New toy.

Yesterday after work I went up and got the new grading blade.  

It was raining pretty good when I got home, so I decided to go check out the carport, since this is the first rain since I finished it.  The rain blew a few feet in.  

The chop saw stayed dry though, even though I don't have the plexiglass up yet.  

I was surprised that there wasn't more coming in on the high side.  The bucket was dry.

There was only a couple of dribbles blowing in from the back wall.  Considering it is facing north, I thought it strange that the west wall let less in than the north wall (the storm came up from the southwest), but oh well.  

I also double checked the roof and walls.  I haven't been in the shed while it was raining yet, I had previously only looked inside after it had rained.  No leaks.

Today at lunch I went up and installed the new blade.  Despite being a bigger blade than is recommended for the tractor (it recommends 25HP class minimum, mine is a 22HP class, and a BX with wimpy hydraulics to boot), it goes up and down and fit with ease.  

I should have looked at it more closely.  It said it came with pins, but it doesn't come with the D-clips or anything to actually hold it in place.  Sigh.  I will check at Home Depot tonight, but I might end up making another Tractor supply run.

It fits in the carport easily.  I did have to pull the tractor all the way up to sawhorses, but it fits with over a foot to spare.  

It is nice this time of year, even just driving into work.

This puts the first item on the checklist in progress.

• Support the shed (either pilings or add additional bracing)
• Get windows installed in the shed
• Paint the carport
• Re-route the electrical cords
• Install driveway markers
• Get chains and a blade
• Finish moving piles around (gravel and dirt)
• Grade the driveway
• Install siding on the south wall
• Realign the front door
• Winterize mowers
• Shut off hose.

Carport filled up.

 I didn't have a lot of daylight left when I got home yesterday since it gets dark before 7 now, but I did get to fire up the tractor for the first time in a while.  I smoothed out the interior of the carport.  There were mounds where we had dug down to get the walls level.  Those have been smoothed out.  I also found out the tractor headlights are not in a good spot.  They are too low; if the bucket isn't all the way down, they shine into it.  I might have to get a spotlight installed on the tractor for the winter.

While I had the tractor going, I leveled up my three point hitch.  The right side had loosened up a bit and was lower.  I hope to go get the grading blade for the tractor tonight.

I also started putting stuff in there.  I can pull the tractor a couple feet further forward, but wanted to leave the sawhorses in the back available.  I wanted to pull the deck off the lawn tractor and set it on them, but the lawn tractor wouldn't start.  Once I get the plexiglass up I might move the miter saw to the back, but for now it is safer and less likely to get wet where it is.

Here are some fall foliage shots.  I think I figured out how to make them bigger.

Sadly this is the most color I get on my property.  Almost everything on my lot turns yellow, I don't have much red or orange.

I will be starting on the checklist today when I get the blade.

• Support the shed (either pilings or add additional bracing)
• Get windows installed in the shed
• Paint the carport
• Re-route the electrical cords
• Install driveway markers
• Get chains and a blade
• Finish moving piles around (gravel and dirt)
• Grade the driveway
• Install siding on the south wall
• Realign the front door
• Winterize mowers
• Shut off hose.

Rear wall complete.

Saturday's project was finishing up the back wall.  Interestingly, despite the wall not being perfectly level, the metal siding actually lined up almost perfectly on both sides.  

It is apple season, so I made some applesauce.  The apples were unusually juicy this year, so it took a lot longer than normal to cook down.  

I also went out for a bike ride on Sunday since, while it was warm, it was pleasant.  It wasn't sunny which helped.  I didn't get any great foliage shots, but here are a few.  Sullivan is largely in peak foliage, but Keene (where I went) wasn't quite.  It was nice to get out on it again, I haven't been on a bike ride in a few months.  Because I am out of shape, I was pretty dead afterwards.  

Unfortunately in the new blogger, I don't know how to upload the photos at a higher resolution.  

Just so I get in the habit of posting it, here is the checklist.

• Support the shed (either pilings or add additional bracing)
• Get windows installed in the shed
• Paint the carport
• Re-route the electrical cords
• Install driveway markers
• Get chains and a blade
• Finish moving piles around (gravel and dirt)
• Grade the driveway
• Install siding on the south wall
• Realign the front door
• Winterize mowers
• Shut off hose.

Rear wall framing installed.

 I managed to get out reasonably early (two days in a row!) so I got to work on the back wall.  I couldn't get the air compressor to run (it has been having power issues of late) but it turns out those were due to the splitter I have.  I removed it from the equation and the frequent random GFCI trips and compressor failed starts went away.  

The wall is installed now.  The warp in the last rafter is very apparent now.

It isn't perfectly level because of the oddity noted previously, but it is installed.  This was a serious pain and I frequently found myself in need of a second set of hands (Like holding the tall end to keep it from flopping over, lifting the short end up and nailing it at the same time), but it is installed.

I also pulled the shed back upright.  It had shifted a little when I was crawling around on the roof.

I also got the siding pulled out and ready to be installed.  Hopefully that will be this evening's project if I miraculously get out early for a third day in a row.  

I haven't quite completed it yet; I am sure I forgot some stuff and will add to it, but I started to put together a preliminary pre-winter checklist.  It isn't as daunting as in previous years actually

• Support the shed (either pilings or add additional bracing)
• Get windows installed in the shed
• Paint the carport
• Re-route the electrical cords
• Install driveway markers
• Get chains and a blade
• Finish moving piles around (gravel and dirt)
• Grade the driveway
• Install siding on the south wall
• Realign the front door
• Winterize mowers
• Shut off hose.

