Ottertail Country

A Little Progress......

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Sun, 16 Jul 2017 22:20:00 +0000

A quick update on shenanigans at the homestead.......

Here's a dandy spider, hey???

Window boxes doing Ok, and the Jack-in-the-Pulpit plants are vigorous this year!

A little M-shed door repair....

Clean-up of doors was a pain... really hard, stuck paint.... well in some spots.

Oh, yeah, the old belt sander trick was needed.

Finally, a red door!

A little strength adder on one....

Getting a little closer all the time.

Workshop Re-build Update

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Fri, 23 Jun 2017 02:40:00 +0000

First things first.... My friend, Ivan, recently moved into a new house. Above the stairway to the basement was a little alcove, and I mentioned that it would be a good place for a suit of armor to stand. Well, a few weeks later, he ran across this unit and purchased it for a song. Looks good in the alcove.... So I planted a seed, and whadda ya know..!

So now the quest for the appropriate name. I have suggested a few, including:

Sir Galahadn't

Sir Lancealittle

Sir Ivan of Naught

We'll see........

My buddy, Swede, came over one day with hid power washer. We were going to attempt the de-painting of the M-shed doors.

Set to go!!

Here is a good look at the condition of the doors.

As it turned out, the upper doors had patches of stubborn paint on very soft boards, so we got a nice deep textured look. I spent some time scraping and hit them with a sander to get the sharp edges of paint off.

Good primer, of course, all brush work.

The upper doors are in the background, with window sash in the front. Also fixing new glass in the east windows. Shop is full, I get confused as to what has primer, what has white paint and how many coats are each item..... I should have taken notes!

Then I started on cleaning up the upper door jambs and such.

I guess they came out alright.....?

And here is how it looked with the newly painted doors re-installed.

Somewhere in all of this was father's day weekend, so I made us a coconut cream pie! I finally broke down and got a three quart double boiler, which works great for this size recipe.

Peggy provided a home-made graham cracker crust. Of course, the photo of the finished work, complete with toasted coconut on top, was super fuzzy. So, you'll have to take my word for it that it turned out well. It didn't last long...........

Well, that's it for now, have a great weekend!!!

I gotta go, Carlo

Historic Point Basse

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 23:35:00 +0000

Last weekend we spent a couple of days camped at Historic Point Basse, near Nekoosa, Wisconsin. The site of the earliest settlements in central Wisconsin. They have a ton of things to see and hear about, with period appropriate campers and demonstrators showing how life was lived in the 1840's. You can read and see all about it HERE . We stayed in canvas tents, cooked on open fires, swatted mosquitos and enjoyed temps in the upper 80's with lots of humidity. We've had better camping experiences, weather-wise! Although I got zero photos from this event, here are a couple from this site in past years......

Peg and I were camped below the bluff, right on the Wisconsin River. We were portraying voyageurs, some of which were still around as late as the 1840's.

We were in charge of the canoe rides, most of which I did in this dug out canoe. It was crafted by some local history buffs from a white pine log. It looks big and clunky, but once it was in the water it paddled just fine.

This was a little awning shelter used by one of the Point Basse volunteers. He helped out with the visitors to the site.

Here is our wedge tent next door. We were camped about 15 feet from the river bank.

Back in the 1990's, Peg and I were both involved with a French Marine group, portraying the French & Indian war era. That would be mid 1700's, quite a bit earlier and cruder than the Point Basse era. The following photos are from an event we did just east of Ashland, Wisconsin. We had a nice little cannon!

There was a replica of a fort that stood on some high ground overlooking the Chequamegon Bay of Lake Superior. Daughter Rosie is on the left, and I'm next to her.

Two tipis were set up outside the fort, with the bay as a backdrop.......

Here we have daughter Bryn on the right at an event in Wausau, Wisconsin. We were camped on Fern Island in the Wisconsin river.

Peggy continues to do the re-enactments, me not so much.... Some day I will post a bunch of photos from an event at Fort Ticonderoga. Peggy went to that and it was a very large event. She is heading to Old Fort Erie in a couple of weeks. Right across the river from Buffalo, NY.....

Well, that's all for now..... See you soon!

Moving on.......

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Tue, 13 Jun 2017 18:13:00 +0000

First, a little follow-up on the previous post. I was able to get primer and one coat of paint on the new fascia boards on the M-shed. Sneaking it in between rains.... we got 3 inches again on Sunday afternoon & evening....

Now to get the final coat of paint on there and the scaffold out of the way! Then I can attack those doors. Still painting to do on the North end, and all the rafter tails will need a coat or two.

This pic is kinda fuzzy, but here is the start of refurbishing the giant M that was on the sliding doors. Now have one coat of black paint on these items, should look good on the new red painted doors.

Some other local news.... a local landmark, John's Auto Care, has been destroyed by fire. This shop was started way back by Dave Mattson. We'll have to find a new fixit guy for our cars.....

Next exciting adventure!! South lower garage roof re-do....

Another session of tearing off three layers of rolled roofing, and the accompanying thousands of nail... not my favorite task.

Put down some 15# felt when enough stuff was off to accommodate a row of OSB.

2/3's done with tear-off!

All the siding had to come off the wall above the roof so I could get flashing installed.

Hey, thanks for the help, brother Tim!!!

Closing in on it....

Power nailers, yes!!

Forming flashing to match the wall/roof angle.

Clean-up. Always a formidable task.

Project complete. I'm guessing you noticed the condition of the door and window in the lower wall? Yes, just another opportunity..... Next on the list.

