Worked In the Dark This Evening

In anticipation of lots of rain and bad weather this weekend, I put in a tiny bit of work this evening in the dark. It wasn't a lot, but it was better than letting the weekend be a bust. The tractor has headlights and I had a flashlight, so I went out to the house a little bit after dinner and got some work done.

One of the garbage bags that I had covering a vent on the roof had blown off, so I went on the roof and re-covered that to keep the rain out. I really don't have to cover those chimneys and vents, but I prefer to keep as much weather out of the house as possible, so I covered them.
I got on the tractor, turned the headlights on and started moving dirt behind the garage. Some of the insulation I had put up last weekend had been moved around in the wind, so I had to dig out gravel and/or dirt and get the insulation back into position like I wanted, and then I rebraced them.

I moved dirt from the excavation hill (the one from the original excavation in May) to the back of the garage. If I'd had more insulation up on the wall, I would've put a lot more dirt in place, but without the insulation, there's a limit to how much dirt I can get up there so I quit.I might've put more insulation up this evening, but it was dark and knowing that bad weather is in store and that I'll likely be working by myself, I didn't feel I wanted to work on fixing an insulation job in bad weather by myself if there were any problems with it (caused by wind). Working with the insulation is bad enough on your own, but I don't even want to think about trying to work with it in bad weather. And the stuff is expensive so I don't want to risk having it damaged in the wind. If it were up, I'd have to go rebrace and refit if there were wind.

Anyway, long story short is that I limited myself to moving a little bit of dirt, and doing some bracing of insulation to hold it tightly against the wall until I can berm some more. Once the dirt is up at least 4 feet, the insulation is usually fine as long as the upper portion is braced so the wind wont tear it in half.

Last weekend, I bought some cheap 2x4 lumber to use as bracing. I've got a couple of old t-posts, some tree limbs and other scrap lumber that I've been using as bracing. It seems to work.
If I had a couple more people to work with, I'd have the entire wall insulated and probably bermed halfway up. If I had 2 more people working with me, they could be putting the insulation in place and holding it there while I get dirt up on it.

I sure wish I had a couple more helpers. Josh called a couple of nights ago and wants to work again. Unfortunately, the weather will likely prohibit that this weekend. The last forecast I saw was for rain and/or snow both Saturday and Sunday. There is a chance that we might get a break on Sunday. Josh is a decent worker, but if I only had a second Josh to work with him, that would be great.