Finally Some Color

We took a leisurely trip up to Hugo last weekend to do a few things. We've been trying to get up there but again, the rain! Oklahoma has recently flooded. Arkansas has flooded. But luckily, southeastern Oklahoma, where our property is has not been hit as hard this time. It's wet. But I've seen it worse. And at least we didn't have to work in the mud.

Now that we have Oliver with us there's never a dull moment. Here is how he enjoys the ride up in the back seat.

Once there, we focused on getting the AC unit switched out in the trailer. Last time we were up it took a dump on us. Luckily, my buddy John had an extra that was the exact same one. The previous one allowed rain to get in around it. We made sure this one was water tight.

She ain't pretty to look at, but she'll get the job done.

 The AC worked all weekend like a champ and made for very comfortable sleeping, as you can tell by the pic I took of Oliver asleep at the foot of the bed one morning. He's not stretching. He's dead asleep this way.

Day two consisted of finishing up some of the trim work on the workshop and raking and back filling the electrical trench we previously dug. All the rain had made it settle in quite a bit. Luckily my dad left me a blade to use. I welded a chain on it and used one of our fourwheelers to drag it smooth.

All the rain has added another obstacle as well. There are TONS of baby frogs everywhere. That combined with the standing water makes for a pretty good chance of running into Water Moccasins aka Cottonmouths. While I was walking around the workshop spraying some poison ivy I heard a strange fluttering sound. I happened to glance down and saw a giant snake, head raised and ready to strike. I ran and grabbed my pistol and found it had moved under the edge of the shop where it again was making noise and ready to strike. I knew it was bad by the large flat diamond shape head I put a bullet through. I dragged it out, used a shovel to remove his head and saw it was indeed a HUGE Water Moccasin. You know, these things are pit vipers, just like the Rattlesnake and Copperhead and extremely venomous. Needless to say I jumped at every stick on the ground after that.

He's well over 5 feet not including the 4" of head and neck that are gone.

Later that day we rode the trails to see what was up in the woods. We checked the cameras for the first time in a while. We have let all of the feeders run out of corn, but it hasn't seemed to stop the deer.

Or the idiot raccoons.

We also saw the blackberries are almost ready. We're taking a bucket up next weekend to collect a ton. They're everywhere!

They're relative small at the moment and there's a lot more red than black. Still delicious though!

Later that evening we filled the air with the smell of roasted sweet potato and grilled t-bone steak over a camp fire.

It was still and the setting sun's rays pierced through the trees and the campfire's smoke.

Damn tasty.

The next day we finally were able to stain the workshop. Michelle did a terrific job choosing the colors! The only thing left to do on it is lay the rock around the bottom, which we won't do until we're rocking the outdoor kitchen and cabin.

Michelle gettin' it done. You can get a better idea of its size here.

Just needs the rock at the bottom.

None of it is paint. The gables are transparent stain. The trim and body are solid color stain.

The back. That left corner is where I almost stepped on that big ass snake.

Michelle chose colors that were in the trees.

We have a long list of things to get done next time. The hard part is deciding which ones to do. Guess we'll all just have to wait and see!

And finally as you may know, we plan to rent the cabin out when we're not using it. So we're building it to be a retreat and sort of like a resort. And since we're also getting into the printing business, we've come up with a name, logo and design for the place. We plan to give out the koozies to guests. If you're nice, we might get you a shirt too.

In The Trenches

We've been waiting for weeks to have a break in the rain long enough to dig our trench for the power service line from the meter to the cabin build site and our break finally came on Easter Sunday.

I needed super heavy #2 wire, 3 strands of it, to run 250 feet in conduit underground to service our cabin. I found it at a local electrical supply for over $.30 cheaper than Home Depot. That's a great savings spread out over 750 feet. So I bought it and my mom and dad made the trip down to use their ditcher and make fast work of it.

Even though it was still a bit wet for the first 30 feet or so, we managed to make it through.

Once we were through the muddy start, it was like a knife through butter.

250 feet, about 3 feet deep in about 15 minutes.

Then came the hard part... pulling that heavy wire. All together it weighed about 300 pounds. We had to chain the conduit to a tree and use the tractor to pull it through.

Redneck ingenuity.

We pulled it through 6 sections of pipe.

It took the biggest part of the day to get the wire pulled. Then we laid it in the trench. I only pulled the longest run of the largest wire. We also laid a second conduit for future smaller runs to our RV hook up station.

