Square and Level

It took Bob and I all day to arrive at the above accomplishment. Bob says, "It doesn't LOOK like we did a lot, but we did". The day began with working out the elaborate ritual of elevation and square.
First, you have to draw out lines from the completed first wall of block. You set a small line level on a string and make sure both directions are level. This takes a while as you cannot be off or the whole building project is messed up- or "fucked" in the patois. So then after leveling determined, you have to square the strings to make a good corner. (I think I'm really tired from all the work- both mental and physical- and my explanation is dull and confused!) Anyway, it worked or so we hope. Seeing as how I am always maintaining that the universe is crooked, maybe it doesn't matter...  (Only kidding!)
Anyway, after all that Pythagorean figuring, we secured more block and began the sexy and exhausting work of actually erecting the wall on which the sill will set. We established the corners. That took the afternoon. Bob and I were both plum tuckered out after mixing wheel barrow upon wheel barrow load of three parts gravel, two parts sand and one part Portland cement and water to make a stiff mix; that's the recipe. Then of course, you must level the blocks... very exacting stuff, this foundation piece!

Bob tucked the corners in for the evening with tarps so that the concrete will stay damp and set up slowly. I really have learned a lot and the results are nothing short of amazing. I seem to have studio corners and the beginning of a real defined space.

Wildlife at the BauHaus Chicken Coop

Ooops! Hahahahaha that's not wildlife, that's me hard at work on the foundation. But figure that it was like 99 degrees and really humid and maybe Bob and I smelled like wildlife.
Lately, there has been a remarkable proliferation of wildlife sightings. While sitting outside and enjoying the evening weather on my birthday, we saw bats for the first time this year. That was especially gratifying as entire local colonies of bats have succumbed to Brown Nose Disease in recent years. We saw at least two and possibly three bats the other night; we're hoping that they're mixed boys and girls and make additional little bats. I applauded their wobbly overhead flight patterns. They entertained us and consumed many mosquitoes that night.
Also not captured for posterity was the Blue Heron that I saw several mornings in a row on my walk. But several other visitors are featured below.

Pretty blurry, but that's our "Deck Toad". He sits underneath the lawn furniture and emerges at night when I take Jules out. I didn't want to disturb him, so I didn't use the flash which resulted in the "atmospheric" photo. He's cute: lumpy and about the size of one of Jules' tennis balls. (Between the toad and the bats, you'd think we were witches...)

Also on my birthday was this appearance of an entire brood of turkeys- several adults and eight babies. I've seen them down past Maggie's pasture, crossing the stream. But on our way out the driveway, in broad daylight, the whole slew of them meandered across the lawn. The background looks wonky because I photoshopped our suburban neighbor's house out of the picture... not for the first time! Hey! They probably do the same for our house; I guess we do count as wildlife after all.

Flamin' Hot

It's been so hot (tell us something new!) that it's been hard to get anything done. And I suppose it's influenced what's happening in my studio because that's a corner of "Money to Burn" above... do I really need to be sewing flames in this persistent heat event??!?!!?
And it's my Birthday Week (is that an oxymoron?). My birthday always occurs during some unpleasant and sticky weather; that's what I get for being a July baby.
Bob and I tried to get some digging in yesterday morning, before the sun came around the house:

We managed to finish digging this one side, and back fill it with gravel and rocks. All the "spare dirt" got trundled wheel barrow-wise down to the dirt road that leads to Bob's studio. (We're filling in low spots there). We were drenched in sweat and plenty crabby. Note the glass of water on the window sill... plenty of water is getting consumed.
And I started digging on the farther side, succeeding in at least removing the top layer of sod and dirt before turned twelve shades of crimson and abandoning my efforts for shower and air conditioning. Still too hot and I'm getting antsy. I want to see the drama of rising walls!
Here's another shot to reinforce that we actually worked in this weather. My sister referred to it as "prison labor"! Ha!

Diggin' It

Last night we had a lovely time entertaining friends. Today, Bob and I donned our work clothes and gloves and started The Big Dig. Well, not too big as the house hasn't really got a deep foundation anyway.
The idea here is to excavate down to the edge of the house foundation and replace the dirt  that lived in this odd strip up along the driveway with rock and gravel. We're happy to say that it did not need to be four feet deep like that blasted chimney foundation; this needs only be four inches or so. But it was hot work! Despite it being in the shade, the day got warm quickly. We quit at lunch time.
Here's the pile of gravel:

How exciting can a silly pile of gravel be, you may ask? Pretty friggin' exciting if it's YOUR pile of gravel and it's for the foundation on YOUR studio! That pile doesn't look huge but it took Bob two trips with our half ton pickup as you can only pick up a half a ton at a time. Therefore, that pile o' gravel represents a ton. And gravel is cheap! Who knew that? Bob and I would probably have bought all kinds of tons of gravel in the past if we'd known it was such a bargain. I guess we get our wish, as we can tell we'll need several more piles of gravel before the trench is filled in.
Hey! If anyone is having a particularly slow day and wants some good clean outdoor activity, they can certainly come by the BobnRita ranch and help dig.

