Farewell Cow Pasture

Last May, we sold our home out in the country and started the move into town. Although it was time, it was hard to say good-bye to our wonderful neighbours and our lovely surroundings.

 

You would think that we would be satisfied with an existing home or condo...OH NO...NOT US! We decided that we had to build a new home in town. Clearly we did not learn from our previous experience. So off to the Farrell Finale we go!

How time flies

Wind Turbine

The shop project has continued with many steps being missed in the blog.
We are now Dec 2017 and the lower level of the shop has received interior walls to hold insulation, poly and drywall on most of it. The electrical has been added and it has its own sub- panel installed, so that if something blows you do not have to head up the outside stairs to remedy it. The plan was to try and have the shop heating system be as efficient as possible. So Jim made some home made thermal solar panels, which feed into an electric hot water heater which is the centre core of the heating system.  The pumps that circulate the hot water around are 12 volt and are fed from a 12 volt deep cycle battery. It receives its charge from 2 - 100 watt PV panels mounted on the shop upper deck. The lower heating element of the hot water heater has been replaced with a 48 volt DC element. Which is wired into the wind turbine.(seen in photo) As we are located on a hill and get some wind in the winter Jim felt it would assist in lowering the heating costs of the shop. It sure has all the neighbors talking, ie is it as space portal?


The ceiling/floor heating pipes was more work than expected had a few labor intense steps. Drilling and adding the pex pipe in the cold of winter, not an easy task. Then adding heat transfer plates to increase transfer of heat in a floor. Then below that a tin foil layer to reflex extra heat back up to the floor. Finishing with a layer of insulation to force the heat up to the upper floor.

Lots of pipes and wiring to control where the heat goes and when.

WE'RE FLOORED!!

Apres the electrical inspection, the trench for the electrical cable was filled in and waiting for grass seed.

With the help of Craig Sprout, Jim has put laminate flooring down on the upper level of the shop

It's Electrifying!!

 So... when we first built the house, we neglected to put a man door in the garage. Jim decided that, as he was working on connecting the house electricity to the shop, now would be a good time to remedy that. Cement will still have to be jack hammered out before the door is framed in. When done, we will be able to go in and out of this door rather than have the big garage doors always open.

 Electrical wires have been fed through the basement and garage to this point. It's worth noting that a 200 amp service was installed in the house to accommodate the shop when the house was first built.

 One of our very kind and generous neighbours lent Jim his small backhoe to dig the trench to the garage where the electrical cable will be buried.

The electrical box in the garage is awaiting more parts before the connections can be completed.

Why Are There No Songs Written About Strawberry Moons?

 The Summer Solstice and the full moon will only happen together again in 46 years. In honour of this event, Jim set up the tripod and attached the telephoto lens to the camera. The clouds held off long enough for these shots from our back deck. There is no filter on the camera. The moon was honestly pink.

So...You Know How We Were Suffering Through a Drought...

...well it started raining and has had a hard time trying to figure out how to stop.  This has Jim running between working on his tan doing yard work and keeping dry finishing the interior of the shop. Obviously from the picture, he finished the mudding and priming and now has the painting done.  The upper cupboards have been installed and now some major consideration has to be given to arranging the work benches, etc. BUT, luckily the sun has decided to shine so it's back outside to the yard.

 There is a significant drop off between the septic tanks and the house down into the back yard. In order to continue landscaping, 16" cement rings (complete with black, rubber gaskets) had to be added to the existing tanks to raise them up sufficiently to add enough soil around them to make the slope a little gentler.

By the way, the eaves trough on the shop has been installed. The rain has put the lines, that connect the eaves trough from the house to the pond, to the test and they have passed with flying colours and the pond is nearly full.

One Project On Hold While Another Gets Underway

The mudding has been finished and it's waiting for primer but, in the meantime, spring has come early. Jim has been working on a system of underground pipes that connect the eaves troughs to the pond. In case we get any rain this year.