Happy Birthday Oceana

Updated 3/6 to add pictures

Move complete, time to unpack

Last week we finished moving the remainder of our stuff from our Loxahatchee house up to Lake Byrd. Also, my knee swelled up like a balloon from a skin infection. That was no fun! My knee is back to normal now, which is great. After the container arrived, I spent the next few days clearing boxes and supplies from the shop (which acted like a holding area) and loading them into nice organized racks in the container. This freed up much needed shop space. It also freed up the small room in the front of the shop that we call the craft room.

Washer connections

With the craft room more open, one of the first projects was to get the washer and dryer online. There was never a proper set up for a washer or dryer at the house. The original washer was connected to a garden hose and drained into the yard. Yeah, we’re going to redo that. The first step was to level out the floor. The craft room appears to be the original part of the structure and the concrete appears to have been done at two separate times. The first part of the concrete floor was poured for a footing for the walls. This concrete extends into the room by about 8″ around the perimeter of the room. Then, at some point later, more concrete was poured in the center of the room stopping at the footing. However, this concrete is not level/flush with the footing concrete. So to get the stacked washer dryer to sit level, I needed to pour some more self leveling concrete. The whole perimeter really needs to be done, but because the washer/dryer was priority, I only poured the area where the machine sits.

Hooking up the mechanicals

Once the self leveling concrete was placed, I made a supplies run. I picked up the necessary parts to get everything hooked up. I got the washer box installed which is the plumbing part that contains the 2 water valves and where the drain goes. We don’t have hot water out there yet, so for now I hooked up the cold water line. Also, there’s no drains out there yet. So I ran the drain into a 5 gallon bucket that I buried into the sand and then drilled holes into. Properly running the drains is going to be a bit of work and I’m not quite ready to tackle that project yet. Next, I installed an outlet to plug the dryer in. My dad had already pulled the wire for it, so that made it a bit easier. Lastly was the dryer vent. I got it installed and hooked the vent up. Time for a test run. Everything worked as expected and it was time to call it a night.

Duck pond filler

Another project was to get the duck pond set up with an automatic filler. This will keep the water level topped off and make it easy to refill it after it’s been drained for cleaning. After a bit of searching, I got a filler for cattle watering troughs. I figured if it can stand up to the abuse from cattle, it should be fine with the ducks. I also installed a hose bib inside the coop so that we can hose out the tub when it’s being cleaned. For the time being, the water is being supplied to the filler valve from a hose. A project for another day will be to trench over and run PVC pipe over to the coop. But that’s for another day.

Setting up the shop

I spent a bit of time getting the shop arranged and dialed in. I cleaned and oiled the cast iron tops on my tools and sharpened the knives on my jointer/planer machine. I also ended up having to re-dial in the sliding table on the tablesaw. This can be a very difficult process but it only ended up taking a few hours to get it working properly. Great. I’ll likely end up moving tools around again and again but for now, I’m happy with how everything is located.

Bee swarm traps

With the shop clean and functional, one of the first projects was to build some bee swarm traps. Last year we ended up with a hive of bees in the wall of the shop. Well they got there because their previous house was too small for all of the bees so the queen took half of the bees and moved out. In that case, the found the wall of the shop to be an optimal location The swarm traps are supposed to provided optimal locations for bees to relocate into when they’re on the hunt for a new home. This usually happens during and after the first major pollen flow of the spring, which for us, is happening now. That means swarm season is soon upon us and I wanted to be prepared. I ended up with 3 swarm traps and placed them in different areas around the property.

Happy Birthday Oceana

It’s Oceana’s birthday! Just before we moved, Oceana was getting started on some leather crafting. Unfortunately, that got put on hold as we moved but she’s about ready to get back into it. She learned that she needed a few/different supplies to work better and more efficiently. One of those items was a new mallet. I had let her borrow one of my woodworking mallets to get started but she found it slightly cumbersome. Since the shop is working again, I wound up making her two new mallets with different style heads and handles to see which she prefers. I turned the handles on the lathe and I also turned the head of one of the mallets on the lathe also. I applied some finish and they are ready for use. Happy birthday Oceana!

Odds and ends

We celebrated her birthday in Jupiter and her sister Isla was nice enough to come up from Miami with her husband. We shared a good meal and some good conversations. Our house is supposed to close today. We’ve already pre-signed all of the seller paperwork and the buyers will be sitting down at the closing attorney’s office today to sign their half of the paperwork. That’s exciting. That’s all for now. As always, thanks for following along our crazy adventure.

Update 3/6 – The house closing went through. It’s done! Finally.