Well, that's all from Ottertail Country!! See you next time......

Let's look at something more recent.......

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Mon, 29 May 2017 18:31:00 +0000

Here is a project that I should have done a few years ago. Oh, well, better late than never, right?? Here in Ottertail Country we refer to the workshop across the yard as the "M shed". The reason is obvious if you have been here and seen the building. Anyway, the roof is now completely re-furbished!

I keep getting new views of the place....

Here's how it started. Note the rolled roofing looking pretty tired.....

Replaced the lowest board along the eave, and replaced the outer rafter that will support the curved fascia board. Then got a row of OSB nailed on and roof scaffold brackets in place.

View from the ridge.....

This chimney arrangement has to go.... quite a large outer pipe assembly was fastened to and over the ridge. Inner pipe was about six sections long with rain caps on pipe and outer assembly.

How to reach the ridge without additional scaffold.

Got some help from brother Tim.

All OSB on west side!!

Next we figured out the curved fascia boards and got them installed. The originals were quite rotted out, but we used them for a pattern for the curves.

West side ready for roofers.

The flip side.

More edge board work.

East side had more bad boards than the west.

Almost ready for roofing tear off and OSB.

The end of the tunnel was finally in sight!

OK, east side ready to go.

We put all the drip edge on, requiring four separate pieces up the gable to accommodate the curved roof.

Finally the roof rats showed up. When we did the previous work, we put 10 roof scaffold brackets across the roof to hold the 30 feet of 2x6 scaffold plank. Then carefully worked off step ladders laying against the roof. I couldn't help but notice the our roofing professionals used only six brackets and then stood on top of a pack of shingles to reach the top.... hmmmm.....

Tim and I supervised the shingle installation....

Here Scuba shows how to reach the ridge while looking very nonchalant about it.

So here is the completed roof project. Now to scare some paint onto those new fascia boards. Then will come the power washer treatment on upper and lower doors, with new red paint to follow.

I finished the last of the clean-up on Saturday. I took Sunday off (kinda-I sawed all the boards for the new window boxes on the front of the house). We went to Peg's mother's 95th Birthday Gathering Sunday afternoon. Had a good time........

The birthday girl.

Peggy with her mom, Donna, and her brothers Gary & Jim.

Donna with a few of her great-grandchildren....

Of course, good things don't last forever.... this morning I got the scaffolding set for working on another roof. South side of the garage, lower section. Materials should get here tomorrow, hoping for no rain for three days......

Have a great week, everyone!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Tue, 23 May 2017 15:22:00 +0000

Greetings.... just checking in to see if email subscriptions are working. If you got an email notice for these new posts, please let me know. I hope to be writing on a somewhat regular basis..... Thanks much, Gene

Greetings from Ogema.....!

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Tue, 23 May 2017 15:18:00 +0000

So here is the other half of our "roof project" . This is what occupied my brain during the summer of 2013..... Click on these photos for a larger view.

We painted the new 2x6 rafters as they would likely be out in the weather a while, and I didn't want them soaked up with rain water.....

Two skylights had to come out, one was not going back in (white area) and the other would be replaced with a new one on the new raised roof surface.

Main roof area finally done!

On to the entry way roof....

I must say, there was more than a little head scratching going on here, but it all came together in the end.....

Before the spray foam guys showed up, I pre-cut all the angle pieces of OSB. Tacked in place for fitting, then removed ready for final install. It was such a big roof that I didn't want to spend any time making odd cuts once the foam was in place. Needed to get it foamed and covered on one day.

Foam guys get started.....

Soon after, we got going on the OSB installation. Ladders, ladders, ladders.......

Getting there!

Late afternoon, all OSB and tarpaper is on the roof!!

Fortunately, I have some great friends who made this project possible......

Next day the Roof Doctors showed up.....

I thought this was cute....

I had cut a piece of OSB the same size as the skylight opening, attached to some ledger strips on the inside or the light opening. After the skylight was installed by the Doctors, I was able to remove the ledgers and OSB from inside the house.

Installing the cap.

And there it is! I never thought it would ever get done, but after months of figuring, climbing ladders and scaffold, it was finally complete. I think I was lazy for a few weeks afterward.....

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Mon, 05 Dec 2016 17:25:00 +0000

OK, here we go..... I'm quite far behind so I'll just start with the roof project. We decided to go with some added insulation, which meant something on the outside of the roof. We settled on spray foam, and I got started on the east side. Here are the humble beginnings of the project..... Click any of the pics for an expanded view.

First order of business was to build up the area that was not getting foam, over the flying gable overhangs. This was done on both ends of the roof, with scaffolding four sections high, lots of ladder work.

As the kitchen area roof no longer came up to the new, extended ridge, it was necessary to build a fake section of roof across the kitchen so it matched with the new built up roof. Then we put 2x6 rafters on the rest of the roof and bolted them to existing roof.

So far, so good.... next came the foam guys, putting 5-6" of foam on the roof. Lots of help from friends and relatives got the whole mess covered with OSB and tarpaper.

Then came the shingle crew. I try to avoid shingling, especially on something this steep..... so I'm a wimp.

And that's all there is to it!! One side done, and it only consumed most of my summer back in 2012.

Testing, 2016

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Mon, 21 Nov 2016 00:01:00 +0000

Checking how this works and email notifications....If anyone gets a notification about this blog, let me know. I'm really thinking of getting back in the swing of things.... I just looked at the comment page, I remember having to add the "I'm not a robot" thing because of all kinds of spam in the comments. It's a pain, but please see how it works, maybe someone will find an easy way around it? If you get just the current post when you get the email, look for the Home button below, it will get you to the main page....

