Another beautiful day in middle Tennessee

It was supposed to rain all day but it turned out to be another gorgeous Tennessee spring day. I met with Silas Nolt, the Mennonite truss guy, out in Altamont, Tennessee (between Beersheba Springs and Coalmont... you just about can't get there from here)... it's like going back in time being around those Mennonites. I looked across the road from Silas Nolt's home/shop and there in a field of kid goats was a middle aged Mennonite woman dressed in an ankle length calico dress and nineteenth century-esque bonnet weed eating the fence row... surreal for sure.

Getting back to the trusses, Silas and I struck a deal and he's going to deliver the 33 trusses May 1st (6.5/12 roof pitch with a 10' X 10' X 6'2" room accessible by way of a fold up attic stairway... like hide-a-beds... designed to be uncomfortable so in laws won't stay more than three days ;-)). The May 1st date puts the pressure on me to "get-r-done" re laying the AAC block. Happily, I found out that Silas' father, Mennonite Bishop Nolt, is a part-time block mason and may be willing to help me get the first course laid level and square. The first course being level is critical so the rest of the blocks go up easily.

I talked to the plumber/electrician today... he's coming to set up the temporary electric pole Saturday morning. Thereafter he and I will put the drains in the gravel. I had a BRILLIANT idea this morning... rather than put the water lines under the slab and chance a leak sometime in the future... why not put the water lines in the attic where they would be accessible if there was ever a problem? I'm "conditioning" the air in the attic anyway so the temperature up there will be the same as in the house so if the pipes freeze so will Alexis and I.

I also discussed the details of stuccoing with my new friend Sonny Gonzales who has been a plasterer in Texas for 30 years before moving to Tennessee last year.

Here's a picture of David Musser finishing the leveling of the gravel... and a nice shot of Baxter's butt. Baxter is my "Cedar-Crest-Velvet-Eared-
Knucklehead"... his Mama was a promiscuous Red Bone Hound and his Daddy was an opportunistic Great Pyrenees therefore Baxter is a VERY LARGE (and sweet) dog (120#).