happy halloween!

greenhouse (stucco removal---east wall)

sunny and clear when i went out this morning but the forecast said there was a 70% chance of rain for the afternoon---so before doing anything else i harvested as many dried bean pods as i could find and cut the last of the kabochas and seedstock summer squash from the vines and got them inside where they'd stay clean and dry.

saw 3 or 4 praying mantis egg casings while i was picking bean pods---a happy sight

several varieties of dried bean pods from the kitchen garden

kabochas, a tromboncino, and some seedstock summer squashes

while i was out working in the gardens staal was busy loosening the stucco from the east wall of the greenhouse.  i got finished with my gardening just in time to catch the action.

after getting things cleaned up a bit the wind started to pick up and we could see clouds on the horizon.  the stack of insulation that came out of the walls started to migrate so we got it into trash bags and then started gathering tools and getting ready for rain.

after we got things put away or covered or moved i could feel my belly rumbling and i started thinking about all those squashes.  i decided to try one of the kabochas that's been curing since the first harvest.  it turned out to be quite tasty.

it started raining while i was cooking.

hopefully we won't have too much water sneak under the door and into the house tonight.

greenhouse (stucco removal---north wall)

today staal and i worked on getting the stucco off the north wall of the greenhouse.
before we did anything staal hosed down the interior of the walls to get rid of the leftover drywall dust and insulation phumph.

staal did some figuring on where he was going to make the cut in the stucco and i unscrewed the cat run from the house so we could get it out of the way. 

much noise and dust then ensued...

staal gave the stucco a few whacks with the sledge to break it loose from the framing and then i hammered and cut it into manageable pieces.  the trick is to beat a path free of stucco so that the wire is clear and can then be cut into sections with a pair of snips.

i stacked the sections out of the way---the foreman approved my work.

after i got the stucco cut up and moved i cleaned the leftover nails and wire off the framing.  staal cut some studs free so he could move them around and start getting the spacing right for when we put up the glass.

he also took out every other ceiling joist to open things up a bit, removed the window, and put in the blocking that will seal between the rafters and the new roof.

while he was doing that i loaded the last of the drywall onto the truck (the ceiling drywall went to the dump with the shingles but being uncertain how the truck would handle the load we decided not to take the wall drywall in the same trip).

we got quite a bit done today.  here's how we left things...

and...
relaxing after a hard day---sipping a pilsner urquell and reading a review of a new translation of boccaccio's decameron in the new yorker.

you deserve a good rest, love

'34 ford

we bump and wind our way along the hilly roads in your old flatbed,
the transmission grinding and whirring on the inclines,
but still it climbs on,
steady and strong,
and i imagine it to be happy,
to be put to work again,
though beautiful and aged a bit,
it's the sort of truck that needs a job,
there's a soul somewhere in all that metal,
one that would surely suffer if it was treated as a “classic”,
buffed and glossy and only taken out for sunday drives,
or,
left idle,
to rust and decay,
its usefulness slowly flaking away,
sitting atop flattened, rotting tires,
half-buried in weeds,
a home for rodents and spiders,
but luckily, long ago, it found its way to you,
and this is where it belongs,
bumping and winding and whirring through the hills,
with you at the wheel and a load on its back

greenhouse (dump run and lumber yard)

this morning we took a little trip to the mariposa landfill in staal's old flatbed.  it's a lot of fun to ride in---quite comfortable and just has a nice feel about it.  

staal used it many years ago for hauling (some of that when he was doing carpentry and handyman stuff the last time he lived in mariposa) but it sat for many years in isleton and he wasn't sure how it would do back in the mariposa hills with a heavy load.  

staal and the '34 working around mariposa in the 1980s (i love this picture)

it did just fine today.  and it turned out to be quite a hefty load indeed.  they weighed us in when we got to the dump and when we weighed out we were 1 ton lighter.

it was a lot of drywall and shingles and would have been a pretty miserable job for just one person---staal and i got the bed cleared out pretty quickly and it wasn't a huge strain for either of us---we were both happy for the company.

after we weighed out and settled up at the scale house we stopped at the spca (which shares a driveway with the dump and has a perpetual yardsale staal and i frequent).  we found some treasures---used lumber, chainlink fence with piping, gate and hardware, and metal roof sheets---all from someone's dismantled dog run.  staal found a nice sink fixture, some oldie but goodie bypass pruners and an outdoor light fixture.  i got some terra cotta pots and new shirt.  all of that a bargain at $30.

couldn't have been empty for more than 10-15 minutes

next it was on to the lumber yard for a few things.

after the lumber yard we put a little gas in the truck then headed back home.  we unloaded the truck, got some water and a snack and went out to do a little experimenting and figuring.  
staal ripped an angle along one edge of a 2x6 to see how it will work for a fascia board.  looks like it will be quite nice but the stucco is definitely going to have to come off before the fascia goes up.

so...a little smashy smashy...

the stucco is pretty well attached.

but it's still no match for the staal will.

tomorrow:  more fun with stucco.