Thanks a bunch, Carlo

Playing catch-up again......

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Thu, 29 Mar 2012 02:43:00 +0000

I think I left off last time with the heater cap being placed. Seems like a year ago.... anyway, late December I climbed up on the heater and with my trusty sawzall, I made an elliptical cutout in the roof. We were committed at that point, and Ivan and I had the insulated metal chimney all assembled and ready to stick it through the roof.

And here it is in place, and we scampered outside to fit the flashing and make the roof weather tight again.

Luckily, our December weather was quite mild and we had picked a day when it was in the low 30's to work on this phase.

Again with the slanty ladder, roped off to the roof ladder on the other side of the roof. I'm getting quite comfortable climbing on a slanted ladder..

And of course, the trusty wheeler parked against the ladder base to eliminate a chance of slippage.

Here is that chunk that I cut out of the roof.

During early January I had worked on getting the pieces of the stairway glued and screwed together. We hauled the parts, lower case, landing and upper case, to Marquip where we work. I begged for some space in the R&D area to do the varnishing. Here you see the landing set in place, the first piece we put in.

Next the lower case was put into place and attached to the wall, landing and support posts.

When we got the upper case installed, it was time to remove the iron staircase. Ivan and I used a block and tackle to support the stairs while I sawzalled the metal stringers at the top.

We lowered the stairs, got them placed on a four wheeled dolly and out the door it went. We had our first look at the (nearly) completed project!!

It was a sad sight to see the stairs out in the snowbank. Hoping that Russ and Bee would forgive us for this, I attached a chain and towed the stairs out to the north field. We are hoping to someday use the stairs to go from the little upper 'deck' on the south side of the house down to the deck that we intend to build on the south end.

So we have a functional stairway and a working heater. We got the stairs done near the end of January, at which point I kind of got a case of brain freeze, or something. Since then, I have puttered around on a few small jobs (don't have the railing up yet....), and finally tried to get the snowmobiles running. Just when we got Peggy's sled going, the track drive sprockets broke. It's a 1972 sled, so I guess they just got brittle. I found parts and got it back to service about 1 day before the snow all melted. Par for the course, I guess.

Meanwhile, I was also working on my sled. The gas tank was leaking and it took a while to find another one, clean it up, paint it, etc. I got it put together and had some trouble getting it going. When it did fire up, it had a really tinny, awful sounding motor.

I pulled the heads and cylinders and found a badly scored cylinder and junk piston. My local parts guy got new pistons and rings for me, and I set out to find a usable replacement cylinder. Weeks later I found a couple a local shop.

Now all the parts are cleaned up and I'm ready to throw it back together.

Maybe this weekend I can get it back into the sled and see how it runs. It did not see any action this winter, but on the upside, they should both be ready to fly next winter. Into the shed with them......

Yesterday I was feeling pretty ill, so I stayed home from work. I made a fire mid-morning. Early that evening I loaded a charge of wood into the heater but waited to light it. During the afternoon, the heater was hitting it's stride, with the east face at 150° and the west side at 160, I decided not to light the fire. The temperature on the north end of the house ended up at 75° and I was feeling rather warm.

So I left the wood unburned. Tonight I opened the fire door and was greeted with the nice aroma of wood that had been baking in the heater for a day. I touched a match to the kindling and had one of the nicest fires yet. That pre-warmed wood catches quick, and soon the whole batch was ablaze.

Since the warm weather has left us, I have been firing the heater and enjoying seeing the fire and staying warm without the loud fan on the gas heater having to run.

Well, that's enough for now, I'll try to write again, sooner this time.

I gotta go, Carlo

.

Yes, it's me again.... late as usual.

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 00:59:00 +0000

Hmmmm.... only a month behind! Last time I showed the completion of the face brick on the heater. Here we see Paul and Ivan spreading the mud for the stone caps.

The first on goes on. These items were quite heavy but with care we were able to get them set into place.

Mud's on, next piece ready to be hoisted up.

Easy does it...

.... and that's the last piece of masonry on the stack!

Next morning, Paul and I started installing the doors, ash dump and clean out doors.

After the doors and such, we spread some mud for the stone slab on the bench area. The piece of blue stone is in the photo, perched on top of some bricks just ahead of where Paul is working.

I loaded some excess brick and vermiculite into the wheelbarrow. Next morning the tire was flat. Drat.

Ah, yes, the end of the masonry. Not quite the weather for it anymore.

When we finished the masonry work, everything that was in the house was promptly chucked out the door. Most of the next day was spent cleaning up and putting things away (or at least out of sight).

I guess this just about sums up the end of the project. Working outdoors in the winter is O.K. for some things, just not masonry.....

I gotta go, Carlo
.

Nearly there.

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Sun, 25 Dec 2011 17:35:00 +0000

It's that holiday time of year again. Hope all of you are having good times with family and friends.

Back to the heater.... I'm really lucky to have a good friend that also happens to be a mason. The last time I posted, the heater core was almost complete and the face brick was up about 7 feet.

Ivan spent quite a few hours running the face brick up as far as we could go before having to install the shelf on the south face. This would carry the face brick above it, so we stopped at that point until Paul cut and set the shelf.

Ivan is always upbeat and appears to enjoy the masonry arts.

As you can see, he had to work under that piece of plywood that was sticking out quite far on two sides. It was there to hold the four plumb lines that ran all the way to the bottom of the heater. All the face brick was aligned with these lines to keep it all plumb as they went up.

