The beauty of nature never ceases to amaze me. I found this cactus growing inside a large pot outside a U-Haul rental center of all places. The responsible gardener notice me taking a picture and was happy to explain how he had found one little stem years ago and had been dividing them ever since. The photo only shows a few of the several hundred that now completely fill the 30-inch-wide pot. Stopping to smell the roses might be fine for people whose dominant sense is olfactory. For someone who is more visually oriented, I find it more satisfying to pause and look at the cacti.

The 16″ jointer/planer I ordered arrived today. At 572 pounds (660 pounds as shown) it is the heaviest thing that will reside in our new house. I am still contemplating the best approach to getting it from the carport where it now sits into my shop. The motorized pallet jack that brought it down the driveway is only good on hard surfaces and would have sunk in the rain-soaked clay soil had we tried to get any closer to the house. I will probably uncrate it and disassemble it into lighter components (motor, beds, cutter head, fence). The extra work will be worth the riskier challenge of moving such a heavy object. You can count on a blog post once it reaches its final resting place.

The last essential system I need to set up before getting down to business in my new shop is dust collection. The dust collector has already been installed in the mechanical room along with ducting into the shop. Now I need to connect the duct work in the shop to the various machines. I decided to make the duct supports out of leftover plywood. A long cable tie will be used to secure the pipe to the support and the support will be anchored to the wall with pocket hole screws. The cable tie will run through a hole bored through the full width of the 3/4 inch thick support. To make that hole I needed to set up my new drill press. It went together without a hitch and has exceeded my expectations for build quality and accuracy. It was a real pleasure to use.

Plaster work on the River House should be completed this week and will be followed by wood flooring installation but not before the indoor humidity reaches an acceptable level. I installed a digital hygrometer on each floor to monitor humidity levels. At this time it is hovering around 85% and the current and forecasted weather is not going to help much. I am going to look at renting an industrial dehumidifier to help speed things along.

My new shop at the River House has a single lally column located in the middle. Initially, I thought this would be highly undesirable. When I laid out my shop equipment, however, it became apparent that this would be the perfect means for dropping power to the machines which will be centrally located. Today, I built a square column around the round one and installed four 120V outlets and four 240V outlets upon it which will be used to power my table saw, bandsaw, jointer/planar, and router table with several spares. The base of the column and floor molding through the basement is built out of a rice hull-based product that is impervious to water. Should the basement ever flood, we can sustain 5-1/2″ of water before the drywall or plywood becomes exposed.

For 15 minutes this afternoon, 3/8″ hail fell in Concord combined with torrential rain. At the time, I was parked under a tree which help minimize the impact of the ice chunks hitting my car. Driving was briefly treacherous on the frozen ball bearings but they melted quickly leaving little more than dismay behind. Hail in June where we live is a pretty good validation of climate change.

All that remains to be done before I can move into my new shop is the painting of the ceiling. This can happen in a few more days when the plaster has completely dried. In the meantime, I am taking care of a few construction details. Pictured above is an “L” shaped box I built to protect the geothermal water lines which run from that foundation wall to the mechanical room. The red light shown dangling in the upper left-hand corner is used to signal when my dust collector bin is full. It will get affixed to the wall or ceiling once the painting has been completed.

The NFCT extends for 740 miles across contiguous rivers, streams, and lakes, following Native American travel routes from Old Forge, New York, through Vermont, Québec, and New Hampshire, to Fort Kent, Maine. In addition to being a paddling route, the Trail celebrates the history of the Northern Forest. The Trail was officially completed in Spring 2006, with thirteen mapped contiguous sections offering campsites, portage routes, trail signs, and access points along the entire route. This photo taken near the western terminus was shared by my nephew, Gabriel, who is paddling a portion of the trail with his girlfriend. I don’t know all the details of the trip but I believe he will be meeting up with my sister-in-law Susan when they reach North Hero, VT which is 170 miles into the journey.

