Leaky roofs, an epidemic.

(So far each building has a leak somewhere that will have to be addressed)

First the manufactured house. Fortunately the roof seems to be good on the main house at present, but the windows are crap. Each of the windows in the house has at least one fogged pane, and none of them seal against the wind. I contacted the manufacturer (KIMRO) and darn if they are not just out of warrantee. 5 years and these things are total trash. I just replaced the windows in my Lake Street estates, and they are far and above better built and fitted than the KIMRO crap windows in this house. I wouldn't put this quality window in a dog house, but I'm stuck with them for this year I guess..

I have tried to get the stuff from the previous owner moved in as many nice ways as I could, but it just isn't sinking in. So I finally dropped off a letter explaining that 90 days to clear out a couple buildings should be enough time, and if it isn't, then the stuff becomes mine. Surprise! He was here early this morning getting the stuff I moved into another building, which I shouldn't have had to do. In fact he and his brother in two trucks with trailers, and if they continue at this rate they just might make it! But I have seen such flurries of activity two times before, so I'm not betting it will make much difference, but at least I can now use one side of each of two non adjacent buildings. And as an update they showed up for the second day to continue moving junk, I really think he is going to save so much crap that he won't have anywhere to work on anything either, he can't get in either of the two garages he has. And his brother is waiting for his wife to leave, to sneak the junk he's keeping, into his garage while she's out.

So now I can finally start to "finish a couple areas" for my particular needs. The garage building closest to the street, (it has a roll up garage door on one side of it), is my first challenge. Of course there is a serious rain effect inside if water gets on the roof so I can't even get started pouring concrete. And I really need a couple concrete floors to start with. The wiring for all the buildings seems to originate in the back corner of this building so it should be the easiest to adapt to changing situations. Unfortunately, it looks as if something chewed the centers out of all the shingles, weird failure pattern in my opinion, and some of the wood underneath is pretty surely rotted. So I'm looking at replacing wood and shingles on this one. Did I mention I can't hardly walk most of the time and can't get on my knees for more than a few minutes, so the roof repair and then finishing the concrete, should be a real fun time.

The other side is a good roof, except where the edge is rotted away, but never fear, the water comes in from the dirt that is half way up the wall, so that will need to be dug out, a drain put in, and the wall pushed back up straight. Then I can concrete that floor area. Sounds simple huh?

I finally got my Bobcat down here, but the starter motor had given up the ghost and I couldn't get it off the trailer. That makes for a really sticky wicket, as I couldn't get the trailer off the car with the Bobcat on the trailer. It's a rather complex balancing act, I built the trailer specifically for the Bobcat and it rocks itself into the travel position as it climbs up the tilted trailer, very compact and easy to load, if the tractor runs. But when the Bobcat is being cranky, or in this case refusing to crank, the car is trapped under one end of a 3000# tractor, and I'm not the guy to lift that sucker off the hitch, even though it is a pintle hook on the back of the car. I spent a couple hours working with wooden block pivots, and levers, to get the car loose, and I was forced to leave the Bobcat at an uncomfortable angle, part way off the trailer, until I could purchase a new starter motor and get it installed. Of course the ice storms, and snow, and rain, and sub zero wind chills, didn't help with all this, as I couldn't get anything into a building to work on it. I bought 3000 square feet of building area, and can't get 100 square feet under roof to work on a machine out of the elements. Hence the letter, move it or loose it.

I finally did get the Bobcat in the garage bay, it was before the snow melted, so the interior rains hadn't started yet. I got the lift cylinders rebuilt, (they had started leaking oil in September, as soon as I painted the fenders and cage). The leaks were really getting serious, ( I was losing oil at the rate of about a quart an hour, with a total of only about 5 gallons of oil in the system), a little heavy operating, and the tractor didn't want to move.

It went pretty smoothly, and only took one day to get done. I missed getting crushed because I suddenly got the feeling I shouldn't be where, if things went weird, I could get trapped. And boy did they go weird in a hurry! As soon as I removed the first lift cylinder, the bucket crushed the section of kitchen counter I had used to prop it up and the place where I had been standing became, well gone, it was all machine, and the tractor tipped over on it's back. I would have been crushed and lifted up where I could do nothing about it. Now after it happened, it made perfect sense, the laws of physics would predict it, and a pile of wood blocks and a bumper jack, put all back where it belonged. Except the crushed counter section, it went in the wood burner to generate a little heat.

As I mentioned, this finally prompted me to send a little missive explaining the rights of ownership I felt I was missing, and set a concrete (pun intended) deadline. I really like the previous owner, and his family, nice folks and a lot of them in the area, but I really needed to get a move on getting my self situated here, and many things are waiting for equipment to get set up so we can finish some more projects in the house. And then I can get started on the real challenge, of building all the wheeled things I moved here for.

The front of the garage had an unusual look to it, I just started paying attention to it, when I needed to get in out of the elements. And I found it was a destroyed door, that had delaminated and was filled with wasp nests. I removed it, and quickly screwed in a door that had been sitting behind it. I'm guessing it was acquired as a replacement, so I put it where it should have been. Tomorrow I will fit it, so it works properly. As everything is going to be moving in the next week, I thought it best to attach things where they belong, least they be considered available. I have a couple windows in the same condition, obviously intended for certain places, but might just walk, given the circumstances. So I put them in the playhouse, so they wouldn't be so obvious. It worked, as I still have them.

But enough of that, I found out what the problem with the sewer line was. And yep, it was an installer problem, some genius decided to put a 22.5 degree fitting three feet from the septic tank and not cement it together. The pipe came apart and started to drift away from itself, making a perfect catch point for anything coming down the pipe, so to speak. The original installer came out to dig it up, and had to send for a bigger tractor to break through the frozen ground. After that I helped with the repair, which allowed me to recommend having a straight pipe installed. I have no idea what they were thinking originally, but I now have a glued, straight pipe where they had created problems. In the spring, I'll dig it back up and put a bed of gravel around it and back fill it properly, but for now it's working. I finally got the parts, but haven't had an opportunity to install them, as I have been trying to get a concrete floor in the garage, which has lead to digging around the foundation, and putting on a new roof. Check page eight for pictures. I finally got the parts installed and the front yard leveled out, thanks to my son in law, who also helped me dismantle the "Down Barn" , and this week (May 25th) is coming to help with the garage floor pour. HooRay!

I also got under the house and reset the pump cutoff switch to a lower pressure, I'm not sure what pressure it's set at, as the gauge is rusted tight at forty pounds. But we haven't had to crawl under the house for a whole week. Of course the power was out for a night due to the snow and ice storms, which pin pointed the need for a simple corded phone for the house. Because when the power is out, the cordless phones don't freaking work. And I think I may have mentioned our cell phones (VERIZON) don't work until you are in the middle of the upper 10 acre pasture, and that's not dependable, or comfortable, in an ice storm. So our week got really screwed around, as there were places we couldn't go, and things we couldn't do, and we couldn't even call to explain. One of the beauties of living out, on an unpaved, gravel road. When it's crappy weather you stay home. Unless you need to go to a birthday party or something equally as important, but that's, as they say, another story. I finally did get to go back under the house to install a working pressure gauge, of course that means the water ran out again. This time due to the creation of a flower garden, which requires entirely too much water for it's real value, but was a requirement of, well, I'll address that on a later page, it needs a lot of explanation, for Nada Farmer...

 

Man, are we happy out here!

 

The Chores, Fresh Air, Green Acres is for ME.