May 27, 2004

Sometimes odd jobs take more time than I'd like, but they are just as necessary as the showy stuff. I started by installing the dimmer for the outside light, which dolesn't show well in this picture. It is black since I was unable to get a red dimmer. We are using a dimmer to control the brightness of the outside light and as a way to make it last longer.

The next project was actually on thse shop. In case you don't recognize what the picture shows I will tell you is is one wet hole under the finish room. Last night out of curosity I opened the crawl hole to see how things looked and was shocked to see almost 6 inches of water covering the floor. So I prepared tonight to wade into the water and get the sump pump hooked up. I was plesently surprised to find the water drained down below the surface of the gravel floor so used a shop vac to suck out the water in the sump tile. When I got down into the hole I found a small toad that had taken up residence, I trapped him in a bucket and escorted him outdoors. It was about a 10 minute job to connect the sump to the drain line I had installed last fall and everything checked out just fine when I plugged the sump in. This should eliminate the water problem here.

The next project was to assemble the new cement mixer we purchased a week ago. My plan is to mix concrete in small batches for the little projects that don't work well with the ready mix truck. They require a minimum 3-yard load, which is too much for the small projects we have planned. We hope to start with a stoop for the shed this weekend. You can see the five bags of portland cement behind it, I didn't take a picture of it but we got a 17 ton load of sand/rock mix so all we need is a clear day.

The last project is a brick planter that we have moved around the property several times. It was removed from the family room when we moved in and most recently has been under the window of the old shop office window. We intend to make it a permanent part of the shed as you can see inthe picture below. I need to lower it about 3 inches yet but wanted to place it here so we could decide how it looks. It gets one more row of brick on the top to finish if off.

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