A New Adventure.....

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Halloween is past and I must say, things have certainly been in flux lately..... the latest of which is creation of 'Ottertail South'. Peg and I have begun the process of buying Uncle Russ Mattson's house and land. Believe me, this was a momentous decision for us! Leaving the Ottertail homestead, place of my youth, my home of the last 14 years, and Peggy's and my home of the last four years. The upside of this is being only 3/4 mile from the homestead and the fact that Dawn and Tim will be coming to Wisconsin to live in the Carlson home!

Here is the view of Russ and Bee's a-frame looking from the northeast. That's the kitchen in the middle of the east wall.

Another view more from the east. Hey, a clothesline! At the left is the little stone building sitting atop the stairway to the root cellar.

A view from the west, northwest. Lots of shingles, but not much siding. No eave troughs, either...... I'll give you more views later.

I was a little slow to warm to this change, but as the days go by I find myself thinking of how it will be to live in this house, how it will feel to drive up that familiar driveway and be home....

Have a good and safe Thanksgiving.

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Happy October, Lucy!!

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Well, knock me over with a feather!! Guess what Carlo is doing?? That's right, re-opening a section of lawn that has been idle for a couple of years.

It took quite a while to mow through that stuff, first with deck all the way up, then progressively lower until it was at "lawn height".

As I mowed, I tried to blow as much of the grass into rows as was possible. The left a lesser raking job for me later.

Then I hauled the clippings off the lawn. That new trailer is coming in handy for quite a few tasks around the place. Next chore will be to haul some firewood home for the lodge. I have my eye on a couple of dead trees in the woods that will make some lodge heat this winter.

Here is a view of the north section of the fresh cuttings.....

And here you can see the south end of it. It looks pretty rustic right now, but when you come up this spring, Lucy, it will look like a real lawn again!!

I gotta go, Carlo






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More drivel....

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This was one of the stickiest spots to complete. Here the old shingles are still in place and the scaffold is ready. Let's dive in......

You'll notice that the little roof is somewhat pagoda shaped. They used short little curved rafters and used 4" wide boards to produce a curved surface. Of course, the end sections have the same curved shape.

Here's a better view. The hole in the center was apparently cut in for the purpose of insulating the ceiling of the bay window area.

Here's that trailer again. Always parked below the project to catch all the scrap as I tore it loose.

OK, junk off, ice guard in place. Looks pretty tame, but all the old flashing needed to be replaced and that meant removing a bunch of the vinyl siding in the area. The shingles required step flashing where they met the wall on the curved end areas.

Finally, all the shingles are on, flashing installed and tarred, new j-channel for where the siding meets the roof, and siding re-fit and installed. This area took longer to do than both of the longer areas over the front and rear doors....

Well, it's starting to look like a house with a green roof...... here are a few views.

Scaffolding set in front of the house in anticipation of applying aluminum soffit and fascia to the upper dormer area, leaving no wood surfaces to worry about (no painting....). I need about 5 or 6 more pieces of scaffold, I hope Paul will loan me a few more. Then I can do the whole dormer area without dealing with constantly moving heavy ladders. We'll see....

Still need to re-shingle that little roof over the living room window seat area. I guess it will be as much of a pain in the neck as the pagoda over the south window.






Bow hunting soon......

That's it for now, I gotta go......

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