Damp-proofing the Foundation & Dirt Piles

I am a little behind on posting this. Ray, Colt, Dane, and Cassidy worked on damp-proofing on Saturday, Sunday, and finished it by himself on Monday. I worked with the younger kids on Saturday, but really needed to take Sunday and Monday off. My aching muscles caught up with me, and I really needed to get some things done around the house, including making dinner.

On the Monday, I took the kids to the town next door to go swimming and for the older boys to upgrade their wardrobe. Sadly, it turned out the swimming pool was closed for the long weekend, so we went to a sprinkler park for the little ones, and the older boys went for a walk to buy themselves some slushies, and check out a video store that was going out of business.

This was the nastiest job! I did the damp-proofing on our last job, but that was 2/3 the size of this one, plus, it did not have a full basement! Austin took pictures but apparently the only one he got of working on the tar was me. We all worked. Dane worked beside me filling in holes, and Cassidy did the first coat, along with Ray. We had to put two coats on the walls. It was another sweltering hot day!

At the end of the day, right before we finished, I made the mistake of leaning across under where Dane was working to dip my tar roller in the tar bucket. Did I mention that Dane was working overhead? ...

Yep, I felt a fast drip, drip, drip onto the top of my head. *#%$ - not in so many words, but seriously, TAR?

We left shortly after with me visualizing what I was going to have to do to get tar out of my hair!

Fast forward to cleanup time. Not a pretty picture. Do you know how to get tar off skin? We have done it for every foundation for the last 23 years. What do you think?

Margarine or butter. You rub it in, let it soak, then wash with the butter. Boy, your skin gets really greasy and the tar starts to spread and soon you look like a greased pig! But then you use soap and water, and it comes clean.

Now, in my haste I made the mistake of rubbing in the margarine and added water a little too quickly. It did not work. By then my supply of margarine (in the shower) was almost gone, so I had no choice but to let it be. So I walk around now with nice black marks on my arms and legs. The balance of the butter had to be used to try to get the tar out of my hair.

I am sorry I did not get pictures, but I am sure you would not have wanted to see! Imagine a person coated in butter, greasy brown butter, sitting in a shower with a brillo pad, scrubbing the skin off trying to remove the tar. Not a pretty picture. (laugh)

So then there I am rubbing butter into my hair and combing through the grease in the hopes of removing the tar. Well, it sort of worked: I ended up with tendrils of tar covered hair, rather than clumps. Now, I just have to wait for it to work itself out!


Tuesday, the excavator and dump truck came to haul many, many piles of dirt, and tree mess off the edge of the driveway. As I told my husband last night: I am sure there is Method in Your Madness!


I don't know that this is what the kids believed when they got to the land and saw all the piles of dirt on the 'front lawn'! Ray told them they could get busy picking out the sticks. You should have seen their looks. They believed him.

Look at Savannah's Thinking Finger by Her Chin. HUH?

The View of My Front Lawn!

And rightly so, cause I know it will be done. His plan is to have the excavator level it all out, and then the top layer will be picked through until it is nice.

When the dump truck had unloaded his load I jokingly called to the children: Sick 'em! Go get those sticks! And down they ran from the dirt pile. Let the next job begin. The older boys are probably very grateful that they put in their time with landscaping on the last job! They are now considered too old for the easy jobs, and instead are delegated to jobs that require skill.

This is the view from my front verandah. Colt spent a day clearing a bunch of trees to the right of the large rock in the centre. Then Ray filled this same area with all those piles of dirt. We needed more in front of the foundation for backfilling purposes, and so he took it from the piles on the driveway. Next, he plans to dig a pond and get some dirt from that. Hopefully, the pond holds water, or we may end up with a hole! (laugh)

At the end of Tuesday, (yesterday), the excavator cut the electrical line across the driveway and up to the foundation.



When all was done the children ran off to play hide-and-go-seek in the long grass. You can see Cooper hiding, while the other four look for him.

Tomorrow, (Wednesday) the excavator will be backfilling the house, and the well guys are coming out to drill the well. We had a well witcher come in and tell us where he thought it was, and I have been praying that that is where it will be! We need to cut costs and that is one where it could fluctuate.

In the meantime, we are so smoky that I am sitting here sneezing and smelling smoke, right here in my livingroom!!


There are SO many forest fires around us. In the last 24 hours there have been another 13 fires ignited due to the lightening strikes. There are over 120 fires in the fire centre boundaries! Most of them have remained small, but six have resulted in evacuation and alert notices. The fires cover about 30,000 hectares of land.

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