can see the progress. 

We did the wall with the windows today. I did behind the stage yesterday.

Here you can see the inside of the block is glazed. This helps stuff not stick to it.

 And this is the block from the outside. I really love the pattern. I don't think I have ever seen it before.  Tomorrow 9am we will load the sheet metal scrap and see what it is worth.
Sterling

Loveland Museum - Wednesday Morning

Wednesdays I volunteer at the Loveland Museum. I have been doing this for years and now, for the last year or so I have been working on the Lee County Photographic Preservation Project. It a joint project with the Lee County Genealogical Society. Anyhow we were working on a Power Point Presentation for Founders Day and I was going upstairs to get some pictures and came across some new residents. I though that JJ & Mike would like to see them. I don't know who brought them but their kind of cool.

I hope you like them.
I will be doing another post on Work Day Five, a little later.
Sterling

Changed the look

I have been playing with this software that is provide. I am getting use to it but I sill like MS FrontPage. I found a picture that wasn't too bad to post, I will get a good one take in a few weeks. I have update my profile and use my name instead also known as, and nick name. I am sure that will be a few questions by the locals, but I would have to care. ;-)

I also though that I would add some of my pictures. I do get a good one once and a while. And yes I alter the light levels and saturation of the colors.

I will be getting more into the garden stuff and the weeks roll on.

I hope that you will enjoy my blog

Work Day 4 - RG Project

Only got an hour and half in today. Had dentist in Rockford at 11am, it didn't leave a lot of time. Despite that we did get the cast iron wood burning furnace out of the basement. I used a angle grinder on the bolts and cut away the sheet metal surround. I threw the sheet metal out of the hole and then I lifted & pushed while Jim pulled. It is out. It was easier to take apart but heavier that I thought it would be.

As it turned out too much of it was damaged or just rusted away to ever be usable again. Scrap. As you can see it is in a bite of a mess. We will be getting all of the scrap together in the few days to the scrap yard.

I then recovered.................. and got some planks up on the stage area and proceeded to ups a shingle shovel to remove the plaster on the back wall. It comes off easy for the most part but don't let it hit you or land on you foot. It is heavier than "I" thought.

I was wearing a dust filter mask, $25+ dollars. It did help but I now know what was wrong with Darth Vater. He was oxygen deprived. As hard as I was breathing the filter holes are not big enough.

It was a long enough day so we gave up for today.

Final Project ?

Stef and Handy Dan asked want the final project was. Maybe I shouldn't use the word final. It has been a long drawn out process.

First there were trees in the way. So in 2007 I got rid of them. Save the Black Walnut and Ceder logs.
We had a big one left so we had to get some help on that on. 2008


I also need the hole dug for the greenhouse. But It was a bit small so we made it bigger. That was in May.
October I got the forms in for the foundation.

And I was luck and got it poured in November right before it snowed and froze for the winter.

In 2009 my camera died and I just got a new one a few months ago. But because the wild rabbits were so bad I was going to get a new fence in. There was 12+ trees, and some are a bit big. Not to mention getting the stumps out. I dug us some but ran out of steam. So now it is 2010 and the greenhouse has a foundation and there are 6 trees to get out plus stumps.

I will have to make a PDF of the AutoCad drawings of the greenhouse. I would like to get into aquaculture. but that is a whole other thing.

So I guess you could say that I want a greenhouse to use year round and start plants for the garden. But we have to keep the rabbits out, so there is the fence. and the trees are in the way of the fence. I salvaged about 400 cement block. Have to find pic's. But still need lumber for the framing. And I want some raised beds. Three 3'x25' beds but the piles of dirt are in the way and I have to get the greenhouse cement block base laid.

Does this sound like the movie "The Money Pit"?? This is starting to crack me up. It doesn't seem as funny until you write it all down.

I have a goal to be able to take care of the place after my parents pass away. Dad's 80 in December, and Mom is 76 in June. I'm on disability and don't have much cash flow. So becoming more self sufficient would help me make ends meet.

