8/11/19:
(Above: The fully caulked toilet and vanity sink in Jacobhouse. I’ll be neatening edges with a utility knife after the silicone has dried.)
Building Summary: Today, after some early-morning bovine shenanigans (more in commentary), I ventured to Jacobhouse and worked on the vanity sink. This consisted of my measuring / cutting / gluing the drain pipe together, placing the vanity over that drain pipe and the adjacent stub-ups, and then fastening the cabinet to the wall. After that, I procured the sink from its box, installed the faucet / drain into it while it was still free (recommended by vanity manual), caulked the top of the vanity at all four corners, and then situated the sink atop that caulking.
Padre arrived at that point and helped me cut / caulk / position a piece of aluminum angle stock to fill the gap between the vanity sink and the container wall. After he departed, I finished off the morning by caulking around the toilet, in the outdoor panel box (explained in commentary), and in a couple places beneath the utility hole*.
Commentary: This morning was filled with positive highlights at Jacobhouse. First and foremost, the vanity sink is placed and caulked, and I’m greatly anticipating tomorrow when I’ll have a fully operational sink as well as toilet in the bathroom. Another highlight would be the fact that Jacobhouse’s ‘weather seal’ has been completely restored. Not only did I find that I had accidentally left the sliding glass doors open the tiniest of a smidgen, I also sealed the base of the exterior panel box with silicone, so humid air would not be drawn through the electrical conduit into the interior panel box. Additionally, I injected some spare caulking into the amalgamated mass around the utility hole as a measure against unseen holes. That’s all aside from the point, though; I know the weather seal is present because whenever the A/C starts up, I hear a little bit of creaking at the container’s either end – result of the windows and doors being pulled inward at their frames. For some reason, it is reminiscent of being on a boat.
Oh, and I feel that I should also mention the third uniquity of my day down at Jacobhouse. Well… I say it was at Jacobhouse, but it was more ‘at the farm’. Indeed, the event occurred as Padre and I were performing our first beefer check of the day. I had my morning Diet Coke in hand, and Padre had just finished his own beverage. It was at about this point, we rounded the corner into the postern-most pasture and found a fat black cow that looked like she was either calving or had already calved.
We thought it was the former until I spotted a little dark form on the ground about fifty feet away. Riding over to it, we discovered that it was the newborn. It looked a little bit licked up and quite lively, but we were concerned that the mother was not caring for it (50 feet away is an abnormally long distance between a mother cow and her newborn calf less than an hour old). So, we commenced to run that mother back to her calf. She resisted at first as per typical ornery-cow fashion, but she eventually got near enough to the little one that she could see it.
The large, black beast grew quite excited at the sight of her calf, and Padre and I looked on as she dashed to its side. Only, as she drew near – within 10 feet of it – she didn’t stop. She just kept barreling forward (full tilt) at the little one that had only just risen to its feet. The massive beast careened into her newborn, ramming it into the ground with a head about a third of the calf’s size and then commencing to smear that little creature into the soil. After a moment’s pondering what in the world we were seeing, Padre and I knew we had to intervene, so we rode toward the bovine pair and ran the mother off. The calf – a Wagyu-Angus cross – was completely still on our arrival, but then it began to move, and to mine and Padre’s relief, there were no visibly broken bones. Needless to say, the little one is now up in the barn out of harm’s way, and we might have an adoptive mother already chosen.
I don’t think I’ll ever forget the sight of that mother cow mopping the grass with her newborn calf**.
Final Note: Tomorrow I intend to make the vanity’s drain and the faucet-to-stub-up connections. This may be ensued by planning for the concrete kitchen countertops.
*None of them were particularly fancy-looking jobs. Fortunately, silicone is easy to trim and clean once dried.
**We aren’t entirely certain why this cow was being so rough on her calf, but we have seen cows out of the same sire act similarly. So, my assumption is that it is a genetic hormonal defect.