Metal Roof, Lightening Rods and Road Restrictions

Wow it's just short of a month since my last blog, life has been hectic.

Mid June we ordered the metal roof for both the cabin and the warm room, it showed up early July on the back of a very large semi truck.

Well to get to our private road you must drive a county road that still has the road restrictions on and this truck was way over the weight limit. Dean, our friend and dirt contractor, was kind enough to let us unload at his shop were it still sits in a big pile.

The road restrictions are also keeping Dean from getting our power cable and lightening protection installed along with our final landscaping, hopefully we can finish it all by the end of July.

A new view of the front.

We have been completing the fence and flower details

Work inside went on as well, here is what we decided for finish on the computer desk top.

Here is the sitting bench with pad.

Fridge, microwave oven, coffee maker and wire storage rack.

View looking from just inside the door toward the front window and computer desk.

Black Flies, 3 Birthdays, a Wedding, Dock Repair and Boat Launching

Sorry for the 19 day gap in blog'en but between

dock repair, pontoon boat launching, 3 birthdays in Minneapolis, visiting grandchildren, a wedding in Omaha, along with multiple trips to Home Depot, Fleet Farm and Northern Tool all ending today with a down and back run to Duluth for a friend, we've been a little busy.

Even with the worst black fly hatch in years making it very hard to work outside without going crazy, we did get some observatory work done.

Full front view
click any photo to enlarge
door trim
window flower box and trim
we tiled the bare wood vertical beam
close up of tile
installed the cable lights over the desk
close up of the lights

We were able to save the 32 foot straight piece of dock but the L shaped end was completely shot.

Details Coming Together Nicely

All the test fitting before painting is now paying off,

re-assembly has been effortless and very rewarding as it starts to show it's final appearance.

Window and door trim to finish up along with fascia, soffit and steel roof installation.

The overall view.

(remember you can click on any photo in the blog to enlarge)

Paint, Trim, Computer Counter and Humming Birds

We've had some nicer weather lately

which has allowed us to get more done on both the observatory and cleaning up storm damage left over from last falls big storm.

We burned most of the tree that smashed my truck and we also did more cutting and dragging of downed trees to the fire pit so we're ready for our next big burn.

The frost is boiling out of the roads around here but getting better by the day,

we pulled tracks off of both trucks last week and I'm very happy with how they look after a winter of hard use.

We also have had humming birds in the feeders for about a week now, it's fun to have them back I know the cats missed them.

Observatory work

Trim along the floor was painted and installed,

the computer desk counter top was designed and built in place.

Applied two coats of the base yellow on the outside of the building.

Pats always painting,

trim, fence, fence corner posts, coating the large ABC blocks you name it she'll paint it.

Test fit of the blocks before they got plumbed up (front)

back side of blocks

Hoping to launch the pontoon boat and fix the dock this weekend, would love a pan of fresh walleyes, if not that then maybe some steelhead fishing.

Ice Off, Loons Calling and Dock Under Water

I woke up at 2:30 am this morning and noticed it was still 52 degrees

so I reached up and opened the bedroom window for some fresh air,

within seconds I could hear the loon calling and knew I would see an open lake at sunrise.

My 5:30 am cat alarm went off as it does every morning to reveal our end of the lake clear of ice, our dock completely under water and a pair of fornicating ducks taking advantage of the underwater platform

photo of dock less the ducks.

So now Pat has won the,

Last snow and

Ice off (She hit this one to the day)

and I won the

Snow off the road

I have the feeling she will take the rest. I'm going to pull the tracks off the truck this week and just run the wheeler till the road dries out

Observatory work is interior trim and installing the cable light system over the counter space.

Floor Installation and Squirrel Relocation Project

Well the floor is installed in the warm room,

with lots of measuring and lay out we cut the roll of flooring then loosely rolled it up and carried it inside the building.

Fitting the flooring took some time but once we were happy with the fit we smoothed it out and trimmed along the walls.

Looking into the large end of the room.

Small end of the room.

Now that the flooring is complete, I will start the design and construction of the computer countertop work station in the large end of the building and bunks in the small end.

With today's nice weather we also worked on outside details

finishing the fence and post layout along with more painting.

After the layout was complete the fence was removed for painting.

Along with observatory work I have been running a

Red Squirrel Relocation Project

Since we fed the birds all winter we are over run with red squirrels,

so out came the Have-A-heart live trap.

Every squirrel gets a 2 mile 4 wheeler ride to Bill's Branch of Murmur Creek,

I have made 7 of these trips so far.

Here is number 5 we will call him Bob and he is waiting for his wheeler ride.

If any locals around Grand Marais or Lutsen are looking for live red squirrels just email me and I'll save you some and deliver them for free!

Indoor Work Weather Spent Painting

Rain, windy and cold.

We did get a short break in the weather to set up our 1st fence layout.

Once happy with the layout the fence was removed as one panel, taken inside and painted. The long corner post will be shortened when we decide how they're going to be topped.

Once this 2nd coat is dry we are going to glue 1" yellow smiley face marbles in the top holes.

Here is one we just pushed into the wet paint to get a feel of how it will look.

Also painted the inside of the door.

More Wet Snow and Indoor Block Sign Work

Woke to 2 more inches of very wet snow. (Lucky us!)

Here is the view at the top of the driveway looking down the road.

So up to the warm room for some more indoor work on the ABC jumbo blocks.

Here they are in a split photo,

we reinstalled them on the temporary post so Pat could lay out the images on the open faces of the blocks.

We then pulled it back a part and started the decoupage.

We have applied 2 of 6 coats of glue over the art which will then get a final coat of poly.