Rebirth of the shoebox

After the concrete cured for a day or two, the parents came over and we started framing the 'new' old barn. If the walls look unusually tall, they are- I am using "balloon-framing" methods to provide a 3 foot kneewall in the hayloft of the barn and support the lateral forces of the roof trusses. Thus, the framing shown is with 12 foot high walls instead of the usual 8 footers....

Ahhh, the smell of concrete at dawn.... It was like the moments leading up to a big race: Stayed up late going over last minute details. Couldn't sleep, as I worried all night about how tomorrow would turn out. Get up at 4:30am with butterflies in my stomach. Head outside at dawn to do a few final prep tasks and clear the area around the slab. Keith and crew showed up around 6:30am and the first of two cement truck pulled in at 7am. The mud starts flowing shortly thereafter. I tried to help out as much as possible, but was mostly just staying out of their way since the guys have this process pretty well choreographed from years of experience. I was praying that the pathway form didn't break and that the hydronic system held pressure during the pour. Everything went well and by 9am we had a foundation. A couple of the guys stayed until lunchtime to trowel the slab smooth while I removed the spreaders from the pathway form so they could get inside and work. Nice job, guys!

Read my mind.

"Stand back ladies, I've got this COMPLETELY under control." or, "Do we really need in-floor heat?" or, "Has anyone seen the other end of this tubing?" or, "This stopped being fun about 4 days ago..." What I was really thinking was, "Good thing I have Lisa and Tammy here to help figure this out!" Thanks to them, we laid down 600 feet of 7/8" PEX tubing throughout the slab in just a few short hours. Sliding it under the pathway form was a little tricky, but it worked out okay. (Photo by Claire Schotzko) I spent the rest of the day zip-tying the PEX to the rebar and making sure everything was kosher since we will be pouring concrete in the morning! I also connected the PEX to the distribution manifold (where all the strands are bunched up in lower right corner) and pressurized the system to 50psi to check for leaks. It held pressure all night, so that was a relief.

Reinforcements.

The pathway form now occupying a large portion of the slab made the remaining tasks difficult- I had to figure out how to provide continuous reinforcement across the building in both directions, and the PEX tubing needed to be put down over and around it. For reinforcement, I used #4 rebar in an 18" grid pattern. Keith borrowed one of his rebar benders so that I could shape the pieces to drop down under the pathway form wherever needed. I could've spanned the whole barn with a single piece of rebar, if I were talented enough to put the required 4 bends in precisely the right spots to curl under and back out of the pathway recess- impossible! So I cut each piece of rebar in half and lapped the joints under the pathway. Working around the pathway form made an otherwise easy task become another dawn-till-dark affair. But eventually my stubborn persistence won out and the grid pattern was done.

Now for the PEX tubing....

Shopping Locally.

Glen, our local sawmill pal stopped over to pick up some red pine logs that I cut down last winter (several large trees were dead or dying around the Homestead, so it was time to harvest them). He will cut them into 4x10 beams to use as floor joists in the barn. I think that finding your building materials in the front yard counts as 'shopping locally' doesn't it?

This may not be the easiest way...

...but it was the only way I could think of to build the form for the brick pathway. First, I used some of the FSC lumber purchased for the wall framing (yes, someday I hope to actually put up walls!) to make 20 ft long temporary 'joists'. These were rested on the perimeter of the foundation form, spaced apart about 18" or so. I then attached strips of scrap plywood vertically down from the joists and resting on the foundation bed, following the desired outline of the pathway. Next I ripped more of that Masonite siding (the same stuff used to build the silo form) into 3" strips and attached them to the verticals to make the rounded edge for the pathway. The Masonite wants to break when bent into a tight radius, so I had to make hundreds of shallow kerf cuts in it wherever a sharp corner was made. This took some experimentation, but it worked out okay. Once it was shaped just right, I installed 'spreaders' across the inside to hold everything together (I was able to use old barn board scraps for this), then removed those joists to reveal the pathway form. Voila- all this took another couple of days to fabricate. The lengths I will go to just to salvage the old barn bricks!

Visions.

