Eviction

I have a Love/Hate relationship going with the squirrels. I realize that I am not going to be able to eliminate them from the park and surrounding area. That's genocide and we're not into that. But I would like to diminish their impact on the house as much as possible.

In contrast, I like to put out peanuts for them. Especially in the winter when it is much harder for them to forage for food. I really need to stop! I mean, why encourage the little varmints?!

We awoke last Sunday morning to the sound of chewing. I thought it was coming from the back corner of the house. Susan thought it was coming from the opposite side of the house. As usual, she was right.

This one squirrel had managed to chew his way into the inside of the balcony. He was assisted by me, who removed a couple of shingles last fall and then forgot to replace them. I noticed him earlier this week when I was outside the front of the house surveying my tremendous crop of moss. You can see both the moss and the squirrel hole in the picture above.

Anyway, I was observing the moss and considering a plan of action that would not blow up the house. I noticed this squirrel scurrying down the roof and then slipping into the side of the balcony. Moss was no longer my main concern.

So I got up on the balcony and scrambled out onto the roof and the corner of the balcony structure and peered in the squirrel hole.

I was actually happy to see that he had made his home so close to the opening. Once inside there, the squirrel would have access to the whole roof section above the front porch.

I tried using this personal alarm I have to scare him out but he wouldn't move. Then I remembered the anti-varmint pepper spray. I couple of squirts into the hole and he was outta thar.

I was ready with more siding to nail into place. I then heavily coated the whole area with the spray to discourage any more chewing.

I went out this morning to check things out. The patch is still in place.

I deposited an extra generous pile of peanuts near the tree.

Earth Day Home Repair

You know, I still have a leaky faucet to deal with. I decided to go a different repair route. A route that is friendlier...not so much to the environment, but to me.

I mixed up some JB Weld on Tuesday and applied it to the inside of the faucet pipe. I tried to cover as much of the inside and as far back as possible. I spread a little around where I knew the crack was.

Then last night, I screwed the faucet into place and turned to water on. To my pleasure and amazement, it worked. I cannot see any leakage. This outcome also caused me to feel even more stupid concerning my attempts at a more aggressive repair method.

And now, it's time for a Hops Plant update.

Pictured below is my Sterling Hops plant. It has taken off this year. The vines are much thicker and they are growing at an incredible rate.

Notice the black marks on the support stick the vine is wrapping around. I marked it this morning at the top. There is a mark about four inches below that I made yesterday. It is really cruising. And this is even with a broken stem near the bottom of the plant. You can kind of make out the damage right at the bottom of the picture.The photograph above shows my Haullertau Hops Plant. It is not growing as fast but it is starting to catch up with the Sterling. Additionally, it is sending up about se7en vine shoots as opposed to the two of three shoots that the other plant is sprouting.

I still see no signs of life in either of my grape vine plants of the Clematis. The winter might just have done them in.

Sharing a Hallmark Moment

One of my favorite responses to people who ask, "How ya Doing?", is "Happy to be on this side of the dirt!"

That has taken on a whole new meaning to me after the events of Sunday. I was surprised at how affected I was after everything calmed down. I didn't sleep well, my stomach was kind of queasy all day and I just had this weird feeling of dodging a major bullet. The more I thought about it, the more I came to realize that I was a spark away from buying the farm and then exploding it into little pieces, taking my wife with me.

I feel really stupid because it was such a lame mistake. But, I am so thankful and grateful to be alive which allows me the opportunity to feel as stupid as I do. I am going to try my best to remember this feeling and somehow make it reflect in my life.

I guess what I'm saying is that we take so much for granted. Stop it! Look around. Notice how amazing life is. No matter how crappy you think your life is, that's a temporary situation and it will change. When you feel like crap, thank God you're alive to feel it. Celebrate it.

Okay, that's my Hallmark Moment.

Almost a Darwin Award Winner

I had a project set for today that I was determined to accomplish. I have to fix the outside faucet. The end of the pipe where the faucet attaches has a crack that allows water to leak out behind the faucet. I traced the water line down in the basement and went to work to replace the length of pipe about four feet long.

I was reefing on it with my pipe wrench and couldn't break the seal on the joint. I got my torch and tried heating up the elbow to allow for some expansion and contraction, again hoping to break the seal.

