Busy Days Lately

I have been a pretty busy man lately with the the shack building and at work. I did manage to get somethings accomplished on the house project. My sewage system passed the inspection with flying colors and I backfilled it all in, except for my last man hole ext on the septic tank. I'm just letting things brew in my head for a bit before I cover that totally in, as once it is, it would be pretty hard to get inside that thing and get back out again. It is ready to go, but you just never know, I might decide to make a slight change on things in there yet.

We started to get the blueskin on. "We" meaning mom and I. I'm getting to be quite a mommas boy lately. lol. This stuff does go alot better with an extra set of hands around. Sometimes we get under each others skin a bit also, but I guess thats just the way it goes sometimes. lol
First we put on some primer.

Then the blueskin. 3 sides are blueskinned. The front needs to be closed in yet and done.

Shortly after my last post, I woke up one morning and my computer did not want to work correctly. I could no longer get on line, and there are a bunch of other things not working right. I suspect that it is all them automatic windows vista updates that always go on. I could'nt even go back to a different restore point. Nor could I get online to try and diagnose the problem. So I squeezed in enough time to go and buy a new computer. I was a couple days after that before I even found time to take that out of the box. I'm running windows 7 now. Man I hate getting things all set up again. And this keyboard is just a little different, like the enter key and the shift keys for some reason I am always missing. They are just a bit smaller or something.

I got called to go to work at about supper time last night and did'nt get done until about 5 this morning. The days are sure long right about now. It was still partially daylight at close to midnight, and at about 4:30 am it was starting to get light again. I seen alot of wildlife last night and there was hardly any truck traffic out in the bushes except for me and the odd guy. I've seen moose, elk and deer. I did'nt see any bears last night, which kinda surprises me. I guess it could be a bit early for them to be out full force yet, I don't know. There are alot of bears around here and where I usually do alot of my trucking. Both black bears and grizzlies. I heard on the news recently that there are only about 700 grizzly bears in Alberta, not counting all the ones in the national parks, but I disagree with their calculations, because I have seen so many of them myself over the years in just the areas that I travel. There has just got to be more than that. Well there you have it, all my thoughts for the day.

The Sewage Treatment Mound

This basement floor picture was taken on Oct 1, I do have a little more done to it than the picture shows, but I hav'nt touched it since the 1st. We have had quite alot of rain lately so I have been doing other things instead. I am really eager to start getting some walls framed up, but I know that there are more important things that need to be done also.

I finally got that door on the shed that I built this summer. I could be needing that sooner than I think. I have also been trying to clean up at my in town place and trying to have it ready for the renter at the end of this month. When I head out to the acerage, I usually have some kind of load on my pickup also, gradually getting thing moved out there.

Another project that I have been focused on is this sewage treatment mound. I would really like to have it out of the way before snow flies. This is what I was working on today mostly and will probably be working on tomorrow also. Hopefully it will be completed after tomorrow. I would like to move my tempory shack into this area somewhere and get it all set up to live in, but I can't really do that until I am done with the mound. I have to pick up some pipe fittings in town in the morning and get all this stuff glued together, then some more gravel over the pipes, before I proceed with the straw and all the other goodies. But first I think I might haul a load of garbage to the dump and load up the old Dodge with some more stuff for the acerage.

I sure hope they don't phone me to go to work this month. I would really hate to turn down the work after all they did for me, with using the truck and all. After October I don't really care, but for now, I just have so much that needs to get done. Forgot to mention that on Saturday I hauled three loads of gravel out there. It was kind of a muddy situation, and I had to spend an hour or so washing things up when I was done, but atleast I got that done. I should'nt have to haul anymore product for awhile now. I hope. I also stole (purchased) a round bale of wheat straw from the boss for my mound. So the rain did'tn really slow me down too much, but there was a lazy day in there somewhere I can remember.

A Bit of Everything Today

Mom and I went out to the acerage this morning with intentions of building on the basement floor some more. But once we were out there, something made me think that I should work on the sewage treatment mound first. It just seemed like something that should get done soon, before a bunch of snow dumps or something. So we flattened out the rest of the expensive sand in to a 400 square foot area. 10 x 40 feet. Then spread a layer of tile rock on top of that. The next step will be to istall two rows of perforated pipe down the length of the mound and connect it all to the pump out hose that can be seen in the picture. Then more gravel over that, some straw, fill, and topsoil. And don't forget the grass seed that gets sprinkled on top of that. I could'nt remember just how much gravel needs to be on the mound, so we were kinda guessing today. It should be close, but I may need to add a little more yet. I feel it was a pretty productive day and I am really glad that I got this portion of the mound done. Now I have room to haul some more gravel in, if the time is right.

We covered the mound with a tarp in case it snows and to keep all the leaves off etc.

Then we proceeded to do some more building on the basement floor. We're still beefing it up a bit. I am in the process of installing blocking between the joists. Before heading home for the day, we decided to winterize the RV. I just know that one of these nights it is going to drop well below freezing. It was dark and lightly snowing when we headed for town.

The month of October is going to be pretty interesting. I'm sure it is going to fly by even quicker than all the rest this summer. I will be moving out of my home in town by the end of October. One month. It is going to be pretty interesting. The place I live in needs a bit of TLC before the renter moves in. Just a few little things, but I need to be packed up and out. All the while trying to get as much done out at the acerage also, so that I can actually survive out there in my 8 x 24 shack on wheels. lol.. I am so mixed up at the moment, I'm not real sure what to do first. lol. I can't really see me moving into the new house by that time, so I guess I should maybe concentrate on getting the shack setup first, then it just dos'nt matter. I kinda wish it was about the 1st of June today. I would also like to have the main floor on and the basement backfilled before alot snow and cold hits. It's going to be interesting.