I have a vision. Not some heat-induced hallucination, but rather something that I came up with months ago while sitting in the house watching the snowflakes fall. The vision had to do with a 'circle theme' in the barn. It started with the idea of building an attached silo. Then it seemed like a great idea to install a curving pathway of bricks in the floor that would guide you through the building. Then, I wanted to incorporate curves into other architectural details like an arched roof, curved walls and countertops, etc. Very cool indeed. However, now I actually have to build these things that I've concocted in my head, and each un-straight element is going to present a new challenge. The current (and possibly most difficult) one is the brick pathway. I started by pounding in some reference stakes and tracing out the pathway in the compacted sand layer that I worked so hard to create. After a few changes to the shape, it looked pretty good, so I started digging (again!). After all that time spent putting dirt into the barn, now I'm shoveling it back out. Don't ask. But only a small amount had to be removed to provide a thickened slab under where the brick pathway would follow. After removing about 3" of fill from this area, I compacted everything one more time and it was DONE.

With Lisa's help, a layer of poly was put over the entire area to provide the vapor barrier once the slab is poured. You can vaguely see the outline of the pathway under the plastic, and next I will have to build special forms to contain the pathway while the slab is poured....

Heat acclimatization training.

Its hot. Really hot! But i'm not complaining, because there are no bugs, no rain, and I've got a nice sandy beach to cool off in anytime. However, temps in the 90s do slow progress somewhat, and it doesn't seem like getting up early helps much. As soon as you start shoveling, you also start sweating! With the silo formed up, the next task was to put in the last formboard for the barn wall and install the remaining insulation. Then the extra gravel that Keith piled up in and around the area was shoveled in... ...and then compacted.

Rectangles are for Squares...

Okay, now things started getting a little more tricky. The attached faux silo that I decided to build with the barn requires its own round section of concrete foundation, and it needs to be accurately formed so that the cylindrical silo walls will fit properly when the framing begins. So I started by building a 10 foot diameter disc by cutting, then gluing and screwing together radiused sections of plywood. It only took 2 sheets of plywood (green treated plywood for the bottom surface that would be in contact with the concrete, and standard plywood for the other) to build the whole thing. This will eventually be used as the sillplate for the wall framing, but for now it will act as the jig for getting the concrete forms built to the correct size. Shown below is the sillplate disc placed on the leveled silo site. After checking, double-checking, and then checking all my measurements again (and I'm still hoping I have calculated everything properly!), I pounded in stakes every 16" around the perimeter. After the stakes were trued up and braced, I attached pieces of Masonite siding which bend nicely to form the circle. I also had to form a short 'entryway' section of wall to connect the silo to the main barn.

Finally, I attached 2 layers of 1" thick extruded polystyrene insulation to the inside of the masonite, plus a base of 2" insulation to the floor, and taped all seams with Tyvek tape.

While this all looks pretty straightforward now, it actually took me a day and half just to complete the silo form!

Keith came back out with a couple of guys and we leveled the site, installed foamboard insulation, and started backfilling with more sand/gravel. A rainstorm forced an early quitting time, but Keith piled up enough extra gravel nearby so that I could finish the job the old fashioned way on my own- with a shovel.

After a few days of digging trenches and laying pipe, I finished all the necessary under-slab drain plumbing (the white pipes), as well as the electrical service entrance (the gray pipe) and the water supply (black pipes). The top photo shows the Thermopex (insulated hydronic dual-PEX tubing) that was extended about 30 feet out from the barn, to eventually be connected to a central water storage heating system (this is part of the "master plan" to heat all buildings from one highly-efficient heat source). The bottom left photo is the main floor bathroom and utility room area, and in the bottom right photo you can see the drain line that will come from the master bathroom in the upper floor of the barn's silo. Today I covered all these lines with backfill. Keith is expected to return tomorrow so that we can reset the form boards and level out the site before the insulation is put down. Even though it is 90+ degrees outside, I want to celebrate by going out for a bike ride!

Like a kid again.

Back when I was 4 years old, all I needed was a pile of dirt and my arsenal of Tonka trucks to keep me in a perpetual state of bliss. After several birthday parties, I had acquired a pretty respectable fleet of kid-sized excavating equipment. The bulk of the earthmoving jobs were done with my front end loader, dumptruck, and the bulldozer- my pride-and-joy (I think I slept with it at night!). I must've pushed that dozer a thousand miles, converting seemingly useless piles of dirt into butter-smooth 14" wide super-highways. NOTHING else mattered. Three decades and 8 years of higher education later, here I am back in the sandbox. The work is a little harder. The weather feels alot harsher. And ironically, even though I'm building a house, a dream, and a future, it all seems less significant than it did 30 years ago. Funny.