I drove to Home Depot for some advice. The guy there told me I could cut the pipe near the joint and then probably have better luck loosening that smaller section. If I still couldn't get the pipe out, I would have to saw into the connection in several points around the pipe in order to break it up and thereby remove it.

So I drove on back home, got my hack saw and began to cut. It was very slow going and really quite an arduous task, so I decided to speed things up with the Sawzall. That worked great. I fired it up and started cutting and tore through the pipe. It threw off a couple of little sparks but nothing that concerned me about setting the joists ablaze.

Suddenly I noticed a hissing sound. Sssssssssssssssssss! Next I smelled the rotten eggs. Yes, the water pipe I had been cutting into with a power saw, with sparks a flying, that I was heating up with a torch, was in fact my gas line.

I went into total panic mode when I realized what a stupid damn idiot I was. I ran upstairs to tell Susan and call the Gas Company. I ran back down stairs to shut off the pilot light and power. I also grabbed some duct tape and wrapped it around the pipe. Surprisingly, that helped to staunch the flow of gas pretty well. Gas lines are not under a lot of pressure, I now know.

I finally found the phone number for the Gas Company and after going through their phone tree, I accessed their emergency gas leak line where they put me on hold for ten minutes.

During this time, I decided to try and find the gas shutoff valve at the meter. All this time, I am really pissed at myself and running around and breathing heavily and not really thinking clearly. I work very well under pressure.

Anyway, I got the gas shut off and the smell of it dissipated quickly and then the Avista guy showed up. He double checked that I did indeed get the valve shut off properly and that there was no gas.

It was fortunate this happened now that I don't need the furnace. I have a guy who is coming next Sunday to replace the pipe I cut.

Once I had the chance to wind down and think about what happened, I am just flabbergasted at my ignorance and stupidity. How do you follow one water line and then loose it and pick up the gas line. God had an Angel sitting on my shoulder during all this because clearly, as close as I came, it is apparently not yet my time to go.

I am no longer allowed to work on pipes.

Home Maintenance Issues

As a home owner, you will frequently be faced with unexpected home maintenance issues. These issues may involve small pesky rodent or normal wear and tear. Tonight, I am dealing with both.

I have seen signs that some sort of four legged mammal creature is trying to gain entry to the underbelly of the Carriage House. Specifically, I have seen signs of digging around a hole in the pavement of the alley immediately adjacent to the rear alley side of the Carriage House. This is a situation that we cannot allow to develop.

In an effort to quell this uprising, I am instigating protocols to determine the exact species attempting to gain entry and the intentions of the aforementioned, as yet unnamed mammal rodent individuals. I think the pictures speak for themselves.

I think I have already mentioned the leaky outdoor faucet. In order to fix it correctly, I have to remove and replace a sizable chunk of pipe. It is inside with easy access from the basement. I have not yet attempted a replacement of this nature so I am approaching it with a certain amount of trepidation.

Here is a picture of the pipe run I have to replace.

I have to remove the pipe from the elbow to the faucet, which is just on the other side of the far wall. It should be an easy project except for the following concerns:

1) I will have to shut off the main water to remove this pipe. The shut off valve down the line is old and does not completely seal the shut off. If the water is still on, it will leak profusely.

2) Once I have the pipe removed, I will need to take it to the local Home Improvement Center to retrieve the proper replacement length and parts.

3) During this time, the water will be shut off. If I want to flush, Tough!

4) If I cannot properly replace this pipe by late afternoon, I will have to have some plan in place that will allow me to turn the water back on and keep this thing from leaking all over the basement floor.

5) Maybe I shouldn't do anything right now.

Having listed my concerns, I now feel free to ignore the issue.

What was it we were talking about?!

Hops Disaster

The hops pictured in the last post survived the snow but it did not survive some animal rubbing up against it and breaking it. I am stunned. this is a huge set back for a vine of hops that was really getting a good foothold on the growing season. I'm going to have to erect some chicken wire enclosures around all those plants to protect them.

I have the first signs of something trying to move in under the Carriage House. It looks like some animal has dug in through a hole in the paved alley. A bunch of dirt was dug out of the hole and onto the pavement. I filled it back in and I'll keep a watch on it.

