Sunday, February 11, 2007

How Long Has This Been Going On?

We have had a pretty fair run of cold weather down here for the past several weeks as you might see in this photo. This weekend was quite nice with temperatures in the 50's during the day but that has been the exception lately. This was taken at the Big House where we continue to slog on, trying to finish the restoration but it keeps dragging out. I don't think we will be out of there before summer now. Which is fine really, to me. Good job and actually good conditions for work despite the cold. I worked on a food distribution center in North Carolina once for about a year and that was really a miserable job. It was a 50 acre site and the building itself was an enormous tilt-up, which I normally enjoy. We got the panels set before the worst of the winter set in, which made that part fun, but when winter did come it was awful. It was mostly rainy and in the south when it rains alot in the winter, it just gets soupy with all the heavy equipment running back and forth through the mud etc. One of the foremen was walking across the site one day and he stepped off the normal path. This is a bad idea on a construction site; you stay on the paths because they are safest. Anyway, he stepped off a little ways and into what he thought was just a mud puddle but he fell in and kept going up to his waist! And the kicker is that he said he did not feel his feet ever touch the bottom! He caught hold of a piece of steel nearby and pulled himself out. I felt pretty bad for him; he was covered in cold, nasty mud. It was pretty funny too though and we ragged the crap out of him for some time.
Well, we are continuing to work on the roof at the house. We need to place about 6 more pieces of the sheet metal and we will have all of that on. Then we have to run some trim around the ends and we will be done. Maybe 2 more weekends on that. I will try to get some more photos soon. I am trying to get the water system started soon also. That is the next big item. I have to get a perk test done before I can get my septic tank put in and that is all expensive and a pain. Some people have asked me am I not going to go with one of those composting toilets and such but I am not so sure about those things. Anybody have any experiences with one of those? They say they work well. Hmmm?

4 comments:

Omelay said...

hear-say is all i can add about composting toilets. they work well but require a bit of dirty business every once in a while.

Rurality said...

One of the houses on the solar tour had one, but I can't remember which house. It was out in the woods and had no door, I remember that part very well. :) There was no offensive odor.

MamaHen said...

Hey Karl and Karen! Yeah, I think I'm just too much of a weenie girl to use one of those things. I've got too much other stuff to do than go outside at night to the toilet or fool with cleaning it out every so often. Maybe the fact that I'm using natural spring water makes up for my non-green toilet!

Anonymous said...

I've read a little bit about them, and I understand they need a little tinkering to keep some biotic balance in balance. Seemed like a lot of work to me, especially since conventional plumbing for two people wouldn't have much impace on the local ecosystem.