Here we go...

Keith came over with his skidsteer the day after I got the permit and we removed the concrete footings from the old barn. It only took a couple of hours. The next day, he returned with his crew of 4 guys to level the site and put up the formboards. Now its up to me to install all the under-slab utilities (plumbing, electrical, hydronics) before they can return to finish the forming. Finally some progress! -shawn

Happy Anniversary

I finally got the Golden Ticket- A building permit is now in my custody. But it didn't come as you would have expected. I've had countless conversations with the Building Official and answered dozens of questions about every conceivable detail of the plan. I even learned how to calculate the maximum loads on the foundation and structural members of the framing just to prove my point...you'd think I was building a space shuttle! But still no permit was delivered, despite promises that it was coming. So on the 2 month anniversary of my application, I called on the Biwabik City Administrator and described the situation. The reply was something like, "if the Building Official told you it was okay, then go ahead." With that, he signed a permit and handed it to me! So after 60 days of fighting the good fight, all it apparantly took was a trip to city hall and some second-hand information. I should've thought of this weeks ago. -Shawn

Seems like if it could go wrong, it did this week! First, it was the critter invasion around the Homestead. It all started with our until-now benign pet woodchuck who suddenly decided to make a buffet line out of our gardens one night. We no longer have a pet woodchuck. Lisa replanted the garden. Next was the discovery that a mouse (hopefully just one!) made its home inside the blower housing of my truck. Apparently my turning on the fan killed the mouse (imagine a really high RPM gerbil wheel and you get the picture). A couple days later my truck smelled like some disgusting combination of urine and decaying flesh. I took apart the blower housing and removed the corpse while wearing surgical gloves and a respirator. I think the only thing worse would be having to do this procedure twice, which is exactly what happen next. Seems the little rodents also shacked up in the venting of Lisa's old car, which has been parked in the garage unused for quite awhile. Yeah, that was a good day. I won't even begin about the bats that were sleeping under the soffits or the hornet nest that I found the hard way under one of the Adirondack chairs in the yard...what, are we living in the WILDERNESS or something!? Fortunately, I had a chance to clean up from all this fun before our water system failed. It started with pressure loss when we were taking showers. Then the water slowly turned black and smelled like sulfur. At this point I realized the pump was running continuously and something was very wrong. Anybody heard of dielectric corrosion? Apparently I skipped chemistry class the day it was presented, because neither had I. It is believed that using dissimilar metals in plumbing connections can in certain cases cause an electrochemical reaction in which one of the components corrodes away. I still don't know if I believe it, but something has caused a section of galvanized pipe to corrode completely in half in the 3 years since I installed the well. We pulled up the pump and its 85 feet of pipe on the 4th of July with the help of my parents. Replaced the corroded part with a new coupling on the 5th and lowered everything back into the well with the help of my brother-in-law. For two days, the water looked like black mud from all the disruption, but it is clearing up finally. Today, I had to take apart and clean out the clogged lines in the water softener and the clothes washer, as they were both completely stopped. But at least I could take a nice shower when the work was done. But all this aside, the GOOD NEWS is that the Building Official has granted the verbal "go-ahead" on building the foundation for the barn!!! After considerable deliberation, I guess I finally convinced him that everything was okay. I don't actually have the golden ticket (a.k.a the building permit) in my possession yet, but we will proceed anyway. Hopefully, things will pick up from here on out.

Tick, tick, tick....

It's not like I'm sitting around feeling sorry for myself. Really. Between planning the barn construction, finishing remodeling projects in the main house, and getting in a variety of workouts, I've got PLENTY of things to keep me busy. Last week, Lisa and I went to Grand Marais (she had a nursing gig at their hospital, and I was along for 'moral' support). While hanging around Lake Superior attempting to have some fun, I can't get my mind off the fact that I should be putting up roof trusses by now! Feeling completely dead in the water, I came upon the quote, "When your ship doesn't come in, swim out to it." How ironic that I come up with this while watching ore boats putt across the big lake. Applying it to my predicament, I have tried repeatedly and unsuccessfully to set up a meeting with the Building Official (who is 2 hours away). I've offered to drive to his town anytime to sit down and work this out. We've had numerous phone conversations plus I've answered dozens of questions via email in the past few weeks. He is smart and thorough, I'll give him that! But he ranks poorly in the "timeliness" category, and seems to be precisely oblivious to the fact that I've now got only 3 good months before the pumpkins freeze and the snow shovels come back out. He assures me (every time we talk) that my permit will be approved once he goes over a few more details. And so I wait. Longer. Tick, tick, tick.