Paul did a little creative work near the top on the north and south sides. These courses held six bricks standing on end and turned at 45°.

They looked pretty cool when they were done.

Here you can see the top cap that closed off the entire stack. We screwed an anchor plate to this that would hold the insulated stainless chimney pipe.

All the face brick is on now and the boys were cleaning up, then the stone caps would be set.

I'll give you some views next time......

So that's it for now. Have a good Christmas season!

I gotta go, Carlo

A foam adventure.....

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 00:43:00 +0000

I finally got the foam guy to come and spray some foam onto a hidden roof area. This occurred on the Friday before hunting season when the weather was still pretty nice.

A spaceman emerged from the foam van, a full suit and a big spray hose.

The roof area I'm talking about is the original roof that covered the kitchen and bathroom areas, about 24 feet wide and running from the eave you can see above the kitchen all the way to the peak of the main roof.

Up on that lighter red area is a trapdoor that you can just fit through. He had a hard time getting through there in his space suit......

Here he is getting a start at the north end of the 'attic'. Uncle Russ built this second roof when he was in his early 80's, so I've been told.

Jon was able to reach all the way to the peak from this position.

The foam stuff came out of the gun looking like deep aqua paint, and in a few seconds it had foamed up to 5-6 inches thick. This should help keep the snow on the second roof from melting and making ice dam problems at the eaves. I feel warmer already.

Tomorrow is the traditional feast day, I'm thinking Peg and I will be home alone, baking a chicken and making mashed potatoes and sweet potatoes. I have all the prep work done for the next masonry session. I got all the brick carried into the house and the scaffold set and ready for plank. There is a good chance that Paul can make it up here this weekend, I'm hoping we can finish the brick work. Then it's a chimney pipe and installing the fire door, bake oven door, ash door and the clean out doors. It's almost done.... kinda.

Well, that's it for now, have a good Thanksgiving!

I gotta go, Carlo

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Observations....

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Mon, 21 Nov 2011 03:52:00 +0000

I have noticed that double clicking a photo now brings up all the photos from the current post. Try that if you haven't already. It gives you a bigger view.

I've also noticed an increase in email subscribers. If you haven't already signed up, consider doing so. The post you get will not be the official site, but will contain the essentials. One cannot comment from the email version either. You need to go to the official site to do that.

http://www.ottertailcountry.blogspot.com/

I gotta go, Carlo

We're making progress on the heater.

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 15:41:00 +0000

Hey, we're getting a start on the face brick. We are using reclaims, they have that nice, warm, old time look about them.

This is where I spent most of my time, mixing mud, toting bricks and making all the cuts necessary to get around doors and stuff.

We spent some time figuring out how we wanted the fire door jack arch to look. We layed it out full scale, adjusted for mortar joints and angles, then I cut out each little section to be used on the brick. We traced the outline of each piece on various bricks so we could saw them to shape.

And this is my good friend, Mr. Bricksaw..... I got pretty good at cutting as there were many 'opportunities' at hand.

A look at the job from atop the stairway. Note the plastic walls that we had put up all around the project.

It's starting to look like something now.

View from the north.

And a view from the living room. This is the side that the upper half of the stairway will cross. Note the little black thingie near the top left. That's a bracket that will eventually hold the stair railing. We'll put another farther up on the right when we get up that high. I hope they end up in the right place.......

So this is how it's looking from the kitchen. Hey, Dr. Bill, sorry I didn't respond to your comments on an earlier post. As far as the outside combustion air goes, there seems to be a few differing opinions on this. I must not have explained it well enough when you were here, as there will be air tight doors on the firebox and the bakeoven. I questioned my mason on this before we started the project, and he and the designer of the heater felt that it was not necessary in this application. Some builders even feel it could be a hazard in some cases in the event of a back draft. Anyway, I appreciate your input.

The designer of this project is Alex Chernov, an accomplished heater builder/designer. You can see his work and others here and here (Alex's site).

That's it for now, will post again when the masonry is complete.

I gotta go, Carlo

Let the heater begin.......

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Wed, 16 Nov 2011 01:34:00 +0000

Ye-haa!! The first bricks go in..... Paul headed up here about two weeks ago and spent Thursday afternoon, Friday and Saturday getting a start on the heater. ghhd

A good, level base is esstential, and we had some elevation issues to deal with. We had to take the bricks from concrete slab on one side, over the pebble floor section and back to the concrete. I got my first taste of brick sawing to make some thin bricks (hamburgers) to go over the pebbles.

Once all the first course of pavers were in place, Paul layed a second flat course of firebrick. The official base was in.

We started on the next courses, paying close attention to the plans. There are numerous channels and chambers in the heater, as well as the under support for the firebox.

Planning and checking the dimensions for the first layer of the firebox floor. You can see the start of notched bricks, angled cuts and such. I was getting better on the saw.......

O.K., the firebox floor is done and the grates cut and fit. It's starting to look like something.

Most of the firebox walls are in and we started the jack arch over the fire door opening. I think Paul is waiting here for me to get some more bricks sawed.

There he is, my nephew Paul and current hero. The firebox is capped off with a precast slab and the floor of the bake oven will be layed on this cap.

Bake oven in process, there's a wooden form that I whipped up to hold the bricks in place. That's another jack arch forming the top of the bake oven door opening. Ivan came down to have a look at the project, and being a mason himself, he was quite interested. I'm thinking he may be in on the face brick part of the project. We didn't get much farther than that the first weekend, but it was a very incouraging start!

