February 28th, 2020 Leap Year Week

The last week of February turned out to be very nice. Not much for rain until late Friday, very little cold or wind. Great working weather. The week started off pretty easy, but got a lot harder.

On Monday morning the Structural and Plumbing Inspector came out to look a under house plumbing and sub-floor frame jobs, which were the last of the foundation phase of the Farmhouse build. He gave us a bit of advice and told us about a few places where work was still needed. But he passed our inspection, allowing us to begin the next phase of building.

It took the rest of the day to order the parts for the next bit. The best price we could find on floor boards was at Home Depot at around $850, about half of Parr Lumber, two thirds of Lowes best price. The insulation came from a Craig's List warehouse vendor who sold us what we needed for $950.  All totaled we paid $1800 for what might have cost us $3100 and saved another two hundred by using our big trailer to pick the stuff up. This hit the fifty-percent goal while hitting one hundred percent of expectations. We moved everything to the home site on Tuesday.

On Wednesday morning we tore into the short list of work the Building Inspector had given us. We added some vents to the foundation and put in a Radon removal pipe under the moisture barrier. It took all morning but left the rest of the day to try and get some floor boards down.

Because of the rain we are pulling a large plastic cover over the entire floor to keep the floor boards and insulation as dry as we can until the roof is put on. Wednesday we got the first four foot course in place by about five in the afternoon. We are putting the insulation in as each floor board covers it up. Doing it this way allows us to get the whole job done in one single pass. Wednesday had pretty well exhausted us both. The heavy lifting and constant climbing around wore us out.

Thursday morning we had scheduled a trip into town for doctor's visits, egg selling, and grocery shopping. Despite our intention to get home and put down more flooring in the afternoon it seemed we were too tired out to go back to work. We took a ride up the Banks-Vernonia Trail instead.

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The Banks-Vernonia State Trail is twenty-one miles long and runs from Banks (about three miles South of us), over an old timber railroad bed, through the Coastal foothills, to Vernonia (about eighteen miles north of the Farm). Some days we use the Trail to ride into Banks for supplies. It's only three miles into town and the Trail doesn't cross any automobile traffic at all. But most days we ride North toward the  Buxton Trailhead.

Leaving Manning we go out onto the
Prairie in full sun.

The Banks-Vernonia Trail doesn't cross traffic much. There is a busy street crossing at Manning, one gravel road crossing between there and Buxton,  and one road crossing at Buxton. But you won't see much automobile traffic until you reach Top Hill Trailhead and have to cross Highway 47.

Once you start uphill toward Buxton the climb is pretty steady. We have e-bikes, so climbing hills is no more difficult than riding on flat ground. We used the batteries hard, trying to keep from working our sore muscles. It was a very happy trip and as we climbed the 800 feet it got colder at nearly every landmark.

We brought light coats and winter gloves but had stowed them in our bikes' carriers. At the Farm it was sunny and about sixty degrees. For Oregonians this is shirt sleeve weather.

At the five and one-half mile marker the warmth was broken up a bit with cool zones coming at random. Once you cross the Manning-Buxton Road the trail turns shady and you enter fairly dense forest.

A nearly perfect day on The Banks-Vernonia Trail

Winter is usually cold in the shade, but we were riding without coats and it was very nice where the sun shone through the trees.

Crossing the road from Manning to Buxton
you begin to climb up to Stubb Stewert State Park.

The air alternated between Oregon Spring warmth and late Winter chill.

This is called the Hampton Turn.
There's a picnic bench on the trail at the turn.

Near the Buxton Trailhead while riding North there is a fork in the road.
The right side is the Horse Trail leading down to the valley below the Tressel.
The left side takes you across the Tressel.

The Tressel is about six feet wide.
Meeting oncoming bicycle traffic means slowing down.

The Tressel is at the Buxton Trailhead.
A wonderful place to go.

Under the Tressel is a nice semi-private picnic area.
The walk down is steep, but worth the climb back up.
The climb down is not for people with limited strength.

Just up from Buxton Trailhead we entered
what we callthe Land of the Giants.

       

Stubb Stewert State Park is a nice place
to turn back for home.

Headed back from Stubb Stewert into a Birch grove.

By the time we got to LL Stubb Stewert State Park we had already stopped to put on coats and gloves, but it was still quite cold in the shade. We turned at the crossing for home and warmer weather. A large dose of hot tub therapy, a few beers, some dinner, and an early bed time worked well for fixing what was wrong with us. On Friday we got two more courses of flooring and insulation put down without wrecking ourselves.

The end of our dry weather came in at around four on Friday, so we covered the house up and are waiting for clear weather to return.

The weather outlook is a rainy Saturday and a return to drier weather by Monday. We are crossing our fingers that we can finish the floor by Tuesday and begin buying parts to put up the Farmhouse' walls.