The snow from the other day pushed the seasonal total snowfall to 97.7 inches.

Snowy Hops

I hope this isn't a bad omen for the hops. It has gotten a nice solid start on the season and then something like this happens. The snow will likely be gone by noon so it shouldn't be too damaging. At least, that's what the latent farmer in me thinks.

Sloppy Easter

One sure way to schedule some wet weather is to arrange a nice spring holiday. The forecasters were falling all over themselves saying that Easter Sunday will be okay during the day but rainy as the day wore on. Nice try!

It rained steadily all day. It would ease off here and there but it never really did stop.

That's good for the hops though so I approve.

We didn't really do anything on Easter because Susan had to work. The damn Spokane Chiefs hockey team keeps winning and so she has to keep working games. And then, when they had a chance to seal the deal and move on, they lost. The last game of the series is tomorrow against the Vancouver Vasectomy's. Goat Cheese Go!

I need to get back to sanding but I'm not gonna tonight. I had me a workout that didn't agree with me on account of all that running and working out. I hate that stuff. But I'm fat and I'll be dead soon if I don't try to embrace it more.

More Signs of Life

I have been keeping an eye on my hops and grape vines that I planted last year. So far, I have seen very little evidence that they survived the winter...until last night. It looks like the hops is starting to push out some healthy looking buds. I doused them in Miracle Grow and we'll see how they do.

The great weather continues and it is very conducive to getting out in the yard and cleaning up every night. The yard needs sooooooo much work and is sooooooo far away from being where we want it to be.

I noticed last night that there is a leak one of my water faucets outside. I removed it and the pipes to which is was attached doesn't look very good. The end is corroded and chipped and looks like it has been fatigued. I'm going to purchase a new faucet today and see if that fits onto the pipe better and seals the leak.

I also need to buy a new hose caddy. The one I had in the backyard has suffered some damage over the winter. I don't know what happened to it but the crank you use to return the hose to the reel and been broken off. As I stated, I don't know how that could have happened, but it happened.

Spring Time Has Arrived

This Blog is dedicated to the Home Remodeling Project of Stan & Susan Burke. Here we will chronicle our on-going project as we move toward our goal of completing our remodel by 2009, the 100 year anniversary of our home. We will also list our various injuries and lost body parts.

As of today, that is the subject header of the blog. I haven't read it in a while. It seems it is time to update it. Here it is 2009 and we are waaaaay behind our ambitious schedule. I haven't done any work on the stairs since last Sunday. I guess that is something that I'll work on.

I rode my bike to work this morning, resuming the routine I followed last Summer of riding downtown, catching the bus to Liberty Lake and then doing it backwards on the way home. It was chilly this morning but a nice ride home. I am waaaaaay out of riding shape. I 'spect it will take some acclimating.

I was able to get home tonight in time to run a mile around the park and then get some fertilizer on the lawn. I'm trying to get ahead of the dandelions. I hate the dandelions.

I am also keeping an eye on my hops and grape vines. So far, I do not see any evidence that they weathered the winter months.

There's a nearly full moon out tonight and it still about 60 degrees. I'll have to go out and walk the grounds.

Beautiful Sunday

Sunday was a beautiful day. It got up into the 60's and was a great day to be out working in the yard. We also had a couple of birthday parties to attend which made for a totally lovely, if not fattening afternoon.

As I was driving home on Friday, I came across the biggest pickup truck I have ever seen. I don't count those Monster Trucks that you see crushing stacks while rabid fans cheer and duck. Those can't haul anything. This was an actual working pickup.

It was a Semi-tractor crew cab with a pickup bed on back. The bed could probably hold a regular sized pickup.One way to gauge the size of this thing is too look at the trailer hitch on it. Notice how far down it has to drop in order to pull a regular trailer at anything close to level. Now that's a guy who doesn't give a shit about the price of diesel.

Narcissism and the Blog

As I predicted yesterday, the snow was all gone by the time I got home from work. It continues to try and snow. It's snowing right now. I heard on the radio that we set a record yesterday for snow fall on an April Second. The previous record was 1.2 inches and we got two. Our chest is swelled with pride. Or sunken with cabin fever rage.