Big Green Worm

Look at what Bob left on the driveway for my enjoyment! A really big green worm! Innocent me, I think it's a piece of an electrical connection or the end of a bungee cord or something useful and I almost picked it up. Instead I touched it with the toe of my boot and it moved. EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!
Too big and green for my liking! This posting comes to you in place of the intended posting about my studio construction because thanks to relentless rain and thunderstorms, trench digging is seriously on hold. Bob is supposed to go get gravel tomorrow so that we can fill the trench in with something other than rain water. We were pretty fortunate last week when the roof came down. It was hot- but dry. This week has been hopeless. Humid, then more rain, slugs and Japanese beetles and big green worms.

It really was neon! We went back and forth about whether to kill it or not. I said, "Looks evil" but Bob said, "Maybe it's some really exotic worm that will turn into a marvelous butterfly and there are only three of them left in the whole world". Sorry! I think it was a tomato horn worm... it's dead now and we didn't even have to do it. We'll never know what did it in... could be a bird or just bad wormy luck.

Honey, Where's the Carport?

I actually gasped as I turned into our driveway the other day. The carport was gone! Yaaaaaaaaaaaay!!!
This means we are one giant step closer to my studio construction and that the first major stage is done.
According to Bob and Joe, the roofing came off easily and even the beams came down in a straight forward manner. I know it was a lot of work, but it went pretty well. The particle board is now stacked up awaiting my pulling out the nails.

It's entertaining to think this tawdry little pile of particle board, with a think skin of roofing, was strong enough to withstand the rigors of winter. See those saw horses behind the pile? Bob and I spent about ten minutes this sweltering morning, transferring all the stacked beams (in the earlier photo) over to these saw horses so that there'd be a clear work area. Three minutes after we carefully piled the boards, there was a tremendous crash! as the sawhorses collapsed and the beams spilled to the ground. Fortunately, we were well out of the way and no intentional plant life was crushed (we do have Japanese maples and caster beans planted in that strip of poison ivy infested No-Man (or Woman's) Land).
So the next stage is to locate the septic tank cover and mark it and do a bit of excavation to assemble a foundation. Two sides of the foundation will be the blacktop that is previously existing and the house will be the fourth side. Interestingly, we thought for sure there must be some footing under the beams that held up the roof. But apparently when Joe and Bob had all the rafters off, Joe leaned up against the vertical and it started to fall over: they were simply sitting on the blacktop, sort of "friction fit" construction!
On a hotter and hazier note, it is really hot and hazy. The neighbors's have obviously taken leave of their senses as they are out MOWING their lawn. We stacked the ill-fated wood pile and then retreated to the air conditioned bedroom, where we had a matinee. Bob and I and Jules hunkered down and ate raspberries, plucked fresh from our garden (thank you Beatrice and John for the plants!). I'm signing off, though, as the room with the computer is not air conditioned and almost unbearable!

Starting a Revolution

Here's the flag at the end of our driveway! Tattered and twisted- a fitting image for where we're all headed. Dog Bless America!*
What a holiday: people blowing off their digits with fire crackers, explosions that replicate gun battles, dogs and cats (and people) being scared out of their wits by the aforementioned loud noises, people consuming way to many salty, high calorie foods. Truly American, this Fourth thing!
The idiot up the road- and others surrounding- will be dusting off their muskets, powder kegs and assault weapons to prove they are the true patriots- not peace loving, art making heathens like Bob and me! Our ears will be 21 gun saluted with a deafening din.
Let us be thankful for all the wonderful state of the nation.

The funny thing is I wanted to post an update on the State of the Studio but it was my patriotic duty to acknowledge the holiday! Check back tomorrow...

*Dog, of course, being God backwards.

Studio Phase Two!

I drove up the driveway and was delighted to see Phase Two of the great studio project well underway. Despite the rain that began several minutes after they started work this morning, Bob and Joe managed to remove one course of tar paper and particle board from the old carport roof. Remarkably, the stuff is all coming off quite a bit easier than we could ever have hoped. The fear was that the tar paper was glued down  terminally to the particle board and that the particle board was nailed every few inches with nails shot by a nail gun. In other words, it would all have to be chopped up with a saws-all and it would be majorly labor intensive. Instead, Joe stood underneath and used a post (the first upright leaning against the wall in the above picture) to jam up against the ceiling and Bob pried it from above. It popped apart nicely!

It was oddly gratifying to see light coming in through the roof- the reverse of what is typically desired. If it hadn't rained, Bob and Joe would have easily completed the removal. They'll resume work tomorrow, hopefully with more cooperative weather.
This was a piece of luck in terms of recycling materials, too. The particle board, while not the highest quality stuff, can be reused for other projects around the ranch. Bob has wanted to construct a roof over the fire wood pile (instead of the billowing tarp) and these sheets of particle board just might do the trick. It's surprising that the particle board (which is the building material equivalent of scrapple) held up so well and as long as it did. After all, it is made of wood bits and loads of glue. We're going to re-construct the studio roof using heavier, exterior grade ply wood.