May's Magnificent Maybe

 

Did the magnificent C&C Make May Magnificent;

Make much progress; How was Chris' leave?

 

"Make May Magnificent" is sorely lacking in the good name department. Firstly, the whole of May was not up for exceling: only three weeks of the month had Chris on leave from work. Plus, it failed to capture the essence of "Let's be done! Let's be done! We're exhausted and expend so much energy to just get by without building. We're worn out! But let's find more energy. And push harder. And finish up. At least enough to live in a home instead of camping. Finally? Please?" That, of course, has no ring at all. A better name was briefly attempted early in Chris' first week off, as C&C chatted, doing chores in the Park Ave yurt. The sleep-deprived and stressed couple were not up to their usual level of silliness and decided that their sole idea, "Triple M JuJu", accurately portrayed the three weeks in May and one week each in June and July, but was not quite right either. Another acronym considered, AMOS, conveyed a month of excellent (and stress-reducing!) times for C&C, but would definitely not get them built. Thereafter, focused on accomplishing the list of task goals, C&C ignored that list's name of Make May Magnificent, even into June.

 

Before any kind of Magnificence or Triple M JuJu, May had two full weeks:

 

May's Week One (5/1-5/3)

 

COLD.

May greets YIPPEE-Land with ICE on the breakfast buckets; a Snowpants and Long Underwear kind of day proceeds. The Mighty Meandering Moose, Munching near Park Ave, surprises and delights before thundering up the wooded Mountainside. On Saturday, C&C struggled to keep working while cold but eventually conceded, returning to Park Ave for warming.

 

May's Week Two (5/4-5/10)

 

SHORT.

Always a stressor, short weekends challenge C&C to cram everything, much of which is difficult to fit into a normal weekend, into even less time. May's second week starts with a short weekend, continues as an extra long work week and finishes with a second short weekend.

 

Shortly after Sunday's woodstove maintenance, barely five minutes after Chris left for the week: Bang, Poof! Smoke. Eww. The little woodstove farts his disgruntlement, spewing out stench and making Cassandra cough. 

 

Short weekend = shorter Cass Tasks List and preparations = limitations ecountered repeatedly during the longer solo week = stalled on many tasks = Cass kept moving on to next task, and less crucial tasks = frustrations.

 

Short is the time of beautiful outdoors "Ahhh". Eyes, grown accustomed to white and brown adore the vibrant hints of green; but to merely view the outdoors? No! The body yearns to be in the scenery, partaking in the greens, yellows and blues, saturated in spring's sunshine, feeling fresh air across skin that has long been bundled up in layers.

 

The "Hateful Season" is long. Any human attempting to enjoy the beautiful outdoors "Ahhh" will be hunted, neigh haunted, by viscious, blood lusting, black flies; these will incessantly fly at and around that person, greedily searching for skin to gnaw and dig in for blood, swarm and make a loud ruckus, zoom into ears, up noses, into eyes.

 

Resistant to bug netting, Cassandra perfects her skills at slapping, smacking, and killing the little pests. But, eventually netting will be the only viable solution. Many were the days in May that would have been gorgeous save the bane of evil, malicious, black flies.

 

Saturday's Return of Chris happened at 5AM. Shortly after the Ice Swap and Such, some slumber was snatched to the serenade of chirping birds and a lightening sky. Following this short sleep, breakfast in the beautiful-looking outdoors was short, as C&C ran indoors to escape greedy black flies, anxious for their own human-blood breakfast.

 

May's Week Three (5/11-5/17)

MMM (aka Triple M JuJu) Week One!

 

UP and DOWN.

Time off begins Sunday. Yippee!

This week's saving grace: Chris did not leave for work. The bane: all the necessary catchup. (and those pesky black flies!)

 

Combine tomatoes, vinegar and spices and the result can be: ketchup or catsup, but probably not catch up.

 

Combine two short weekends, several weeks of cramming in extra work, both personal and business, and preparations for YIPPEE MMM work. Result: C&C's four week push began by attending to neglected tasks, planning and coordinating; all while feeling stressed that the first week was quickly slipping by!

 

Enjoyable stress-reducing catch up: building together, tackling daily chores together, sleeping in the same bed every night, etcetera.

 

Catch down? Chris struggles all this week and the next to disengage from work related thinking, to find the YIPPEE building channel.

 

The channels can't be blamed if weather reports are little aid in planning and coping with the difficulties presented by the weather's up and down. Chris blames the chimps. Or, blame it on the cucumber. Perhaps the ardvaark?