Purple Loosestrife is a hardy, aggressive, non-native wetland invader. This herbaceous, ornamental perennial was first documented in the 19th century and it is likely purple Loosestrife was introduced either accidentally in ship ballast water or intentionally as a colorful garden ornamental. While it may not be a welcomed addition to the native ecosystem, it does make for a very attractive photography subject. I passed this field every day on my work commute for the last 18 years and have watched the Loosestrife continue to expand its footprint.

Concord has its own municipal power and light company, unlike most towns and cities in Massachusetts. Followers of this blog may recall my rants about the abysmally slow and poor service provided by most of the utilities that have served us in the past; Verizon (phone), Comcast (TV and internet), and National Grid (gas). With the Concord Municipal Light Plant, the story could not be more different; they provide the best service of any utility we have ever used by a country mile. Today, they proactively installed a new utility pole having determined the old one was approaching its end of life. In response to a request I made while talking to them a few weeks ago, they relocated the new pole far from the corner of the driveway where the old one obstructed access, especially for larger vehicles. The new pole is pictured at the back of the truck on the right and the old one next to the traffic cone. With the new pole location established, we can now begin the work necessary to bury our electrical, water, and other utilities. The old pole will eventually be removed when the telephone company eventually gets around to moving their wires to the new one. I won’t be holding my breath waiting for this to happen.

It has taken months and months for Jeanine and me to find interior doors for the new house. Door installation is scheduled to start in a few weeks, and the deadline has helped us make a decision. Pictured here are the doors that will be used for the bedrooms and offices. A plain slab version from the same collection will be used for the bathrooms, closets, and in the basement. We have specified concealed hinges and European-style magnetic door latches (no strike plates or protruding latch bolts). Still remaining to be selected is the bypass closet door in one bedroom and the fire-rated door between the house and garage.

Every day, I make the 2-mile commute from the Road House to the River House to check on progress and perform work, often multiple times per day. On each trip, I pass a lovely field where about a dozen cows hang out and graze. These are perhaps the happiest and healthiest cows I have ever seen. I have enjoyed watching them grow over the last two years and will be sad when they are replaced. I stopped by to say hello and grab some photos this afternoon. I needed a break from kitchen cabinet design which I have been working on for the last few days.

Jeanine had a clever idea for creating an indented area on the River House siding in which to display our street number. After looking through the low-quality or ridiculously expensive off-the-shelf options, I decided to design them myself and have asked Maya to print them at Formlabs on one of their large format 3D printers. Each digit is 12″ tall and 1″ thick with an integrated standoff and fastening stud.

I also completed the design of the stair stringers we will be using for our floating staircase. The original plan was to use a custom solution from a company called ViewRail. At $10K per flight (4 flights needed) that was a rather expensive solution. Next, I had the project quoted by a local welder with great reviews for this type of work. His price worked out to $6K per flight. Finally, I decide to use my own design and a local laser cutter service for a solution that will cost $3K per flight. Each flight will use four stringers made from 3/8″ thick steel plate. Two plates will be sandwiched around an LVL 2×4 for each of the two stringers. Laser cutting will provide virtually identical parts with perfect angles and dimensions eliminating the need for any means to level the treads and saving a ton of time during installation. I included features in the stringer to make them easy to hang and also to capture the treads with minimal hardware. The grooves shown on the back of the treads will engage with tongues cut into the stringers. The final execution will use properly placed holes to capture the tongues rather than the long slot for a cleaner look.

In a few weeks, it will be time to excavate our current driveway to bring in a new water line from the street. Concord requires this of any new construction on an existing site where the water main is older than 50 years. With the number of trees on our property, the driveway is the only path that is feasible. As long as we are forced to excavate, we will also have the power, fiber optic, cable, and phone lines buried. Since we have added an attached garage that will replace the existing garage/carport, it will be necessary to reroute the end of the driveway as well. In doing so, we are required to make no net change to the total surface area of the driveway to comply with requirements established by the Natural Resources Commission. I spent several hours today laying out the new driveway (red paint line) which will include a turn around area that also serves as a parking for two cars. I established the contours by driving my car through every scenario to ensure that an easy turnaround would be possible from any parking position. Later I mapped the curves to my computer model of the property so I could calculate the surface area of the new paved surface for comparison to the old. Fortunately, we will be under the limit.