Working Toward the Wood Stove Installation

Last weekend we worked on the base & walls for the wood stove. We also went to a great party, but more about that later.  When we bought the river rock for the walls, we also purchased the stone for the base. Our inside project list for Saturday & Sunday was to set the base stones & finish the first three steps of wall preparation. Here are pics of what we did...

A couple weeks ago, Steve built the base in the corner of the new living area.

Saturday morning, we stapled tar paper on the walls...



The next step was to nail mesh screening to the tar paper. This helps the mortar stick to the wall, which is the next step.

Almost finished with the left wall.







Setting the bottom stone before mixing the mortar. As you can see, we had one more little spot on the wall to finish, too.
We put down tar paper under the stone, but we don't think it was really necessary.

The stone is set in mortar. This weekend we will fill in the joints with more mortar & start putting the river rock on the walls. (The dark spot on the wall is the mortar drying) Steve will be making a wood trim around the base to finish it off.

It was fun putting the mortar on the walls. Fun in a sloppy, messy way. Kind of like playing in the mud. Not as much  fun was lifting the heavy stones & bags of mortar.
I started laying out all the river rock by color (tan, brown, reddish,  light gray, dark gray & black) so we can decide how we want to place them. We have a piece of Styrofoam on the floor the size of the wall & thought we might place them there first to see how we like it. I think it will be fun once we get a few up. After the rock is in place, we will use a large pastry bag to fill in between the rock. The guys at Center Stove & Fireplace will be coming the week after this to install the stove. Hope we get it all done. If not, we can always fill in between the rock when the wood stove is in. Just won't be as easy to work around it.
We have been talking about getting this done for three years. It is so fulfilling (and exciting!) to be getting to this point.

Moving to the outside...I finished (I hope) digging the rest of the potatoes. I'll still go out once more & dig around to make sure, but we have plenty stored for this winter now. I also dug a dozen or so more leeks & am making potato leek soup in the crock pot as I write. It smells really good too :-).

On Saturday, Steve's brother Joe & wife Linda stopped in to see us & the progress we've made. It was two years ago that they were there last & things have changed a lot! Going from having a sawdust toilet to having a fully equipped bathroom is the biggest thing. We gave them the tour & sat around & talked until it was time for them to go out to eat for Sweetest Day. I didn't even know it was Sweetest Day. Guess that comes from not watching tv anymore. We did go out though. The new radio station in town had a fund raising party that was great! WDRT in Viroqua. The only non-commercial, independant radio station in Wisconsin's Driftless region, seven years in the making. They had two bands, food & beer. The first band was bluegrass. The second was a disco band. I have never been to a party where almost everyone was dancing, but now I have! Young, old, middle-aged...all to disco music. Here are some pics...

Evergreen Grass Band





John from The Driftless Cafe helping serve food from his restaurant.

The VO5  Disco Band from Madison

We are already looking forward to next years' party. Thanks WRDT!

I'll leave you with a new picture of granddaughter Jaelyn waking up from her nap. I was lucky enough to go there for a visit last week. She is crawling now & is a cuddly little sweetheart.

Have a great week!