I have been trying to evaluate my narcissistic tendencies. I tell myself I am keeping this blog because it is a great vehicle for looking back at what we've done on the house. I have easy access to it. It has been very helpful in referring to when projects were started or finished. I also discovered I like doing it. I like writing. It makes me wish I had paid more attention in Mrs. Jurgenson's class.

But I think I am fooling myself when I say that I don't care if anybody reads it. If I really wanted a record of home remodeling accomplishments, I would keep a journal. (I wrote "diary" there first but that's too gay.) I have kept journals in the past and I'll be damned if I can tell you where they are.

I think that all bloggers want to be read even if they say they don't. Saying you don't care if anyone reads it is a safety valve for when in fact, nobody does read it. Anyway, that's my excuse.

April Fools - A Day Late

This was the scene upon opening the door this morning to let the cats out. The weather folks had forecast it but they've been forecasting it for three days. There was about three inches. I was able to fight the urge to break out the snow blower because I'm quite confident it will be gone by this afternoon.

I'm not sure how much longer my camera is going to be with me. I have been having problems with the automatic lense cover. It doesn't always open completely and it has been doing that for several months. I fix it by giving it a little flick and it opens right up.

Now it looks like it isn't positioned properly and it won't open at all. I was able to open it with a friendly nudge from my pocket knife, but now it won't close. That means I am due for a scratched lense. Until then, I'll keep snapping.

By the way, this snow fall has added even more to the seasonal total putting us way up into "Seen Worse" territory.

Record Breaking Winter

It is official! The snow that fell on Sunday put the area over the top for the most snow in one season. We have topped the old record set in the winter of 1949-50 by 1/10th of an inch at 93.5 inches of snow.

Now, let's be clear about this. That is not how much snow we have on the ground. It's how much snow we got over the season. It doesn't seem at all impressive considering it's all gone now.

So essentially, we had a shit load of snow for about two months. Most of it fell over a two week period and then slowly melted away.Then we had an occassional little addition here and there that caused no problems as far as every day life in winter conditions but added to the accumulation.

This is a dream come true for me because it puts me into a coveted Codger Category known as "Seen Worse". For the rest of my life, even if we have a winter with 90 inches of snow on the ground, when some repugnant little street urchin makes some comment about the rough winter we're currently enduring, I can just shrug and say, "Seen worse!" Then I'll spit and say, "Get off my Lawn!"

A Load of Whatnot

We woke up this morning to a light dusting of snow on the ground. It didn't last long. I think it had mostly melted away by 11:00. I've tried checking into weather reports to see if this slight snowfall brought us any closer to breaking the record for snow accumulation in a season. I know we are inches away. I'll keep looking.

You might recall that we have an old house that we are working on restoring. It's been a while since we have done any of that work so today was a good day to get us back on track.

Susan did some work in the bathroom repairing some damaged wallpaper. It was directly above the area of the dining room that was damaged. She really knows her way around wall paper. I didn't watch the whole process but I think she removed a couple of large pieces of wall paper and replaced it with new, pristine stuff.

I worked on the stairs. I made good progress on the bottom eleven steps and now have the top four to complete. Then there is all the sundry railing, trim and whatnot. It's the whatnot that really has me concerned. Every time I glance around, I spy more whatnot that will need attention. More than anything in the house, we have a crap load of whatnot.
Here is a picture of today's progress. I should like to add that much of today's progress would not had been possible if not for the help of a call from my childhood pal, Mike, who is currently residing in Texas. He stops by this site from time to time and checks on us. He has already done much of this work on a house he owns on the other side of the state.

He suggested that I might have some luck in tight spaces with a paint scraper. He was absolutely correct. My sanders cannot get in real close to the corners and the detail sander we have is not the fastest way to go. But the scraper allows me to scrape away a great deal of the varnish that the sander has to sand away which saves that much more time.

Even so, I'm pretty sore from pushing the sander around and kneeling in a variety of uncomfortable positions. Perhaps it's time to take a shower and clean the chunks of sanding dust out of my many orifices to which it has settled.

That doesn't paint a very pretty picture.

Spring Like on the Park

Today was the first day since the arrival of Spring that it felt kind of Spring-like. I was going to do my mile around the park in preparation for Bloomsday, but I decided to exert myself in a yardwork sort of way.