And JJ thought his posts were long. When this build came up I just had to have the blook for the raised beds. Then found out that I could have a lot more, 2"x10"x22', 2"x6"x22' and so much more. I will know better after the plaster and flooring is out.

So I hope that gives you a idea of what I am doing. My health was getting worse and I could hardly get anything done last year. And now I am stronger that I have been in over 10 years. So I have hopes that I will be able to get a lot of this done before snow falls.

I know you are laughing you asses off. I'm not crazy but I'm working on it. ;-)
Later

Work Day 3 - RG Project

Today we got about 4 hours in. I finished pulling nails out of wainscoting the 2x4 framing. I went into the basement and got the metal, wood and bricks out befor we cover them up with plaster. We also got most of the sheet metal too.

Also you can see the pic of the furnace. I think it was a coal burner but I'm not really sure. We might just scrap it. But there is a chance the I could use it as a outside wood burner. I could put a small 10x10 or so room off the back of the garage. Build a masonry enclosure, pipe hot water into the house and vent the room into the garage. It would be a project and a half, but we would be heating totally with wood then. And that is a goal we have. Just can't afford a fancy new wood burner.

Jim and I also cut up a lot of junk wood for him to burn in his garage. He lives next door to the building we are tearing down.

Next we are going to use an angle grinder to dismantle the furnace, and get it out of there. There are 4 windows trimmed in clear pine to be salvage. And general clean up and re-stack or move to storage the lumber. We want a empty room so I can drop the ceiling and that the plaster off the walls. All the plaster goes into the basement.

Then we have so roll around scaffolding to get to the attic and roof. I hope by this weekend we will be taking the roof off.

I also got in a doctors visit and a Genealogy board meeting. Feel good to be busy.

Day 2 - Round Grove Project

Well we , Jim and I, got a lot done today. We wanted to get the rest of the wainscoting removed and the stage floor taken out. I still have to get the nails pulled out of the wainscoting and get it bundled up. But it it out. As for the floor, it is out also. It was a slow start until we figured out that we had to work from the back walk to the front, not the other way around. About 45 minutes later it was all pulled up. The it only took about 3 hours to pull the square nails out and get it into bundles.

Between the 8 hours yesterday and the 6 today I a bit sour and tired. I haven't work like this for quite awhile. The last 3 years I have been getting weaker. Last year I could barely keep up with the lawn. So I went to the Doctors and they gave me so meds that have helped. I didn't have much to lose. So I count myself lucky to do work the last two days. Tomorrow is Sunday so I won't work unless it is an emergence. Beside I need to recover. :-)

I did get some pic's. I don't like how they are displayed. I want to have them after my post, not beside it. I guess I need to educate myself.

There is also a pic to some of the bundles. There is getting to be too many and I have got to move them to my place. But my place is a mess and I have to figure out where to put them.

I see that I need to get the pictures in the right order. Well there is always tomorrow. :-)

I got it put the pic's at the end by using MS FrontPage to edit the HTML. I have to work on the overall look.

Life of Sterling - Day 1 - Round Grove Project

The Life of Sterling is not exactly like "The Life of Riley," but it is my life. So I am going to document the projects that I am working on form day to day. Along with telling about myself and things that I have and am learning. Projects.... I have been trying to build a greenhouse for a number of years. I have to get the back yard fenced in. I have a rabbit problem. And I like to garden. But I have found that I like to documents the happenings by taking pictures. I us a digital camera and it is so great that it time stamps the image. So that many years later I go, WOW!! it was that long ago. I will be fifty this May and I have found that time does fly by. I was just 30 a few years ago. Today I started a new project. OK so it is another project, but I need the building materials. I am tearing down the Round Grove, Illinois, town hall. I really like the block it is made out of and there is a lot of lumber. And ... the flooring is Douglas Fir, I think?? So here are some pictures: