Not the only builders on the block

We are not the only ones building a house around here.  There are two sets of Violet Green Swallows getting their boxes ready for habitation.  It was quite comical to watch the bird in the picture above, try to get a feather that was as big as him in through the hole.

 

Much was accomplished this weekend.  We finished off the East end wall.

 

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Jeff cuts that last piece of the “puzzle”.pastedGraphic_1.pdf

 

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Jeff’s important job of Safety Officer.

 

pastedGraphic_3.pdf        Jeff is applying the form release agent on the foam panels.  We will keep these covered until we are ready to put them up in the main part of the house.

 

I had some fun with Dozy this weekend.  We will be putting a water tank up the hill and into the woods.  We needed to make a ramp up the hill to make it easier to get the 1500 gallon tank up there.  A very large stump was in the way and it took a lot of digging with Dozy to dislodge it.

 

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That’s one big stump.

 

The last project for the weekend was to make small “cubes” of foam.  pastedGraphic_7.pdfThese will be used as spacers to make sure there is a minimum distance between the rebar and the foam.  I built a hot wire cutter so that it would be easy to make consistent “cubes”  My first couple of tries didn’t work out as the voltage (from a car battery) was too high and burned the wood on my jig.  But once I got it right, the process moved along quickly.

 

 

 

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Voila!

 

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3 comments

Anonymous
Unbelievable what lil dozy can do for you.  But which hole did you finally   get dozy out up there?
Was so glad to see that Jeff was growing cover for his head, since I never seem to see a hat on him during sunlight time!
Loved the nature scene.  Did you build that too for the bird?
Hope weather holds out long enough for the cement application!
Mom
Monday, May 17, 2010 – 07:11 AM
Steve
The first time I got Dozy up over the top of the hill, he got stuck in a hole. I used a winch to get him out.  We made the bird boxes for the swallows.  They are great birds for controlling the mosquito population.  We will put up more boxes when we have places to put them.
Monday, May 17, 2010 – 09:42 AM
Nigel Walker
Beautiful cubes of foam, unlike ours. Your house is looking great.. Nigel
Tuesday, May 18, 2010 – 09:53 PM

 

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