 

Something heard on the radio was accurate. Chris confirmed: the Brattleboro Home Depot, which opened after Project YIPPEE began, is closing. Closing before Project is finished, before C&C have a home. Supply buying trips to that store were not a Make May Magnificent goal, but taking advantage of discounts makes this a worthwhile detour. Shame they don't have a vented noseeum screen tent...

 

SIPPEE up and then... 'twas discovered to be mildewy, probably from snow that fell during its disassembly last year. Chris' attempts to clean it over the next couple days did not remove the problem. SIPPEE was taken down, packed away, and awaits donation to a loving home where its condition will not endanger anyone's health.

 

Grandma March, a beloved vibrant lady, leaves this dimension and will be greatly missed. C&C and the moose and turkeys and deer - yes, all the creatures of YIPPEE Land - wish her bon voyage on her adventures in the next realm.

 

After numerous ups and downs, the first week of MMM ends magnificently! The Connie and The Jere trekked down for a sawing and sealing session with The Chris, at The Hellhouse. Rain is forecast; thus, the day was gorgeous, sunny and just the kind of rainy day everyone needed. Back at YIPPEE-Land, Cassandra does the spring session of mega cleaning.

 

May's Week Four (5/18-5/24)

Triple M JuJu's Week Two

 

Starts with SUCCESS (C&J&C finished at Poocham before the rain began and, although Cass got sick to make this happen, there was an extra clean yurt!) and then...

 

SUCKS. (and COLD. and UP and DOWN.)

Tuesday is the first full-bug-gear day. As C&C unload the supply of PH and US parts from the Xtrailer, the biting bane begats begrudgingly worn bug shirts and hats. That day was warm, especially under the bug-gear. Otherwise, there was a lot of cold. Up and down. And hot. And cold. Thursday morning, even Chris was cold during his pre-breakfast work session, and after breakfast suggested they get back into the sleeping bag to warm up! Gee, maybe Cass shouldn't have cleaned and packed away the winter gear.

 

Shed construction starts with SUCCESS. The weekend's session at Poocham went so well! C&C overcame bug attacks to get parts transported and sorted: PH into mudroom for later use, US into the Sealing Screenhouse for immediate use. Cass worked on the side wall frames while Chris worked on getting the US platform attached and prepped. Although she was mostly on deck and he was over by US, they enjoyed working onsite together. There was first and second lunches, snacks before 9AM, and even a dinner eaten up at the MLA as they worked a late night. Successful progress. And then...

 

SUCKS. (and SHORT.)

"Just Sheds Just Sucks" says the frustrated Chris as Utility Shed construction went much slower than anticipated. C&C had cut boards to lengths specified in the Just Sheds plan and now found the plan to be WRONG. Much of Saturday was spent creating and installing solutions to the counter the inadequacies of the shed plan designers. Too much time was consumed as C&C tried to rectify conflicting measurements. As they proceeded, studs were found to be too short. One was too long, and a couple were even just right. Goldilocks where are you? Swearing speckled this buggy, miserable work. The week did not end with a fully framed end wall.

 

Other building tasks had happened. For example, electrical wiring got a good bit of work. But building the Utility Shed was a main goal of Making May Magnificent.

 

May's Week Five (5/25-5/31)

Triple M JuJu's Week Three

 

CONTINUE.

Chris thinks Cassandra is magnificent.

Cass thinks Chris is magnificent.

Will they Make May Magnificent?

Can they jump the hurdles or are they too stressed?

 

Or, will they jump because they're so stressed...

Yes! Yes! Steadfast in their efforts to retain some silliness and joy, C&C do jump around (after all, the walkway had to undergo thorough testing, eh?), and make the best of things as they go. They are fruiting adaptable, gods darnit! Make magnificence! Make mid-afternoon snacks, decadent pudding concoctions, flavorful fruit concoctions or have some cocoa and a sing-song. Work on your redneck. Dance during a 5-minute break. Curse the evil biting bugs. Do it together!

 

The front US wall frame was eventually finished, and the second, with similar "Just Sheds Just Sucks" hurdles, was tackled successfully. Chris made excellent progress on the platform and piping. Plywood was a painful choice long ago, but nowhere near as painful as now. Cassandra got ill when Chris' cutting happened nearby. Nasty stuff, plywood. Although the sheets Chris transported over from Poocham had long ago been sealed, and therefore presumed to be safe enough, this wasn't quite enough, as was discovered during C&C's layout work for the wall sheeting. Cass suffered and continued struggling as their work proceeded, installing the frames onto the plywood topped platform. Wearing a mask and full bug gear in up and down, hot and cold, weather, while working there, only made the plywood exposure pains worse. Sucks.