Midweek of the following week, Paul and his crew had a rain day in the West Bend area. He dragged his co-worker, Doug, with him up here. They got in about noon and worked until 9:00 PM

First we had to rig up some schaffolding, as Paul had worked up as high as he could last time he was here.

Doug is another fancier of masonry heaters, so he was glad to get the chance to work on another one. He has built a bake oven in his backyard, and attended some workshops on heaters, so he knows his way around.

Still lots of channels and pathways being formed as they went up. The main flu is right in front of Paul in this photo.

Paul and Doug worked until they were out of fireclay, and about as high as they could reach without changing the schaffold. Fireclay, or refractory cement, is an odd thing. It comes in buckets premixed, it's kind of gooey and sticks like grim death to anything it comes in contact with.

Anyway, after cleaning up, having a few, uh, refreshments and shooting the bull, we looked at the clock and it was midnight. Everyone headed for bed, but only Paul and Doug set their alarms for 4:00 AM..... they had to work the next day in West Bend. Oh well, they're young, they'll get over it.

Well, that's it for now, I have another weekend adventure to tell about but it will have to wait.... until then.

I gotta go, Carlo

One big catch-up post......

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 13:12:00 +0000

I guess we need to reach way back to the end of September to get this right. Peg and I both had birthdays in September, and here is one of the 'birthday apple pie's, complete with its own candle.

We had a visit that day from Dawn, Donna and Russ B. A little spaghetti, a little accordion playing, etc.

Here's a view from the top of the stairs, looking at the area that used to be occupied by the metal fireplace. This pic was from a while ago, the new heater core now stands there, about 95% complete.

We cleaned and painted the wall that used to be behind the metal chimney. See the little scorched spot on the beam near the end of the railing?

We went through the fall busy but taking enough time to enjoy our surroundings a little. This day was in early October, bright sun, frost on the grass.

One of those days you could just sit out there with a cup of coffee and listen to the drops of water hitting the ground as the frost melted off the trees. Every now and then you could hear the 'knick-knock-thud' of another black walnut bouncing off a couple of limbs on its descent to the ground. Lots of walnuts ended on the ground. It's odd, but I didn't think there were many on there. I guess they blend in really well with the leaves when all is green.

A rather appealing path to the north field.

A good combo, the scarlet maples in front of the pines with that monster elm as a backdrop to it all.

Besides preparing for the masonry heater install, I have been designing and building a new stairway for the house. With the new heater needing a larger bit of space than the old fireplace, we explored ways to get the heater in and still leave room to get around the 'kitchen-dining area-stairway' area.

So I am building a stairway that will start near the west door, go up to the south to a landing, turn left and head up to the bridge at it's south end. The quarter turn iron stairway will be taken out, but we definitely are thinking of where and how we can re-use it..

Lots of parts and pieces and sawing and gluing and sanding..... one can not be too impatient when doing a project of this nature. If you look close, you can see the motorcycles in the background. We did not get to use them much this year..... next summer will be less hectic, I promise!!

Here are a couple of views of the landing. I'm putting one angled tread on that landing to save a little horizontal distance on the main stair. I copied this idea from my brother Tim's stairway.

Nephew Paul has been up twice to work on the heater. A couple of weeks ago he was here for a long weekend, last week a rainy day down south allowed a day trip. That day the core was nearly completed, only a couple of courses of fire bricks left to do up there. Today Paul is heading up with face brick and we are going to get a start on the exterior. We are expecting Ivan to show up on Saturday to assist with the bricklaying. He used to do masonry work for a living.

Here is a little preview of the heater project. Having access to Solidworks (3-D design and drafting program) has been indispensable on this job. The heater in the picture looks shorter than real life, due to the angle of sight. It will actually be a few feet higher than the bridge to the left.

So there you go, more later...............

I gotta go, Carlo

The Upper Chimney Caper

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Thu, 27 Oct 2011 02:04:00 +0000

Here we will show you how to take a chimney off your roof. Well, assuming you have a fabricated steel chimney that is suspended from the top of an A-frame house....

I know, it looks innocent enough from here....

On an A-frame, all work is done from a ladder laying on the roof. It's quite stable that way unless there is an entryway or something in line with what you're working on.

So you just loop a rope around something on the roof, tie it to the ladder top and tie the other end to the four wheeler. That way you can slope the ladder way to the side without it slipping.....

Looks like fun, hey???

Joe Chizek brought his rear-mount loader truck to the house. We got it as close as we could to the chimney.

Looks like it's going to be close. Not much boom left here.

Up I go to attach the chains to the loader bucket.

Getting the bucket tied to the chimney with as little slack in the chain as possible.

Starting to lift.......

When it released from the roof, it popped up like apiece of toast out of the toaster!

Clear of the roof.

Off to the west it goes.......

And down towards the truck.

We had inspectors on hand. Dave and LaVonne happened to stop in just as the chimney was being lowered to the truck.

There it goes.

Here's the hole that was left, right up by the fan.

A couple of shots from the outside.....

Just after getting the plywood fit to cover the hole.

I know, seems like I'm overdoing it with this post, but I'll tell you, it took alot longer to do it than to tell about it. I began the project in the fore-noon, and climbed back down off the ladder for the last time at 7:30 in the evening, just as the drizzling rain was starting. Seems like a long time ago now.....

That's all for now...

I gotta go, Carlo

Tardy again.... really much.

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 00:49:00 +0000

Wow, these items are from late August thru early September!! I guess this is as far behind as I have ever been..... I'll try to correct that.

