Construction Journal Entry Week of 5/15/05

5/15/05 Bought a bunch of stuff at a garage sale including some Romex, a receptacle for a range, and some 6 AWG wire which will work for the range if it is long enough. Every little bit helps.

5/17-19/05 I went up to the property for 3 days: Tuesday through Thursday.

I arrived at 12:40 and found a tiny little frog in the padlock can on the gate. It was the first one I have seen there this year.

After moving in, I opened up the gas line to the water heater pilot to see if I couldn't clean the orifice out with a #80 drill bit. I had the bit held in the tip of a needle nose pliers and I was trying to find the little hole. Unfortunately, the bit slipped out of the pliers and went flying onto the ground which was covered with old fir needles. I searched for a long time and I even got a strong magnet and went over the needles, but I finally gave up on finding it. Then I got a tool out of a camp stove with a fine wire on it that is made for cleaning out an orifice. I tried for a long time with this and was also unsuccessful at finding that tiny hole. I gave up and put the pilot back together and lit the water heater with a propane torch again. I decided to buy a new pilot light.

A chipmunk came around for peanuts while I was working, but instead of wasting too much time feeding him, I just set my tub of peanuts down and let him help himself while I worked.

After lunch I carried up four lengths of EMT I had brought with me. Then I brought the wheelbarrow down and hauled up the wire and receptacle I had bought along with other tools.

I bent and installed one length of EMT for the range circuit. It isn't quite long enough so I will just leave the end open. Later I'll get a coupler and connect the section that will leave the wall and go into the counter toward the range. I chiseled the notches into the logs and installed the receptacle box for the refrigerator.

On Wednesday it rained. I installed a receptacle box under the sink on the same conduit run as for the refrigerator. Then I installed the conduit for the baseboard receptacle circuit and installed the first receptacle box to the right of the dining room window. I found that it is a lot harder chiseling down there one log from the floor. It is really hard on my back to stoop over to chisel, and if I lie on the floor it is really hard to swing the hammer. I tried different tricks and got the job done ok but it was just hard to do.

After lunch, I installed four more baseboard receptacle boxes. I tried a new trick of boring holes before I chiseled. I bored a 3/8" hole in each corner first. Then I bored a 1-1/4" hole in each corner. Then with the big chisel and a 3-lb. hammer, it went a little faster to cut away the wood between the holes. It was still pretty awkward to work down there though.

On Thursday morning, my body was really sore and I didn't feel well. I went up to the drainfield and cleared some more weeds and checked on the seedling trees. They are all growing nicely. There was noticeable new growth since last week. I also discovered some new ones and I cleared the brush from around them.

I chiseled two more receptacle holes but I had run out of boxes and EMT so I didn't install the boxes. Then I took some pictures of the kitchen and dining room wall with their new receptacle boxes and conduits. I left for home at 1:30.



Go to Next Journal Entry
Previous Journal Entry

Index to all Journal Entries
Go To Home Page

©2005 Paul R. Martin, All rights reserved.