The lawn needs to be cleaned up so I can get some fertilizer down. I bought of big bag last Fall and was supposed to put it down and let it sink in over the winter. Well, that never happened, of course and so now I am again playing ketchup. (I've never understood that phrase.)

I pulled out my power vac leaf sucker and went over the front lawn and the curb and removed all the debris that has collected over the Winter. I filled my garbage can and then my neighbors. (They're out of town and that's one the perks I get for looking after their cat.)

Afterwards, I celebrated with a beer and a cigar. The beer was fabulous. I regret the cigar. I always regret the cigar but I always smoke another one. I'm stupid that way.

I think I finally have the computer under control. I've been spending the last couple of nights loading programs and drivers and porn. It looks like it's all back to normal. I am very thankful that Susan bought me that external hard drive. I would have lost everything if I had not had that. That means 10 years worth of digital pictures, all our past invitations to parties, and lots of art projects I've done over the years. And then there's the porn. Don't even get me started on the porn.

I have to go now. You got me started!

Continuing Technical Difficulties

I was right that I did it wrong.

My re-format of my hard drive didn't work because I didn't really set it up right. I came home last night to discover the computer still behaving badly.

I should have realized it when I still had all my data and applications on the computer. So, I went back into the bowels of the operating system. It was a lot like that scene from "2001: A Space Odyssey" where Dave crawls into Hal and starts removing chips.

So now I have to re-load everything. Fortunately, all my important pictures and data are on my external hard drive. I haven't lost anything. I just have to get it back where I want it. It's like I have to refile all my papers.

Technical Difficulties

My computer seems to have had some kind of meltdown. I was on-line, looking at my bank account, I think, and the computer suddenly switched off. Then it went into this cycle of loading up, getting to the Windows start menu and then blinking out again only to try and re-load.

I called the place I bought it from and the guy ran through a bunch of diagnostic stuff. Finally he had me re-format the drive. It appears to have worked as I have had it running for a couple of hours now and I even have all my programs and data...which makes me wonder if I really did re-format it correctly.

Anyway, it's working right now so I guess I'll go with that and see what happens.

It's a rainy Sunday and I haven't done much of anything today. Susan is working on repairing the damage in the Dining Room. Refer to December 27th for the details.

I have done some minor organizing projects and taken the studded tires off Susan's car. Now the only studs she has is me.

A Big Fat Happy Honkin' Welcome to Vern

The Vernal Equinox is upon us and that means we can pack up all our cares and woe.

I worked last night on the heater. I had the help of my friend Jerry who laughed at me for the appropriate amount of time. We had a tough time running the new wire over to the thermostat because I did such a crappy job of drilling holes originally. I had to beat a couple of new holes in the bedroom wall next to the bathroom to facilitate a successful running of the wire.

So now that I have that fix taken care of, I need to turn my attention back to the stairs. Oh Jeez, the STAIRS! I had almost forgotten. Well, I have this weekend to make something happen. Hopefully, it will be a fertile environment for Remodeling Achievement.

Bathroom Heater Repair

It appears that the Dumb ass who installed the heater used the wrong gauge of wire to run to the thermostat. Even though the heater has been working for over a year, it is amazing it didn't burn the bathroom and subsequent surrounding house to the ground.

The afore mentioned Dumb ass shall remain nameless but I know where he lives. It is an incredible coincidence that his house didn't burn to the ground at the same time that this one didn't burn to the ground.

In the meantime, I shall endeavor to run the correct wire and then have it checked by a qualified friend who would have yelled at me...um...I mean, the other guy when it was installed.

Back to the Grind

For the last four days, we have been on Holiday. Susan and I, along with my sister Sherry, traveled to California to surprise my other sister, Stacey, on the event of her 50th birthday. The surprise went off beautifully and soon, I shall regale this site with all the details of our adventures.

But first, it is now time to get back to reality and resume our normal lives. We returned to discover that the heater in the upstairs bathroom is on the fritz and that will be my focus of attention when I return from work tonight.

In the meantime, all the cats appear to have survived our absence, the house is still standing, and the social and moral fabric of the community seem to be about where it was when we left.

All is well!

A Safer World because of Us!

We have successfully completed our week as a Nielsen Family. We studiously cataloged all our television viewing over the week and found that we watch a shit load of television. Much more than I thought.

