Originally posted on 2018-10-26
As October comes to an end, we are more aware of the approaching winter.
As much as I am looking forward to seeing our view covered in ice and snow, the dropping temperatures and shrinking days has us a little concerned about the things we were hoping to have done before the snow started to fall. We have needed to rearrange our plan to prioritize the items that absolutely have to be done before winter.
As I mentioned in the last post we started insulating the walls of the west room where we are moving the kitchen. We have prepared the room for the new door and windows that will be going in, but with some rain that has been mixed with snow already we had to shift gears and put that west room on hold yet again.
We discovered that there is a heated water pipe, so we went looking for the pipe and found it just under the surface. We don’t like the idea of actively needing to keep our water warm, so we have decided that we need to dig a trench and get it underground where it belongs. At the same time we need to dig a second trench to get higher amperage of power out to the garage that we plan to turn into a workshop.
This week has been spent mainly digging out a trench that is two feet deep from the house to the garage on the west side. The first part of this project went fairly easily and we were hopeful that perhaps we could get both trenches dug inside the week, however we should know by now that it wasn’t going to last.
The large rocks that we had to dig out wasn’t that bad as removing them helped us get down to the depth we needed, however we had to go around a couple of trees and deal with their roots. The ground closest to the house was full of roots to the point it was easier to “dig” with a vacuum, and it was very slow going. We managed to dig the trench for the electrical, but the one for the water still needs to be done before the ground becomes frozen.
We at least were able to fill in part of the trench to give us a clear path out to the car, but we worry we don’t have enough dirt to fill in the trench without using the rocks.We also want to replace the roof on the western garage (shop) before the snow flies instead of leaving it for the spring like the last part of the house and the eastern garage. After that, we can go back to insulating the house, inside and out. Hopefully that can be done before there’s snow.
We have most of the baseboard heaters installed, and the boiler will be hooked up to the propane in this coming week. We are also expecting (finally) our water filtration system early this coming week. We have turned on the propane heater in the current kitchen area (which will be moved to the shop), but it will be nice to have this heat working.So we have a little ways to go before we are ready for winter, but we can feel that it’s coming soon. Hopefully it will hold off as long as we need, and stay tuned for some pretty winter pictures!
Huron The Lake 