Enclosure

We were up at the castle a few weeks ago and I am just getting to blogging about it now, somehow everything else kept getting moved to the top of my list, but I hate to have it hanging and there is another day trip planned this weekend, so let's do this.

This is our new gate at the road side. Our wonderful neighbor Thomas put this in for us so we don't have any more late night intruders lifting the chain and driving their small cars underneath it, you know who you are!

Apparently the rain fall has been steady in the Adirondacks cause as you can see the Upper Pond on the drive in is full again.

and here is a picture of the stucco all done. This is now the final exterior colors.
The black around the turret is just insulation, that will have stone work on it. Mike the Mason is going to do that in the srping now. The upper railing you see on the roof is just temporary for safey purposes. The details around the roof and windows were made from molds with the stucco. Good Job Stucco Men!

A week prior to this weekend, Andy and Tim McNally, a friend and local contractor, went up for a boys weekend and they started to frame all the window openings. Here you can see a few done. Andy said Tim taught him things he could do with his saw that he never knew could be done. It was a perfect weekend for Tim because Andy had discovered an issue with the window measurements a few days before and he was very frustrated and thinking he wouldn't be able to continue on with the time frame he set, but Tim's master skills kept them on time and in line! Thanks Tim.

So on the trip up Friday night, Andy, Rex and the dog were in his car hauling the trailer with supplies. I had my sister Bonnie, Ruby and her friend Sarah in my car. It was about 9:30pm and we were headed out of Watertown and had just turned on Rt. 3A, cutting through Fort Drum training area. It is very dark, no street lights and usually not alot of cars. Well, I am following the trailer and I start smelling rubber and then the girls say they can smell it. Then we look up and the trailer looks lop sided, then we hear a clud, clud, clud noise and realize the trailer has blown a tire. Upon inspection, it has also blown the axel and several other things. We are in what appears to be the middle of no where, on a Friday evening at now 10pm at night, nice! So, we find place to leave trailer, talk with some people who happen to be standing outside their house and they tell us the best option is to go back to Watertown, spend the night, and Tractor Supply opens at 8am! So, boys head to Watertown for night and we girls continue on to Tupper. 8am the boys are up, buy new trailer, go unload and reload old trailer and head to Tupper, arriving about 11am.

The girls and I head to castle in the morning and I am given the job, via phone, to pick off the dried cement along the top of the castle that spilled over from the roof. Sounds easy enough, but it was cold and raining and I got very wet, but I did it before the boss got there. This is a picture of the top with the trimmed off cement.

Here is Ruby and Sarah on the turret.

and here is my sister, Bonnie. She was given the job of taking the cracks and gaps goo and filling it in around all the window frames. Boy, does that stuff expand. She worked a half day and I took over with gaps and cracks. Practice makes a much better applicator and I was pretty proficient by the end of the day, as was Bonnie before she left to go gambling with our cousin.

Andy was going around and finishing up the frame work for the windows from the week before. Here he is cutting some wood.

and Rex was master measurer and cutter of the blue insulation for each window frame.

Here is what the insulated window openings looked like from the inside when we were done with them.

and by the time we left the next day, all the window were framed and insulated. Andy stayed until 9pm on Saturday to make up for the trailer mishap, but we stuck to the to do list and completed everything we were suppose to for the weekend.

on the way home we stopped and picked the old trailer up, placing it atop the new one, and brought it back to Syracuse to Weitsman's scrap metal yard. Made $50 on it!

maybe it was reliving the intial trauma of the whole trailer incident that had me delaying in this blog, but I feel better having gotten it all out now!