2006

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This seems to be getting somewhat repetive and certainly impacts productivity.
The forms have been removed and now await manual back-filling with dirt.

This is an animal distantly related to a giraffe.
His legs are almost six feet long and the snow is so deep it comes up almost all of the way to his belly.

The north wall. The forms were lined with black plastic. This would allow them to release quite easily.
Also there would be a plastic moisture barrier inside and out.
One can see the column forms and the timbers awaiting removal.
The soda cans on the rebar prevent injury in case of a stumble. The rebar will tie the stone wall to the foundation wall when it is built.

Northwest corner- inside. See Dewey Senior- upper left hand corner- working. Eighty-three years old. Helping work.
Note the boat washed up on the beach.

Northeast corner with the permanently closed off down-ramp from the outside world.
Getting a bit congested there on the basement floor. Time to add storeys.

East wall- straight as an arrow.
Notice the ever-present shovel necessary for the back-filling of dirt.
Probably one of the most labor-intensive portions of this project.
Dean remembers being out there the night after his birthday party (in January!) under a full moon shoveling dirt in the hole.

Here's Dewey Sr. beavering away again (actually he had a saw- his teeth weren't what they used to be).
You'da thought they could spare him a dab of electricity and a power saw. No, he knew how to work. Even at 83.

Here is a nice manually, birthday-boy back-filled west wall.
Note how the plastic form-liner remains on the concrete and then acts as a default moisture barrier.
Purty clever...

Here it is possible to see:
a) How the laminated 4x4's created a panel and saved concrete while maintaining structural integrity
b) The resulting column created by using the vertical steel curb forms
c) A whole lot of clutter
d) Where the "tunnel of love" exits the basement and heads for the septic tank

Three stout soldiers standing at attention, awaiting duty.
Again it is evident the wall thickness and by interpolation, the weight.

Here is the concrete-block inventory-control person. Note them sleeping on the job. Check out the cool boots.
In 2009, Bruce of American Timber Salvage would wreck and salvage Laclede Chain near downtown.
Dean stumbled across the jobsite on a snowy January bringing Bruce some 72-inch timber forks for his Bobcat.
Concrete blocks were everywhere. The good ones- with Meremac flint gravel and no ash.
Dean asked their status. Bruce said "Take as many as you want- they're a disposal problem".
Wrong thing to say to Dean.
Every day on the way home from Becker Metals, Dean would stop and stack several pallets of block.
By the end of February, he had 150 pallets (almost 5000 blocks) ready to move to the farm.
Bruce lent Dean his float and Bobcat and soon, in the front pasture, as far as the eye could see, were endless pallets of blocks.
Later these blocks would buttress the stone slab walls (see 2010).

Dean bought this trailer and moved it to Bruce's jobsite and his men loaded it with about 4000 square feet of flooring.
Underneath are the Swedish 4x4's removed from the concrete forms and put there for safe keeping until they can become roof timbers.
Three uses in their lives!

Let the fun begin! Notice the maples beginning to leaf out.
Up goes the first stage of a tower to erect the cast-iron columns.
Note the double scaffolding and note the really, large chain and the double I-beam holding the hoist.

This is the full tower. This will be assembled and disassembled a total of six times- once for each set of columns.
The second column has been bolted on to the first and the third is on its way up. This is a lot of iron.
Notice the guy wires extending in all directions.

Here goes the first tentative foot of the lift.
It creaks and groans and settles and sways and complains. (Kinda like being married.)
And then away it goes.

Here is the lifting harness. A pair of 30,000 lb. slings plus a log chain for good measure.

Here is looking down onto the second column from near the top of the tower. Check out the fashionable attire girls.

Here is looking down on that HUGE foundation. Seems a bit smaller from the stratosphere.

Here is a final, unobstructed view of Dean's nice, little house.

Here is the site manager holding up the tower in a strong windstorm.

This is an incredibly crowded construction site.
Up on deck around the perimeter stretch building components hundreds of feet in every direction.

Here are two free-standing column sets. Note the guy wires in every which direction.
If these had fallen in any direction, they would have destroyed the house, the barn or the power lines.
Note the security light post next to them for scale.

Here is an aerial photo taken from the windmill tower.

Looks like the Temple at Karnak.
Note the guy wires everywhere. Also the second-storey cross pieces for floor supports.
This definitely moves and sways in a strong wind.
The biggest fear was an earth tremblor or earthquake.
The strongest earthquakes in the history of America were in New Madrid from 1806 to 1809.
There were thousands of minor earthquakes and four which measured 8.9 on the Richter Scale.
The building is designed to be resilient and "soft" so as to be earthquake-resistant. Even possibly earthquake-proof but not requesting a test.

Then on December 1st, a disastrous ice storm struck. Over 200 trees on the farm were topped.
Note the two experts from FEMA behind the fence.
Then it snowed on top of the ice.

What kind of idiot would climb up on this?
You got it!
And the handrail around the foundation won't help from falling off the top.

So then this idiot begins scaling the structure with a camera.
Helicopters are circling the building, sirens are wailing, mothers covering their children's eyes.
It was beautiful up there!

Go to 2007.

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