If C+C don't get more hours of site work in soon, the project may still be unfinished next January. Between catching up on a variety of non-construction tasks, and Cassandra's construction related injury, site work has gotten a slow start this year.

Thankfully, Cassandra did not need stitches for her sitework injury. On January 10th, she was carefully (but apparently, not carefully enough) walking, with an 8' board under one arm, out of the 20' yurt and onto the unfinished deck. In an experience that happened far too fast for anything but blurry details, she was suddenly dangling; supported on her right side ribs by one of the (1.5" wide) joists. Chris knows that Cassandra has a very good set of lungs; but even so, her scream did not reach him, midway across the country and in a day full of meetings. After tearfully crawling up onto the deck and inspecting herself for broken bits, Cassandra managed to get in some more work, albeit slowly, painfully and with more tears. Some might say, "What a nut!", until further reflection reminds them that she is not capable of getting to the ER herself, the trip would make her ill for several weeks and anyway, C+C have so much more building to do. Cassandra's default mode is to carry on and do the task at hand despite injuries and illness. And, why be in pain in the yurt, when a little more work could be accomplished? However, as the pain worsened and then continued, she stopped trying to do so much construction. Things like standing, walking (anywhere, least of all up and down the hill), sitting, sleeping, firewood chores, water chores and snow/ice chores are all difficult enough!

In the context of remaining construction, C+C are not averse to an easy winter. Nonetheless, a 60F day in January (in Vermont!) seems... well, unseemly. Maybe Old Man Winter's getting forgetful. Or Summer's confused. Whatever the reason, Winter's wavering meant a postponement of various winter related tasks. When Winter finally stopped waltzing around with Summer, and got back to work mid-month, it was after several days of rain. Temperatures plummeted overnight and below freezing temps have been the norm ever since. As the ice encased landscape withstood vigorous blustering, trees crackled, creaked and fell throughout the area. The boiler, which has not even seen one use, was dented from a falling tree part. The frigid return of Winter gave Park Avenue a second spell of pipe freezing, though thankfully only to the sink. Until this blockage was resolved, the toilet line was kept running via the Twine-n-Brick Method. Thereafter, a constant trickle of water, flowing into the sink, has kept the yurtlings supplied with water indoors (very cold water, but water!).

If C+C hadn't already been convinced of Winter's arrival, finding the shower curtain frozen to the metal shower bin on several mornings would surely have made up their minds. This stopped occurring after the nearby window was fully closed for the first driveway plowing of the season. The Vermoose performed plow-duty only once, but sits in his new top-of-the-driveway winter home, at the ready for additional snows. Woodshed #2 is nearly done and filled with firewood. C+C are finally sporting snowboots and appreciating their new heavy duty trigger-finger-mitten-gloves.

The new hand attire has made handling tools and hardware in the bitter cold a bit nicer. Cold or not, injury or not, C+C do keep on working. They are happy to begin seeing some evidence of their hard work. The deck's beam structure finally meets; Chris has grinned giddily on numerous occassions as he walked the whole way around! But (for obvious reasons) Cassandra will not attempt this sojourn, across beams and joists, just yet. Deck boards are attached enough that access to both yurt entry-doors can happen without anyone falling through (unless that someone is extremely slim...). Shimming of the 20' floor has begun. Once the deck is finished, construction on interior walls will commence.

If sitework progress doesn't sound like much, there's no surprise. C+C logged only 12.09 days (96.75 hrs) of sitework in the whole month of January. They don't track time for lunch and snack breaks, or gearing up for cold-weather sitework, in all the necessary layers of attire, or undressing after sitework. Time logged simply represents construction related tasks, and is nowhere near the calculated 7.3 days (58.4 hrs) per week that are required in order to get outta Poocham and fully moved over to YIPPEE-Land by November!

January Journal

01/01/07 - Monday

Notes:

• Q: If a tree falls in the woods and Cassandra is there to hear it, does she make a sound? A: Yes, she does. Many, as a matter of fact. One of which is the sound of a quick yurt exiting in the event the sound of the tree falling is to be followed by th

228.20 Scaffolding

• Taken apart and moved to woodshed
• time: 1 hr

01/02/07 - Tuesday

Notes:

• Icy from yesterday's weather. Sunny though, which felt nice and warmish, and melted some areas. On way up top spent some time chipping and clearing ice off stone steps so wouldn't slip on way back down later. Turned out to be a reeaaallly good idea!

