The things kids say

This is completely off topic, but since things have slowed on the house (ground to a halt might be a better way of saying it) I figured I might as well write this here - I needed to write it somewhere!

Today I explained to my nephew Elijah what nebulae are as I showed him this picture from the Astronomy Picture of the Day website.


Source: http://antwrp.gsfc.nasa.gov/apod/ap071228.html

I explained that nebulae are formed by many cosmic phenomenon, but this one was most likely from a dying star that was spraying massive amounts of gas into space.

Elijah quickly replied, "That nebula is a lot like you last night when you passed gas."

I can honestly say that, as far as I know, neither me nor my flatulence have never been compared to a nebula before!

Listening to: "Patty Lee" by Les Savy Fav

Exit 5652

The ramp for my house to travel up the hill is finally complete. Tommy and Mike Lequire spent many days packing in the base for the ramp making the grade perfect. Now that it is done, it looks like an interstate exit ramp up the side of the hill. Fortunately, the ramp doesn't have to be as wide as we had originally expected and only wound up about thirty feet wide in most places.

In addition to building the ramp up the hill, Tommy and Mike also moved my driveway to make the entrance safer and the grade less steep. The result is a beautiful curving drive with a gentle grade.

Right now I'm listening to The Historical Conquests of Josh Ritter by Josh Ritter. Josh Ritter is an amazing folk artist with unique lyrical and rythmic talents that will remind many of Dylan. His song "Right Moves" caused my recent fender bender which cracked the bumper on my car. Give it a listen on his Myspace Page. "...the crickets all leapt up and met the moon with a standing ovation."

Here's the video to "To the dogs or whoever"

Excuses

Okay, so it has been almost a month since I have posted and I could give a multitude of reasons for why it has taken so long. Instead, I will only give two.

Firstly, the end of the semester is a busy time for teachers. As a student I never really thought about how much teachers have to do at the end of the semester. I realized that they must have a lot of work to do, but I was always more concerned with how much studying I was having to do. I don't mean to complain, I know that my life as a teacher is a good one, I'm just making an excuse for why I haven't made any posts recently.

Secondly, and more importantly, I have had a horrible time uploading pictures on my internet connection recently. This was such a big problem that I considered entitling this post "A picture is worth a thousand words." Clearly I didn't name it that, and so partially avoided the cliche. I have never been the best at organizing my thoughts, and so just writing words here is not the easiest thing to do. Instead, I rely on pictures as crutches for my posts.

What am I listening to right now? Paper Planes by M.I.A.
This is a fantastic song (I'm sure many of you wouldn't agree) which samples the song Straight to Hell by The Clash and has a beautiful play on Rump Shaker by Wreckx-n-Effect. M.I.A. is one of my favorite artists of the year, highlighting the plight of citizens of Third World countries as well as legal and illegal immigrants to developed countries through intelligent and catch hip-hop rhythms. This song in particular challenges two common conceptions about immigrants.

Excavation

This post should have come up a couple days ago, but here it is!

So, the excavation is nearly done, all that remains is to widen the ramp that the house will travel up the hill. Tommy and Mike Lequire are meticulous in their excavation. As you can see in this slideshow, the hill has undergone some serious changes.



After the septic and drain fields passed inspection, Tommy began work on digging the basement. His biggest fear was that he would hit significant amounts of rock and would have to hammer them out with a hydraulic hammer. As I type this I can hear him hammering away on some rocks, but fortunately, there was nowhere near the amount of rock that he had expected.

Since I repositioned the house to angle and face down the driveway that comes up the hill, the dirt wall at the back corner is much higher than I had originally anticipated. That is where Tommy ran into the most rock, but it is all dug out now and ready for the house to be pulled in. The ground is nearly level now and the once the house is set over its final location, I can form up for the footers above the ground.

The biggest concern about digging the footers out was that due to time constraints, we might not be able to get the concrete poured prior to the rain that is expected tomorrow. I had no desire to scoop buckets of mud out of the footers if it decided to rain on us.

Listening to: Iron and Wine "The Boy with a Coin" found at fingertipsmusic.com

Taking a second to brag about my brother

As most of you know, my brother, Samuel, is studying watercolor at UT. I try to brag about him every chance I get because his paintings are absolutely amazing. Samuel has always been a much better artist than I, but he has become an accomplished painter in the past couple years.

One thing of note is that Samuel won a major prize in the juried art competition in the spring at UT for this owl.

In fact, the visiting artist in the spring wanted to buy this painting for his private collection. Samuel was unsure if he wanted to sell the painting, so he decided to keep it.

Last week, Samuel went to a lecture by a visiting artist and afterward struck up a conversation with her. She asked to come by his studio the next day and see his work. It turns out the that the she and the visiting artist from the spring are friends from New York and she wanted to buy the owl for him. While in Samuel's studio she saw this blue heron and wanted it for her personal collection.

Samuel sold her both of the paintings and is looking forward to visiting their studios in NYC to gain some additional insight into watercolor.

I hope to get some of Samuels available pieces posted for sale on the internet soon, so stay tuned.

Listening to: Cass McCombs - "That's That" found on fingertipsmusic.com

Baby Steps

Well, the house is finally about ready to be jacked up. I hope to get some more pictures posted in the next few days, but since I have been really busy that has been put on the back burner.

The big news is that, if all goes well, the drain fields and septic tank will pass inspection tomorrow. After that, digging should begin on the footers. I am still torn about what to use for the foundation, blocks, concrete, ICFs, etc. There are so many choices and so many pros and cons. I will probably wind up going with blocks for ease of use and quickness, but it is hard to decide. First things first, though. The footers will hopefully be poured next week, and then the house can be moved.

The house is actually "off" the foundation right now, although it is not completely up in the air. One thing the movers have run into is that the house has settled a lot around the edges over the past 117 years. The chimneys have done a good job of holding up the middle of the house, but there is a nearly six inch crown across the front of the house, and I don't know how much along the length. What this means is that I will have to make the foundation curved rather than square, something that will be interesting to work out.

They will probably get the house up in the air later this week, and hopefully can move it over the footer next week. I will be sure to post pictures once it is up in the air - chimneys and all!

What I am listening to right now:
Band of Horses, Cease to Begin
The National, Boxer

Things keep moving...

So I've been in Minneapolis since Wednesday, and more has gotten done since I've been here than has been done since things started. That may be a slight exaggeration, but here's a brief synopsis of the week.

Tommy Lequire of Lequire Excavating came out and cleared the site of all the trees on Monday and Tuesday. It was amazing to see how everything changed once all the undergrowth was gone. Once I saw how different it looked, I realized that the initial position I had envisioned for the house was not what I would want at all. Now I'm going to turn the house so it faces the final approach up the drive, that way I can have a garage under the master bedroom and a nice parking area at the top of the drive as well.

So I left Wednesday morning to come to MN, and as soon as I got here I got a call from Jeremiah telling me that Tommy was ready to put the septic tank in. Wow! Talk about getting things done. So Tommy has gotten most of the work on drain fields and septic tank done so far, and, to my knowledge has not had any problem with rocks, one of his biggest concerns on the side of that hill.

The movers have come and brought the steel to put under the house, but I have yet to see it so I don't have too much to say, except that I can't wait to get back to town tomorrow and see everything that's been done.

I'll soon have some more to blog about the house move and my trip, but for now I am off to the last formal function of my trip up here. One of the coolest things about my trip so far would have to be my conversations with a colleague from Washington (the state) whose dad moves houses. Talking with her was wonderfully encouraging as I sit here not able to see what is happening with my house.

til next time.

BBK