It's a CONSPIRACY!

It's been a week since my last posting, and several weeks since I've played in the big giant sandbox. After numerous conversations with the City Administrator, Building Official, State Code Office, Structural Engineers, experts, friends, and psychiatrists, I have come to the conclusion that somebody is plotting against me (and that's not just the meds talking). The issue at hand is with my foundation design. I am trying to build what is referred to as a Frost-Protected Shallow Foundation (FPSF)- a concept developed half a century ago in Scandinavia and used with much success for decades even in this backwards country. Without going into (more) boring detail, let's just say it is a more sensible design with respect to environmental impact, raw materials useage, and energy efficiency. Seems like a no-brainer, right? Hah! That's what I thought. Instead of being accepted as the foundation-of-the-future, it seems to carry the stigma of some newfangled idea that has yet to be proven. It's new and different and therefore it must be bad.... Seems that it wasn't until the last few years that this type of foundation was even included in the code book (referred to hereafter as The Book). It also appears that The Book has misinterpreted the way a FPSF design is intended to work (that is, if you believe the dozen or so professional publications I have studied on the subject). This was eluded to by my Building Official (who is on my side, but trying to work within the RULES of The Book) in his email to me today regarding my project, in which he stated, "1) The code does not permit insulation under the slab in a shallow frost protected foundation system. 2) Insulation is needed under that slab to keep you from heating a big chuck of earth underneath your home and spending lots of extra fuel, which another code frowns upon." I still haven't gotten a permit approved for an insulated foundation, but I'm getting closer. In the process, perhaps I've unearthed a conspiracy, and we'll have to keep the oil flowing to heat all those uninsulated foundations that are being built according to The Book....

Hurry up and WAIT...

The deconstruction of the barn went smoothly and the project was ahead of schedule for awhile. If things were going according to plan, I'd be bolting down the sillplates and framing the walls right now. But unfortunately I have not posted any updates because, well, there aren't any to speak of. I grossly underestimated the bureaucratic system of our little town. Actually, I was working based on old knowledge- when I set out to remodel this dilapitated old farmhouse a few years ago, all it took was a signature and a $20 bill to get a permit. Nobody EVER came to even check my work...I was expecting something along those lines for this go-around. Apparently things have changed. Now I need to file a "plumbing review" ($150) with the state, and "building plan" ($900) with the city. I'll need a separate permit for the electrical work, too. I was on-the-ball with these first two items, and got all that done on time. But since the building inspector noticed that my structure is not the typical unconsciously-designed starter mansion, a red flag came up and more design work was requested. This requires a "plan review" to be stamped by a professional engineer (I have an engineering degree, but not a "professional engineer's" certification), at a cost of $1000-$2000 based on the estimates I have gotten so far. And it all takes time- a precious commodity with the short building season here at the North Pole. The whole situation has been exacerbated with the hiring of a new city administrator (5 weeks ago) and a new building inspector (yesterday, Ughh!). I can't seem to keep everybody on the same page long enough to get my project approved. I originally budgeted $50K to build and furnish this barn. So far, it looks like about 5% of the budget will used to get 3 very expensive signatures. Anybody want to come over and play in the $2500 sandbox?

The 600 square foot sandbox

After removing the brick floor, all that remains is the old foundation surrounding a really big sandbox. With all the rain in the last week, it is nice to see that the soil around here drains really well. On the downside, we can't build any sandcastles... Green Gate Lumber Company. Here is a photo of the old barn, now in pieces. Virtually everything was salvaged, except for the shingles (which were recycled) and some of the wood that was too weathered or rotted to be saved (although it will make some nice campfires this summer). All the lumber and timbers are sorted, stacked and have been covered with the sheetmetal panels that used to be the barn's siding.

History repeats itself.

