Our Island Retreat

When the pond is fixed and is holding water we want to be able to step out of the house and enjoy the water. There is a peninsula already built into the water so we will be surrounded on three sides by water. Again, the previous owner had a great idea just didn't do enough with it. The peninsula slopes down and isn't something you can mow so the weeds just get very tall and block the view. So it is Oklahoma red rock to the rescue again.

 This is what it looks like right now. Not much of anything just those stupid tarps., Just need the vision of what it can be. We are doing a lot of visualizing.

 We brought more rock home from the rock yard. The delivery forklift brings the rock to where we need it to be. You have to drive down the driveway, over the go kart track, down the hill to the peninsula.

Now, to make a wall and build dirt up to it. This will take many loads of dirt which means it will take time since we work six days a week at the yard and have to have some relaxation. But soon wWe will have a wonderful place to enjoy the water.

We already have the bench ready and waiting to be put in place. The front rocks are nice and flat so they can be used as seating also.

More Boy Toys

When we sold our house the new owners bought our lawn mower and not knowing where we were going we left the lawn trailer also. That was one more thing to store and it was 20 years old. Well, now we definelty need a lawn trailer. Bill had been looking at big ones. Told him if they are too big I won't be willing to use them so he started looking at the little ones. Hm-m-m wonder if this means he is expecting more work out of me. The new Tractor Supply sales ad came and they had one we thought would be really good.We will need to build a small garage for all these working boy toys we keep accumulating.

Of course, our golf kart is our work tractor. The new trailer just hooks right up to it and then dumps out.  It's will only hold 600 pounds of stuff so that keeps us from overloading our jobs. We have to remind ourselves that we are getting older and need to watch what we have our bodies do. Bill checked out the size and load capacity and says it will hold all the grand kids.

 What is really cool is that it also swivels! So I never need to back anywhere.

Final Grade

Final Grade is a  beautiful phrase in the building world. This means things are done so the final dirt work can be done. For us this doesn't mean our building is done it just means that the dirt moving part of the drive is finished.

Yesterday, the dirt guy did the final grade on the hill above Bill's fantastic retaining wall. Yes, we could have done this ourselves but my goodness it would never have looked this good.

 You can see at the end of the wall is our dumpster (one more joy of country living, no city trash pick up). Each time the driver would empty our dumpster  he would call and ask us to tweak where we had the dumpster sat so he was safe picking it up in our Oklahoma winds, We  finally said level the ground we will deal with the dirt behind it when we can get a machine over to rock the wall from where it ends to behind the dumpster. We completely understand the drivers concerns, we face those daily delivering product to our customers with our dump truck and they don't understand why we can't dump  up hill in 60 mile an hour cross winds. We just hadn't taken into consideration the dumpster isn't always loaded evenly by weight.

 Now we can bury our phone line. That's it going across the drive. AT&T says our phones won't work right until the line is underground. These lines are not made to be above ground. They kept trying to come out and bury it and I had to keep calling them and saying "NO there is still dirt work going on".

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 It was really interesting watching him move the dirt. Almost everything is done in reverse. On the slop find a hole to drop your back end into pull dirt towards you and fill it in.

 Of course you have to have the guys with the shovels doing all the fine tuning and steep work. We say how much rock we still need to put onto the wall. Maybe this weekend before the storms come we can get a little bit done.

I can't wait to get wild flower seeds planted and have an incredible Butterfly and Hummingbird garden. We will see this each and every time we come home and in the spring and summer it will be absolutely gorgeous! I will need to put some native drought loving green up here so it will look good in the winter also.

Moving Along

Love it when I come home from work and discover people have been at the house working. Yesterday I cam home and our dirt guy and his crew were there. We are bartering out his services so I don't expect him to have us on his high priority list so it's super exciting when he is there.

They got several things done yesterday. We had asked for a little dirt between the drive and  the retaining wall to us to put our decorative rock on top of and they had filled the area instead of leaving a 4 inch drop.These things happen when you aren't there to point and talk, just general verbal over the phone.  Yesterday they lowered the dirt to the level we wanted.

 

Now the ball is back in our court to get on it and get our landscape fabric down and some beautiful Granite Gems down. The Granite Gems are from Granite Oklahoma, the only place in Oklahoma to have granite. They are grey, blue and red so they should  be beautiful with the colors of the Oklahoma Red Sandstone and the grey concrete of the back up area behind the garage.

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The next thing they worked on was our really ugly problem pond. It is such an eye sore, luckily we are the only ones who can see it. When the pond was dug they moved all the clay to the dam and just left sandy soil that does not hold water. When we are finished the pond should be beautiful with peninsulas, a goose nesting island, lots of fish and at least one row boat to play around on. Our dirt guy suggested a Jet Ski but I don't think I want that noise or maintenance. We don't even have one of those at the lake. If the kids want to buy one okay but we won't be doing that.