While at a friend's house, I noticed that the email version of the blog is pretty slimmed down compared to what you get here, the actual site. I noticed no opportunity to comment from there, so just go to the main page to enter your words of wisdom....

Anyway, I found this deluxe 1972 Arctic Cat 340 Panther at a friend's place. I bought it and gave it to Peggy for her birthday. Must be reverting to old interests. I think the last time I owned a snowmobile was probably the same year this one was made....

Hey, Tim was here for a visit (stacking firewood, altering the heating system pipes, cleaning sheds, etc.). He had borrowed my bike for a while and he came over to help me do some maintenance.

We jacked it up, pulled the handle bars and top fork clamp. That allowed us access to the top steering column nut so we could adjust the bearing tightness. I had noticed a clunk now and then when hitting a bump and thought the bearings may be loose. We got it fixed and now no noise!

The old Ottertail Lodge is looking a little different these days. Pretty spiffy compared to the old look.

I had to kid Dawn about the curtains.... the old ones were camouflage patterns and I told her the new ones looked like boxer shorts. O.K., I'm not always as suave as I could be.

I told Tim that it looks 'real cute'.

These two certainly seemed happy to be together for the week.

Not sure what Tim is doing here. Might be the champagne.

And just because I'm old does not mean I'm necessarily mature.

We had a visit from Hailee, and she and Peggy had fun trying out some 're-encting' duds. She seems to be game for just about any adventure.

Getting ready for the chimney extracting job. It was pretty cool watching it come out, I'll give you some pix later.

Started in cleaning out the sheds at the south side of the north field. Lots of interesting stuff, old lumber, whatever. I saved whatever looked sound and usable, the rest went on the burn pile or to the metal recyclers.

I have three of the four bays cleaned out. I got a five yard load of gravel dumped by the sheds and now have two of the three cleaned units graveled. Makes a good floor, lots of shoveling and raking.

That's about it for now, I'll try to get current with this stuff and I've got lots of photos to post.

Please comment if you have a spare minute or two, it would be good to hear from readers.

I gotta to, Carlo

More August fun & games......

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Tue, 23 Aug 2011 01:55:00 +0000

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Hey, don't forget to put your email address in the box in the right column. You'll get a notice of new posts. And if you have about a minute extra, please think about leaving a comment. Just click on "comments" at the bottom of the post.

We took out the fireplace. Here is the aftermath of the lowering a removal of the parts. Those are some really handy miniature chain hoists that I was able to borrow from work. They made the task fairly easy.

Fortunately, there were some little steel rings welded to the chimney and we just tied the hoists to those rings.

This is the welded steel base that sat on top of the stonework. It held the glass fireplace doors and glass panels, and the hood was sitting atop this structure.

This is the heat exchanger that was built into the hood. It was heavy and we had some difficulty getting it out of the hood.

So here is the base after the removal of all the upper parts. Quite a nice bit of rock work, we were hesitant about taking it out. But the install of the masonry heater, and the even heat it will provide has overshadowed the doubts. No more chances of chimney fires, either.

Before we started the demolition of the base, I hung some plastic sheeting in the shape of a small room surrounding the base.

From the living room.

And from above. Yes, it had a plastic ceiling....

All this sheeting followed out the front entry way, where a box fan stood blowing out the front door. This worked really well, as 99% (I'm guessing) went out the door.

The end of the first rough clean-up.

There's that nifty trailer again. I'm guessing we hauled out about three loads of stone, mortar, iron and tools and supplies. It works much nicer than a wheelbarrow.

Here's what it looks like right now. We're hoping to be able to fill in around the new heater in such a way as to be able to preserve all the small, epoxied stone on the floor.

Paul, Candice and kids were up a while back, before we tore out the fireplace. We settled on the size and shape of the new heater, and what we wanted the outside of it to look like. I didn't take many photos while there were here, but I got a few.

Peggy got a custom braiding job, and I must say it turned out quite nice.

Henry climbing on the stairs? Who would have thought....

We had a great visit and we hope to see them again soon.

Well, that's about it for now, I have more stuff to post, but it will have to wait for a few day.

I gotta go, Carlo......

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O.K., now it's mid-August.......

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Fri, 19 Aug 2011 02:12:00 +0000

Here is the weather vane on the garage cupula, bright sun behind it. It looked better early that morning, or maybe I just wasn't fully awake yet.....

We started taking out the fireplace, in anticipation of the building of the masonry heater. Here we were trying to get the heat exchanger out of the hood before we tryed lowering the hood.

Heat exchanger out, I put up some flashing around the chimney to try to contain the sparks from the plasma cutter that I borrowed from work. It works on the same principle as a welder, creating an electric arc that heats and melts the metal, but this thing also has compressed air at the tip. That blast of air blows the molten metal away, leaving a nice clean cut through the steel.

I cut out a strip all the way around the chimney so that we could lower it down at some point.

Somewhere in the last month, we had a visit from Hailee, always an interesting and enjoyable experience. She certainly is growing up fast!!

The counter top folks came to install the tops. The Corian type stuff gets epoxied together so there are no joints in the finished product. These gizmos are vacuum clamps that hold the joint tight together while the epoxy sets up.

I was a little nervous when the guy started grinding the ridge of epoxy along the joint, but when he was done, you could not tell where the bonded joint was.

This was the most interesting spot. On the far side of that beam, the counter top ended right up tight to the beam. The piece leaning against the counter had been notched to slide in around the angled beam.

Then they made sure it all fit together and applied the epoxy and clamps.

