No, I did not get bitten by a vampire, nor am I going to a costume party this weekend. Instead, this is plug for a band that I have been listening to. I think I've mentioned these guys before, but I wanted to mention them again as their first full length album will be coming out a week from Tuesday.
Vampire Weekend is four guys from Brooklyn who play a beautiful mix of indie rock and African rhythms. For a taste of their style, check out this video to the song that I have been whistling for the past couple months. Enjoy.
How's the house coming? The concrete seems to be setting up well. It is in the teens here, so I don't plan on doing a whole lot with the house today. If things go well, the house could be moved in two weeks, though. I'll update you again soon.
I'm also hoping to get some more of Samuel's work posted here soon, too.
Still, BBK
Sunday, January 20, 2008
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
The BIG pour
After weeks of work and a couple of setbacks, the footers and the slab have been poured. The finished product is amazing, and I have no doubt that it will hold up when the house eventually comes rolling across it and is jacked up in the air.
As I've mentioned before, I had to pour my footers above ground due to the amount of rock that would have had to be dug out otherwise. I opted to pour the slab at the same time to strengthen the pour since my house will be jacked up on the site once it is moved.
The pictures tell most of the story.
Big thanks to my dad for all his help, Uncle Tom for taking so much time to help, John Abbott for mucking so much mud and shoveling so much gravel and Ed Murphy for tying steel and forming up.
Jinks' Concrete finished the pour with Lambcon supplying the concrete.
Hopefully we will get a hard freeze in a few weeks and can move the house. Right now I am looking forward to taking a break for a couple days and regrouping.
The semester has started well, and I have 5 great classes. I am looking forward to trying out a few new ideas and learning more about being an effective teacher.
Listening to: The Streets - A Grand Don't Come for Free
As I've mentioned before, I had to pour my footers above ground due to the amount of rock that would have had to be dug out otherwise. I opted to pour the slab at the same time to strengthen the pour since my house will be jacked up on the site once it is moved.
The pictures tell most of the story.
Big thanks to my dad for all his help, Uncle Tom for taking so much time to help, John Abbott for mucking so much mud and shoveling so much gravel and Ed Murphy for tying steel and forming up.
Jinks' Concrete finished the pour with Lambcon supplying the concrete.
Hopefully we will get a hard freeze in a few weeks and can move the house. Right now I am looking forward to taking a break for a couple days and regrouping.
The semester has started well, and I have 5 great classes. I am looking forward to trying out a few new ideas and learning more about being an effective teacher.
Listening to: The Streets - A Grand Don't Come for Free
Tuesday, January 8, 2008
Good Aches
Quick post here. I worked almost nonstop today from 7 am until 12 am (midnight, that is) getting ready for the pour. Shoveled a lot of gravel, had great help from Dad, Uncle Tom and Samuel (who braved the temperatures on this 70 degree January day even though he is horribly sick). The inspector is coming out tomorrow, hopefully in the afternoon, and as long as everything is kosher we'll pour Friday morning.
Tommy and Mike were back out again today to finish the ramp and make it ready for concrete trucks.
Once again I did not get any pics up, mainly because it is so late now and tomorrow is my first day back to school for the semester. They will be coming soon, hopefully some before the pour so you can see how much gravel we have shoveled.
Somehow amidst all this work I found time to relax for a little bit to have dinner with the family and watch a movie with a friend, so instead of music you get a movie recommendation.
Movie recommendation: Air Guitar Nation - A documentary of the first annual U.S. Air Guitar Championships. C-Diddy Rocks! Rent it NOW on DVD or VHS from your local Blockbuster store.
Still, BBK.
Tommy and Mike were back out again today to finish the ramp and make it ready for concrete trucks.
Once again I did not get any pics up, mainly because it is so late now and tomorrow is my first day back to school for the semester. They will be coming soon, hopefully some before the pour so you can see how much gravel we have shoveled.
Somehow amidst all this work I found time to relax for a little bit to have dinner with the family and watch a movie with a friend, so instead of music you get a movie recommendation.
Movie recommendation: Air Guitar Nation - A documentary of the first annual U.S. Air Guitar Championships. C-Diddy Rocks! Rent it NOW on DVD or VHS from your local Blockbuster store.
Still, BBK.
Sunday, January 6, 2008
(Not) Digging the footers
After a month of relative inactivity on the house, and a very unproductive Christmas break, digging finally started on the footers yesterday. Tommy very carefully laid out the outline of the house and found the level for the bottom of the footers. After a little discussion about the depth of the footers and how the concrete would be poured Tommy pulled his backhoe into place and began removing dirt for the footers. After a couple scoops Mike checked the level of rocks that Tommy had hit in the bottom of the ditch and unfortunately they were not deep enough to allow the footers to be poured underground.
After a little deliberation I decided to forego burying the footer and form up on top of the ground instead. As long as the inspector will approve it I will be pouring the footer and slab all at the same time. I began forming up today and will seek the inspector's approval tomorrow. I expect to have everything formed up by the end of the day Monday and have a crew come out and do the pour later in the week.
I'll try to post some more pictures tomorrow of what I'm doing with this.
Right now I'm listening to: "Five Years Time" by Noah and the Whale
After a little deliberation I decided to forego burying the footer and form up on top of the ground instead. As long as the inspector will approve it I will be pouring the footer and slab all at the same time. I began forming up today and will seek the inspector's approval tomorrow. I expect to have everything formed up by the end of the day Monday and have a crew come out and do the pour later in the week.
I'll try to post some more pictures tomorrow of what I'm doing with this.
Right now I'm listening to: "Five Years Time" by Noah and the Whale
Saturday, December 29, 2007
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
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
Saturday, December 22, 2007
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"
Friday, December 21, 2007
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.
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.
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