The FrankenVent

And the final hours of the Headless House.



It looks innocuous enough, a temporary pipe hanging there loose and out of the way for the operation that will attach the head.

All we needed was a set screw for the two and a half inch diameter circular drill bit we had. The set screw is needed for the center drill bit that guides the larger circular drill bit in drilling a big hole through the metal and the plywood of the roof. After three tries to get a set screw that would fit, a whole new circular bit was bought and the hole for the vent finally pierced perfectly through the roof.



Then someone got a little generous with the screws and FrankenVent was born.



Look it is the front door posing in its future location.



It has a black leaded glass sandwiched between the two layers of safety glass.



I have been a gardener and landscaper for a long time.



I know how to distract your eye and attention away from things that may be less appealing.

Pre-Ugly

All looks well and lush in the roadside vegetable garden. Even the corn is still there. The first ears have been eaten, a bit to soon in the rush to beat out the raccoons. Now a liquid potion seems to be keeping them at bay. Our next meal with fresh sweet corn will hopefully have the ears fully plumped up.

Bags full of cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, squash and pole beans have been coming from the garden most recently. WUT else might be growing in there?



A certain competitive gardener in Indiana seems to think she has grown the World's Ugliest Tomato. The rules of these frequent competitions are generally geared to assure a winner. From what I have gleaned, this Ugly Tomato must be ripe and edible and you must eat it.

I won't be eating this lovely contestant produced on the already pre-ugly German Queen heirloom variety of tomato. Disease and internal aliens that make the skin and flesh writhe don't qualify. The World's Ugliest Tomato needs a good deformity and a flawless skin.



The Indiana WUT was really just four tomatoes growing very close together on a super shortened bloom stalk. Individually they were ordinary tomatoes. I don't think they truly qualified as Siamese quadruplet tomatoes. They were not fused together.

The title of the World's Ugliest Tomato is singular. It is one tomato. There is no tomatoes, plural in this title.

My other contestants are not near ripe yet. Carol is anxious though. WUT else might be out there in tomato land. Are her four, very close together tomatoes, just four tomatoes? Is it really the World's Ugliest Individual Tomato?

A true Siamese tomato that is actually fused and deformed could be the real winner.



And if that doesn't pass muster with the judge, well then she can just kiss



My Tomato. When it is ripe of course.

Good Stuff

Little Blue Boxes

The countdown for the lift off of the roof sections has begun. Brackets are in place on three sides to help guide the roof into its final resting place.



The crane is scheduled to arrive at 8am on Wednesday August the 20th. I would calculate lift off of the living room section to begin around 9:30.

Pounding nails on a ladder it looks and feels a long way up.



It is even further up on the basement patio side of the cabin.



We just need to move these over there and set them gently on top.



Because all is ready for the lifting of the roofs, there is time to begin new aspects of construction.



The bright blue boxes of the rough electrical give a mental illumination to a house filled with lights and appliances.

A Wild Bloom Day

The line between cultivated and wild is blurred. There is encouragement and discouragemment of plants. That is the essence of gardening, to greater and lesser degrees. It is all a Dream.

Cirsium vulgare



Phlox paniculata



Hibiscus syriacus



Meidiland Rose and company.



Eurybia divaricata



Allium tricoccum



Unknown. This photo does not do the bright pink tips on tiny narrow tubular blooms, arranged as a thick wispy mist any justice. Name me.



The first full flower.



Leucanthemum vulgare



They keep going and going.



And get selected and called Shasta.



Helianthus maximiliani



Rudbeckia laciniata



Solidago rugosa?



More opening blooms.



Ageratina altissima



Clematis virginiana



Vernonia noveboracensis



At the end of the day.



Rudbeckia hirta and company.



Lobelia cardinalis



Angelica gigas



With bees drunk on nectar.

That's Bloom Day for August 2008.

Prelude To A Bloom Day

Angelica gigas.

Closing In

There was some buzzing around for a bit to find a solution for the vented roof's ridge caps. Then a little more buzzing to find a heating and air conditioning shop with a break machine that could bend the ten foot sections of ridge cap from 135 to 90 degrees.



We did it. Now the roof sections are ready for lift off. What you see is as ready as we can make it. At each end of the roof where the ridge cap is missing is where the straps attached to the crane will drop through the vent in the roof, wrap around the main ridge beam and pick this sucker up and put it on the living room walls. The right side of the roof with the missing section of panel will butt up to the wall that joins the two roof sections. There is special end wall flashing that attaches to this yet to be built connecting wall. So it has to wait.



The loft section of the roof is more complete. Only the end pieces of ridge cap will need to be added after the crane lifts the roof through the vents in the top. One other detail, the vent for the plumbing system, still needs to be cut through this section of roof and the shoe that surrounds the vent pipe added while it is still on the ground. Details. Details.



It was decided to add more of the plywood siding subwall before the roof sections went on. That process has begun. The plywood is being lifted with a rope and a clamp from inside the cabin. Plywood laid on the floor joists of the loft allows a good part of the nailing of these sheets to be done from inside and standing on firm ground. Less time is spent on a ladder high off the ground pounding nails and getting the heavy sheets of plywood up that high is relatively easy this way.

Maybe you can see why it was decided to build the roofs on the ground.



The back wall of the loft is ready to go.



It won't be long before the cabin begins to look more like a whole house instead of a headless house and two giant bluebird nesting boxes.



Just think, when it decides to rain here again, I might be able to stand inside my cabin and stay reasonably dry.



There are of course a few more details to attend to before it is water tight and weather proof.

Yesterday's Sunset

No rain for some time.



It be Dry.



Maybe rain tomorrow.