Sketch it Up.

Posted on by David Maxwell

I am by no means a Sketchup expert, but I have enjoyed using the program for a number of years now, and feel like over the past few weeks I have really learned and improved my skills quite a bit. I used it to map out the floor plan and have also used it to create 3d renderings of the house. Combine that with large-format printing available at the FedEx store, and I have some pretty professional looking blueprints. Below are some elevations. Unfortunately I don’t know how to show the terrain lines along the side of the house. I also don’t have a good way to render the shingles. But aside from those two issues I’m pretty pleased.

 

Snow, stumps, and a mystery marsupial.

Posted on by David Maxwell

We got a dusting of snow overnight, which lasted about fifteen minutes once the sun rose. Traffic to Columbia was pretty light this morning, so I guess many people stayed hunkered down indoors. I know that Metro schools opened a couple of hours late. The little bit of snow was still quite pretty, and made me long for a real amount. That probably won’t be happening until December though.

There wasn’t any snow on the ground at the farm. There was however an unidentified animal, maybe a groundhog. I managed to get a crappy picture of him with my phone, shown below. It was zoomed in to the maximum and then drastically cropped, so it makes the “Nessie” photograph look museum worthy. I took the picture from the front seat of my car while I was waiting for a phone call. Frustratingly, my SLR with telephoto lens was in the back of the car. I have seen him before – he lives under the one remaining shed, but previous spottings have merely entailed him running back to the safety of his home. I got a nice long glimpse of him as he meandered around. He eventually went back underground, at which point I retrieved my camera and prepared it to photograph him. Unfortunately he never returned.

After running a number of errands in downtown Columbia I returned to the farm for a little tractor time. I tried to take advantage of the still rather wet ground and uproot some stumps. These were primarily from smaller trees that I had cut down to a couple of feet. Unfortunately that limited amount of trunk made it difficult to get much leverage, but it went okay. Still a bit of work yet to go though. This week I need to get a fire going to burn the stumps, brush, and the last of the house debris. The weather should be great for working outside over the next few days. I just need to get stuff done before the snakes come out to play!

Updates (or ramblings, to be more precise).

Posted on by David Maxwell

Haven’t been doing a good job of blogging, and I haven’t journaled in ages either. I need to be doing at least one daily for the sake of my emotional stability. I sort of try to use my smartphone’s camera to take notes and record things. It geotags and dates pictures, so at least I have kind of a photo journal. I sure wish I had a phone like that back when I was doing cool things. But at least I do have photographs. Tens of thousands of them to be (in)exact. I was looking at some of them this morning, and trying to upload to Amazon Prime Photos, since unlimited photo storage is included with our Prime account. Unfortunately it seems like you have to upload one folder at a time, not an attractive proposition when you have early 800 folders. I will search for a workaround.

The house is slowly progressing. I have completely cleared and scraped the site, and did a little leveling. There is still a bit of slope, but it is manageable. The surveyor is supposedly coming in the next day or two in order to map out the foundation, then the footings will get dug and poured. It would be amazing if that plus the block work is finished by the end of the week. Then the house gets framed, which should go pretty quickly. The framing package is a pretty good price, so I need to go ahead and get that ordered. It will be such a relief to see the framing done and the roof and sheathing on. Then it will be time for me to take over and really get to work!

I have really enjoyed using SketchUp to work on the house plans. I am getting better at it and understanding more and more of its features. the FedEx store does a great job of printing large copies of the plans. I also bought a Dell laser printer that has been wonderful for printing letter sized documents. I am really looking forward to setting up an office space of my own in the new house. My 8×8 room isn’t huge, but it will be private and efficient.

We sure have had a mild February and March. The forecast shows a low of 27 in a couple of nights, but that is the only time it is supposed to get below freezing for the next couple of weeks. We did actually get a light dusting of snow the other night, but it melted in a flash.

Realistically we are probably about six months away from moving. That is factoring in a few surprises on hiccups on construction, but nothing major. I am definitely excited about moving, but realize there is a lot of work to be done before that happens.

I am also very excited about living in Columbia. It is a cool town that is starting to have a lot going on. About ten minutes from the farm, in town, is a little recreation center. I have driven by but have not been inside, which I will try to rectify this week. The big attraction is that a yearly membership is only $75. So it could be a great place to exercise. There are also some neat looking restaurants that we haven’t yet tried. Mule Day is next month and I want to go to it.

It would really be nice to go on a camping trip this spring, but I doubt that it will be possible. Maybe this fall after we are all moved into the new house. Lots of blooms around here sure are pretty. Maybe we could at least go to Monteagle next weekend. I’ll run that by Liz.

I’ve been reading a bit in the evenings. Not anything serious just spy and adventure type of books. Also still watching The Blacklist and Hawaii Five-O. They have both been pretty good recently. Liz and I have been watching a little HGTV too.

30 hours of Annie.

Posted on by David Maxwell

Well, the Kioti finally has a name – Annie. She is named after two redheads (which of course everybody knows means orange hair) – Raggedy Ann and Anne of Green Gables. We have now spent about 30 hours working together, so I figured I would share a few thoughts.

As hoped for, this machine is quite the beast. The loader is very strong and it can pull like crazy as well. I actually need to build a ballast box to attach to the rear so it isn’t quite so tippy. Even with the rear tires filled I have lifted the rear end regularly. The loader is nice and tall too. I am thankful that the bucket clears the sides of the 30 yard dumpster that I have been loading.

Unfortunately it has been a wet few weeks since I got Annie. I have made a real mess with the heavy tractor, but such is the price of progress. I will level everything out eventually. Fortunately this coming week is supposed to be pretty dry.

The pallet forks that I bought have been incredible. They have stayed on about 95% of the time and have really made moving things a breeze. The A/C unit, lumber, blocks, stone, shingles, and more, have all been easily handled. Having the skid steer style quick attach on the loader has been great. I would like a couple more attachments – mainly a stump bucket and in my dreams, a grapple.

I need to repair the three point hitch so that I can run i implements off the rear. I would like a box blade and the aforementioned ballast box. Eventually a finish mower would be nice as well.

I bought a grease gun and lubed up all of the zerks. I need to look into oil and filter changes, probably sooner rather than later.

So far I haven’t had any issues. I have worked this machine really hard and it has kept up. Hopefully it will keep going strong for many years!

Like a Limestone Cowboy.

Posted on by David Maxwell

After tearing down the house we have a lot of limestone waiting to find a purpose. About half of it was previously the chimney and the other half served as the foundation on the original portion of the house. There are some very nice pieces. Unfortunately I don’t have any ideas for what to do with them next. The new house won’t have a fireplace, and we are doing a continuous block foundation (because you know, codes). Maybe some kind of outdoor fireplace/fire pit could be cool. I’ll keep thinking about it.