Snow ends this month too

But Q tasks time is down

Winter Hours only one!

 

In the pale green of budding trees and the darker green of grass shoots, spring is barely visible at the end of April: most of spring's hopefulness won't Grow, Sprout, Bloom and Chirp until May. But... YIPPEE had plenty of newness and renewness and creating going on.

 

Died: The washer broke mid-wash one Friday. C&C can't use the laundromat, and parts for the Equator washer-dryer combo have taken up to 6 months to get in the past. A trip to Keene commenced immediately.

 

New: If the new washer would wear a Team hat, we'd have to give him one. The as yet unnamed washer will perform vital duties next to the dryer until building's done and the new energy saving combos are up and running in yurt-land.

 

Died: The day the washer died was also the day C&C learned their mailbox company was closing at the end of month: in C&C-time a mere two weekends, or two mail days from time of notice!

 

New:  Another trip to Keene happened to obtain a new address with the only other near-ish service. New procedures commence and task-day is topsy turvy.

 

Set up, sat upon, simply to savor: Breakfast Buckets! Making their official debut on 4/19, three buckets became the breakfasting table and chairs for C&C to savor a bit of sunshine, breakfast and each other. Sure, there were several clothing layers involved, but by golly, it was better than starting the fire and eating indoors. Anyway, the simple sunshine should be scrumptiously savored as much as possible before the bugs come out and screens are required!

 

April Showers: The month's first day featured a plethora of showers, incessant raining, runoff, gushing water, melting. There's no task assigned for "Holy salad! Its raining and suddenly warm and melting and raining and gushing water and is everything going to be OK?"! This happens often enough that maybe there should be. Nonetheless, during a break in rains, Cassandra took a walk around. By the Utility Shed she discovered two sinkholes and last year's ditch work was inadequate for the quantity of melt and rain gushing through; the upper ditch was not handling the majority as intended. Fixes were begun later, and tested throughout the month, as additional rain and melt coursed down.

 

And several days of unusually hot weather: Woohoo! Cassandra took advantage of the warmth to stay up top working late, cranking out the site work.

 

Bring...

A clear driveway! Melt was directed to and off the driveway by C&C's work on the new task HSODIF; snow banks from Woodshed#2 up to GIPPEE were chopped and shoveled through at a few key points. By mid-month, the driveway was open from bottom all way up to GIPPEE.

 

Appreciated: Anytime there was sunshine and relative warmth (anything over 40... well, with sun, 40 can be nice too!), C&C ate meals outside and when possible, did outdoor tasks. All too soon, this won't be available for appreciation. One nice morning felt quite spring-like as they shook, aired out and cleaned the bedding. Sunshine and relative lack of bugs. Yippee!

 

And Praise Rang Inna Land!

 

Bubba trimmed down to his summer weight and scooted on out! On 4/21 there was a great "Yippee!". His cousin Earle and that other dude, whose name was never quite caught, took almost a week longer to get their lazy lingering selves on out, but by month's end: no Snow piles up at the MLA. Good riddance!

 

Completed: Only one task was checked off in April, and it was a Q...

 

·         04/06/08: (288.10) Park Ave firewood, yr 3 (start date: 09/20/07, site days: 1.69)

 

Started: Sprouting, shooting up, spring is in the soil, spring is in the tasks... nine tasks begun... Yippee!

 

·         04/01/08: (213.69) Construct walls and loft - 30' yurt: floorboards (Burly Chris hauled up floorboards. Careful Cass inspected boards and found the best of the rest: those left over from installation of yurt floors, devised a plan for board layout and marked boards. Quick Chris cut with power tools. Cass tackled installation all by herself. By end of month, floorboards were installed on most of loft.)

·         04/04/08: (213.65) Electrical rough-in 30' yurt

·         04/08/08: (303.07) Erosion control: Clear out behind util shed and trench: critical runoff work

·         04/11/08: (213.73) Loft access Plans and Figgerin' (Chris' original "pullout ladder" idea is found to be one for the history and not the future. Some very wacky, wild and wow ideas tossed around; mockup created; problems considered; more metaphoric drawing board work.)

·         04/12/08: (213.24) TV loft adaptation (24 channels and nothing but Cass.)

·         04/23/08: (213.76) Power House: build walkway/access from road

·         04/26/08: (213.99) Plumbing rough-in MLA: supply and (329.01) Plumbing rough-in MLA: DWV

·         04/27/08: (329.04) Loft access Building

·         04/30/08: (213.53) Reinforce under bathtub

 

Assorted: Attempts. Airport agonies. Accolades. And the "word" Ain't.

