June. Joon.

Over too soon. Too soon!

 

Make May Magnificent (which was poorly named and carried one week over into June, remember?) ended too soon! With too little shed structure! Chris had high hopes of completing the Utility Shed and hooking up the water and, and, and... Many aspirations. Many optimistic goals. Many "Just Sheds Just Sucks" curses, because those plans' stupidity was a significant cause of slowed progress.

 

June was over too soon! All remaining weeks and weekends in June had a similar theme and went as follows:

 

Chris roused hisself up at 3AM Monday. Cassandra, the sole remaining YIPPEE builder, fell back asleep for a bit before attempting to be the Super Builder Get Tons of Work Done Queen. Neither rain, nor snow, nor glom of nit shall stay her in her mission. She worked like mad, pushing late into the evenings, cramming in many non-building tasks while often skipping others, struggling through environmental hurdles, attempting to make up for the lack of adequate building site hours on the weekends. Stress and exhaustion shall not dampen her desire and resolve to live in a home this winter! When Chris arrived back at Park Avenue, it was on Friday mornings around 5AM. The usual Ice Swap and Such was followed by short slumber to the serenade of birds. Chris would forego his usual Pre-Breakfast Site Work sessions in favor of Safety Sleep. Breakfast and catchup (but not breakfast with ketchup) was enjoyed while accomplishing Friday Coordinating; followed by a hike to the MLA where a small amount of site work commenced. Cassandra usually got another small amount done in the afternoon after Chris and bins, supplies, laundry, etcetera had left YIPPEE Land. Fridays' Return of The Chris was always later than intended with both C's knowing that they got many tasks done, but not quite enough and the day ended too soon. In a few hours, too soon, Saturday morning would arrive. Would they be able to wake early and crank out the site work, as they so valiantly hoped? In June's weekends? No. Saturdays are usually the main C&C build-together day and, as usual, June's Saturdays ended too soon, without enough building completion. Sundays saw Chris leave straight away, as early as he could drag himself away from sleep, to the Poo-Jam house for ice, sticking to the summer ice plan. Upon his return, foods were savored together before the hike up top to build. This ended far too soon, by 4-5PM, Cassandra's cut-off to go down and shower. They both had to shower, eat dinner and accomplish the usual Sunday non-building tasks, aiming for an early bed-time to accommodate Chris' 3AM wake-up on Monday. And, that was that: the weekend was over. Sure, C&C always enjoy seeing each other, tackling various things together, and all the etcetera. But, whew! Over too soon! With too little progress! Incidentally, the rest of the summer appears to be similarly scheduled.

 

MMM was over too soon! June was over too soon! Each day is over too soon! Stressed! So much to do! Argh! Argh! Okay. Okay. Calming Breaths. Stretch. Do a few partner yoga poses. Have a hug and such. Find the little joys, the little bits and carry on.

 

Here's some little bits, some stuff that happened and some progress. Woohoo!

 

Zensoy, donator of Team shirts, changed their shirts. For shame! No longer organic, now blatantly corporate, the little panda has Sold-Out! Corporate Whore! The shirt must be, and was, bastardized with the aid of leftover coffee grounds.

 

Every good adventure story contains at least one huge scary spider. YIPPEE had multiple in June. Chris the Spider Slayer valiantly saved the Princess (and the yurts)!

 

What this story needs next is an Anteater to save the day! Or, at least, to eat all the foraging ants, intent on... well, whether intended or not, they are making C&C "Quack!" as they spend far too much time doing ant control. By month's end, without aid of any anteaters, aardvarks or the like, the little Park Ave yurt was well on its way to being successfully saved from the invaders. All hail Roland the Marvelous Roll of Masking Tape! A little known, but hard working hero.

 

All curse the vile Humidity! The Hag of Humidity haunted all of June, regardless of excessive heat (such as when it was still 90F inside at 9PM) or unseasonably cold (when Cassandra wore long underwear and sweatshirts all day). The temperature was no matter to The Humidity Hag, no! She creates sticky, miserable, hazy views and haunts the very heavy air that clings to our story's struggling builders, who end up covered in sawdust and debris.

 

Both C's were shocked! Yes, shocked. Almost. Narrowly escaping the true danger zone of shock, each C had their own encounters with frigid water: Chris once and Cassandra repeatedly.

 

Chris rappelled into the spring reservoir to lower the end of the pipe which had floated upward. Water that is 12' below ground is wickedly cold and especially shocking on an excessively hot day. Scraped up and shivering a tad, he survived to scramble back up and quickly re-warmed in the hot sun.

 

Bravely, or stupidly, conquering the cold! With the woodstove out of bounds, and unable to use the hibachi in rain, Cassandra took cold showers. Anyway, she would have expended too much time and undergone too much sickness to try heating up water with a fire. As she screamed her way through the often dangerously cold water, in cold air, she reminded herself repeatedly, "at least its not wood smoke and creosote!” The Cope in Cold Water and Cold Air sing-out might have woken the neighbors; given the little yurt's seclusion, that's some strong vocalizing! The dizziness was a tad alarming, but she did eventually warm up, bundled in layers, and it was definitely quicker!