 

Sucks. Or, rather, gnaws. Chris looked over and said, "You're bleeding". One persistent black fly had found its way into Cassandra's head netting, chomped her cheek repeatedly til blood was trickling down. As bad as the flies were, C&C did get a few short, very short at times, netting-less spells during hot daytime work on the deck, away from the shed. 

 

Construction to be continued...

 

All signs pointed to Friday being sunny, whereas Saturday was reported to be rainy. Our Adaptable Heroes continued their adaptability, making a magnificent choice to switch Friday's usual tasks to Saturday, in favor of US construction. In hopes of making magnificent progress at finishing the US framing.

 

It would have been magnificent. The ridge pole, joist and rafters all suffered inadequacies of the plan creators. C&C suffered to work out the problems, working late at night together. In the darkness, with raindrops pattering on the deck, the couple abandoned hope of getting the rafters up and building covered. Construction of the Utility Shed continues...

 

May ends with a typical non-building task day and only about a half day of site work. Make May Magnificent has one more week left (in June, remember?). The hope continues...

 

May's Completed Tasks:

 

Framing in the 30', Yippee!

(213.18) Construct walls and loft - 30' yurt: framing [5/14/08] (start date: 11/18/07, site days: 27.50)

 

Thanks to The Connie and The Jere's assistance at Poo-jam, Cutting and Sealing Power House and Utility Shed Parts:

(279.18, 279.27) Watershield US and PH parts [5/18/08]

(278.08, 278.09) Cut US and PH parts [5/18/08]

 

Other Stuff:

05/11/08 - (326.06) PA temp skirting off (start date: 5/11/08, site days: 0.0625)

05/13/08 - (279.28) Reopen MLA Construction Screen Shop (start date: 5/11/08, site days: 0.13)

05/28/08 - (303.16) Repairs: Woody Walkway (start date: 04/11/07, site days: 5.56)

05/30/08 - (303.22) Fill sink holes by footings (start date: 04/23/08, site days: 0.375)

 

Total May Site Hours: 282.50

 

A Tasks: 264.50 hrs: 93.63%

88.50 hrs (213.12 Utility shed built)

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

19.00 hrs (275.04 Materials transport/inventory)

14.00 hrs (329.04 Loft access Building)

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

12.00 hrs (213.73 Loft access Plans and Figgerin')

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

9.00 hrs (279.18 Watershield US parts)

9.00 hrs (303.16 Repairs: Woody Walkway)

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

6.75 hrs (278.08 Cut US parts at Poocham)

6.25 hrs (278.09 Cut PH parts at Poocham)

6.25 hrs (279.27 Watershield PH parts)

4.50 hrs (742.01 JaBoSTH: Non-Quackers)

4.00 hrs (213.24 TV loft adaptation)

3.25 hrs (226.37 Reopen SIPPEE (in spring))

2.50 hrs (303.22 Fill sink holes by footings)

2.00 hrs (213.50 Construct power house)

2.00 hrs (280.00 Prepare/clean upstairs)

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

1.50 hrs (226.34 Reopen GIPPEE (in spring))

1.50 hrs (278.07 Prep Poocham garage for cutting US and PH parts)

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

1.00 hrs (279.28 Reopen MLA Construction Screen Shop)

0.50 hrs (301.00 Organize shed)

0.25 hrs (213.53 Reinforce under bathtub)

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

0.25 hrs (329.01 Plumbing rough-in MLA: DWV)

0.25 hrs (329.05 Loft Bathroom Windows)

 

B Tasks: 1.25hrs: 0.44%

0.75 hrs (213.06 Deck: railing posts (cut, sanded and stained))

0.50 hrs (223.60 Satellite: Wireless instead?)

 

Q Tasks: 16.75hrs: 5.93%

5.25 hrs (288.09 Cut and store downed trees)

2.00 hrs (305.01 Garlic spray)

1.75 hrs (288.08 Split and stack wood)

1.75 hrs (323.01 Rodents Under WC)

1.50 hrs (546.01 OFR: Culvert Repair)

1.00 hrs (742.02 JaBoSTH: Quackers)

0.75 hrs (300.45 Woodstove maintenance/problems)

0.75 hrs (305.00 Bug control)

0.50 hrs (325.02 Baking Soda MLA Shrooms)

0.50 hrs (326.05 PA reflectix off windows)

0.50 hrs (326.06 PA temp skirting off)

0.25 hrs (300.40 Cass Phone)

0.25 hrs (305.04 Daitomaceous earth)