The new saw works great!

The new saw truly is twice the saw that the old one is.  I finished the side that I had started last weekend.   The saw made very short work of it, despite only having around 20 minutes of daylight.  I got stopped in the corner because I found a large bee nest, and my can of spray was empty.

The picture sucks since my phone camera doesn't focus, but it gives you the idea.



I have to admit, when I see things like these on Craigslist, it makes me wonder if I should just buy this trailer, do a little repainting on it, and use that.  I could be building in a week on this.
https://nh.craigslist.org/cto/5730276507.html


It would shift more of the limiting factor from time to time and money, since I still have a lot of costs remaining.  And to be fair, I could always finish clearing my current trailer and sell it at a later date.  On the other hand, all the time consuming work on my current trailer is already done I think, unless the floor turns out to be a real pain in the neck.  Tempting, but first I need to figure out the issue with my truck.  I have a new distributor cap for it, I just need time to install it.

Reinforcements arrive.

First off, Happy Birthday Heather!

I bought a new reciprocating saw today, a Dewalt one.


The important stats on it:

For comparison's sake, the Chicago Harbor Freight special it is replacing was a woeful 6.5A, and only 2400 strokes per minute.  This is literally twice the saw that the other one was.

I also bought some proper demolition blades.  They were expensive, but shouldn't die as quickly, and more importantly are long enough that they will cut through the ends without having to further strip more cruft out.

Productive weekend

I didn't post last night because I got home ridiculously late, and was ready to pass out.  Here are both day's updates:

Yesterday I got the roof removed.  I cut through everything with my reciprocating saw, which kinda survived (at least yesterday).  The shoe fell off, the rubber grip came off, and some of the screws came out holding the body of it together, but it made it through the whole roof removal.




As you can imagine, the slab would be cleaner if a tornado had gone through.


The air conditioner was surprisingly easy to remove, just cut the support underneath and give it a little pop and it fell right off.  Unfortunately falling off busted the seal, so my apologies to the EPA for releasing some refrigerant into the atmosphere.


I also had a cookout with Tim who helped me.  We had a lot of steaks, a marinated rib-eye and a sirloin steak.  Even in the darkness I surprisingly grilled them perfectly, since we didn't start barbecuing until after sunset.  Those steaks I got from mom and dad are enormous though (and Carly, or were these ones Bevis, was really a porker) so I have leftovers for another week...  Tim also brought up some squash and zucchini that we grilled as well.


Apparently at some point yesterday, part of the debris scraped my leg, though I don't remember anything hitting my legs.  I remember the cuts on the arms, one from Tim twisting something without telling me, the other from when I fell off the trailer and put my arm down (the walls are not safe to use as supports once the roof is gone FYI), but I don't remember this.  I had a couple of drinks, but I remember the whole evening, except this.  It didn't hurt until I took a shower.


Today was not as productive as I had hoped.  I spent a chunk of the morning repairing the reciprocating saw, got the shoe reattached, tightened all the screws that were backing themselves out.


I got another chunk of the wall down.




Unfortunately as I went to make the next cut, the blade broke, which was common, I have broken 4 blades the last couple of days, but the chuck/blade lock let go of the blade but wouldn't tighten down on the new one.  So after all that work this morning fixing the saw it just went kaput on me.  So now I have to decide whether to buy another cheapy (that saw was a 12 dollar special from Harbor Freight) or buy a nice one that I will use at most once a year, or buy one that uses the same batteries as my drill.  Unfortunately those don't have quite the oomph though.

So instead this afternoon I decided to go out and mow.  I got the bagger attached.  Since most of the built-in straps on it are broken, I gerry-rigged something together with bungee cords.


Unfortunately I forgot that the clip that holds the bins in place is also broken.  As a result I lost the bins at one point and didn't realize it until after my car got coated.


It didn't blow off on the way home either, which is annoying.


But I did at least get all the mowing done.  It is nice and quick with the rider.

