Homestead Day 45 STAR DATE 11042017:0820

Started the day by making coffee that I failed to make last night. Was cold this morning as the gravel drive and the ground were both crunchy. Actually, got up before sunrise. Of course, sunrise ws about 9:30. Big whoop. Have a lot to do today.
* Drank coffee like some drug fiend and while talking with Summer about today’s agenda. She decided to clear out all of the dirty dishes everywhere and wash them. We’ve been eating out out plastic plates with plastic spoons. Okay for a picnic but not very good for a normal life. Any return to normalcy is a good thing.
*After much dissembling and delaying and procrastinating, I got up and decided to do something. I wanted to try to get some cabinets installed but a bad place in the floor needed to be repaired. Can’t put cabinets over a floor that is falling in. I started to cut away the floor thinking that it was only a 12×12 spot and ended up cutting a hole 24×20. The idiots before us had, apparently, had a leak for a long time. How can you not know these things? After much aggravation mostly related to finding the necessary tools, i got busy. At last, I got my table saw out. When you have 2x4s and you need 2x2s there is no substitute for a table saw. Finally, with hole patched, I decided to see if we could hang some sheetrock.
*I discovered when trying to hang rock that the house had settled about an inch since we had arrived the house had settled about an inch on the east side. With that in mind I did not put a lot of screws in the sheet rock. Only put in enough screws to hold it against the wall. When the hard freeze comes we will jack the house level again. I suspect that this is going to be an annual proposition. Was going to have something more permanent installed but after consulting with an engineer decided that that might not work any better than the pilings set on 24x24x16 slabs. It seems that the Sonotube thing doesn’t work very well in my area as there is no solid layer to anchor it in.
* Swept up more construction debris and dirt (formerly mud). Pursued the phantom electric box for awhile to no avail. I really am going to have to rip out sheet rock in Summer’s bedroom. I am substantially less than enthused. Since it was about to be dark, I picked up my tools and put them away.
*Cut some debris firewood so that we’d have enough to get through tomorrow. Oil stove is working just fine but at 22k btu it isn’t going to heat the entire house. We need the freeze up so that we can get some real wood. Our fuel tanks will be filled Monday which will insure our survival but not our comfort.
Dinner consisted of salmon cooked in aluminum foil by placing it in the wood stove. The salmon was marinated in Summer’s secret marinade and wrapped in foil. I don’t ask, I just eat. Had a nice big salad as a side.