House Projects

This weekend we were able to get back to projects on the house. Our basement that was supported by a lolly pole on one side and a log on a brick on the other finally had some load bearing walls constructed for it. I re-ran some of the wiring as well so that is a little better too, and am thinking about adding another light so the area isn't quite so dark. And, of course, I want to improve the insulation and make this room semi-useable.

Ben has been asking to fight the ant-infested white pine in our back yard for a couple weeks now. I was worried about the safety of Ben and of our house if such a conflict were to occur. The pine is tall enough that if he were to fall off of it there would be serious explaining to do and if the tree fell over in the wrong direction it could mash our house pretty well. After we received a $1000 bid to remove the tree from a professional arborist, I told Ben to have at it.

We cut it down in thirds. Ben did most of the hard work by climbing up the tree and cutting the top third and the mid third. By sectioning the tree we were more confidant that it wouldn't fall on the house. I took care of the bottom third (trunk) and am now in the process of chopping it up into logs or burning brush. We also cut down a hemlock tree that was growing too close to another hemlock. Felling the trees took about seven hours, and our neighbors enjoyed watching the process. Here are all the pictures we took documenting the process. We had so much fun quickly scrolling through them all stop-motion style that we thought we'd share the experience:

A few choice stills from the above photo montage follow below:

Alden spent most of the weekend outside helping / being prevented from helping with the landscaping and yard work. I think being outside gives him a better reason to learn how to walk. In the winter scooting everywhere inside was an acceptable solution for locomotion, outside, however, scooting doesn't cut it and Alden's walking has greatly improved this past week.

Alden in the backyard

Kerstin and Alden looking at the old apple tree.

Ilana and Alden siting next to the recently disassembled compost bin. We plan to move our compost to a less conspicuous area closer to the garden and plant either more berries or grapes in the former location.