 We have to get rid of the tarps that the previous owner thought would be a way to keep water in the pond. Tarps are not designed to hold pond water. He didn't even lap them over each other he laid them end to end. The water just flows under them and then seeps into the soil.

The  Skid Steer would clean the soil off the tarp, the guys would fold them and then haul them away.

This does not look safe! To pile the tarps as high in the bucket as possible one guy rode on top of them. All I could think of was since we aren't paying them hopefully we are not liable if he falls off and is run over by the equipment. They were laughing and cheering so it was a good excitement for them; a nervous excitement for me.

 We decided the tarps that are on the lower part of the pond are going to be left. It would take days and days to get all of them out of the pond. We will cover them with clay and then the Bentonite(sp) and they will act as another layer in the construction.

Touchdown!

Last week at the rock yard we had a customer come in for product. I assumed he was a landscaper because when he comes in he buys landscape materials. That day he is asking about our manufactured stone so I asked him if he is doing an outdoor kitchen. He said no, this was going to be used on one of his remodels. His real job is remodeling not landscaping. All the landscape product has been for the finishing touches on his remodels. A light bulb went on over my head. We need a remodel framer not a new home framer for the garage. Asked him if he had a framer he would recommend and he said of course, Willie is the guy for  you. We called Willie, or William as he calls himself to us.  He came out Easter Sunday, missed church but we thought God would understand. We had already been to church on Saturday to celebrate the great sacrifice Jesus made for our sins.William and Alberto looked over our plans, took measurements and yes it can be done.

Who knew our storm shelter would make such a good drafting table.

We have our shopping list of materials to get pricing and with fingers crossed he may be able to start next week. Even better our customer gave us a price range of what we should be charged and William says no problem and the price is on the low end of the range. Whoop whoop it just keeps getting better.

We didn't tell him how we thought it should be done but as he was telling us how he will do it we just smiled. We agree, a stand alone structure that is bolted to the metal building's frame is how we have thought it should be done all along.  It just took getting with the right person who does this kind of stuff every day. A remodel framer rarely has full plans and have to think and build on the fly. The building process may be started again.

Smith Creek

 When it rains all the run off from the south end of the buildings, the south hill and the drive comes rushing across the yard. The previous owner did a very good job of directing the water. It all flows through a channel that was made so well there is no cutting into the yard even with a lot of water. This flow is after 5 minutes of an Oklahoma rain. When there is no water you don't even notice the water channel.

It's really cool we can watch the water as it follows the trail leading to the pond. No if only the pond held water. Haven't had a chance to work on the pond and we are very sad seeing all this water to to waste, when it should be filling up the pond.

Come Into My Web Said the Spider To the Fly

Or in this case, come into the West Wing through the side door!

 Yesterday it was snowing in April so Bill left work to go home and work. He moved the electrical wire for the light switches by the door between the West Wing and the garage. He had put them on the wall where they would have been behind the door when it was open. He thought that would be okay since we have so much natural light in the hallway but I insisted they go on the other wall. What's a little more work for him. After moving it he agrees this is where they should go. He wasn't thinking door when he put them in the first time.

When I got home he was ready to cut the hole in the wall.

I held the metal while he used the Saws All to cut our opening. Saw blade jumping all around while cutting loose metal, was just a little disconcerting.

 Next framing the opening. Everything was pre-cut and ready to go. It was too windy and cold to fool around.

 Adding the scabs to have everything the right height.

Checking for level.

We have a door!!!

 The is the door that leads from the garage into the West Wing. It is the one we will use to go back and forth between our living and work areas. Decorator gave me paint color suggestions for all of our interior doors now off to the paint store and start making things pretty. I told her I wanted warm off white colors, that's what we had in the South Bend house and loved the color.

Bill is trying to figure out how to do an arch over the door. There is a structural beam going across the top that is impeding his creativity. I said a plant ledge would be fine but he thinks he can figure it out. His thinking outside the box brain is really impressive.

Dusty Dusty Oklahoma

Our apartment, that we love, is a dust bowl. I have never llived anywhere that gets so dusty so quickly. The wood floors are always gritty to your bare feet. I sweep out the garage every two weeks. Yes, I could do it more often but there are only so many minutes in a day. We walk through the garage to get to the front door so we track all the grime into the house.

You can see why the garage gets so dusty. Lots and lots of air holes for the Oklahoma wind to blow the Oklahoma red dirt into our space. Yes, that is light you see all the way around the walk in door. We won't be doing anything about these until we are ready to frame in the front of the house. We will need to live this for awhile.

