Ottertail Country

Ottertail Country
Ottertail South

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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4 comments:

Anonymous said...

What a big project. Nice to see Chris and Hailee out in the yard. Are the apples ripe yet??

Lc

Anonymous said...

The apples still have a long way to grow in order to get as large as they normally do.... I'm doubtful that they will make it to full size. Going to be tougher to peel the little buggers, but will still have to do it... they do make the BEST pie.. I have to assume that they are near ripe.

Hailee loves it up here. She is fascinated with all the doors, and loves going out into the garage. (That's my girl) :) She enjoyed digging too. She actually was thrilled when I brought out a couple of toy trucks. A dump truck and one with a front end loader... Yup, she belongs out here at the end of the road too.

When she had to say goodbye, while Gene was still at work, she got a real sad look on her face and said "Papa will miss me"... She often asks Papa to play the guitar for her while she dances...

Was great to see Rosie again, and Mom enjoyed seeing everyone.. me too.
ps

Anonymous said...

Good pics, not the biggest fan of the look on my face... :) I love the one of Hailee with the swim stuff on, I had to take several to get that one! :) I'm glad I got to come up even if only for a bit. ~Rosie

Anonymous said...

We're sure glad you made it over too... I think it was fun for everyone.
It's always nice to see our "little ones", even if they're all grown up.. :)
ps