Not really meeting flue rules

Did some more sealing. Also arranged the door jamb. The bricks up against where the jamb goes aren’t in a straight line so I had to get a bit creative with the planer. There is a beautiful carpet of shavings.

I went and bought a chimney flue and the thing that sits on the roof to keep it water tight. These cost me $116.20, I’ve got to enter this into the table at some point. And $8.90 from ages back for second bag of lining nails.

Mid week shack work

Pinched 20 minutes or so last night, and the same length this morning before the dentist. Sealing.

Some more lined

More of the same. It’s looking good, and not too far away from completely lined up outside.

I did well this weekend to resist the allure of track and stayed on task. I was up with the sunrise this morning, grabbing hours wherever I could. Yesterday I did ok, but we were up till 4 playing cards so I slept in till 12.

A bit lined

The Mira turned packhorse as I transported a bunch of the lining timbers up to the shack.

Lined some of the roof underhang. Got a bunch of sawdust in my eye.

A differential of 1.7

It was 9.7 degrees inside and 8 degrees outside. That's not a great result.

Fitted window number 2 and tacked in window number 1.

519 - stop right there

And that was the bricklaying. About an hour and a half tidied it up, under the windows. The bricks I laid today look a bit crazy, but that's in keeping with the general feel. Pleased.

I transferred the wood that I'll use to tidy up the top row of bricks up from the shed. It was the same wood that I used for the boxing for the foundation, a strong sense of connection there.

Yesterday I finished scraping out the old putty and fitted the new pane. Also changed the hinge position so that I'll get more opening capability out of the window. Now I just have to wait 2-6 weeks until I can paint the putty.

I probably should plan what my next steps will be this week, otherwise I'll probably spend every free few minutes doing more fun things like track or picture frames. Next weekend promises to be a pretty open time for more work. Before then I can:

• Fit window #1
• Fit window #2
• Pack cavity between bricks and roof with batts.

And then on the weekend:

• Fix the roof
• Seal up the cavity and ends.

That means that all I need to do to finish is organise the electricity, batt it, line it, cut a hole for the chimney, lay my fire base (maybe bricks or clay poured wet), assemble the fire, hang the door, spray the bricks with a sealant. It doesn't seem that there's too much to do.

+ 31

I want to say all of the bricklaying is done, but I can't quite. All of the regular bricks are laid, including an extra layer on the ends that I hadn't intended on, but it looked silly without. I need to lay the little bricks under the windows, shouldn't take too long.

An interesting day really. I laid some bricks earlyish in the morning. Then I headed for church, but the lack of cars prompted me to remember that they were on camp, so no church.

Went to Mitre10 where I picked up a couple of bags of mortar sand - I didn't know where I was going to source them from on a Sunday, and had just run out of sand. I also bought a wheel for the hand grinder, but I'm not going to charge that to the expenses because it is a general tool. I'm going to use that thing to rip out my chimney hole when the time comes. I bought some nails for the lining from Hammer Hardware who previously had been good to me on nail prices.

$20.90 for nails and sand needs to go on the expenses.

Returned home, had a sleep then got into it. Dropped a brick and it smashed. Steve Connor stopped by. I just go for rides around that track every now and again. It's fun now. Just imagine what the track will be like when it is good.

+ 16

I wasn't feeling great so the big Saturday didn't really eventuate. Put some side walls on the jump and built it up a bit.

The first tears were shed on the the track as Rhonda and Phil's kids had some difficulties. Oh yeah, and we timed laps! I think 20 seconds will be the measure of someone with some riding ability, but the track will probably change a heap. I had a few low 21s and a 20.9. I spent a long time thinking about how I could modify a mouse to act as a timing device on a pressure pad linked up to a computer.

Man I hurt my finger day before yesterday. It is my right index finger, the one I use to poke the mortar to where it should be. The cement has burned through all of my skin.

458

After his laughter subsided, “I told you so” would probably have been Paul’s first words, had he been there at the time. The scaffolding structure to allow me to lay the high bricks consists of a sawhorse. I would occasionally put some weight onto the work table to pick up the next brick. I put too much weight on.

39 was the second highest day total, I believe. Paul came out about 1. We had both had enough at close of play, probably about half an hour too much by both accounts. Not even multiple toast could alleviate that feeling.

I got off to a hot start about 8 in the morning. I began by strating where the bottle bricks would go, and changed my original plan. I laid 16 bricks before I ran out of sand. Considered doing other jobs like the roof or lining, but knew I would lose my momentum if I did that. Raced down to Woodend and picked up a 3/4 bin of sand – hopefully all I’ll need.

I pulled down the bits of wood that were allowing me to string up the lines of bricks for straightness purposes. Good to get them out of the way, they were such a nuisance.

I’d been avoiding bricking in around the windows but armed with knowledge from the Justin visit, put a heavy layer of dpc down and got amongst it.

Paul reckoned I got 3 feet of air off the jump. Video evidence suggested otherwise. What a let down. I felt like I was flying.

Tomorrow could be the last day of bricklaying.

419

Shacktastic!

Work for the day began at about 4.40 after I returned from work. Paul came out and we laid a swift 9 before it was kind of getting dark. We watched the end of Rocky that we had begun some time ago, and were both better for the experience.

I went out again in the dark and dug a wheelbarrow load of stuff to make my start/finish ramp.