Little Projects

The previous owners idea of good paint color and mine are different. I find his main color a dirty color. Certainly didn't stop us from buying the place, because we knew it was all going to be changed and repainted.

The front door has really bothered me. Since it seems we will be using it a while longer, it needed to be painted. He had trimmed it out in red and painted it the same color as the metal walls. I feel your front door needs to welcome people to your home and not blend in. It was also done in a flat paint and I couldn't clean it very well.

I went to our paint room and found paint we had on hand. I used Biscuit, which is a paint three of our rent houses use and Winter Wheat to trim. Winter Wheat is one of the samples we bought to figure out the color for the Trophy Room.

Not a drastic change; just a fresher look. Now the walls really look muddy to me. The red ceiling accent has to go. But, until I decide what color I am painting our bedroom walls we will live with it.

Fixing Someone Else's Problem

When the previous owners took their mobile home out they took it our across our meadow and left huge tracks. We had a Gentlemen's Agreement they would fix all damage. They obviously are not gentlemen. So this weekend we started filling in the tracks. This needs to be done before the grass grows in and we can't see them. Bill will only feel them when he bounces over them when mowing.


We used a Load Handler (for sale at  your local Rock Yard) to unload the soil. This thing is great!  It is a teflon sheet you lay out in the bed of your truck. Load the product and when you get where you are going you just crank the stuff out. No shoveling out of the truck, it saves you so much work.

We used two pick up and one trailer load and got 2/3 of the tracks done. We didn't want to do much  more because of the rains coming in and didn't want the tracks on the steep slope to wash away.

Next weekend we will do the slope. This will get rid of  the constant reminder of  people not keeping up their end of a bargain. And will stop aggravating us every time we come home.

Major Upgrade

About 15 years ago we bought a little table saw to help with our projects. We probably spent around $130, if even that much. Bill is wanting to make his own I-Beams for the Trophy Room. To buy they are $80 a piece; to make they will be $14 a piece. Huge savings. We started ripping 2x4's and our little table saw started smoking.

Too Much Work for The Little Guy

Call out to Daddy for help. Daddy is loaning us his professional table saw. This baby is an antique but is incredible. Many many years ago Daddy would work on a building crew during the winter. He was a farmer so had the winters and a large family; winter money was needed. He went to Sears and bought this table saw, took it to work, started cutting with it, and they were fired from the job that day. The guy framing had framed all the door openings too small. Daddy was having to cut all the doors to make them fit. Home owner was not happy with the too small of openings so the crew was gone. Daddy's only concern was how was he going to make the payments on this new tool. They were  out of work less than a week. This table saw was also used to build the house I grew up in. Daddy doesn't remember exactly when he bought the saw but the "new" house was built when I was 7 years old which makes it at least 51 years old.

Another thing cool about this is that Daddy made all the wood pushing blocks. They are made out of fine wood and are works of art.

 It Can Handle Anything

When Bill was setting it up in our work shop he became emotional. He and my Daddy are very close and this means so much to him that he is building our home with what Daddy built my childhood home with.

No Sprinkler System

We have 7.5 acres to keep green and no sprinkler system. Luckily, it is all Bermuda grass and that grass can take drought conditions. The reports are that we will be having an El Nino summer so very little water. Along the concrete drive and parking the previous owner put in shrub beds. You can tell where he watered and where the water didn't go. Where he watered; the shrubs are nice and healthy and then you have areas with nothing but dead roots.

So one day Miss Mallory and I set out to solve this problem. We put soaker hoses under the rock encircling the shrubs to get the water where it needs to go

 
It's wonderful having a two year old dressed as a princess and her matching princess doll helping with projects like this.

We laid out our pattern and then started moving rock and laying the hose. The princess dress got a little dirty with this project. The plants will love getting water this summer. Also put in fertilizer spikes. I have no idea if these plants have ever been fertilized. They may go crazy this growing season and  have to be trimmed. So I may have made more work for myself.

Mister Ant is watching to be sure we did this right.

Country Living At It's Finest

When we pull out of our drive this is what we see. If they aren't there then their friends the horses will be. You never see the cattle and the horses mingling. They share the same pasture but are always at different parts of it. There is very little cooler than a herd of Texas Long Horns across the road from your house. The neighbors out there love the Long Horns and our Buffalo being across from each other.

 We may be 10 minutes from Wal-Mart & Braum's, 15 minutes from our doctor and the hospital but we are definitely in the country.

More signs of country living. Constant dirt on the floor and now scorpions. We have only seen one but if there is one there has to be more. Oklahoma scorpions are not poisonous but you will have a reaction to them. Our friendly exterminator is on his way out.