The air crackled electrically with forboding energy

A second project accomplished at the Bolt Hole was electrical in nature. Wires had to be moved and replaced the Lords of Watts and Ohms needed to be placated and appeased.

The floor joists being logs, it's very difficult to drill holes and run wires through them. Instead, the previous owners stapled the wires to the sides of the logs. Sounds okay except that the metal staples draw moisture in the cold, cold days of winter. They may even be coated in frost when it's 5 or 10 below. That moisture gets into the log and nourishes all manner of little beasties of both flora and fauna. Beasties which can weaken the log and turn it into so much powder. This is especially true if the log is a soft wood with its bark still attached--as most of the floor joists at the Bolt Hole are. (The bigger beams seem to have been either oak or chestnut--they ARE old enough--and while having some surface decay, are pretty damn sound.)

In preparation of possible jacking up of the main support beam, and possible replacement down the road of one or more of the floor joists, I needed to pull as many staples as possible without damaging the wires--especially the very old, canvas and tar covered wires that were probably constructed by Edison. I eventually decided to remove two of the longest canvas-and-tar wires that ran from the breaker box all the way across the basement to a junction box. One supplies power to the first floor and the other to the basement lights--one of which is also wired with the canvas-and-tar wire.

Lots and lots of wires

I left plenty of slack in the yellow 12-2 replacement wires since our plans for support of the central beam--the spine of the house--were not fully developed. The slack can be reomved once things have been finalized in the basement or it can just be coiled up near the junction box. I also left the shorter wires running to the basement light and its switch for a future replacement.

The Evil Breaker Box

Okay, it's not EVIL evil, but it still scares the bejeezus out of me to be working so close to so much voltage. Yeah, I got 'er done without any bodily harm or damage--this time. Still....