Rick and Ellen's Homestead

[rick91351]

With the 10 ft walls we added this 'cubby'  above closet in the smallest bed room and has a smallish area for a desk ..... I would build one in but we are
very heavy in that type of furnishings.  We decided to use one of those rather than built in



The large guest bedroom has a small walk in closet.  The unfinished area is a book case for that bed room.  I think Ellen will use this room for her quilting and sewing....



Tig is still holding down the Job Dog assignment.

[dablack]

Everything looks great!  Gotta love the high ceilings. 

Still weird to me seeing the vapor barrier on the inside!  Down here, we dry to the inside so the vapor barrier goes on the outside of the house!

[Windpower]

"The large guest bedroom has a small walk in closet.  The unfinished area is a book case for that bed room.  I think Ellen will use this room for her quilting and sewing...."



We are currently sleeping in what will be the sewing/quilting room -- we were able to put in built-in cabinets and a closet --  she needs lots of storage for her 'fabric stash'


things look good with the dry wall

[rick91351]

This morning we had about three inches of snow, so I plowed snow



Then migrated over to the orchard as some of the trees still do not have tree guards....



I worked over there a couple hours and they all still do not have guards.....



I have switched over to using a lot more hardware cloth.  All it takes is that and some tie wire and pliers.  The waterproof gloved work very nice.

[rick91351]

We did get some snow - I am able to keep up with it with the fourwheer and plow.  We are ridiculously short on snow again this year.  I have even kept the Forest Service Road 117 plowed to us and the neighbors.  The county did come by early and get it yesterday.    





After a snow it should be almost to the eaves



We got started painting the kitchen - primer / sealer.  The drywaller say he and his crew should be back this week to finish.  They are still waiting on parts for the compressor



I stopped by Big Orange the other day to get some low voltage stuff I found this with last one hung all over it.  Price seemed right - so I brought it home

[MountainDon]

Comparing your snow to our snow you win by a landslide!     It hasn't snowed since we drove up easily over the 3 miles of unmaintained FS roads after Christmas. No snow in the forecast. We plan on driving up this coming weekend again.

Scaffolds will always be handy to have. Watch your step. 

[rick91351]

Comparing your snow to our snow you win by a landslide!     It hasn't snowed since we drove up easily over the 3 miles of unmaintained FS roads after Christmas. No snow in the forecast. We plan on driving up this coming weekend again.

Scaffolds will always be handy to have. Watch your step. 

It still can snow a bunch we need it but then all the west does.

Those painters scaffolds we got when I bought a lot of stuff from a stucco / painter contractor that went bust during the bust.  Those scaffolds are without a doubt the handiest, most used things we bought in the deal.  I almost told him no but he talked me into taking them.  We bought three of them and have used them way way more than the other scaffolds.

[OlJarhead]

We're in the same boat snow wise.  I was told the Farmers Almanac predicted that.

I was also told conditions are much like those prior to the dust bowl.  Who knows?

I really hope we do get some good snowfall soon though as folks will need the water come August!  Heck, if we don't get a good snow pack they might not make it to August!

Actually, out here, the rains continue into mid July or later but my mid august it's usually getting pretty dry.

[rick91351]

The last couple days Ellen painted the kitchen and I ran telephone lines and helped paint.  She does not not like my painting.....   I think I like it that she does not like my painting.   

I took a ride over the Loop Road on my fourwheeler.



I almost got stuck.  When I found this beside the road and the sun was setting..... and I was wondering if I could get out of there.  It sort of added to the importance of the moment.  I did not want to have to walk the two or three miles to get a ride back to the homestead and getting dark and no firearm.  But I did have my new camera - Nikon 5200 - I could at least take photos while being drug down by wolves and cats.



We went out today to get more tile, the cabinets, groceries and Ellen had to do laundry.  I got to try out my new camera on a juvenile bald eagle in the canyon.

It is most likely a female about three - four years old.  Should completely change into a  mature bald eagle this year.........







These new cameras and software is just spooky good.....
     