Here are some pictures from yesterday's work


I got the pile uncovered, and removed the mattresses from it.  Apparently in NH you have to get a permit to start a bonfire, and sometimes they inspect the pile before they will give you one, so I removed a few things.  I still intend to burn them, but will put them back on after the pile is lit.  One annoying thing about living in a really small town, the fire marshall is apparently only around for maybe an hour a day, so it is really hard to get a permit...  I am still awaiting one.

Rainy, but productive

I don't have any pictures today, I forgot the memory card for the camera, but I had a productive day, despite working in the rain.

I got all three remaining windows out tonight, as well as the bulk of the cabinets over the beds.  Herman made quick work of the particle board.

I also got the pile covered.  It wasn't supposed to rain until tomorrow, but it decided it couldn't wait any longer.

Pile done, destruction resumed.

The pile itself is gone.  The last of it has been sorted.


I also got the beds out too, and this is what the pile looks like now.  Not huge, but there is a lot of wood lying around to build on it as it burns.


I still had a few minutes of light leftover after all that, so I resumed destruction.  Tomorrow I will hopefully get the rest of the windows out, and with a little luck also the cabinetry in the bedroom.  If I get a ludicrous amount of work done, the fresh water tank has also been exposed, so I don't have a shortage of tasks.


I have started gathering people to come up and help this weekend.  Barry is bringing a bunch of "accelerant", so hopefully I don't burn the whole lot down, but with the extra help, I hope to start removing the wall framing and roof.  I am intending to just cut it into pieces with my reciprocating saw and roll the sections off the trailer.

More of the same.

The end is in sight, I will hopefully finish up the pile sorting tomorrow, and get the mattresses out.  I might hold a bonfire up there this weekend, since it will be the last one before I go to France.

This is all that is left.

The piles have begun.

It was a gorgeous day, upper 60s, sunny, with an ever so slight breeze.  I actually spent some time relaxing in the silence up at the property in the sun, before it went behind the trees.

I did get some work done today though.  I started sorting out the ginormous pile.  It is being split into three currently:

The wood.  I will be tossing the mattresses into this pile.


The metal.  I will eventually be splitting this up and taking it in for recycling.


And the trash.  Depending on how big the pile gets, I might just leave it until the end and then take it as a full pickup load, since breaking things like the tub up into bags that I can toss would be a real pain and would consume a lot of time, which is running really tight at the moment.


There are a few things, like carpet and the wall boards that have foam in them, that I am not sure if they can be burned without getting me into trouble, but I might just toss one in and see how bad it is.

Prep work for the bonfire

The first thing I did today was finish fixing the lawnmower.  I got a new set of blades, and some spare clips.  I replaced pretty much all of them, since the shiny new ones are much easier to get in and out, and it feels like I am taking the deck off every other day.


I continued mowing the far back, got another large chunk of it done.  I am at about 80% of what I had cleared last year is mowed, the last bit I might want to do with a pushmower though.




Unfortunately I already smacked my nice brand new blades...  GRRR.


I also mowed around the pile, trying to get a ring around it in case I decide to torch it.






Right now I am leaning towards making another pile to burn, instead of torching the existing pile.  The more investigation I did, the more it looks like a pile of trash, that they covered with wood to make it look like a burnpile.  Outside of the OSB crap on top, almost none of the rest of it is wood.  I don't mind burning a little bit of plastic, but I don't really want to burn tires and the like (yes, I did see a tire in the mess)



I think I might make another pile closer to the slab, where I was intending to use the burn barrel.


I also went and pulled out one of my roof tarps to cover it with since I will be tossing mattresses on it shortly.

Finally a good day.

Today went well.  I got to see Bill from Carrier, he came up and we had lunch, and Time came over and took another very full truck of wood out.  Most of the dead stuff has been cleaned, there are a couple left, but most are gone.