A cold, rainy start to the 50k trail race at Lutsen. I opted to be warm and dry instead of fashionable, so kept on my lightweight cycling raincoat. I ran this event in 2003, finishing in tough shape and barely able to walk for a couple of days. Not wanting to suffer like that again, I started slow, or at least thought I was starting slow. I later realized it wasn't slow enough. Dan and I coming through the first checkpoint at around mile 7. I decided to convert my raincoat into a pretty little skirt after the rain stopped and I warmed up (not a slave to fashionhere...). We ran together for quite awhile, then Dan picked up the pace and I decided to let him go. I was surprised to reach the turnaround point at exactly 2 hours- alot faster than anticipated. I came upon Dan again near that same checkpoint, this time on the return trip (now about mile #24). Dan was fading fast, I was feeling good. We chatted briefly, then I went ahead, anxious to finish. Around mile 26, I hit the same 'wall' as in 2003 (at almost the exact same point!). My quads just aren't accustomed to the pounding of the Superior Hiking Trail and I was starting to suffer. I walked the steeper uphills and did my best on the descents. Fortunately, the last few miles are mostly downhill! Everyone said I 'looked strong' near the end, but I felt like crap and just wanted to STOP! Ultra-running is all about being mentally tough and smart enough to know how to pace yourself from the start...I've got alot to learn! It's also about looking good even when you're feeling bad, which I why you'll noticeI left my yellow dress/raincoat in my dropbag so I wouldn't have to wear it across the finish line :) On the good side, I finished a few minutes faster than my 2003 time, in worse conditions. Now I just need to train my brain and my legs for the longer distances- hopefully a 50 mile ultra in July....

Unbuilding the walls

Looks like a lumber yard around here! Lisa and I spent the day pulling apart and removing nails from all the nice big barn wall timbers. Other than the rotted sill plate and a couple areas around the windows and doorway, everything is still in great shape.

Barn down.

Time for a barn-tipping party! All I had to do to knock the walls down was cut through the top and bottom plates at the four corners, then literally push them down by hand. Now the harder task of disassembling and denailing the timbers to save them for later use.

Plan B

No point doing this the hard way! Glen, a local sawmill operator stopped over the other day to talk about some lumber he will be milling for me this summer. I was just about ready to start cutting out the railroad rails when he offered up his boom truck to pluck them out whole (in exchange for me giving him the rails for his sawmill operation). Sounded like a fair trade, so he came back a couple days later after I had removed the hayloft floor and we got them out in a couple hours' time.

I was a little sad as the rails were loaded on his truck, thinking of various ways I could incorporate the rails into the renovated barn if they were still ours. But at least they will get put to good use this way, and the job is done.

Structural Engineering 101

For the most part, i've been impressed with how The Boys put the barn together, especially considering the tools they were likely working with back in the day. But check out the support structure for the hayloft of the barn. They ran 4X4 floor joist across the 15' span of the building, then put up these railroad rails lengthwise to support the floor joists down the center. Looks good, except notice that the rails are supported at the entry end of the barn by a single 4X6 header over the doorway. After taking off the exterior siding, I could see the header was rotted partway through...not good. In their defense, they did run two lengths of threaded rod from the header up the the top plate for extra support, but if the header had continued to rot, the (very heavy) rails would have eventually collapsed.

My plan to remove the two 600 lb rails is to cut them into manageable (like 3 foot) lengths with a portable bandsaw so they can be lifted out and carried away in pieces. The second photos shows the bracing I put up under one rail to hold it in place while it is being cut down....

I love this bird!

This bird was great! I was up in Ely with my mom for Mother's Day and saw this bird.

It was totally enamored with it's reflection. I got to the car in the morning and this bird is on the driver's side door looking at the window and occasionally pecking at the window. I got closer and the bird would move to the mirror then to the windshield. Still occasionally pecking at the window. It finally flew away when I opened the car door. I then left and came back about 1/2 hour later and the bird was still there. Just admiring itself...Or was it admiring the Prius. Could be... Anyway, I went back and forth to the car four or so times in a two hour period and the bird was still there. I'm just glad I still have a windshield considering all the pecking. My mom and I finally left...the bird is probably still confused as to where it's soulmate went. - Lisa

wow

As of this posting, the Ham Lake fire in the BWCA is 25% contained. This picture was taken last week when we were in Ely. It was a pretty amazing site considering the fire was approximately 50 miles away.

Time to play

We've been working hard on the barn, yet find ample time to play and train. Shawn has a 50k trail run coming up and has been doing long training runs. What a great way to enjoy all of the trails and back roads we have up here. He has discovered new trails this spring. I can't wait to check them out. I may need to check them out via bike, I'm not up to the 4 hour run quite yet.