 

Cass continues it all: healing, coping with illness, camp life chores and stresses, building. On warm days, she cranked out extra site work. On cold wintry days and cold rainy days, she suffered more, as did site work. The usual struggles of woodstove, cold and damp and illness happened; there were many awful April days!

 

Chris oversleeps often on weekends due to being exhausted and getting back late (or, more accurately, early in the morning), thanks to airport delays. One weekend he made up for it by getting up at 5:00 the next day, and was onsite working shortly thereafter. Yippee!

 

Able to sleep in: Warmer temps meant Chris gave the schedule a new twist: pack for work on Friday, leave pack and clothes in Xterra, so that the usual stop at the house could be skipped, in favor of proceeding to the airport directly from Yippeeland.

 

Woohoo! Second week of April, C&C finally got up over 40hrs of non-quacking work!

 

According to Chris, "The Xtrailer (which easily converts from 8 to 12 foot) rocks!".

 

Chris gets his phone and says, "Woohoo! yippee! hurrah!". Cassandra continues to be less enamored with her new service. Antenna is arranged for use of phone inside yurt, making phone calls at night easier.

 

Numerous email problems occurred in April: mail getting rejected, undelivered without notice, erroneously considered spam... "Ain't technology grand", says Chris in his increasingly redneck vernacular. With the occasional warm sunny day, his neck actually did get red.

 

April's site work hours tallied to a fairly decent number. C&C worked up plans for Chris' time off to Make May Magnificent. Here's hoping for excellent weather, an extremely easy black fly season, and a heckuva lotta progress in May!

 

Total April Site Hours: 203.75

 

A Tasks: 179.50 hrs: 88.10%

 

75.00 hrs (213.18 Construct walls and loft - 30' yurt: framing)

49.25 hrs (213.69 Construct walls and loft - 30' yurt: floorboards)

12.00 hrs (275.04 Materials transport/inventory)

10.25 hrs (213.73 Loft access Plans and Figgerin')

7.25 hrs (213.36 Site cleanup (general and for Cass safety))

4.50 hrs (213.85 Radiant flooring 30': fins installed)

3.50 hrs (742.01 JaBoSTH: Non-Quackers)

3.25 hrs (213.65 Electrical rough-in (30' yurt))

3.00 hrs (303.17 Drainage below retaining wall)

2.75 hrs (303.07 Clear out behind util shed and trench: critical runoff work)

2.75 hrs (329.04 Loft access Building)

2.00 hrs (306.01 Determine tasks she can do during week alone)

1.75 hrs (213.24 TV loft adaptation)

0.50 hrs (213.53 Reinforce under bathtub)

0.50 hrs (213.76 Power House: build walkway/access from road)

0.50 hrs (303.22 Fill sink holes by footings)

0.25 hrs (213.99 Plumbing rough-in MLA: supply)

0.25 hrs (303.16 Repairs: Woody Walkway)

0.25 hrs (306.02 Test on safety: materials and tools)

 

B Tasks: 1.75 hrs: 0.86%

 

1.25 hrs (260.4 Roof repaired and finished)

0.50 hrs (213.63 Woodshed #2: Roof repairs and finishing)

 

Q Tasks: 22.50 hrs: 11.04%

(Winter tasks = 1 hour, 0.0049%)

 

4.50 hrs (742.02 JaBoSTH: Quackers)

4.25 hrs (545.02 YIDDEE HSODIF: Damage Control)

3.00 hrs (666 Dealing with Problems at Hellhouse, Which We Can't Get Rid of Because We're Not F'ing Done Building Yet! (DwPaHWWCGRoBWNFDBY!))

2.00 hrs (300.4 Cass Phone)

1.75 hrs (636.06 Cheer-up C&C's Construction Conditions (MINSuSoM): Plant wildflowers)

1.25 hrs (288.08 Split and stack wood)

1.25 hrs (288.1 Park Ave firewood, yr 3)

1.25 hrs (545.04 YIDDEE HSODIF: Repair)

0.75 hrs (300.45 Woodstove maintenance/problems)

0.50 hrs (288.09 Cut and store downed trees)

0.50 hrs (305.03 Mosquito dunks)

0.50 hrs (310.11 Shovel Main Drive: Middle)

0.50 hrs (326.04 MLA window inserts off in Spring)

0.25 hrs (310.01 Keep deck cleared)

0.25 hrs (310.1 Shovel Main Drive: Lower)

0.00 hrs (679.99 Structural Integrity Testing)

 

About Pretty Rowdy Inventive Lovers:

C&C YIPPEE!