Out came the grinder and they ground and buffed the joint until it was all smooth.

Again, you cannot see the joint when they get done. It looks like that beam was set down in through a square hole in the top!!

A view of the north, taken from the stairway.

And a view of the south end, again from the stairway. So, the tops are in and secure. I have a lot of finishing work to do, but a few larger projects are getting priority right now. Actually, the fireplace stuff at the top of this post started immediately after the tops were finished.

So that's it for now, maybe I can get caught up with this blog in the near future. Any of you Mattson types that may be reading this, I'll see you this weekend at the 'chicken shindig' in Phillips.

Laters, Carlo

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July happenings.

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Tue, 09 Aug 2011 02:19:00 +0000

This is getting ridiculous!! Last post was early July, for crying out loud..... I'll give a brief update on the past weeks, then I hope to get back on track and be a little more frequent with this blogging stuff.

On the weekend of the 4th, we got a visit from cousin Sue and Gary. It was good to catch up and they got a grand tour of the mess, projects, plans and such. Visitors are always welcome and prior notice is not necessary.

Later that day, we were joined by Dawn, Russ and Peggy's mom, Donna. I grilled some steaks and Peggy made a bunch of other goodies for dinner. The first official dinner guests in the new kitchen!

It was a good test of counter space (just plywood at the time), sink and stove areas, etc. It was a busy time and a good dinner.

Peg and Donna seemed to enjoy the day, and Russ and I provided a little music on button accordian and guitar.

The day after those guests, Bryn stopped in for a brief visit on her way back to Milwaukee. What would a Bryn visit be without tree climbing???

Or maybe visiting the peak of the A-frame roof? It was good to see her and the visits are always too short to suite Peg and I.

The next week we got a visitor from McDermott Top Shop, a provider of Corian countertop. He had an interesting set-up for measuring the kitchen. A laser device on a tri-pod that fed information to his computer. That in turn generated a cad drawing that would be used to manufacture the necessary pieces.

This device works really well, as will be evidenced by the photos of the new counter tops that they eventually installed. Photos to follow......

I've also busied myself with a few other projects, including Peg's wheeler. I got new tires and put them on, fixed all the breaks so they're working well, and rebuilt the carburator. Also put in a new battery so the starter actually works now.

We worked on getting a garage sale set up and that went O.K. (meaning not much cash). The remainder of the items went to St. Vinny's. I'm sure that there will be a couple more sales in the future.

Between customers, Peg and Donna had the time to get in a couple of games of Scrabble.

Rose and AJ also stopped in one weekend, but I don't have any photos! I'm slipping, I guess. They showed up Saturday and went home Sunday afternoon. We got in a little wheeler riding, AJ's first time, and the grin never left his face......

Well, that's all I have time for tonight, more later.

I gotta go, Carlo

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Nearly the 4th of July already!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Wed, 29 Jun 2011 03:54:00 +0000

Lots going on, I'll give a brief synopsis.....

After looking through my pix, I realize that I did not take a photo of the pulp pile before it was sawed into firewood lengths. Oh well, here we are after splitting one 32' long pile.

This trailer that I've talked about is really a handy item. We decided that where the first pile is located, the wind and sun will have a somewhat limited effect. So we decided to stack it in a more open location. So we split until the trailer was heaped full, then transported it to the north side of the property.

I fired up the mower and gave the old field a butch cut. We piled all the remaining wood out here in the open.

I'm a lucky guy.... part way through the process my dear Peggy delivered a plate of soft boiled eggs on toast for lunch. That hit the spot!

At last we finished up the splitting process. We have a good supply, probably way more than we will need next winter. But I'm not complaining, mind you.

Anyway, I'm still battling the bats. After plugging up all the holes on the east wall of the garage, we discovered evidence of continued habitation. Last weekend I cut brush and mowed all the way around the garage, then started in with screening, caulk, great stuff foam, etc, and started filling in any hole that looked like a bat might fit through. Next evening we left the overhead door open at dusk and watched a bunch of bats fly out. We closed the door and hoped for the best. Next night we watched a bunch fly out of a gap that I had not noticed on the south front corner. Tonight I filled that hole and a few other spots that looked unlikely, but I'm not taking any chances. Then I watched them fly out the big door again, and after about 20 minutes of no more exits, I closed the door. We'll see.......

And here's hoping that we'll have a new masonry heater in the house this fall! This is one of my favorites, but probably not quite what we will end up with.

In my spare time I'm finishing the kitchen items. Tonight I got the rest of the temporary counter tops fit and put in place. We ordered the new tops through Home Depot, and decided to go with the Corian tops. These use less square footage because of the joining method, and there are no seams in the finished top. The parts are put together with an epoxy that makes the joints into one piece! Next week a guy is coming to do the final measure up, then they make the parts and some guys come and install the stuff. I was not to keen on this until we found out that it would not be too much extra cost, and (most importantly) I won't have to deal with the install job. That can be a real pain........ These guys will install it complete, including cutting the hole for the sink.

Well, that's it for now.....

I gotta go, Carlo

Updates......

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Wed, 22 Jun 2011 02:10:00 +0000

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I'm so far behind on this blog that I'm not even going to pretend I will be able to catch up.... so on with what we are doing at the moment.

Back to the bats. One evening last week I constructed a 'bat house'. I researched a little on-line and then set out to invent my version. There are five little vertical compartments, quite narrow, scored to provide traction for the little beggars.

O.K., it's all together, now for the finishing touches. I built the whole thing out of various recycled items that remained from tearing the kitchen out of the house.

