23) Roofing, Windows, Bridge & Time - November '17
Construction moved along quickly in November, the crew worked late into the evening to finish shingling the roof:
The onsite lift made things a lot easier and safer, still it was pretty nerve-wracking to see them up top:
Dave & Sean install the front windows:
Framing up the hot tub room:
Footbridge
I built this footbridge over the stream using waste wood from the dumpster. Cut-off trusses and end cuts from the trim. The pressure-treated 2"x4"s for the decking were purchased from the lumber yard, at a total cost of about $150. Not too bad for a bridge that you can drive a small tractor over.
The bridge connects to a trail that leads to the Kedron Valley Inn's pond. Guests of the SunCottage will have a pond pass allowing them full access to the beach, the float, and lounge chairs, it's practically like St. Tropez in Vermont!
Sandial
This is the Sandial. Just a test for something we hope to expand on in 2018. Who needs a clock when you can tell the time with a sun shadow? This sundial was made with road sand, leftover 2" x 4"s and an old curtain rod. Each board marks a different hour, when the sun's shadow crosses it, that's the time. You can see in the photo that this shot was taken about 3:45 pm in the afternoon. It also must be sometime in November, the shadow is so long.
The sun casts a short shadow in the warmer months, the shortest one on June 21st, of course, the summer solstice. In the winter it's long, as the sun goes south. Around Christmas, (December 21st to be exact) it goes as low as it can go. What's interesting is how much it changes. On that least sunny day of the year, the sun is a low 22° above the horizon. In the summer, it's actually more than 4 times higher. About 87° above the horizon in our part of Vermont.
Hey, it's the SunCottage, it's key to know all about what that burning ball of fire in the sky moves and how it affects us!
One last thing as I drone on about the rising and lowering sun. Do you notice how two boards are close together just to the left of the vertical rod? One marks 12 noon Eastern Standard Time. The other marks solar noon; the REAL noon for South Woodstock, when the sun is at the highest point in the sky. Why are there two noons? Because of 19th century railroad barons. Those are the guys that invented time zones. They broke the globe into 24 'zones' that would all share the same time. Four of them cross the continental United States. New England is in the Eastern Time Zone. And your watch will say it's noon whether you're in eastern Maine or Western Michigan. Same time for everyone in the zone. But the truth of the matter is that noon is different for every location on the east-west access. Think about it: the sun comes up first in Maine and last out on the western side of the time zone, in fact about an hour later! Anyhow, that one out-of-place board marks the true noon in South Woodstock, somewhere between 12 and 1pm. I suppose you could tell your longitude by where it falls, but I think I've gone on long enough.