213.01 posts+beams

• 3 joists from wkend are now hung.
• Time: 1.25hrs

213.04 attach decking

• sorted thru scaffolding boards, got boards selected for rest of bay currently working on.
• Time: 1.75hrs

01/03/07 - Wednesday

Notes:

• Supposed to warm, and got so in sun, but didn't melt ice all over. Oh well.

213.04 attach decking

• boards now on all way up to back corner. Yippee!
• Time: 4hrs

310.01 Keep deck clear

• in afternoon was finally able to chip away and clear north side
• Time: 0.25hrs

275.04 materials transport

• boards carried down to Intersection
• Time: 0.25hrs

01/04/07 - Thursday

Notes:

• Not much of a sitework day, despite warmer weather. Or, rather "unseasonably warm" weather. Cass could be feeling very sick from the burning smell outdoors? Yuck! Ugh!

275.04 materials transport

• rest of boards carried down to Intersection
• Time: 0.25hrs

213.04 attach decking

• can't screw down next boards until angle beam done. But sorted and selected boards for that section anyway, incorporating rest of 8's
• Time: 1.75hrs

01/05/07 Friday

Notes:

• C&C finished the annual short story.
• Chris did some firewood
• Normal Friday tasks took rest of day
• No site work today

01/06/07 - Saturday

Notes:

• Rainy, muddy, humid recycling & planning day
• temps up to 60F, according to the thermometer tree

288.04 Park Ave firewood, yr 2

• Chris transported the last of the Poocham firewood tack back to YIPPEE-Land
• Chris stacked some firewood in woodshed #2
• Chris also managed to activate the orange plow lights on the Vermoose, leaving them on for apx six hours before catching the battery-draining faux pas.
• time: 1.75 hrs

01/07/07 - Sunday

Notes:

• Unseasonably warm

213.36 Site cleanup

• C&C cleaned up the wind-damaged remnants of SIPPEE #1
• time: 0.25 hrs

300.41 Park Ave heating installion, yr 2

• Plans to raise outer stove pipe were deemed too risky; Chris had no interest in a third ER visit. Will rethink.
• time: 30 min

288.00 Wood for burning

• Battery on Vermoose is dead. Chris attempted to revive it via the Xterra but not enough juice.
• time: 45 min

213.01 Posts + Beams (Deck)

• Chris attached a short beam section and an angled beam to the NW section of deck
• time: 5 hrs

213.04 attach decking

• Cass orgnized deck boards and cleaned off ice
• time: 0.25 hrs

226.36 Shutdown SIPPEE

• C&C get around to taking down the screen tent aka SIPPEE #3.
• Chris carts SIPPEE #3 and all contents to the 30' yurt for packing up
• time: 1.25 hrs

300.45 Woodstove Maintenance/problems

• Regularly scheduled cleaning out of stovepipe
• time: 30 min

275.04 Materials transport

• Chris carried 2*8*12 (2) up to GIPPEE and 4 joists up to MLA
• time: 0.25 hr

01/08/07 - Monday

Notes:

• Kept on raining until 2pm! Cass in yurt working on Palm. Lots of task updating and timeline. And fire starting/smoke clearing. Grrr.
• Anyway... Some stats: (1day=8hrs of work). From May of 2005 (when C+C began logging hours/days of onsite work) through 12/31/06, a total of 324.16 days has been worked onsite for Project YIPPEE. For 2006, there were 224.81 days of onsite work: consisti

01/09/07 - Tuesday

Notes: Well, so much for working anymore on project file rest of week... It crashed. It usually does this when Cass does more work than the Palm can apparently handle. After Chris opens file on a desktop and recalcs and saves, it s

213.04 attach decking

• board selection and screwing boards down. In the snow. Scraping off snow as go... Two screwdriver bits snapped. Weird.
• Time: 4hrs

310.01 Keep deck clear

• when 1st started, had to scrape off ice on work area. At end of day, shoveled about 1inch or so of fresh snow off entire deck.
• Time: 0.5hrs

01/10/07 - Wednesday

Notes: Brrr. *#$!! Wood. *#$!! Fire. *$#!! Wind. Cold, and brrr. Well, OK, 'twas only 20F, and that's not so cold. Not really. For January in New England. 50 inside feels cold though. And, going out to work in the harsh winds doesn

213.04 attach decking

• Time: 4hrs

310.01 Keep deck clear

• Time: 0.25hrs

01/11/07 - Thursday

Notes: Cass worked a bit despite injury. Slowly. Carefully. But every little bit of work helps.

