Emmett Beeson's Blog

Its Electric. Burried Electric.

2013-04-27 21:18:38

It's about time for an upgrade, of the electric lines that run to our house, that is.

We have the original overhead wires from the street to the house that are over 60 years old.

They're
loosing the insulation on the lines and the cedar trees like to reach
down and mingle in the lines when they're heavy with snow each winter.

The house had two 60 amp meters and we felt it was time to upgrade those to a bigger service also.

Part
of the work to upgrade service and put the lines underground was to dig
a trench to place conduit to run the lines through.

We went to
the store and found a can of field marking paint, the kind used for
soccer fields and marked where we were going to dig. This was required
for the 800-dig-right service to mark where other utilities might be,
and was helpful for me to make sure I dug a straight trench.

I
was seriously tempted to draw funny faces elsewhere in the grass with
the paint, but was glad I didn't because that paint stuck around for
weeks!

We rented a walk behind trenching machine to dig the
trench. It was a lot of fun and even piled the dirt up along side the
trench for us. I regret not getting a picture of the trencher, it was
pretty neat.

With the trench dug to approx 30" deep (deeper than required), the conduit was placed down into the bottom.

We
decided to upgrade to a new 200A meter to insure we had enough power
for anything like additions to the house, heated pool, welder, or all
three. You know, in case we wanted to weld while standing inside a pool
inside our new addition.

We'll have to figure out how to fix up the siding where the old meter was.

Out
at the street was a sweeping 90* piece of conduit was placed and
readied for Ameren to pull the cable through up to the meter.

We filled back in the trench and waited for Ameren to come by.

When
they came they brought two trucks, one with the wire on big spools
(shown just over the top of the fence in the center) and one bucket
truck (shown just over the top of the fence to the left).

They
crew pulled the cable through the conduit in no time at all, and the
wire truck moved out of the way so the bucket truck could get closer to
the pole.

The worker in the truck drilled holes in the pole for brackets to support vertical conduit to run the length of the pole.

Once the brackets were in place, they added a couple of pieces of conduit up the pole, and ran the wire through them also.

Garrison
noticed the workers were wearing protective glasses so he went to get
his glasses too. It was sprinkling rain while the workers were here, so
Garrison also felt the need to get his umbrella.

Maeve Laughing

2013-03-25 21:38:28

This week Maeve started making a funny little laugh noise. Sometimes I think she does it just for attention! It's hard to believe she is 6.5 months old already, she's becoming so interactive. Sitting up in the past couple of weeks has made her such a happy girl, she can play with toys and be more a part of what is going on. With the plastic Easter eggs out she has found a new favorite toy too.

Since we haven't posted much of Maeve, or anything for that matter lately, we took this short video of her making her laugh noise today:

Welcome Maeve Elizabeth Beeson

2012-09-13 23:07:30

Born 9/12/12 at 1:07pm, weighing 7.12 lbs 21 inches long, Maeve is the little sister that Emmett and Garrison were hoping for!

We took tiny bottles of home made honey to the staff at the hospital who helped us welcome "our new honey".

2nd Annual Mud Pit

2012-08-05 20:52:45

It was full last fall taking Emmett through mud pit, but this year it was Garrison's turn!

In the lower part of the yard is a dirt area under a maple tree that turns to mud when it rains. This weekend it rained, and turned to mud. Garrison hopped onto his tractor and I onto mine, and we went to go play in the mud.

Emmett didn't want to get into the mud, and refused to go with either of us.

At one point, Emmett tip-toed down the yard and tried to walk through the mud, but slipped and fell and got mud all up his side from shoes to head. He got really upset, and stormed into the house crying, heading towards a shower.

Garrison and I drove through the mud as fast as we could. He's really good (especially at only 2 yrs old) at knowing to power-slide through the mud and steer correctly into a sliding turn!

I just know he and I are going to be upgrading from our red-neck 4-wheelers to actual 4 wheelers, I just can't wait!

(You can click on the image below for a full size (3.2MB) version).

Garrison Sings Working On The Railroad

2012-06-23 11:50:44

One of Garrison's new favorite songs is "I've been working on the railroad".

In the video below you can see him singing his version of the song in the car.

Easter Frogs!

2012-04-01 22:23:37

This weekend was the City Easter Egg Hunt. Mommy had to go in to work early in the morning to help set up, but daddy brought the boys with their baskets and ears for the hunt.

G was happy to find his first egg and dropped down to eat the contents. He was finally persuaded to grab a few more eggs before they were all snatched up by the record breaking crowd.

After Emmett's age group finished their hunt and Emmett found a small frog hopping in the field that had miraculously survived the stampede of 3-6 year olds. While showing it to Grumpy, daddy and Garrison the frog jumped out of Emmett's hand and hit G in the face then landed on his arm.

Garrison was surprised and freaked out. Mommy managed to snap some pictures of him trying to wave the frog off his arm.

What made it even more funny was that later in the day, while we were out on the patio at home daddy found a frog hiding above the slider on the basement between the door and the siding and was showing it to the boys and G wanted it on his arm. After he got to hold it and we let it go to rest he kept asking for it back to hold. Guess frog holding just has to be on his terms.

Garrison Girl Watching

2012-03-26 20:30:40

This afternoon when Chris got home Garrison was driving his tractor through the front yard to meet daddy in the driveway. I had walked out to the garage to see what the boys were up to, just in time to see G finish talking to daddy and get distracted by a teenaged girl out for a run. He was just driving behind the van when he caught sight of her and forgot to watch where he was going. I told Chris, "look he's girl watching." Then, we heard the tractor crash into the back of the van. I couldn't control my laughter. We heard him groaning because he had to back up to get unstuck before coming back around the car. Chris asked him if he got stuck, "yep." Boys!

Baby Bee #3

2012-03-01 20:54:00

Coming September 2012, our hive is growing, Baby Bee #3!

You're Not Doing It Right

2012-01-21 10:38:28

Garrison wanted to get himself a snack off the kitchen counter, so he grabbed the first thing he could find to climb up on.

First Snow of 2012

2012-01-14 12:54:13

The first snowfall of 2012 was this week, and the boys couldn't resist going out to play, even though it was only 18*F.

Garrison spun circles around in the yard on his tractor, requiring help getting back up to the house when his wheels spun and wouldn't grip the ground.

Emmett made snow balls and threw them at whoever was nearby!