This Just Floored Me…

June 23, 2016

Progress on the shed continues at a slow pace.  Charming assures me that putting in the concrete piers and floor joists were the most time-consuming and difficult parts of the building process.  Last week, we got the sub-flooring put down.  That part went fairly fast as each sheet of flooring measured 4’x8’.  We had 12 sheets to put down, with several having to be sawn in half because the sheets needed to be staggered in order to make the floor stronger. 

After the first sheet had been nailed into place, I used the back of a lawn chair as my ladder and hauled my luxury-sized butt up onto the floor to play the part of “Carpenter’s Helper”.  We lifted each sheet into place and then Charming fastened them down with the nail gun.  Just so you know, a nail gun has “collated” nails that are held together in a plastic casing.  As each nail is shot from the nail gun into the board, tiny pieces of plastic fly into the air and land just about every where.  Because Charming had forgotten to bring knee pads, the pieces of plastic would jab into his poor little knees as he worked across the floor. 

Now, I should mention that I’m a really bad “helper” unless I’m constantly kept busy.  If there’s much down time during a farm project, I get bored and my mind will wander to other things like knitting designs, recipes, or I’ll wander off to see if there are any wild herbs or berries growing nearby.  In this particular instance, I fought the urge to go to La-La-Land and instead decided to make the task seem a bit more important than was really the case.  I envisioned myself as a surgical nurse (named Nurse Goodbody) performing the vital function of suctioning away blood while the good looking and extremely talented surgeon (Dr. Charming, of course) performed a critical life-saving heart surgery (ummmm…nailing the flooring into place).  I took every opportunity to quickly sneak my broom into Charming’s personal space whenever the plastic fell anywhere near his knees (often to the point of him frowning and giving me “the look” when I’d accidentally hit his belly with the broom) to quickly whisk away those bits of plastic just before he put his bare knees on them.  (I guess this kind of imagined drama is what I get for watching too many back episodes of “Grey’s Anatomy” at the end of a long day at the farm.)  In the end, Charming sweetly thanked me for helping him and for keeping his knees injury-free.  The bonus was that, when we were finished, we could’ve eaten off the floor of the shed.  It was just that clean!

Next time we go to the farm, we’ll build the walls of the shed.  We did get one wall assembled yesterday.  However, due to a weather forecast of high winds and heavy rain we decided it would be wiser to wait until we had another wall completed before we attached them to the floor.  By next week, we’re hoping to have the four walls up so we (actually he) can proceed to build the 2^nd floor.  (I can barely reach to the top shelf of my kitchen cabinets without getting a bit loopy.)  As I’ve said, progress is slow, but we’re getting used to the routine and little by little things are falling into place.  The time I’m spending with Charming on the farm is proving to be the absolute best time of my life!

Charming nails the first sheet of flooring into place.

First row of floor is finished!

Second row of floor is finished!  Half way there!

Third row is finished! (Note my ladder/chair in the center background.)

Ta Da!  Flooring is finished!

My brother, Jeff, gave me some snapdragons at Easter...

...these are a couple of them at home on the farm.  So colorful and pretty!

The Lovely Song of the Cicada…

June 7, 2016

As we alighted from the truck upon arrival at the farm this past week, Charming and I noticed the familiar high-pitched song of the cicada.  It was extremely loud and it was everywhere.  Poor little Jax spent most of his visit just sitting around, looking up into the trees and the surrounding woods with a confused look on his face.  He’s young, so he doesn’t understand that locusts emerge from the earth on a regular schedule. This is the first (and most likely the only) time he will hear the cicadas. 

What Charming and I didn’t understand was why we had cicadas at the farm and not at our current house when there is only about ninety miles between the two locations.  Hmmmmm…so as soon as we returned home from the farm I did some research to see what I could learn about them.

I found out that cicadas live all over the world in any place that has a relatively warm climate.  So we in America have them almost everywhere.  As I understand it, there are currently fifteen “broods” (or groups) distributed throughout America.  Each brood emerges from the ground at different times, every thirteen or seventeen years, depending on which brood they belong to.  (For instance, Brood V in West Virginia emerged in 2016, while Brood II in Virginia last emerged in 2013.) 

When the cicadas are above-ground, they lay eggs in the crevices between the bark on trees.  The eggs hatch and the nymphs fall to the ground and burrow to a depth of up to eight feet.  They live underground, creating chambers close to the roots of trees, where they feed on the tree’s sap until it is time for them to dig exit tunnels to the top of the ground.  After they surface, they attach themselves to tree trunks where they shed their papery brown shells and emerge as fully grown cicadas.  The males sing their song to attract females for the mating ritual.  Then the female lays her eggs and the cycle continues to repeat itself.

While Charming and I were working on the shed, I lost count of the number of those empty brown cicada shells I knocked off of the structure.  (I know that it’s fine to leave them where they are, but I find them…well….icky…and would like to get rid of them as soon as possible.)  Since Charming, Jax, and I spend most of our time outside when we’re at the farm, I’m hoping that the event will be over and done with by the next time we go back.  I love nature as much as the next tree hugger, but a little of the cicada song goes a long, long way.

This husk clings to a 2"x6" after the cicada has emerged.

Empty husks fell from trees into the holes that were dug for shed piers.

 

Close-up photo of Charming letting the cicada crawl on his wrist...ick!

The cicada emerges!

 

Jax in a flat-out run...he comes running whenever we start the truck or tractor.