Ottertail Country

Ottertail Country
Ottertail South

August 27, 2008

And that's the way it is.......

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Outside complete! Here's a view from the deck to the stove pad......




Here's a view from the stove pad to the deck........




You can hardly tell that we messed things up big time. Today I finished all the outside stuff, cleaned up my mess on the inside of the wall, routed the outdoor boiler power wire through the basement to near the breaker panel. Then we drained the indoor boiler so I can get going on that. I have arranged to pick up the special check valves tomorrow that I will need to couple the two boiler systems together so they work properly. Also will be meeting with Lance at the Prentice hardware to pick up all the miscellaneous valves, fittings, zone valves and some pex tubing. Pex is what they run these days for hot water heating systems, it's light, somewhat flexable and WAY cheaper than copper. I may get this thing done before winter sets in.....

I gotta go, Carlo


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August 25, 2008

Progress report.

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I'm not kidding, it's dry up here... even the lilac hedge is suffering. Wilted leaves on lilacs and mock orange. Some poplar trees, usually latest to lose leaves, are looking quite yellow and ready to give up.




While working outside last night, Peg said "Look at this, the ground is cracking!". Right in front of the big shed the ground is so dry that it has split....




Things are about ready outside, a little back filling by the house left to do, should get that done tomorrow night.




I managed to get the hydraulic cement mixed and inserted in the space around the pipe. That is some weird stuff, sets up really fast. Soon I will be able to move my efforts indoors and start working on modifying the indoor boiler piping. On, goodie....

I gotta go, Carlo
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August 24, 2008

Update

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Each day gets us a little closer. Here I'm installing the 4" solid blocks for the base, per the dealer's sketch. Hope it works. We got the form box out easily from around the pipe and back filled and used the compactor on the whole works.




We had started back filling the trench last evening, and tonight we put some of the sod back in. We set it a little high, as Peg suggested, to guard against too much settling and a low spot in the yard. As long as we had the compactor, I thought I would run it over the sod and it's all level now. Not sure if that was a good thing or not.




Things are starting to look a little better in the yard, most of the trench is filled in and the dirt around the 'wood piling area' has been raked out and roots and rocks picked.




A few more days and the yard will be back to normal. I need to get the hole in the basement wall plugged up with hydraulic cement, finish backfilling near the house, pick up the piles of roots and stones and it's pretty much done. The boiler is due to show up sometime this week!! As soon as the outside work is done, I'll drain the boiler in the house and start the modifications to the piping in there..... no shortage of stuff to do around here this summer.

I gotta go, Carlo
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August 23, 2008

Diggin' and piping 'n stuff....


Thursday evening brought enough rain to wet the boards on the deck, no appreciable help toward ending our drought.




Thursday also brought Chris Meyer and his skid steer to dig out for the boiler base and wood storage area.




When the hole was dug, we set in that boxlike form that you saw a post or two ago. Then we covered it loosely with some plywood and began dumping gravel into the hole.




Here it is all filled around and packed down as well as possible with the skid steer.




Next Chris leveled the area to the south of the future stove, filled the area with gravel and leveled it all off. We used the entire load of gravel that was hauled in there a few weeks ago.





This morning, Saturday, I went to Phillips with the truck and trailer to get the insulated piping for the boiler, some 4" thick solid concrete blocks, a few other supplies and I borrowed a compactor from Peg's brother.




The insulated pipe, which is quite hard to bend, needed to have a spot cut open and the insulation removed.






I had also procured a pair of 4" plastic drain elbows, 45°. These needed to be split, I chose to use a short hand saw.




These pieces would be used to make a bend in the tubing so it could transition from the horizontal trench to the vertical section needed to come up to the boiler.




Here we are, rope holding the pipe in a bent position, duct taping the elbows around the pipes.




We managed to get the pipe into the form box without getting anything stuck or the forms collapsing. I was glad we didn't have to dig out any of the gravel to get the pipes in the ground.




Here you can see the foam sealer oozing out of the plastic fittings. I had drilled some holes in the fittings before I taped them in place. Now that the pipes were in place in the trench form, we filled the joint with expanding foam to give it some insulation value.



We left it like this so that the foam could cure for the required 8 hours. It's tied to the compactor to hold it upright.




A new look for the trench, the insulated pipe running into the basement, along with the wire for the power for the pump and controls. We got the trench about 3/4 filled in this evening, we'll finish it tomorrow. We will also pullout the form box from around the pipe by the stove base location, fill the trench above the tubing with gravel. We'll pound the area with the compactor for a while, the level the area and get the 4" block set in the proper location for supporting the furnace. The unit is supposed to be delivered next week, so we need to get this all ready this weekend. This must be the sixth or seventh weekend in a row that we have been here, busy both days (O.k., I did take an airplane ride a few weeks ago....). Once this furnace is in and operational, I'm going to spend a weekend sleeping late and then staring out the window.... Or not.

