When I got to the site this morning at 8:03 AM, it was HOT! I knew it was going to be a scorcher and was glad that I had no hard physical work planned for the day. At one point in the afternoon, I was down below at a tile store. I had parked in deep shade and when I got into my car and turned it on, the dashboard thermometer read 101! Yikes!

The painters were already on site and had taped up the windows on the west and north side of the barn and were ready to start staining it.

The barn gets one coat of stain, then the battens go on, then it gets a second coat of stain.

Here is the first bit of stain. I liked it already—of course I already had the shed and water tank to see what the color looked like.

I walked down to the pond to see if I could find my helper, to tell him I was going to get myself a sandwich. I had sent him down the hill to weed-whack the road below the lower gate while it was still not too hot.

The road below the lower gate swings around the face of the dam and was covered with star thistle. I was afraid that if anyone had to drive down there, they might start a fire. Lucky I had him do that, because this morning (June 14th) the well company called me to tell me they would be there to work on the well below the dam.

Coming up the road on the way back, I took this picture of the barn.

Here is a view of our “Turtle Rock” looking north toward the place I took the last picture of it. I took this coming up the road from the pond. I keep meaning to post more pictures of the rest of the property, but when I am hiking down there, I am usually too hot and breathless to think of my camera.

You can see here how dry everything is now. We are very keen on the firescaping here—which involves concentric rings of special landscaping for fire protection around buildings. On this property, you can see why we worry about wild fires and keeping the grass around the buildings mowed during the dry season.

The painters finished the west side of the barn and moved around to the north side.

Meanwhile, I met with the HVAC guy to go over where the furnace, AC condenser, ducts etc. would go in the barn. Then we located the heat registers in the guest cottage.

After that, I looked at a sample the plaster had made up to show the profile of the stucco on the guest cottage. There has been some confusion about how the slab below the stucco would be finished, but I think we have and agreement on how we will handle it now. The stucco will not be put on until after all the drywall and interior trim is put on.

Later on in the afternoon, the painting contractor dropped by to check on his crew—which is headed by his son-in-law. He also put a coat of our very fancy water-based-low-VOC finish on the cedar siding on the guest cottage bay window. He says that we will probably have to do this annually, but it is only a small portion of the building—a Saturday afternoon’s work.

On Tuesday, the eaves and rafter-tails on the guest cottage had gotten their coat of stain. I took this picture of them, but because the color is so dark, it is hard to see the stain, it just looks like a deep shadow. Notice that by the time I took this picture, the painters had finished the north side of the barn and moved to the east side.

By the time they left at 4 PM, they had finished all but the south side. They will come Thursday to paint the fascia, and give the eves one more coat as well as finish the south side. Then Kai will start putting on the battens.

I did not leave until 5 PM and even though I drank at least a gallon of water, was so brain-dead, I was half way down the hill before I realized that I did not have my seatbelt buckled—completely unusual for me. I was just focused on getting home and into a cold shower! I will get better with the heat as the season goes on, but the first few days are hard.