Back wall finished.

 Despite lacking motivation, I dragged myself outside since it was nice out, and got to working on the back wall of the shed.  

My attempt to prevent the boards I bought from warping failed.  These boards were still relatively new though, so they weren't bad.

As I was putting the second bottom plate on, I noticed that my air compressor has developed a new leak.  Right at the tank connection.  I think the air compressor is going to enforce its retirement soon.

The back wall is assembled and ready to put in place though.  I didn't quite get that done, it is getting dark pretty quickly now, it is that time of year...

In addition, my new shower curtain came in yesterday.  It fits perfectly, and worked great.  There is no water where I didn't want it.  Now I just need to clean up back behind the barrier.

I think at this point I need to start my annual "what needs to be done before winter" checklist.  I still haven't done anything with the shed for example.  Maybe I will work on that this weekend, it is supposed to be warm enough.

Lazy weekend.

 So I didn't do nearly as much this weekend as I probably should have.  I did finish the mowing Friday.  The back yard was really bad.  It was thigh deep in some spots.

The back is done though.  

I also finished up the front, hitting the spots that I missed when I last mowed before Labor Day.  This will be the last mowing until the leaves fall, so there is only one mowing left.  I might just decommission the lawn tractor (I still haven't fixed it...) until spring at this point, and just set the deck on some sawhorses in the carport or something so I can work on it.

Saturday I intended to start on the back wall for the carport, but I got lazy and went out and played games instead.  I sold my generator, and while I was wheeling it out, I found the old key that I lost for the snowblower.

I rearranged the mess on the slab a little bit to make it nicer, but I apparently didn't take any pictures of it.  

Sunday I finally got my rear in gear and started on the back wall. I am not sure how it happened, but the part on the slab is a board too tall.  It makes me sad since the rest of everything on the carport was done almost perfectly.  So the back wall will not be perfectly level.

I started building the framing. When I kicked on my compressor to nail, apparently the plastic on the gauges broke.  The shaking has been getting steadily worse since it got rained on and blown across the yard a couple years ago.  It might be time to replace it. 

In traditional fashion, at least one nail went completely sideways, and my finger was naturally there.  Grumble.

I didn't make as much progress as I would have like, partially because I didn't really have a plan.  The back wall everything is a different height so I decided to build the box first.  I used leftover furring strips to hold the boards together.  I also made another oops.  I removed the boards on the back that I added to brace it when I was climbing on it, but I forgot to remove the ones on the front, so I ended up two boards short, since I just started using 10' boards when I ran out of 8' boards, but now I am two boards short and they have to be 10' boards since I started at the shorter end.  D'oh!  When I discovered this, I decided that I would get a few extras.  A lot of this wood is horribly twisted, so there are a few boards that I literally had put clamps on and use a Leverage Helper (aka a pipe) to untwist them to get them installed.  Since my noob mistake means I have to go get new boards anyways, I decided I would just replace the remaining twisted ones.  2x4s aren't expensive, and the twisted ones will get used eventually anyways.  

These were supposed to be the shorter studs. 

The annual game of how long until I turn on the heat has begun, we have had hard frost the last few nights and my house hasn't hit 70 in a while.  It is been in the 50s when I wake up many times.  I generally try to at least make October, sometimes November if it is a warm fall, before I turn it on.  More importantly though is that it is no longer warm enough for painting.  I wanted to paint the carport to save my eyes some glare and reflections, and the past week has been too cold for it (or for concrete for that matter since I haven't done the pilings for the shed either yet).  It shouldn't stay this way though, I can see some upper 60s and low 70s in the long term forecast.  

Back to work

I have been on vacation, which was much needed, but got back last weekend.  Last night I finally got back to work.  I sanded down the board I got to raise the water barrier a little taller.  The sanded side ended up much nicer than the nice side of the board. 


The boards are cut and installed in the bathroom.  I sealed them with silicone.  This should help prevent water from getting back behind the toilet.  I used the shower this morning and it helped a lot, though I still need to get a longer shower curtain. 



I also opened up my new laptop last night.  I discovered on vacation that the bottom row of keys on my old laptop had stopped working.  It is a Lenovo Thinkpad.  It was kind of concerning when I opened it that the seal on the laptop was broken.  It was supposed to be a new machine, not a refurb. 


It booted up just fine though.  I will want to go through the list of processes and make sure nothing is nefarious (someone injected malware which is why the seal was broken).


I also installed the discharge chute on my pushmower.  the deck is caked on really bad.  Hopefully it will clear out next time I mow, since it was mostly mulching the last couple of times I mowed with it.  If not, it does have a deck wash port on it.


Despite being chilly (we were in the 30s), I saw a flock of turkeys this morning.  It is good to see the wildlife return, this is the first I have seen since the dumpster was delivered and the stink scared everything away.

Finishing work

I finished up the dumpster last night.  I ended up using the tractor push and pin the cover, and then I just pushed it in.  It doesn't really fit, but oh well. 


After that I did some long overdue mowing.  It was so thick it was bogging my 6ish HP pushmower without running the self-propeller.  I might have waited too long.  I got the side and most of the front down by the road done, I still have the leech field and the other side, and the back to do.  It is raining today though, so it may not get done before I leave for Labor Day. 


On a side note, I noticed last week that one or two trees had started turning (yes, in August!).  It is clear that they weren't an anomaly.  Looks like we are going to have an early Autumn.  Last year it started early and lasted for a long time, but the color was never very vibrant; early on there was too much green, later on the trees that changed early were dead or bare.