213.04 attach decking

• Time: 2.5hrs

01/12/06 - Friday

Notes:

• Cass no site work due to injury :-(
• Chris injures lower back attempting to move the Moose plow at Poocham. D'oh!

01/13/07 - Saturday

Notes:

• Rainy and humid
• Chris is the king of the bucket

288.08 Split and stack firewood

• time: 60 min

226.36 Shutdown SIPPEE

• all packed up and waiting for spring
• another task completed...woohoo
• time: 30 min

226.33 Shutdown GIPPEE

• mostly packed up, need another bin to finish
• time: 30 min

213.01 Posts + Beams (Deck)

• measured and marked for post fixing
• started drilling out nails to remove and correct beam
• time: 45 min

01/14/07 - Sunday

Notes:

• Icy and rainy. Yuck
• Chris takes an old pair of ripped rain bibs and makes a PT-Wood-Cutting-Smock using a bit of foil tape

213.01 Posts + Beams (Deck)

• Finished drilling out nails and removed beam. Had to cut the joists out :(
• Posts trimmed
• Beams squared and reattached, much better!
• Cass marked more boards for cutting
• time: 3.5 hrs

288.04 Park Ave firewood, yr 2

• Chris replaced battery, fired up the Vermoose and proceeded to complete this task
• "Super Mouse": Chris discovered a mouse in the woodpile-in-Vermoose. The mouse kept scrambling for cover as Chris tossed logs out of the pickup bed. Eventually there was no wood left and Chris managed to get the mouse in hand, with intent to free it
• time: 1 hr

310.02 Plow and chains on Vermoose

• Installed with much more ease than expected.
• time: 30 min

288.08 Split and stack firewood

• time: 1.25 hrs

213.36 Site cleanup

• Cass organized and cleaned up in 20' yurt
• time: 0.5 hrs

310.01 Keep Deck Cleared

• Cass scrapes ice off though she aggravated her back injury :(
• time: 1.5 hrs

213.48 MLA flooring: shim

• C&C review method so C can do at will
• time: 15 min

01/15/07 - Monday

Notes:

• Rainy Icy Yuck. And, very very freaky since trees and branches are falling under weight on recent days of icyness and today's addition. This happened all day long and into the night. Rains eased up in evening then started back up again later. YIPPEE-L
• No site work today.

01/16/07 - Tuesday

Notes:

• Temp dropped drastically overnight, back down to "wintery", and then snow happened on top of all the water from yesterday, that was no longer water. Thick ice layer under fresh snow... made for slow going to get up top. Spent about 1/2 hr looking ar
• Cassandra's side/back injury hurting a lot today. Difficult walking on treacherous icy ground, hauling firewood inside, water and fire chores...ouch! Chris had to remind Cass not to work and let her injury heal, no matter how much she wants to get lots

213.48 MLA Flooring: shim

• worked under 20' until ribs/side in too much pain, and quit. Can't quite stand under there so is awkward, and reaching up to pound in shims hurts too. Argh.
• Time: 2hrs

01/17/07 - Wednesday

Notes:

• Sunny but very cold.
• Cass no site work today. Yesterday hurt a LOT and Chris said "don't do any site work".
• Water pipe to sink froze up mid-day. But at least toilet line still working. The Twine-n-Brick method of keeping toilet running is conceived and implemented in evening. Cassandra had enough water onhand to get by, but is not looking forward to hand fil

01/18/07 - Thursday

Notes:

• Too bad it never got up to 32F today! Pipe still frozen.
• Cassandra walks up driveway that has less ice on now. And, some of MLA ground has softened to be less treacherous. But deck still ice.
• Sometime around 5PM, the pipe unfroze. Wooohooooo! Cassandra had tried different variations with flushing and on/off valve to maybe help work loose. Maybe some of that finally helped. In the twisted way of things, the pipe unfroze just after pumping an
• Non-chlorine bleach is your friend.
• Chris discovers that Home Depot has no 2*4-8 in stock. D'oh!