[Windpower]

Great photos, Rick

Have you got a long lens for that Nikon or did Miss Eagle let you get that close

we are starting to see more eagles around here as the population gets concentrated around the Wisconsin and Mississippi River valleys

looks like you finally got some snow too

[Redoverfarm]

Good pictures Rick.  BTW do you have a winch on your 4-wheeler?  Very more trips like that and you might consider the investment if you don't already have one.   

[rick91351]

Great photos, Rick

Have you got a long lens for that Nikon or did Miss Eagle let you get that close

we are starting to see more eagles around here as the population gets concentrated around the Wisconsin and Mississippi River valleys

looks like you finally got some snow too

Actually that was taken with a with a lower end Nikkor 300 MM lens.  I never got very close to it so that it was very concerned.  It being a 'juvenile' they can be very weird about boundaries however.  I never made a mental note of distance but somewhere around a hundred feet.  Might be a little closer or further.     Back when I shot film I sort of kept track of that a lot better. 

So how was I able to bring that in so close?  Something I fought and hated for years.  Digital Photography - I loved my film cameras.  So how do you do it?  First off 24.1 Megapixels and good lenses they do not have to be great lenses.  Entry level lenses now as you see can be spectacular.  Second is good old standard nothing fancy software.  The stuff that comes with just your regular photo software - freeware.  Photobucket does it very well also.  That is cropping.  The eagle head was cropped from the other photo.  I chose what I wanted to show and just cropped it and resized it.  I did not use any effects or filling or anything like that.  I just never felt comfortable doing that - so I never do it.  I am more a 'purest' when it come to lighting and depth of field.  I do reserve the right to do so just like film cameras I was never going to go digital.  I got so left in the dust and I was hard headed to boot.

Me being a closet birder - I thought it was a great example of a juvenile Bald Eagle with it's plumage just starting to come in.

Good pictures Rick.  BTW do you have a winch on your 4-wheeler?  Very more trips like that and you might consider the investment if you don't already have one.   

HO Ya!!  That 650 does have a winch.  Ellen's smaller machine does not.  It never gets ridden like my does.  And if we need to winch hers we have mine.  I even got rid of the wire winch rope in favor of the nylon winch rope.  It never kinks but we found in the fire last year was limited.  Without chains we could not pull burning logs and stumps down on to the road to put them out.  You do so - so they will not roll down the hill across the road and on down the hill starting fires below.  We were so lucky for two to three days of that we pretty well held that fire line.  Or until the hot shot firecrews got to us.  One of those reasons was fourwheelers and motorcycles.    I and few others rode a lot of trail and road watching for problem spots and such.  Then we would race off to get help and direct them in.

[OlJarhead]

On a side note, I never go anywhere alone in the woods without a side arm.

[rick91351]

On a side note, I never go anywhere alone in the woods without a side arm.

Can not agree more. 

I decided to try something with my new camera.

55 mm shot toward a large rock about 2.5 miles away



300 mm shot toward the same rock



A little cropping.



If you notice a old dead fir snag to the left of the rock



About 5 miles away over on Rattlesnake Mt.

55 mm



300 mm



Little tree centered about five miles - weather is chilly and good visibility and lighting

[Don_P]

Awesome pics. Another neat thing I've found is scanning old photos at high pixels and then zooming in, there is a lot of detail you can't see in the print. Michelle's Aunt took a picture of the german blitz during the invasion of Holland. The old black and white just looked like a sky full of parachutes. Scanned and zoomed in you could see the men, their packs and rifles, even the flare of the helmet.

the last 3 pics look like mining? What were they after?

[rick91351]

Awesome pics. Another neat thing I've found is scanning old photos at high pixels and then zooming in, there is a lot of detail you can't see in the print. Michelle's Aunt took a picture of the german blitz during the invasion of Holland. The old black and white just looked like a sky full of parachutes. Scanned and zoomed in you could see the men, their packs and rifles, even the flare of the helmet.

the last 3 pics look like mining? What were they after?

WOW those scanned photos sound so neat.  We have done some of that.  Some were almost blank and it pulled a photo out of them that seemed almost hidden. 

