June,
2005
½
A Roof Over Our Heads
This month saw the first of many roof panels being installed,
so we can now get a good idea of what the roof is going to look
like.
The roof is dull,
dark gray metal.
On approaching the house,
the dark gray roof with lighter colors below blends well with the
background:
nearer fields and trees appear as lighter colors,
and
above that the distant trees and mountains appear as very dark
green,
purple and gray.
The dull finish and low angle of the roof
means that none of our neighbors should be offended by a bright
spot of reflected sunlight.
In the winter,
special baffles will
keep snow on the roof
(rather than let it slide off)
so it should
blend into the scenery.
Of course,
we don't want the snow sliding off
onto our heads,
either!
Last month,
constructing a house was likened to assembling a
three dimensional jig-saw puzzle.
This becomes most apparent
when the pieces do not fit,
as has happened in two major cases.
First,
some of the steel framework was positioned 1¾"
off,
which left too small an opening for the windows that were
already ordered and paid for.
The subcontractor came back and
fixed this at his expense;
fortunately,
the move did not impact
any of the joists or trusses,
so it was relatively easy.
Second,
the arched
timbers apparently did not have the proper radius,
so they did
not intersect with other timbers as intended.
The architect came
up with a solution to this problem that notches into the arched
beam and adds a short section of timber,
mimicking the corbels on
the ends of the arched beams.
The solution can be implemented later
(after the roof is on);
for now,
check out Gary's
“artist's concept”.
Early in the stages of acquiring our property,
we considered a
conservation easement.
The
Gallatin Valley Land Trust
didn't seem interested at the time,
but this year we were
identified as an "outreach" property.
This interest
stemmed largely from a study that identified wildlife
corridors;
the yellow lines on one of their maps shows
corridors near us.
One corridor runs up Place Creek,
ending at the Carriage House.
We could have told them
this is a busy trail,
as at least 4 deer and 1 bear have
been hit where it crosses the highway in the past 10
months.
The tax benefits of an easement for
us are such that we probably won't consider one until we
sell the property;
meanwhile we will do what we can to
encourage the wildlife.
(Note:
we are near the top,
left
of center.)
One day we were standing talking to the workmen when a mother elk
and her baby wandered by.
This is highly unusual,
since
mothers keep their young well hidden for the first few
days of life.
This baby is probably less than 2 days old.
Gary had the camera,
so we got a telephoto
shot looking south south east from the Master Bedroom
Patio.
We expect to see many more elk babies in the near future
—
not to mention the possibility of deer,
bear,
and moose babies.
The dust behind the pickup on Kelly Canyon Road indicates that this
happened near the end of our only
(very short)
dry spell this Spring.
The
ceiling of the Master Bedroom will be the hemisphere of an
oblate spheroid.
Carpenter Paul
(facing the camera)
is well-educated in math (he has a degree in economics from
Stanford).
He had no problem understanding how to use
drawing
techniques
and a formula for locating the foci Gary gave him to create
sections for the elliptical trusses.
Paul then made improvements of his own
to the original concept to make the implementation practical.
An ellipse
(hence oblate spheroid)
has
interesting
properties
with respect to light and sound.
The hope is this unusual ceiling will create an indirect
lighting effect that makes the room appear to be an atrium.
More Pictures!
Arthur has been taking photos around the property now that Spring
is upon us.
A small portfolio of pictures is
here.
Wild flowers peak about the end of June,
but many are starting to
show themselves now,
so he got a lot of early flower shots.
Parting Shot
Pumpkin Graduates from Puppy Class
* !
* !
Correction !
* !
*
In last month's report,
we posted a picture of
our herd
of presumed cows.
A friend of ours (a retired
large animal vet) says they are definitely not
bovine.
He identified them as large female
ruminants,
possibly extremely large elk cows
but most likely moose cows.
Our new theory is
that the Christies hunted moose on the property
and left the waste at the site below the present
day Carriage House.
We'll check this out with
one of the Christies next time we meet them.
