Chapter 104...How To Build An Awning & More Asphalt Curbing

Off Grid...Chapter 104 Mike has a new saying for our "Off Grid Home" It is now our ongoing living laboratory where we will and have tried, lol, many different things in search of the perfect outcome. This is where we all get to learn and if one thing doesn't work out then we will try something else. We are now hoping to improve upon our home...so that means there will be some re-do's I hate re do's...but if it will make our living better than we will do it. Our Awning Story....I hope you enjoy As you know we have no A/C inside the house, and since we placed our house to get the best view, we get the direct sunlight in the late afternoon. We have been able to stay cool by closing the blinds in the late afternoon but then we loose the enjoyment we get from looking outside. Mike and I decided to build a covered awning which will block the sun and also give us some cover for sitting outside while it rains I can't wait to get some comfy lounge chairs and kick back this year It took us a few trips to town to get enough lumber to start the job. Now we are ready to work. Mike starts off by taking down the old trim. Then we have to install the ledger board along the entire front of the house to hold the frame and the panels. Mike puts on a double sided caulking strip for added leak protection for the ledger board. Next he pre drills holes in the board so we don't split the wood when we put the bolts in. Using a hammer to start the anchor bolt. And then the ratchet to screw the bolt in. Once the ledger board is attached to the house we have to install the front posts. We are installing four 4x4 front posts to hole up the cross beams and the panels. Mike and I used metal post anchors to install the posts. We had to drill each anchor into the concrete patio and the screw the post into the anchor. They are installed. Next we have to put a header board across the 4 posts so we have something to screw the beams to. We used lag bolts to do this. It doesn't look like much yet but we are getting there Now it's time for the rafters. We are going to install one rafter every 3 feet and then we will add alternating rafters 3 feet long in the opposite direction to support the top panels. Mike screwing in the last of the long rafters. Working on the cross sections. The base frame is up now it's time to paint. Mike and I painted 2 coats ...while the princess gets to enjoy our hard work We called around for pricing on translucent panels for the roof. David at the farm supply had the best deal. Mike and I took the trailer to the farm supply and picked up our panels. Each panel is 3 feet by 12 feet. That will be our cover. Mike starting to install the panels. Finally, we are up to the last section..and it's a tight fit. Good thing we did this last year. Right now I don't think either one of us cold fit in there We are done with the awning. We may look into some roll down shades for the front. Awning from the front. From the side. From above. Our next project is to protect the hill by our ditch that the cows keep messing with. This time Mike and I are installing poles with electric wire to protect the bank. Putting in the poles. Then we added more grass seed, and stapled another layer of curlex down. Hopefully we can get the bank to hold this time Here are some clouds rolling in. Mike and I took a ride across the way and I tried to take a picture of our little homestead. It was a cloudy day but this is what we look like. And finally...the very last job that was done last year. We had one more section of paving done. I wasn't there the whole time but I did get some pictures for you. The asphalt truck. Brushing on the adhesive for the curbing. And making the curbs. We now have the paving down 2/3's for the driveway. We may finish the last of it this summer. It is so much nicer to drive on the pavement and it doesn't wash out and tear up our car like the gravel does. One more picture before I finish. I found a strange bug in my garden. I posted this last year and someone did tell me what it was but for the life of me I can't remember I will have to look it up for you. Anyway here is the strange but cool looking bug. I got it. It is a tomato hornworm with wasp eggs.  "Tomato hornworm larvae are also parasitized by a number of insects. One of the most common is a small braconid wasp, Cotesia congregatus. Larvae that hatch from wasp eggs laid on the hornworm feed on the inside of the hornworm until the wasp is ready to pupate. The cocoons appear as white projections protruding from the hornworms body (see photo, left). If such projections are observed, the hornworms should be left in the garden to conserve the beneficial parasitoids. The wasps will kill the hornworms when they emerge from the cocoons and will seek out other hornworms to parasitize." I hope you all enjoyed it. Next week I will tell you about Mike and I installing our wood stove Lisa