I covered the outside with left-over water & ice dam stuff that was used on the Chalet roof. It's really sticky on one side and kind of grainy on the other. Added a few staples in strategic spots, and a bit of wire mesh at the bottom opening so the little creeps can get a grip on it when they land.

Here you have the exclusion device. An open ended garbage bag that is stapled to the wall and roof, making the only escape dropping out the bottom and into flight. The key is that the doorknobs can't figure out how to get back in!!

Here you see the Carlson Custom Suites nailed to the back wall of the garage, about eight feet from the now closed main entrance. After a week, I don't seem to have any tenants in the new place, but there are still some bats that are now exiting the building right at the very top of the wall at the roof line. The first nice day we get will be spent adding more exclusion devices, namely some loosely draped window screening along this wall/roof area. The same idea, they will be able to get down and out from behind the screen, but not back in. The garage is noticeably less bat infested now, and I'm hoping with the next treatment they will be gone from the building.

Peg and I were on a big cleaning and organizing spree in the big garage. Trying get things onto shelves or into the garage sale pile. We were pleasantly surprised by a motorcycle driving into the yard and having cousin Bob greeting us!!

Jan was away for the weekend and he decided to make a run up north. Here he is getting set to take off again.

And thanks again for the house warming gift. As you said, that wine is really good!

I had done the last drywall finishing on Saturday afternoon and evening, and Sunday afternoon Peg and I tackled the painting tasks. Lots of edges and angles to paint around.

I'm not much on painting, but this seemed do-able, not too much area and I could always quit whenever I wanted. Peg doesn't mind painting, so that's a good thing. But I hung in there until we had it done.

Monday evening Peg had a boy scout meeting, so I hurried home and started on the upper cabinets. I managed to get the north wall units hung, cleaned out and the doors put on. I used an old sheet to simulate a finished look on the lowers. We're thinking a burgundy or dark red counter top.... wutcha think?

Tonight Peg and I got the south wall units hung, cleaned out and the doors on. It's starting to look like a kitchen! Still lots to do..... counter tops, an upper cabinet over the fridge, finishing the ends of upper cabs, finishing the ends and back of the island cabs, etc, etc, etc.................

Any readers, cousins, Mattson kin please feel free to stop in. You're always welcome.

I gotta go, Carlo

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It's mid-June!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Carlo) — Wed, 15 Jun 2011 03:47:00 +0000

A couple of notes:
Thanks for the card, Beth, and congratulations on your little one.

Melissa, thanks for the note you left on our door. Sorry we missed you, please stop anytime you're going through.

New photo at the top of the blog. Some of you probably recognize the walnut tree and the red-leafed maple. If not, this is a view to the west of our house.

One of the wonderful things that happened in the middle of our kitchen building and moving projects was a clogged drain at the Carlson homestead...... Dawn was due to arrive in a week, so I needed to get this solved.

I found a local plumbing outfit, The A-Team, that had a power drain auger. Brent showed up with his rig and we set to work. This thing has an electric motor that feeds a heavy duty snake up the drain. On the end is a cutter tool and we ended up cutting through a bunch of roots. Above is one of the spools of snake ready to go.

Once the entire 75' of snake was in the drain, Brent spliced on the second spool. The empty one is in the background. There is a little gizmo on the tool that engages the spinning snake and actually threads the snake into the drain. He was on the job about 1.25 hours and the drain was working well again. I always wondered how those rigs work, now I know......

Just before we officially moved in, we got Josh and Dave to re-shingle the Chalet. This view is of the original roof from the northeast. The shingles were about 35 years old as far as we can figure out. A friend of mine, Swede Johnson helped Nort shingle it when the building was new.

This view from the northwest shows how the shingles had deteriorated. The worst area was on the southeast corner.

We went with forest green shingles and I think they look pretty good on that building.

And the last corner view. The roof is complete now and one item checked off the list.

We've had some visitors around the house lately. Peggy actually got to see the second of a pair of fawns moments after it was born. Still wet with the mother attending to it. The ones above were about 15 feet from the house when I walked out the door, and they stayed around long enough for me to fetch the camera and get a picture.

When Tim was up the week before Memorial Day, he and I spent a couple of days splitting and stacking his firewood for next year. I didn't get any proof shots of him working, but I remembered the camera when Russ and I finished up the last little bit of wood on Memorial Day. Russ looks like he is ready to bust the splitter in half.

Yes, that was the piece we were looking for.... the last one. We had some really warm, humid weather that week, but we pushed ahead and got it done.

A good sight! A full trailer, no wood left on the ground.

So I got the tractor out of the shed, put the back blade on it and cleaned up the wood yard. Every little task brought me closer to being finished with that blasted wood.

Looks nice when it's all done though. And firewood season gives me the chance to give Ivan a couple of shots about wood length. He has volunarily sawed our wood the last couple of years, and I always complain about the length he sawed it..... I hope he knows I'm kidding. His work on the pulp pile has made my life lots easier these last few years. Thanks, buddy!

I just got back into the house after spending an hour and a half on bat patrol. As soon as the weather warmed up, we discovered that we have a bat colony living somewhere up in the top of the garage. Not a good thing. I have been investigating how to get rid of them and the first task is to determine their entry/exit spot. Now I know where that is and we will start screening those areas so the bats can get out but can't get back in. We'll add a couple of bat houses nearby so they have somewhere to go besides one of the other buildings. Finally we'll seal up the places where they are getting in, and maybe we will be done with that aggravation.....

I gotta go, Carlo