At the age of 100-1/2, Marguerite died on September 21, 2017 and her funeral was September 27. May she rest in peace. Marguerite was my son-in-law’s only surviving grandparent and he attended her funeral this week in western Iowa. I continued work on the cabin’s property cleanup and began “repointing” the nearly 80-year-old stone foundation.
You can learn how to do almost anything on YouTube.com, including “repointing.” According to Wikipedia, “Repointing is the process of renewing the pointing, which is the external part of mortar joints, in masonry construction.” I watched a This Old House video and then drove to Home Depot to buy the necessary supplies.
Spackling and repointing are similar in my opinion. You are filling in gaps or holes with a compound and smoothing that compound out so it blends in. I think it turned out pretty well for my first time at repointing. Doing the work myself saved a lot of money by not having to hire a stone mason to perform the tedious work and it was rewarding to know I could do make the stone foundation secure again.
Demolition exposes many nails and other potentially dangerous elements. Another nail made its presence known this week, this time to my son-in-law. He was working alone on the second story demo when he stepped on a nail and it went through his boot and into the bottom of his foot. After applying first aid, he went back to work for several more hours but he too wondered, like me last week, when was his last tetanus shot?
As Highway 34 is only open on a limited basis beginning October 2nd, we worked hard and fast to try to accomplish as much as we could this week. We finished tearing down the second story section of the cabin addition, tarped a portion of the roof and boarded up part of the original cabin. Work will slow now as the weather changes and the road closure restricts our access.
Much work remains but we are making progress and who could ask for a better working environment than in the Roosevelt National Forest in Glen Haven, Colorado.