I gotta go, Carlo
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August 19, 2008

Now this is what I'm talkin' about......

I would like to thank all those who take the time to comment on here. Cheers.....





Finished the entry for the water lines. It's a hole in the wall, gang......




Anyway, this is more like it. A heavy duty hammer drill, complete with heavy duty chisel end.... I finished the task in 15 minutes.








A few years ago, the stickman was down here helping me install a water heater. Among other things, we discussed starting a plumbing business. Why, you may ask? Search me, it just came up. We were trying for a name and I thought that we would have to be crazy to go into such a business, so I suggested "Plumb Loco" as our name. Oh, we thought that was clever, so we decided to add an electrical division and we promptly decided on the name "Watt Zappinin'?" Now I have found the ideal paint job for our service trucks..... ya gotta double click this one for the full size.....



I gotta go, Carlo
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August 18, 2008


Saturday morning I woke up to the sounds of someone chopping roots out in the trench. Chris, Ashley and Hailee had arrived Friday and took in the Price County fair in Phillips.




Chris did quite a bit of digging and Hailee, in the foreground, did some digging around of her own....




I left at 9:00 to go to Phillips. We have a machine almost ready for customer acceptance testing and we needed to get a few things done. I spent 4 hours at work and almost missed a visit by Rosie. I got home in time to eat grilled chicken and potatoes with all the company.




Must be planning a swimming trip?




I wonder how many kids have had baths in this kitchen......




Sunday morning I headed off for work again, starting at 8:00am and worked till 3:00. I missed the kids completely on Sunday..... I finished the trench that evening.




Then Peg and I got out the orange paint and put down some lines where the skid steer guy will dig down about a foot and then fill it back in from the road gravel pile that's by the lodge. He'll also dig out a little top dirt just south of the stove spot and put down the rest of the gravel. I thought it would be good to have a somewhat dry wood storage location. The ground down there has a lot of clay and can get kind of boggy in the fall and spring.




Monday evening I whacked together a "form" to put in the stove spot after it's scooped out. Then the skid steer can fill in most of the area with the gravel and I can get the furnace piping in later, then pull the form out and finish back filling. Might work, might not.




After the above work was done, I moved to the basement to begin the task of getting a hole through the concrete wall for the entry of the furnace piping. That old shower seat is just about the right height for sitting and working on the wall. Now this wall may be might old, but soft it's not!! The actual cement portion is not super hard, but when they used coarse aggregate in the old days, that meant any rocks that may be about, 4-5" diameter beauties that are in there to take up space. They are firmly embedded in this wall and I won't be able to use my right arm tomorrow after slugging away with that 3# hammer for a couple of hours. I think I may be a little more than half way through.... I hope they didn't make the walls thicker as they went down!




Not the best photo in the world, but blow it up and you get an idea of the rocks in there. The lower, black one was almost up to the one at the top.... lots of hitting.

I gotta go, Carlo
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August 14, 2008

Update, mid-August


Apple tree is loaded this year. Looks like some branches will need support. I hope we get some rain soon or the apples may suffer.




We woke up one morning to find this limb on the big silver maple hanging down to the ground. No wind, the next photo will show....




that the limb broke at a weak spot caused by a damaged limb a number of years ago.




So we tackled that Saturday morning and got it cleaned up. The only good thing about it was the aerial logging :-)




It left a noticeable hole in the canopy, and parts of the lawn are in shock from the sunlight that normally never hits those spots....




Next, we dived into a MAJOR cleaning of the basement and furnace room in anticipation of the wood boiler install work. Also the electrician is coming next week to change out the main breaker panel in the basement and hook up the wire I buried last fall for the garage feed!! I'll finally get that extension cord out of the yard. I almost wrecked it a last winter with the snow plow and I cut it off once this summer with the lawn mower...... sheesh!



So this week evenings we started in on the layout of the new boiler and wood storage area. We put some stakes in the lawn where they will be, and I started in on digging the trench for the water piping. This is as far as I got tonight, almost to where the stove will sit.



I didn't dig it down to full depth by the house, I though I would wait with that until the rest is done and I'm ready to break a hole in the foundation and put the pipe in. Hope the rain comes AFTER I'm done with that bit. I was careful at the start as I knew the power cable for the shed and lodge ran through the lawn and would cross the pipe trench. Here it is....









I visited a fellow worker, Eugene Ritchie, to look at his install of the same kind of boiler at his house that he did last year. Got to see some of what I'm going to be doing on this one. His set-up is for a forced air furnace, so it will be different here for parts of it.




One good thing that I'm looking forward to is having nephew Kent helping out with the install. I have been talking about this stove for years and asking Kent about them. He used to install these boilers and he volunteered to help!! I hope our schedules work out.....

We have both been working way too many hours at work, a steady string of big projects at home, and I think we're both looking forward to winter and some time to sit and stare.....

I gotta go, Carlo

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