So very hard at work

What better activity could one do on a gorgeous sunny day than to take nails out of the barn boards? While Shawn and his dad were high on the barn roof, I was able to stay on solid ground. We are re-using all of the old barn boards in the new barn. In order to do that, they need to be nail free and that's my job!(and Shawn's too!) ...Okay...I know what you're thinking. There were bigger boards than that!

The barn becomes a shoebox.

Thanks, Dad, for helping to tear the final load of shingles off the barn last week!

The deconstruction pace picked up once the roofing was removed. In an afternoon, I pulled off the 'rafters' that The Boys had probably spent weeks building. The arch trusses consist of three 1X4s bent into the desired shape and nailed together. Opposing sides were toenailed into the toplate and connected at the peak with the smallest collar tie i've ever seen. I was told that the trusses were made by soaking the boards in the river, then letting them dry out while held in a curved jig (ie., stakes pounded into the ground out in the field). I still need to substantiate this method, since I thought that heat (steam) was required to successfully bend wood...maybe they stored the wet boards in their sauna?

The trusses are amazingly light- I was able to pry them off the top plate, pull apart the two halves, and carry them away on my own. In comparison, we'll probably need a crane to lift the new gambrel trusses into position....

The gable ends looked massive, as does the rest of the barn. They were built of 4X4 timbers, stacked on edge and sandwiched within an arched truss. I had planned to deconstruct it in place, piece-by-piece. I was anticipating a couple days worth of cutting and prying for this job. Then the lightbulb went off- who wants to work 20 feet in the air when you could be on the ground? Not me. So I cut through the bottom set of spikes holding the whole gable end to the top plate, then simply pushed it over. Once on the ground, prying apart the timbers went really fast. I was done with both ends by lunch, giving me time for a double workout today...Life is good!

With tears of joy...

After several days of de-shingling the roof, I'm glad to say the last load has been hauled away. One layer of shingles would not have been too bad, but we found 2 layers of roll roofing under there as well. The farmers (a.k.a. "The Boys") who did the work were kind enough to use spiral-shank roofing nails on the first layer, which I'd say are best removed with a stick of dynamite. Since our local hardware store no longer stocks explosives, we had to resort to prying them off one-by-one. I now see why the roof has survived 80 years of torture.... We were able to find a transfer station (the new, p.c. word for 'dump') that actually recycles shingles. It was 35 miles from the homestead and we had to pass two other transfer stations to get there, but it was the right thing to do. The pile that looks like black dirt in the photo is the ground up shingles that eventually get utilized as backfill by the St. Louis County road crews. It's not the way I had hoped they would be reincarnated- after all the extra effort to 'recycle' them, they're still going to be buried in the ground! At least they will serve a purpose, which is better than taking up space in a landfill... Lisa and I came up with a little contest, just to see if anyone actually reads our blog: The first blogger who correctly guesses (okay, within 50 lbs) the weight of all our barn's shingles wins a free nights stay in the guesthouse whenever it is finally built. Good luck!

NEW ADDITION TO THE FAMILY

We've added a new addition to the Toyota family. We have a new red Prius. We decided with all of the driving I do, it made sense both financially and environmentally to get a Prius. I had a hard time giving up the AWD but I have been told the Prius does fine up here in the winter. We'll see how she does once the snow flies. So, far I like the car a lot. I spend less time at the gas station, which is terrific! So...we now have two cars for sale. Anyone interested in a Focus or Subaru?

WE'RE ON OUR WAY...

shingle by shingle we are getting closer to the actual building process. Shawn has been up on the scaffolding tearing off the boards and shingles. I help with the shingles until it gets too high. Then I head to the ground (the gloriously stable ground) to take the rusty nails out of the boards so we can re-use the boards in the re-built barn. We actually took the weekend off and went to the cities for the Midwest Mountaineering Expo - heard a couple of good speakers. The Expo offers some terrific presentations on outdoor topics. We also did the Iron Man Bike Ride - beautiful day, lots and lots of people. Good to see some familiar faces. It was fun to be in the cities. It is also good to be back at the Homestead. Lots of work to be done. It is fun and exciting to see the progress... wow, we are really doing this!! Well, off to tear off more shingles...