What looks to be a mine over there is not.  But it was a real mess.  That mountain burned so hot in 1992 - it was the largest fire in the USA.  It was so hot it destroyed the top soil and lifted the decomposed granite on a huge scale.  We then that year had a bumper crop of snow and it chinooked off and caused the whole mountain to sluff.  It was not even recognizable.  It took out roads and creeks were changed.  It filled up the canyon with sediment.  Then suddenly that disappeared.      

Today still nothing is growing to speak of up there.  The brush does not even have much to grow in....

[Don_P]

That was quite a sluff  . Was 93 that really wet year? Seems like that was when Pactola Reservoir in the Black Hills went from almost empty to overflowing.

The pic reminded me of an iron mine just over the ridge. It's been about 90 years since they worked it and it's still more obvious than the arial shows.


I think this old pic was working that cut
The arch topped machine in the lower left is an old steam shovel, you can just make out the boom and shovel about 2:00 off the front of the machine. Another steam shovel is working up top facing right.

[rick91351]

Don_P the old mining photo is so cool.  They also used those steam derricks to load logs here.  We had hundreds of miles of old logging railroads here in southern Idaho they run here and there and then were pulled up and redone some where else.  Whole camps were moved with them also.

Well after two dry walls compressors - one rebuild.  Down for ten days -- they were  back up with the rebuild Monday!!  Ya!! Boo!!  Rebuilt compressor did not work properly  after it got warmed up.... They borrowed my DeWalt double tank.  Ran the mud pump with it and tried to use the other one to blow in the texture.  Worked for a very short time.  Loaded up and left.  Our home has become a nightmare for them.  They vowed to be back today and if they had to use the old fashioned hopper..... over night they made a tee to hook both compressors together.  They came back this morning hooked everything up and fired it all up and  we have texture.....  orange peel on the wall.



and knockdown on the ceiling.....









Seems like a month with sheetrock and drywall stuff parked in the front room



So in the last week we have appliances and upholstered furniture and a couple loads of tile....  Ellen says her kitchen is not pink it is the lighting - weird color it really changes.......



I have the cabinets and more tile in my buddy's enclosed trailer.









   

[Windpower]

That is how our dry wall is finished -- textured

I wasn't too happy with it at first but it is nice -- we noticed that it is quieter and less echo(y)  than smooth finish

are you going to do the paint ?  the textured DW really sucks up the paint we found out -- the cans said 300 to 400 sq feet per gallon (IIRC) we used about 200 to 250 sq f to cover -- especially the primer

a high pressure sprayer is worth the investment -- we found a new one on Craigs for $200

like this one

http://www.homedepot.com/p/Graco-X7-Airless-Paint-Sprayer-262805/100634350

it worked very well and is very fast compared to roller or brush -- we went through 5 gallons of paint in about an hour -- the 5 gallon buckets hang from the sprayer and you just wheel them around

Wife and I had the whole place painted-- primer and finish -- in about 5 days
clean up is a bit tedious but not so bad if you have access to a water hose

we saved a lot of money compared to professionals and it looks good


eta

you will want to wear a good mask and goggles

[rick91351]

Thanks Windpower we are doing the painting.  Actually we are finished with the litany of subs.  Other than the electrician returning to trim out and pay him off.  Plumber has to return for trim out and we are going to do something with the water.  Swap over from well to spring water.  Secret covert operation.    Finish paying him off.  The HVAC they have to return and trim out.  They still have to hook up the heat pump.  We are running right now on the electric furnace.  They are paid off.  Know the outfit well so not worried if they will return or not.  But got stiffed there once before by an ' oldfriend, old buddy, old pal."  Well I have one more......   I am hiring the curb and floor pan poured in the master shower.  OPPS forgot the granite guy.  Two others to get up here and out.       

We are doing the painting and Ellen is actually allowing me to paint.  Well primer sealer.....   Yesterday we got the master bedroom, and bath minus a walk closet.  The small guest bath and the utility room.  So tomorrow as we have 'town duties' today - Ellen will start in with the real painting and I will continue the primer.  When I am finished in a couple days I will start laying down the wonder board.  I might even get the cabinets set in the kitchen before she is finished painting.  Then we will be ready to start tiling.

