There's frost on the pumpkin this morning

September 12, 2013 - Friday

29 degrees/clear/calm

Pentoga Road

Other than tucking everything away for the year, the gardening season is officially over. Our first hard freeze and frost came with last night's bright partial moon. It was clear and cold and after taking a stroll through the backyard before bedtime, I decided it wasn't worth while attempting to cover the garden. The forecast is for more frost tonight; time to put it all to bed and begin planning for next year.

Thursday was construction day on Pentoga Road. I spent all morning building a shelf for the far wall in the storage shed. In the old days, it would have taken me an hour. The clock showed it was past noon before I finished yesterday. I didn't care. I had fun building the thing and it was just a shelf. Who really cares if I make a mistake and cut a board wrong? I've decided I'm going to make a shelf a day until we have what is needed.

Meanwhile, Sargie continues sorting through the boxes. I carried several in for her to go through yesterday afternoon and evening and she eliminated half. At this rate, we'll have room for everything, plus much of what's in the basement that should go into storage.

I finished the shelf and moved my attentions to the garage. Someone who lived here had previously jury rigged the biggest mess I've ever encountered. Boards had been scabbed, a new wall begun, then sort of covered, almost as an afterthought, a door installed without any insulation; in fact, there was only ONE piece of insulation in the entire wall and it was thoroughly mouse ridden. 

The total grand sum of insulation in the entire wall.

In fact, in one place, I even found a piece of log from some old log structure onto which a milled board had been nailed. In one or two places, the only thing separating the kitchen from the garage was the interior sheetrock and pegboard that had been nailed on the exterior side. Pegboard? No wonder our kitchen has been cold and drafty.

I was going to rip the entire outside contents from the old wall, but when I encountered multiple "fixes," not only to the wall coverings, but also the studs, I decided that would be a major construction job and was honestly fearful that it would end up involving the interior of the kitchen. I've already wrestled with the cabinets along that wall, I don't need to be replacing the entire wall.

So, in my wisdom, I've decided to properly build a wall on the the outside of the one that's there now. There's plenty of room and other than the door, when I'm finished, I don't believe anyone will be any the wiser. I'm going to have to box in the door, much like one would a window, but there will no longer be a gale blowing through and it should look much nicer. 

No insulation around that door. I'd caulked it from the inside in years past, but never taken off the old pegboard. 

So that was my day. I finished what work I could last evening and hopefully, I'll have the garage completely done today. I've had to remove some sill supports that the rafters rest on, but they will soon come to lie on the new wall, something that will be much sturdier. The old supports were blocks of 2x4's under each rafter, held in place by one or two hastily pounded nails. I've never seen such a thing.

So, it's back to the storage shed to construct another shelf, then into the garage to finish the wall.

After all, a man's work is never done.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road... 

Friday morning's frosty sunrise