The issue with the tractor was a minor one.  The clip that held the PTO arm in place broke.  I can pick up another one and it should be back in business pretty quick.
The bar I am holding should be connected to the other one.


Despite what I have cut with the mower, the deck was surprisingly clean.  The front yard was mowed wet, and the back was more like haying.


Well, the edge goes to the rock. The edges of the blade are supposed to be flush and parallel to the center...  So needless to say, the blade is bent.  Badly.


As for trailer destruction, I am ready for the beds to come out (I need to do a little clean up on the burn pile before they get tossed on) and the windows are unscrewed and ready to come out.  The wall is gone, and another pipe was cut.  I am nearing the point of whipping out the reciprocating saw and cutting off the walls and roof.

Things keep breaking.

So I haven't been doing much during the week because I have been having trouble with my truck.  In my last post, I mentioned the large amount of rain we got.  Well apparently some of it got in some not so nice places in the truck, and now a bunch of the electronics are not working correctly.  If I can't get that working again, it might be time to trade the truck in.  I didn't want to do it until next spring, but I am not going to sink more money into it.  GRRRRR.

So I went and started to mow the back, since it will need to be cleared before I can get the perk test and whatnot for the septic done.  The tractor wasn't a big fan.  It was too tall for it, it kept laying it over and getting caught in the frame.  Even in first gear I nearly stalled it at least a half dozen times.


Plus there were some unfriendly encounters.  I am still trying to figure out who won this battle: the blade or the rock.  The shiny parts used to come out to points, but are now flat.  It looks pretty even, both got wrecked...


Unfortunately part way through the mower had finally had enough and ceased to work.  At first glance, it appears that the PTO arm is broken, the deck is not actuating anymore.  I will drop the deck this weekend and take a better look.  This is what I got done before it gave up the ghost.


I am also preparing to burn the pile, so I will be going through and pulling out some of the plastic and junk before I torch everything.  There are a few interesting things in the pile, a lot of electronics.


Since I had extra time with the mower dying yet again, I finally went down and made sure that the electric panel was actually live.  The power company said it was working, but the meter appeared to be in a constant reset, so I wasn't sure.  I have confirmed however that the panel is live (both legs of 120V), which means something is busted in the box, since the outlets are I believe hooked up, but don't function.  At least one bonus was that my $3 Harbor Freight meter didn't explode when I hooked it up to 120V, which is nice.

Bathroom more complete than expected.

So the first thing I noticed is that at some point last night or during the day today, the mirror decided it had enough of that hangin' business, and promptly decided it wanted to take a seat.  Unfortunately that resulted in a big mess.


Only piece remains.  We shall see if it takes its fate into its own hands as well.


I also got the toilet out today, a few swings with the sledge and it came right off, no unbolting necessary.  Thankfully I didn't die of fumes when it was removed, so that hopefully means that the black water tank is empty.


I also removed one of the walls leading into the bedroom today.  Finally the end is in sight, though cleaning out the interior is only the first step.  In hindsight, I should have spent a little more and gotten a frame that had already been cleared.  Oh well.

Rain. Lots of it.

We got hammered with thunderstorms last night.  Very severe ones.  Driving home after the party I got some splashes taller than my truck (which is taller than me, so at least 6-7 feet) which was a lot of fun for me, not so much for the truck.  I thought it was Fords that were allergic to water, but my Dodge really disliked it as well, though I did it anyways.  Turns out we got 5.5" (yes, almost a half foot) of rain in one night.


When I went up today, I looked around, no major damage, no water in the shed, just a couple of minor twigs and branches came down.  On a good note, there was water in the creek.  It is right back up to normal.


The well was almost completely refilled as well.


It was miserable outside today, hot and humid, so I didn't get too much done before I threw in the towel, but I did manage to get everything but the toilet out.  I tried to get it out, but the instructions from the internet on how to remove it were missing important details, like how to remove the cover to expose the bolts.  If I can't find something definitive, it will get the Sledge Treatment.