Chapter 87...Decorations and Green Gutters

Off Grid...Chapter 87 8-19 It's a rainy dreary day today. Mike and I are so so tired of this weather. Usually it is beautiful in the mountains but this year has been the worst we have ever seen it. I am very thankful we built the house last summer. We would never have finished if we tried to build this year. We decided to load up the jeep and go the dump. On our way we get a call from Mike's daughter. She wants to redo the floors in her house and she just picked up laminate samples. We told her we would stop by to check them out after the dump run. When we get to her house, since it is still dreary out, we help her work a little. The only way to see if it will good is to take up some carpet and put some of the self stick strips down. We help her put about 6 strips down and it looks good. Now she will have to order enough to do the entire house. She wants to get rid of all of the carpet because she hates it. She has gotten very picky since she started her Housecleaning business, lol. She also loves remodeling. Wonder where she gets that from?LOL, By the time we get home there is a package for us. Woo hoo, finally it must be our awnings. I really hope they got it right this time. Back up at the house we open up the package and it looks good. They sent us just the canvas and the brackets to match. Since we already have the bars we just have to add the canvas. After a month we now have 2 matching awnings, lol. Here is Mike hanging our 2nd awning. Next we hang up our new outside display. Now things are starting to come together. 8-20 The weather hasn't been the best but we really need to get the gutters back on the house. It seems like we took them off just in time for all of this rain. I help Mike get started and then I get the downspouts and prep them for painting. I am going to paint them the same green as the house. This way we don't stand out like a sore thumb. Some houses need the accent but this house we want to blend. First I lay them across 2 chairs and give them a quick fine sand so the paint will adhere better. Then I start painting. It looks like they will need 3 coats. Here is the first coat of paint. While that dries I go and help Mike with the gutters. As I start helping it starts to drizzle. Uh oh, I run back and grab the downspouts and put them inside the building to keep them dry. We have to go inside until the rain stops. Ok, we get another chance. Mike and I go up on the roof to hang the gutters. Here is Mike hanging the gutters. I pull the downspouts out of the building and give them another coat....and it starts to rain again so I bring them back into the building. We get another break and Mike and I finish putting the gutters up. Next we put the downspouts back on the house. Earlier when Mike was on the roof he unscrewed some of our metal panels. We have a small leak and we need find it. Mike and I lifted some of the panels to take a look. We found a small part of the plywood that is damp. We must have a small hole in one of the screws going into the roof. On a hot sunny day we will have to slide the panel over, let it dry, find the screw holes and repair it. Just another thing for the ongoing list, lol. The front of the house is really starting to shape up. Notice how yellow things are. Last year we were all green at this time. We have had too much rain. And of course, it poured again that night. 8-21 We are trying to make a decision about the roof. Since neither one of us likes the metal roof because it is just too noisy and it rusts, we are checking into shingles. We find out that we can't do shingles because our roof pitch is too low. So we have to come up with a new plan. Either way we still have to locate the hole/leak and repair it. Unfortunately we have to wait for better weather. 8-22 Today we had our first guests visit us at the house. The Geezers are in town and we invited them over. It rained in the morning but cleared up enough for a nice visit. 8-23 Today it rained the entire day. Yuk!! 8-24 Well at least it isn't raining today. We took a ride over to David's to see what our options are for the roof. Mike thinks maybe we can use a tinted roof sealer. We soon find out that roof sealer can't be tinted so we will have to stick with white. David doesn't have enough in stock for our whole roof so we are going to think about it and check on some more products. On our way home we take a ride across the holler. We finally met our neighbor who took his trees down last year. He wanted a better view and unfortunately we were in the way, lol. Anyway, his wife wasn't home but he seems very nice. He told us that his wife will say "their painting again" meaning Mike and I, lol. It is pretty funny how much we change things. But that's how you learn. Maybe next time we can meet his wife. Lisa

