Pouring the footings

Today, 12/31/2014, was the day for pouring the barn footings. This was fascinating on many levels, so the post will be a bit longer than usual. First, they had to get the cement truck under the wires - see the following. The first pic isn't too clear, so the second shows how to improvise a tight situation. Next, the cement is poured into the pumper. The pumper is an imposing machine: Out of the pumper's hose comes the cement: And, finally, the cement needs to be smoothed - pretty messy for the man in the pit! Next stop on the road will be after the footings set, they will pour the foundation walls and the retaining walls. That may be a while, as winter (in the form of very cold weather) has arrived.

Digging the footings

We are almost finished 2014, but work continues on the barn foundation - digging the footings. Here are some views of the backhoe at work digging the trenches. In the trenches, metal rebar is laid to provide support for the weight of the walls and building to come. If all goes as planned, tomorrow (the last day of 2014) they will pour the concrete for the footings. Yeah! P.S.: I had to look it up. For those of us not familiar with construction terms, "rebar" is short for "reinforcing bar."

Digging has started

Today's blog celebrates the start of digging for the barn's foundation. We have both a backhoe and a loader in the field. The first order of business is to pile the top soil so that it can be used to re-cover the ground after all the work is completed. Also in the field are pipes for the storm water management system. I will let all draw their own conclusions as to whether we as a society are in balance with our SWM requirements to take care of water runoff from a barn roof and pool patio.

Tire scrubbers

Wow! I was not planning a second blog today, but ... First a "beeg truck" comes with some serious stones. Here's the view: The big truck dumps the relatively big stones about 30' from the road - these stones are to "scrub" the dirt from the construction site off the truck wheels before goiing back onto the road. Oops! Houston, we have a problem - tree branches. Here are two views of the trees and the dumper - they don't mix well: Remember in our prior post we referred to the construction road's slope - well, here's why. The dumper is stuck! Apparently, the scrubber stones "roll" rather than compact, which makes the road surface like driving on big ball bearings - not much traction. However, the little loader just picks up the dumper and pushes it to the road. Hopefully, this is not a harbinger of permanent challenges. So after the dust settles, and the trucks leave, here is our construction entrance and road. Ta da!

Building a construction road

Christmas is coming a week early at the Beers. At 7:30 am, the trucks arrived to start the construction entrance. Ours is not a cool site because the commuters come flying around the curve (late of course) on their way to work. Here is the arrival: With the first load of stone and grit, an entrance is formed: After the second load of balast arrived, the temporary road is extended. It is trickier than you might think to get the road at just the right height, slope, and tilt. Of special concern - getting the path set so the dump trucks can tilt the back dumper without hitting the electric wires overhead. If you look very closely at the last two pictures, you can see how low the wires are compared to the street.

Adventure at home: a barn and pool

We have started a new adventure - building a (party) barn and swimming pool in our prior horse pasture. So we'll keep track of the construction through this blog. It has been since April, 2012 that we agreed to buy extra land that was planned for the project. That site was rejected, and we had to move to the horse pasture (and lose the horses). It is now December, 2014, and we have 5 permits in our hot little hands (demolition, building, electrical, plumbing, and HVAC). But permita are not like seeing trucks driving down the driveway. After being out late last night, and watching the Eagles get squashed by the Cowboys, here is what we found at 7:45 am in the driveway: So, the first task is to stake out the field - here, the foreman is setting some stakes: Next, of course, we need a mulch dump (hopefully avoiding the electric wires overhead): The bobcat transfers the mulch to the bucket of the mulch blower: And in a shift of action, the bobcat bucket is used to pound in stakes setting off the storm water management system from the site: And finally, the socks are filled to protect the "non-site" from the construction site: Needless to say, we are excited by this start. We hope you will enjoy seeing our project progress.

Oslo: Norwegian boats and blonds

We closed out our trip in Oslo, the beautiful capital in the southeast part of Norway. What we saw was sort of a combination of San Fransisco, CA and Williamsburg, VA in the US. It snowed as we left Svalbard (78 degrees North) but it was near 75 degrees Farenheight in Oslo. On the 18th, we took the Hop On, Hop Off two-decker bus to a sculpture park, the outdoors "Folk Museum" and the Viking Museum (and several other maritime museums). We then took a ferry ride back to Center City, where we relaxed on the docks for early evening. Pictures follow: The above were all from the Folk Museum. The Stave Church and farm storage house were 1700 style buildings, while the latter picture was chosen to show a folk Norwegian costume - Not! From the harbor area, here is a Viking ship from about 800 AD, the Kon tiki which they sailed from Peru to the South Pacific (to show it could be done) and a current harbor scene: For our last day, we visited the cultural Historic Museum, the Edward Munch Museum, and a local, non-tourist neighborhood called Grunerlokke. On recommendation from a helpful nurse travelling on our tram, we had a late lunch, early dinner at a Turkish Cafe, Noah's Ark. It was a superb end to a very special trip. Only one or two more posts for this trip; we will close with a recap, and perhaps a "homecoming" blog.

Longyearbyen - leaving Svalbard

We arrived in Longyearbyen, the largest town on the Svalbard Islands, last night. So today, June 17, we had a brief walk around the town, and then took off for Oslo. Here are views from the museum in town, the town, and the front of the airport. We are on the way home!

No winners in this beauty pagent

For our last full day in Svalbard (June 16), we travelled to Poolepynten bay, to see if we could find walrus - oh, we found them! These guys really flop about getting onto shore, and then they love to all get to the same small area of the beach. Formidible in the water, they are more vulnerable if solitary on the beach. So, as we are leaving for our zodiaks to return to the ship, we had to wait a bit while more big boppers arrived: In the PM, we climbed a steep hill to the St. Jonsfjord glacier. On the way, a nesting ptarmigen surveyed the fjord.