 

Summer arrived, on its annual predictable date. Or, so the story goes. Two days into summer, Cassandra was yet again attired in long underwear.

 

This tale has arrived, entirely without any underwear, roaming free and easy, at the Tasks Tally. Ta-da!

 

Utility Shed:

Ridgepole, rafters, ceiling joists and lookout rafters all installed. Continuing with the "Just Sheds Just Sucks" frustrations, fitting was problematic and took various amounts of swearing. If only Chris had thrown the hammer on the same day as the porcupine was scaling a tree nearby, there'd be one less porcupine rodent ruining trees at YIPPEE Land. Yes, the porcupine is a rodent!

 

Rains prevented further progress. Tarped, the US frame awaits the week off in July: someone other than Cass can aid Chris with the plywood sheeting. As sealing the plywood didn't seem to be quite enough, scrap floorboards will be used to cover the floor. C&C calculated lengths and amounts and sorted thru the scrap pile; Cass later marks and Chris cuts. Floorboards are ready to install, after the roof is on.

 

TV loft adaptation:

It is seemingly minor and yet a major hold up. Can't finish floor til this is done. Chris cut parts at the house. There was measuring and mock-ups and more measuring. June ends with installation in progress: 2*10's and 2*4's await Chris' cutting, under structure modification is mid-process, there is a plan for floor hatch with specific hardware to be determined on next hardware shopping week.

 

Site cleanup:

The usual, with two added components. Mainly, a lot of scraps stacks are finally out of the kitchen area. Yippee! Or, well... Maybe not. That area was thereafter filled with US floorboards, wallboards and TV adaptation boards. C&C do need to find other working places for all these boards, in order to get to the kitchen area's plumbing, electrical and cabinets. Secondly, a battery operated vacuum! Yippee! Much easier clean up.

 

Power House:

C&C moved sealed lumber parts out of the mudroom and into the screen house, for Cassandra's access during weeks. The Framing Queen built both side wall frames solo. Last two weekends of June, C&C got the tricksy, squirrelly, "Just Sheds Just Sucks" front and back wall frames laid out and started enough that the Queen could continue solo during week. Two doors were ordered and the back wall frame modified to account for adding a second door, a wider door to accommodate generator entry. At month's end, a Monday, this back wall frame sat, barely together, awaiting Cassandra's finishing.

 

Reinforce under bathtub:

Done. Finished during MMM! Ain't no shed, but a task is checked off! Small, but significant! Underneath work can proceed in this area.

 

Electrical Rough-In for 30ft:

Box installation and wiring continues. A service panel is selected, and location figgered: will be in a corner "cabinet", outside of normal wall. Cassandra measures, marks, hand-cuts a few boards. Chris cuts others. The Queen builds and modifies and overcomes squirrelliness of the Y wall, which tried transferring its problems over to this cabinet. At month's end the service panel is temporarily hung, with the enclosing wall needing only a few parts.

 

Walls - 20' yurt: apply finish:

First coat is finally finished on all parts! In the interest of time, C&C decide to apply the second coat to only the boards around the electrical boxes. For now. The true finish of this finishing task can be done later, when there's heat in the yurt. This task will be checked off, and finishing of the 20' walls relegated to B importance.

 

Power House Access:

Plan has some rebar stakes and string. Cass digs a little, Chris moves more big rocks to fill ditch.

 

Materials Transport:

Usual, including one Xterra up-top-trip to unload supplies such as wallboards.

 

Cut and store downed trees:

Chris does a little work here and there, making room in Woodshed#2.

 

Construct walls and loft - 30' yurt: wallboards:

Wallboards. Cassandra is reminded how frustrating this work is. Boards are measured, marked, cut, installed. Onto the loft shelf, behind and under Joe, onto stairs. The purchased pile of boards has been cut and many boards await Cassandra's labors.

 

Loft access Building:  

Joe wall is installed. Floorboards are installed onto the Joe step. Frames are all built for the steps and starting to having wallboard installation (which will be done on at least one side prior to securing each step to floor, and each other). This description very much glosses over the various glitches and frustrations encountered.

 

Loft Bathroom Windows:         

C&C worked together to measure bays, mark boards and cut. Cassandra installed frames and marked the aspen that will go on next with the Plexiglas. Chris cut the aspen at the house for ease and greater accuracy.

 

Loft Back Wall Arc:

To the sounds of a sudden downpour, followed by steady raining, C&C finalize this plan. Cassandra took down the mock-up, calc'd the feet req'd for the slats, measured available stock and suspects it will be enough. Confirmed with Chris in a weekend review. 

 

YIDDEE HSODIF: Emergency Repair

All the rains are again wreaking havoc with the driveway.

 

 

And that, is that. All the stress is wreaking havoc with C&C, and cow adrenals are not the answer.

 

The week off in July is less than a week away. Argh! Too soon! So much to prep and accomplish! So much hoped to be accomplished during that week off!

 

Will our heroes leap the hurdles, successfully manuever the maze of obstacles and get to the castle on the mountain in time? Will they be living in the MLA this winter? Will Tolliver The Toad and his Traveling Troupe save C&C from the black flies in time?

 

Stay tuned...