Then then we simply covered it all up!

You'd never know there's so much copper 3 feet down under there.
PS - Our cabin will be built behind those trees in the upper right at the end of this covered ditch.

Next we plan to run the wire to the RV hookup station, which is about halfway from the meter to the cabin. This will eventually be for guests to use but initially we'll plug our camper into it so we can finally unplug the 100 foot extension cord plugged in at the meter we're currently using.

We now have full 220 service ran all the way to our cabin build site and are ready to get moving on it in the coming weeks. Lot's of great things to come!

One Down...

Work in Dallas is BOOMING and we have not had much time at all to get up to the cabin. We have managed to make it up a few times in the past couple of months and have made a little progress on small things like clearing brush and trimming trees, nothing too blogworthy.

Then we decided to schedule 5 days to go up and get our workshop built. People all thought we were crazy to try to do it in just 5 days. We did it in 3 and a half. And it rained for two and a half of them.

As you probably have read, we decided to build the workshop first as a sort of practice run to work out some details before we get to the cabin. Just like the cabin, the workshop has a loft and therefore a ridge beam instead of trusses for the roof. The two will also share in the same pier and beam foundation and overall aesthetic.

Things went very well! There are a few things left to do; install the roof drip edge, trim the shingles, install a few more trim boards, stain the cedar shingles, paint the body and trim and rock around the bottom. Still, you'll get the gist.

We ordered all of our lumber from McKinney Home Depot about 2 weeks prior and had it scheduled to be delivered on a Friday. On the Thursday before I get a call from the Paris Home Depot saying they were the ones filling and delivering the order but there was a problem. They only deliver to our area on Tuesdays. Believe it or not, I stayed calm and explained to them that wasn't going to work because I was building beginning tomorrow. They "made an exception" for us and said it'd be there by 4pm the next day.  We drive up Friday afternoon to get set up and by 3:30 there was no sign yet of any delivery so I call them. They said their delivery truck broke down and there were no deliveries being made that day. I wasn't so calm this time. When I was finished cursing them up and down, I called the local McCoy's Lumber in Paris just to see what the odds were for them to deliver that day. They were happy to on the spot! In fact, they have 5 different size delivery trucks. Hmmm. So I quickly called Home Depot back and gladly cancelled the entire order and literally by 4:30 McCoy's was offloading our lumber at our build site. McCoy's now will get our entire build and Home Depot can suck my balls.

McCoy's had a big, heavy off road forklift to bring our lumber up the driveway. There were several trips to be made and the ground looked dry enough with some standing water here and there. But with every pass the forklift made I started noticing the ground would literally wave as he drove by. When he was done we took this video to show how much water was under the dry surface. Incredible!

 We only organized the materials Friday evening and began the build by laying the subfloor and floor first thing Saturday morning and then began framing.

DAY ONE:

Standing water, but we were mostly on the deck anyway.

Mud is not fun to work in.

Michelle in the mud.

Ridge beam is up, rafters going in.

Of course we're square, plumb and level.

Couldn't have done it without Gavin.

End of DAY ONE! We were expecting rain overnight so the tarps came out.

DAY TWO:

DAY TWO began by decking the roof and then adding the felt and shingles.

After the roof was done we added the wall sheathing.

Then we put in the side door.

This was a muddy fucking mess.

But by the end of DAY TWO, we were even able to put up the siding!.

DAY THREE:

Day two was a cloudy and misty day and then it stormed that night. So the beginning of day three was a challenge. It was as muddy as ever and we were to add the soffit, fascia and trim and the cedar gable ends. It was a wet and muddy mess, but we were able to get it done. We also were able to build the loft inside. 

We added the fascia, soffits and the cedar shingles on the gables.

Getting close!

We even added the loft inside. It's 4' X 12' and is 8' off the ground.

DAY THREE AND A HALF (Okay, it's day four, but we only took a few hours to wrap it up):

It stormed heavily the night before and there was so much water surrounding the workshop we had to dig drainage ditches before we could even begin.

This will eventually be a French drain.

It's working!

We then added the big doors.

And made it super secure.

Looking good!

Needs a few details, especially the rock skirt around the bottom.

There you have it. Three and a half days and a 12' X 12' workshop!

It was quite an undertaking, but nothing stops us! Very ready to finish up the details and show you the color scheme. Until next time...