Chapter 83...New Awning And Drain Pipe

Off Grid...Chapter 83 What a wet time we are having in TN. Where is the sun, lol? It's hard to get motivated to work with all of this rain. Ok time for the next installment. 7-26 It looks like rain for the rest of the week. We lost our chance for finishing the painting on the front of the house. Mike and I don't like the way the trim around the doors look on the front of the house. Yesterday Mike got a chance to scrape down the side trim on the front doors. That night it poured. 7-27 It is threatening to rain again so today Mike and I concentrate on some other matters that have to be taken care of. 7-28 Woo hoo. It looks like we might get a break in the weather today. Our 2nd paving man shows up to give us an estimate. He seems like a very nice man. Hopefully he can give us good references and he will come in with a better estimate. After he leaves Mike and I get the painting equipment back out. We start painting the second coat on the front of the house. Mike is being very careful on the ladder. Great now we both don't like the ladders right now. Here I am painting. And Mike is still painting the top part. Uh oh, we are just about done and it looks like rain again. I hope the paint dries before it rains. On a good note we got a delivery. Our 2 awnings came. They came in 2 boxes and Mike says to me "they must have the metal in one box and the fabric in the other box." No, they should be exactly the same. Sure enough we open up the 2 boxes and one is completely empty. I don't know if it is just us but it seems like everything we touch lately something goes wrong. Anyway, one of the empty box had already been opened and taped. It looks like the awning was taken. I called the company and they said ":this has happened before". Well don't you think you should fix the problem? They will send out a replacement awning. Later that night it pours. Hopefully the paint is dry enough. 7-29 and 7-30 It rained both days. We met Jim(our concrete man) and his wife Kelly at our other property to show. It's funny how small the world is. They saw our ad, didn't know it was us, and called about the property. 7-31 It rained all day. The sun finally came out about 5:30. We saw a couple of small bubbles on the house. We will keep an eye on them. 8-1 Finally, it isn't raining this morning. It is very humid out which means nothing is drying out so we can't fix the bubbles yet. Thankfully there isn't many bubbles. We also can't install the gutters until everything dries more. We picked the perfect time to have the gutters off the house, lol. Since we took the gutters off the house it has rained every day. Mike and I added another extension pipe to the drains on the front of the house. We started out with 2 10 foot drains on each side of the house then we added another 10 foot section to each one. Now we are adding one more 10 foot section. This will make our drain pipes run 30 feet away from the house and down the front hill. We start out by getting the buckets so we can shovel the dirt into them. This will keep the job clean. We have to dig out 2 trenches to fit the pipes in, cover them up and then seed. Mike is digging the trench. The pipe is in the ground. Covering it up and then seeding it. Mike moves on to the second trench while I go up top and mow the lawn. 8-2 We got the front lawn mowed and then it rained. 8-3 This morning I had a Doctor's appointment and when I got home the new paver called. They are going to bring over some of their equipment this week. Woo hoo. Time to get this place clean. I can't wait. We are only doing a partial job this year. We will have them pave along side of our house, the back parking area, and down the steepest part of our driveway. They will also be adding curbs for us to keep the water on the road and not wash out the sides. Later on we went to the other property. While I mowed Mike called the towing company to pull him out of the grass. Remember when he got stuck in the wet grass? They got the motor home back up on the pad. It will stay there until this land dries out. Here is the mess Mike made with the motor home. We got back home and Mike started to work on our "one" awning. First we figure out exactly where it will go and Mike puts the clips on the house. Next we slide the awning onto the bar and attach the bar to the clips. Then Mike screws in the side brackets. The awning is up. The wrinkles will work themselves out. Now we are just waiting for the company to send out the second awning. 8-3 We tried to go over to the other property to mow but we got rained out. 8-5 This afternoon Mike and I are meeting his daughter at a house she wants to see. It looked nice from the outside but it is a major disaster. The house is only about 5 years old and it has foundation problems, warped floors, cut structural beams, beams coming through the floors, and so many more really major problems. It isn't even safe to live in. It makes me feel so much safer in our house. I don't think a bank will ever approve a mortgage for that house with so many problems. After that Nicole came over for dinner. We had a really nice and "quiet" time with her. It's nice to see her without the kids sometimes. Then we can have real conversations, lol. 8-6 The paving company brought over some of their equipment. He pulled off the side of the road into a field to unload. Sure enough he got stuck. Mike called Jimmy for him but he isn't working locally. The man ended up calling someone he knew to get him out. Mike left him at the road after being down there with him for about an hour. They are supposed to start paving on Monday. 8-7 We finally got over to the other property to do a knock down mow. It is just so wet that there isn't much we can do. That is all for this installment. Sorry about all of the rain comments but it has been a really rough summer. Next week if all goes well we should get a lot done. Lisa