  We received our first power bill for the house and just running off the electric furnace 

Had to run it so the dry wall guys could work - and get the lid hung.  We were single digits at night and twentys during the day.  Luck would have it it was our coldest days.  Then it was about another week before we got the lid insulated.  That month for the house alone not the other service for the fifthwheel and well was 441.34!  But about half that time it was trying to heat all outdoors up to 60 up here.

Yesterday when we were working in there painting the furnace hardly came on at all.  Makes a good testimonial for a great insulation job. 

         


   

[rick91351]

Today at about 9:00 AM we had a power failure.  I went and got the Honda Generators and hooked them up in series and plugged in the fifthwheel.  The ambient temperature was 14 on our thermometer.  It got to a high today of 33 degrees here.  The power was out until about 7:00 PM.  The house thermostat was set at 55 when it lost power.  It set there in freezing ambient temperatures all day.  Certainly not bone chilling frigid like much of the nation but cold nor was the wind howling in fact it was quite calm except for a breeze now and then.  Ellen and I were debating whether to unmask the wood stove and start a fire as it was expected to be single digits tonight.  When I checked the house the last time before power was restored I think was at 5:00.  It had sat there all day and only lost five degrees.  At that rate I think five cord of wood would go a long way.

[Don_P]

That sounds very good for up there. Good insulation and draft control mean a whole lot. I went up to our new neighbor's the other day, it's an old, probably '20's house, quite small maybe half the size of ours. Our friend that used to live there burned a little wood but really heated with a monitor. I was glad we did, she was almost out of dry wood. I'd stockpiled several cords for next year that aren't ready but we got a truckload of standing dead rounded up, need to go do it again. It's gone through almost twice as much as ours and we're almost twice the size. We're usually around 3 cords. I've known a few folks with big old drafty farm houses that run through 10 cords. I can't imagine when it was axes and buck saws.

[Redoverfarm]

Sounds as if your insulation contractor did a great job.  I doubt that you will burn that much in a season.  As for me I have already went through 1-1/2 to 2 cords since mid October but I am not dependent on the stove and only use it to supplement my primary.

Yes Don those old farm houses can gobble up the wood.  Majority of them in this neck of the woods use outside boiler furnaces.  Some have gone back and insulated them although that in itself usually never the cure.  New insulated windows helped more so along with attic insulation.   The outside furnaces actually put more heat into the house than would be required for a modern home but in lieu of modern insulation and windows it balances it out.

[rick91351]

Life back when we were living in a real house and not the fifthwheel.  If we were around the stove or really it was a fireplace insert was going and usually the soul source of heat.  And boy could we go through the cord wood.  But it was all pine maybe a little fir.  Some times I would even go down to the apple orchards and buy wood.  Sort of stupid when you had it rotting up here at the ranch.  But then there was location, location and location.  That was a early sixties ranch style and the insulation was never up dated or upgraded.       

I so well remember the old farm house we lived in when I was a kid in the winter time.  There was hardly any escaping the draft.   If the wind blew you could feel it blowing out of every light switch and plug in.  The windows all single pane and the Jack Frost painted on them in the mornings often to my delight not so much the folks.  They seemed to have seen it all a couple times before.  Sort of like a rerun to them I guess.  Our heat was from a old cast iron / sheet metal potbelly stove some one gave dad.  The sawmill / planer mill supplied the trim ends and rounds to be split we burned.  Latter on the folks got fancy and had those aluminium storm windows installed.  There went Rick's morning wonderment no more Jack Frost.  Then the folks started doing a lot better financially they got a Monogram Oil Space Heater.  Neighbors were even dropping in to see that puppy.  Mom and Dad however could not seem to break the wood thing.  They installed a porcelain 'trash burner' in the already small kitchen 'just to take the chill off in the morning'.   

[glenn kangiser]

Nothing like a wood fire to me though.  Hot enough to toast your buns on one of those frosty winter mornings. [ouch]

The place looks good, Rick.  Nice job.

Great pix too.  I have gotten so lazy with the cell phone and Google auto upload... too lazy to pull a card out of a camera and download the pix... shame...