The Pit of Despair

A quiet start to 2017 - a little organizing here and there, followed by a bonfire to consume some obsolete wooden project pieces (old doors, flooring scraps, etc). My garage is now ever so slightly more empty.

The ice fishermen were busy tonight as the weather was about perfect - 28F and no wind. The glow from their camps was clearly visible.

I took advantage of the somewhat warmer weather to take down the exterior lights. An odd thing; I never turned off the lights on my blue tree. I didn't think much of it when it winked out a while ago as often the wind can work loose a plug. Eh, it was after the new year, so I was less than concerned when the lights went out as it saved me a trudge through the icy remnants of past sleets and snows.

But Saturday on closer inspection, it was disconnected, but not by the wind. A six inch blackened circle of char on the ground centered on an incinerated connection. The circuit breaker was not popped, so the cord was live. I can't say for sure what happened to the safety fuse in the light string, as everything was reduced to carbon, ash, and slag.

Although this occurred outside, it serves as an example why I have a smoke detectors in every room of the house...

Last night we had our first snow flurries. Heavy snow pellets for three minutes, but nothing that stuck. This was the day after I picked up the newly mounted snow tires for the Prius (the regular tires remain on the Prii, but I'm ready).

That's not the only sign of winter. We've had the usual surge of mice, so my live traps are doing a land office business. This should last a week or so until I deplete the area of mice looking for warm shelter. My live traps are much nicer than the alternative - the west end of my house has a colony of hungry shrews.

And to top it off, a rabbit decided my phone/DSL cable was tasty. Chewed up a foot of cable. The wires weren't broken, but the insulation was. When the rain and snow came, the cable got wet, and shorting ensued. I have a temporary fix in place until I can re-route my cable away from easy-to-nibble locations.

It could be worse. It could be raining.

The 4+ inches overwhelmed the pumps and work has stopped. The water is higher in the hole than in the lake - no surprise since the work is at the inlet of the lake.

( Read more... )

Yes, yes, everyone has felt, seen, and heard about the slightly chilly weather. It is with some interest that I note as of Nov 18th, our lake has frozen over.

Usually, the lake freezes over the 1st week in Dec. Ours is a glacial pothole lake, so it's the last in the area to freeze given it depth and active springs. It doesn't matter how warm or cold the summer or fall may have been, the thermal inertia of the lake evens out the warm and cold days, until the shortening days finally pull enough heat out of the lake. Last year was unusual - Nov 23rd, so this is even more unusual.

So, yes, while the cold weather is not itself unusual, the *duration* is, and thus is reflected in the early freeze over.

Hey, I'm loosing weight. Uh oh, it's because of the mosquitoes.

The past couple years have been most moderate, but starting about two days ago, we had a monstrous hatching. Even in the heat of the day, the mosquitoes are distinctly unpleasant. At night, our windows are covered in mosquitoes, waiting for a chance to drain us or our dogs should we venture out after dark. During the day, we've resorted leaving out the far end of the house, where we can close doors to set up an airlock. Later, we go back and battle it out with flyswatters and shopvacs to clear the space.

Thus, I have been forced to release the mosquito daleks.

The deployment did come with a personal cost. Even with precautions, the mosquitoes extracted a short-term toll, and I returned quite lumpy. This is acceptable, as the slaughter has been immense (and most, most satisfying). A cloud is ever present around the daleks, as the mosquitoes attempt to feed on the moist, CO2 emitting, faux-bovine (courtesy of the octenol lure).

At some point, I'll need to brave the cloud to dispose of the bodies, as they are rapidly filling the catchment container at the rate of several thousand per day.

Bite my shiny propane-powered daleks, mosquito fiends, and taste the bitter flavor of total extermination.

Or so I thought. Still a few things left. I need GFCIs on all countertops, not just ones within 2 feet of a sink. It must be a new rule; I suspect folks have found new ways to shock themselves, so the rule has been expanded.

Need to finish the tile floor inlays. Normally, it would be a don't care, but we are cleverly embedding heat in them, so they must be completely covered in tile. And the island cabinets must be in place.

But our building permit extension ($free) has expired, so we will need to fork over $78 for temp permit (90 days). Our inspector Ed was quite nice about it, so no complaints.

Yep, one should leave the house. Go away for weekend. Take a short vacation. Whatever. It's that strong.

Even with all doors to the rest of the house sealed, slowly but surely, the concentration of volatiles increased. I solved this to a great extent by adding positive pressure to the rest of the house. In my techno-hoard pile, I have a bunch of high efficiency large muffin fans - perfect for windows. Although the house sounds like a data center, the fans force enough fresh air in to keep the fumes contained in the kitchen, but not so much we freeze elsewhere in the house.

The floor does look really, really good. The 3rd and last coat was applied Saturday, and after 48 hours, the odor is down at least 99.9%. Enough that it doesn't bother me.

Would I do it again? Tough question. Maybe.

Should *you* use it? If you can't flee, no. If it is the middle of winter, no. There is a potential upside - if you have any sort of a pest problem (whatever the pest), this would do a dandy job of eliminating the problem.

Monday
------
Final hookup for the prep sink. Who would think the promise of a working sink could be so exciting!

Pressurized water lines. Looks good. Turn on faucet. No leaks, but low pressure. Wood shavings in pressure reducer. Shavings removed. Now running strong. No leaks on drain, but time for a full test. Fill the sink up to the top, and release the drain plug. Drains like a champ, but wait, it's leaking. Doh!
( Read more... )

This past weekend was another antisocial one - spent hanging the upper cabinets.

A whole long weekend to hang upper cabinets! Outrageous. Those workers are too slow :-)
( Read more... )