Our TV was on for a total of 37 hours over the one week period. Four of those hours, it was on but we weren't really watching it. We have four TVs in the house but we primarily watch the one in the kitchen because that one is closest to the fridge.

I thought it was funny that the TV in what we call the TV Room, was not watched at all during the week. I'm beginning to wonder why we have a TV Room. It's really a Superfluous Room.

I started thinking about how much TV we watch compared to the time available to us for watching. There are 168 hours in a week. If you subtract out the sleep time, that brings it down to 112 hours. Take out another 45 for work and we are down to 67.

Now subtract out the time we watch TV and you have 30 hours. I can't for the life of me figure out what I do with those thirty hours. I suppose there's some eating in there as well as going to the bathroom. That alone probably uses up 17 hours. So now I will have to try and account for those 13 hours and make sure they count for something.

We are pleased to have done our duty to the entertainment industry and are confident that we helped to make the world a safer place for advertisers.

In less important news, it is still mighty frigid ot dere which compelled me to make a wonderful house warming fire last night. I was going through my files and decided it was time to throw out lots of old checkbooks. They went as far back as 2001 and as recent as 2007. They kept the fire stoked for a good hour as I threw a few in and then watched some TV (because it was on). Then at a commercial break, I threw in a few more.

Now all our financial information has been reduced to the ashes from whence we all came, thereby completing the circle of life.

Crime Scene Guy

The traffic reporting on the radio has always been a joke in my view. It rarely helps you avoid a backup. In fact, I usually hear about a backup when I'm already in it.

Yesterday, it actually worked for me. The reporter said that there was an accident at Third and Thor involving a car hanging off the freeway overpass.

That report allowed me plenty of time to have my camera ready to snap a provocative news scene photo. It's too bad the sun could not have cooperated to provide me better back lighting, but that is one of the problems you deal with when you're a professional news scene reporter camera guy. (Official Title)

It's another really cold day. The temperature is six degrees this morning. Not as cold as yesterday but when it gets to ten and below, what's the difference if it's six or six below?!

No Temperature

The forecast lived up to its hype. It was supposed to get down to one degree. My Thermopolis Forecaster Weather Station Twenty-Five Fifty said it was Zero this morning. That's right! There is NO TEMPERATURE out there today. And you can feel it too. It takes the car a long time before it feels comfortable. About as long as it takes to get to work. Thank the Lord God Almighty that we have heat at work. And coffee. Hot Coffee! That I can crawl into. And thaw.

Also, I'm thankful for April...but it's not here yet.

Progress on the stairs has slowed as we are doing some cleaning to try and keep up with the massive build up of sanding dust. I've tried my damnedest to seal up the immediate sanding area with hanging plastic and signs instructing the dust not to proceed beyond the area. But dust doesn't care. It seems to just go with the wind. It idly seeps to wherever it feels like going.
When it gets there, it invites it's friends and family.

Winter All Over Again

We got a nice dumping of snow yesterday. I had about three or four inches at the house. And most remarkable of all, I did NOT break out the Snow Blower. I just figured it will all be gone in a couple of days. It's supposed to reach the 50's by this weekend.

In the meantime, it is colder than a witches snot on the shady side of a submarine. (I think I mixed some metaphors there) It's supposed to be that way for another day or so. I went down to the river at lunch and it is really chilly. Bright blue sky and nothing to hold in the heat. The forecast is calling for a possible low of one degree tonight.

That makes it harder for the new snow to melt away. I guess I'll probably regret not having cleared the driveway and sidewalks. No doubt my neighbors are wondering where I am, after all my selfless Snow Blowing back in December. Well, I guess the answer is, I'm selfish again.

Falling Behind AGAIN!

I stated earlier that I wanted the stairs to be sanded and ready to go by St Patrick's Day. Well, that's just over a week away and I don't think it's going to happen. I still have a lot of sanding to accomplish.

Of course, I still have a good week to go before that time but this week looks very busy with other activities that will keep me off the stairs in the evening. I'm not too upset because goals are set to be broken, moved, re-set and ignored.

We're a Nielsen Family

About a month ago, I got a call asking us to be a Nielsen Family. Well, I've always heard about Nielsen Families, but I've never known anyone who is one. maybe you're not supposed to talk about it. If this post is deleted, you'll know they got to me.