310.01 Keep deck clear

• got mallet out from under platform and whacked away at ice on deck by 20' door and then also across beams a bit. Didn't make much progress, and have to "save" the hurting movements for doing water filtering later on...
• Time: 0.25hr

01/19/07 - Friday

300.43 Temporary skirting

• Chris wrapped black plastic around the 14' yurt platform to keep wind from blowing under
• Done!
• time: 1.75 hrs

310.01 Keep deck clear

• Warmish temps. So, deck could be scraped /shoveled off. Mostly. Once it started freezing again, slippery and stopped.
• Time: 0.75hrs

01/20/07- Saturday

Notes:

• Awoke to two inches of fluffy snow. By the time it stopped snowing another inch had fallen. Cass called it "beautiful", Chris groaned and calld it "annoying".

288.08 Split and stack firewood

• Chris goes back to splitting logs having used up all the already-small pieces. He is happy to have ground out all the dings on the splitting axe blade yesterday at the house with the bench grinder, as the axe is now sharp and actually splits logs agai
• time: 1 hr

213.01 Posts + Beams (Deck)

• C&C measured more joists, C marked them ad C cut them
• Chris cut and installed last two angled beams, then took a lap 'round the entire deck structure.
• time: 4 hrs

310.01 Keep Deck Cleared

• Cass clears snow and ice.
• The action of clearing the north side, which hadn't been cleared the prior day, led Cass to re-injure her side and have extreme pain. She was lying on the deck in agony and had an excrutiating descent to Park Ave.
• time: 1.5 hrs

213.54 Cover doors (between yurts)

• Chris had an idea while sitting in the 20' yurt awaiting Cassandra's return. He shared it over lunch and they discussed variations. Both agreed that the idea could mean no temp solution is needed.
• time: n/a

300.45 Woodstove Maintenance

• time: 30 min

226.33 Shutdown GIPPEE

• Packed and stacked. Another (small) task complete.
• time: 15 min

01/21/07 - Sunday

288.08 Split and stack firewood

• Chris started digging out wood from under the tarp and stacking it in Woodshed #2
• time: 2.5 hrs

310.04 Plow Main Drive

• C&C discussed options. Decided to skip this week and hope no blizzard happens along
• time: 30 min

213.01 Posts + Beams (Deck)

• C&C rehung two joists that were removed as part of beam height correction
• time: 45 min

213.54 Cover doors (between yurts)

• Took pics of MLA doors and then did some design work in the relative warmth of Park Ave
• time: 30 min

01/22/07 - Monday

Notes:

• Some new light snow.
• Ouch, clearing deck hurts when jarred by underlying ice chunkiness from north side not fully cleared. Of course, simply getting uphill to work hurts. And most of all, the firewood and water chores.
• Cass finally gets snow boots out and cleaned and wears them!

310.05 Shovel: Park to Main

• Time: 0.25hrs

310.01 Keep deck clear

• New snow off deck. Also, lots time breaking up/clearing thick ice still there from last week off of beams where going to work
• Time: 1hrs

213.04 attach decking

• measure n mark for boards by yurt
• Time: 0.5hrs

213.01 P+B+ J Deck

• Marking joist placements and also a couple boards for angle section
• Time: 0.75hrs

300.45 Woodstove maintenance/problems

• Filled the gaps by pipe's exit, left open other day. Less than 15mins, so
• Time: n/a

01/23/07 - Tuesday

Notes:

• Another inch o snow overnight. Sunny and a bit warmer (for a little while in morning anyway).
• Another day of ouch, ouch, ouch during tasks.

310.05 Shovel: Park to Main (and) 310.01 Keep deck clear

• New snow shovelled. Again, had to break up and clear thick ice off of beams and joists where going to work
• Time: 1hr

213.04 attach decking

• board selection and a few even got screwed down. Dang this H U R Ts!
• Time: 2.25hrs

213.54 Cover doors between yurts

• looked at configuration in relation to ideas discussed over weekend, pondered and measured
• Time: n/a

01/24/07 - Wednesday

Notes:

• Ouch. Sore and pained side.

