How I Got My First House - II

I do not have the dates on the photographs and might be off a year or so but I believe this is taken about a year after the previous photograph of me digging the supply and septic system hole and drain fields - the walls were laid by me, on foundation trenches of concrete and rebar that I had completed earlier.  All cement and concrete were mixed, using dry cement and sand/or sand-gravel as needed - I wheel-barrowed all the sand from a sand bank across the road - in the hand made mixing box above.  Once the block walls were completed I installed the floor beams,  a plywood floor (actually the sub-floor but the final floor comes later) and then a layer of one-side-sandfinished tar paper (today it would be Tyvec I suppose) to protect the flooring from the weather as I would be a good long time completing the upper story.  The cement block walls went relatively quickly but the concrete floors (with rebar) that I am working on above took an agonizingly long time.

From 'The Guardian'

In a hysterical world, Wikipedia is a ray of light – and that’s the truth 

It has been the butt of jokes for years, but the online encyclopedia represents mankind at its very best 

If you look for the most visited websites in the world, what you find is a list of sites owned by western and Chinese corporations, confirmation of the degree to which the web has been captured by the corporate world. There is, however, one single ray of light in this depressing list. For there, in fifth place, is the antithesis to all of that: a site that embodies the potential of the internet to harness the collective intelligence of humanity – Wikipedia.

The idea that a significant encyclopedia could be created by allowing anyone to create pages on any topic seemed pretty improbable way in 2001 when it was mooted by Jimmy Wales. That it could have evolved into the world’s leading general reference work – and the fifth most visited website on the planet – is truly extraordinary. 

Since its inception, it’s been the butt of jokes, a focus for academic ire and a victim of epistemological snobbery. I remember one moment when the vice-chancellor of a top university made a dismissive remark about Wikipedia, only to have a world-leading chemist in the audience icily retort that the pages on his particular arcane speciality were the most up-to-date summary currently available anywhere – because he wrote them. And this has been my experience; in specialist areas, Wikipedia pages are often curated by experts and are usually the best places to gain an informed and up-to-date overview.

To read the entire article please go to: 

https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/sep/02/in-hysterical-world-wikipedia-ray-of-light-truth

I use Wikipedia constantly and as you know if you follow this blog, I usually give reference to Wikipedia for various comments on my photographs - AND I also suggest that you donate a small amount to them from time to time.  This is simply from my own volition as I think they are so unusual.

Humid - and visible in the morning

How I Got My First House

Back in the early 60s after buying a small lot from my uncle - on Shady Beach Road - I purchased an ancient trailer in fair condition from a friend at work for a nominal fee and had it hauled to the lot.  It took a week or so to get the electric hooked up but we had already moved in with no electric, nor water, nor sewerage as we had no where else to go.  It was rough and awkward but it was ours and a native spring across the road on the old Glen Mor property, once owned by my grandfather and then another uncle, kept us well supplied with sweet drinking water.  I had knocked together a temporary outhouse that saw use for several months while I worked seemingly endless hours around sleep and my day job digging the drainage ditch from the trailer to the location for the septic tank, then digging the large hole for the tank, and the smaller drainage ditches for the tank.  My abortive attempt at selling life insurance had left us in major debt and my job barely covered day to day living expenses but several small (by corporation standards) local businesses went out of their way to give me a helping hand.  A concrete forms company near the town of Elkton supplied the septic tank.  I had gone there to inquire on price and told them that I was dead broke and could not pay cash (no Visa in those days) but that I did have a job - to which the owner replied that he could deliver it on the following day and that I could pay him over time.  He did deliver the next day and I did pay in full at the end of that month. I had also gone to Benjamin Lumber in North East, when the business was owned by Bob Benjamin himself and explained my financial difficulties, and was wondering if I could buy on time.  Without hesitation he had said just let me know what you need.  So when the tank was delivered I already had cast iron sewer pipe and other needs like lead wool to caulk the joints on hand so that in a couple of days the system was basically complete and attached to the trailer.  Still no water other than the spring but I would haul in large containers of water from the spring and then fill the flush toilet of the trailer with water from the containers.  Voila! We were in the flushing business.
p.s. Bob was paid second in the following month and we were friends until he died.  Thank you Bob, you were a gentleman indeed!

 So that's me above, about half way through shoveling out the hole for the septic tank.

Up In Flames - and I am going home away from toxic fumes from (more than likely) burning paint in the repair shop