213.04 attach decking

• selecting, carrying, measuring, marking.
• Time: 2.25hrs

01/25/07 - Thursday

Notes:

• Or, Brrrsday. Cass kept working despite shivering and being hungry and side hurting and ... Darn it, the boards take longer to finagle into place than she'd like. Brrrr. Brrr. Brrr. Brr.

310.01 keep deck clear

• chipping away at ice for work area
• Time: 0.25hrs

213.01 Posts + Beams (Deck)

• marked joists placement on one beam, started squaring up for next.
• Time: 0.25hrs

213.04 attach decking

• marked 2 blocking boards. Got rest of boards down, that don't need cutting, up to beam by door.
• Time: 3hrs

01/26/07 - Friday

Notes:

• The back door on 20' yurt has a problematic door knob. The bolt won't release from the OPEN position, so nothing keeps the door from closing. Chris tied it shut from inside, to be fixed later. Exiting the other door, Chris discovered it, too, wasn't

288.08 Split and stack firewood

• time: 45 min

213.04 attach decking

• Cut boards
• time: 30 min

213.01 Posts + Beams (Deck)

• Cut joists and blocking
• time: 30 min

01/27/07 - Saturday

Notes:

• beautiful snowflakes, so cold that can see each individual one, gorgeously defined.

310.05 Shovel: Park to Main

• Time: 025 hrs

310.07 Cass: safety while plowing

• task is done, safe inside while plowing w/yurt shut up. No filter/o2 used. but waitng 30 min after wasn't enough. Try 45 next time.
• Time: n/a

288.08 Split and stack firewood

• time: 2.75 hrs

213.01 Posts + Beams (Deck)

• C&C worked on squaring up next joist bay's hangers
• time: 1.5 hrs

310.01 Keep Deck Cleared

• time: 45 min

310.04 Plow Main Drive

• First run of the year
• The Vermoose has a new home at the top of the driveway, near the MLA.
• time: 1.25 hrs

275.04 Materials Transport

• All boards that were in driveway at intersection and GIPPEE were tossed into Vermoose and taken to MLA.
• time: 15 min

01/28/07 - Sunday

Notes: Chris had a four saw kinda day: used the jigsaw, circular saw, cross-cut saw, and coping saw.

213.01 Posts + Beams (Deck)

• Woohoo! lots of joists in today! 10 set in place (some need add'l nailing still), and 1 blocking by door. Also, all deck beams are in!
• Time: 6hrs

310.08 Cass: safety of Vermoose located by generators

• Is OK.
• Time: 0.25hrs

310.09 Cass: safety of hiking driveway post plowing

• Is not OK. Cass got ill. Chris got shots. Tried with mask on. That is OK.
• Time: 0.5hrs

310.01 Keep Deck Cleared

• time: 0.25hrs

213.04 attach decking

• boards test fit, remarked and cut. arc cut with jigsaw. all those ready for sanding and screwing down. then safe access to doorway!
• time: 1hrs

275.04 Materials Transport

• time: 15 min

01/29/07 - Monday

Notes:

• Cold n windy again. Working with nails and mittens tricky.

213.04 attach decking

• sanded cut boards and screwed in place. Safe entry to yurt now!
• Time: 2hrs

213.01 P+B+J Deck

• Finished nailing in joists from yesterday, and marked a blocking by 30'.
• Time: 1hr

01/30/07 - Tuesday

Notes:

• C+C finally closed the yurt window over the weekend (to close yurt for plowing). Previously, the shower curtain had been found frozen to the metal shower bin on several frigid mornings. Although there is no longer a frozen curtain by window, (amazingly
• Cassandra had a very sick/nauseated and very painful day (unrelated to woodstove), and hence, not much site work. Urgh.

213.01 P+B+J Deck

• Finished marking blocking now that square unfrozen. Rest of joist hangers up. Shims in joists, including underneath.
• Time: 2hrs

01/31/07 - Wednesday

Notes:

• Last day of the first month of the year. Yikes. Cassandra's side injury really slowed down progress since she couldn't do much during weeks. And, working in the cold-cold-cold has been tough too. Oh well. Cassandra's injury has been less painful recent

213.04 attach decking

• measuring to begin marking joists for board placement. Went back to warmer yurt to perform various calculations in order to have boards meet up evenly.
• Began sorting and selecting boards for next section. This task is a pain... Well, literally, in the side!
• Time: 3.75hrs