Anyway, starting today, we are keeping the official Nielsen Family Diary on all our television watching. It's quite an elaborate system. There is even an entry for times like this, when the TV is on downstairs, but neither of us are watching it. "Kath n' Kim" is on and that is a show we just don't care for. So between "My Name is Earl" which we love, and "The Office" which we really love, we don't have the energy or environmental sensibility to turn the TV off when "Kath n' Kim" is on. We just leave the room and do other things. (I'm blogging and Susan is in the shower.)

So it should be an exciting adventure through the week as we catalog our viewing choices and help to shape the landscape of American Vacuousness.

For anyone who is wondering, the answer is Movie Tickets.The question Alex, is: What is the present for the Fifth Day of my Birthday Week?

Sanding and the Fourth Night of Birthday Week

I made some excellent progress on the stairs tonight. I'm just about done with the treads and risers. Then we will have to concentrate on the trim and railing. The picture above shows the stairs as they have progressed over the last two years. The two pictures were taken almost exactly two years apart. There's definitely a difference. You don't always realize that when you see them every day.



On the Fourth Day of my Birthday Week, I got a tool that I do not know how I have gotten along without it all this time. It is advertized as the perfect tool for the home remodeler. It's called a Catspaw and it is a cool little pry bar/nail puller. I sure do wish I had it when we were pulling up the floor.

The problem is that it is really nice and shiny right now. It's too nice to use.

Wine Night

We are taking a night off from sanding in order to pursue another of our interests, the making of alcohol. In this case, wine. To be more specific, Piesporter.

Susan has thrown herself into a festive frenzy with the arrival of my Birthday Week. On Sunday, I received a lovely bunch of chocolate dipped strawberries and apricots. These were of course, hand dipped by Susan. Yesterday, I received a Piesporter Wine Kit. Here on Square Root Day (3x3=09), it is the third day of my Birthday Week and I have not as yet received anything...but it's still early.

It seems like a good night to start the wine though. This way, we will have a fully semi-aged home made wine for the Summer Solstice Party. In fact, I guess I could record the event here as well as on my usual wine manifest that I keep of each wine we make.

Before that, let me briefly update the stairs project. Last night, I had a good but short night of sanding as I went through all my remaining sandpaper rather quickly. All the treads are done and many of the risers are semi-finished. I have to get into the corners and some areas that the belt sander cannot reach.

I have already purchased another round of sandpaper and so I can begin again tomorrow. Tomorrow is an excellent night for sanding as the moon will be in just the right place and there's not much on TV.

Okay, with that out of the way, let's enter the Wine Making Facilities at Waverly Place Vineries

and Wineyards.

Making wine is incredibly easy. Making wine from a kit is even easier. They give you all the ingredients you need to make a damn fine wine.

It is because of this ease that I think kit wines entered in the Fair's Wine Competition should be judged separately from wines made from scratch. With scratch Wines, you have to select the grape, or fruit if you go that way, mash it, add sugars, add sterilizers, add nutrients.

With kit wines, you open the box, pour in the juice, top it off with water, wait a few weeks, bottle it and drink it.

Such was the case with our wine tonight. We were done with the opening procedures in about half an hour. Now we have to wait a week and then transfer it into a clean fermenter. After another couple of weeks, we will again rack it into a clean fermenter, add some chemicals to aid the clearing process and let it age a few more weeks. Then we bottle andage until we crack it open on Saturday, June 20th, which is by coincidence, the day of our Solstice Party.

Pictured to the left is the Must, which is what we Vintners call the unfermented wine. It think it is called that because at this point, you Must not drink it.

It's really sweet. It tastes like grape juice. What a surprise, huh!

This will be a white wine, but right now it has that cloudy look due to chemical nutrients that we added. We also added some pencil shaving that came in the kit. They're not really pencil shavings but that what it looks like. It's meant to add a smoky, oaky flavor to the wine.

I'll update this in a week when we move on to Step number Two in the instructions.

Oh, by the way, I got a nice sport shirt for Day Number Three of my Birthday Week.

My House as a Chew Toy

I heard the tell tale signs of a scruffy fur-covered Arboreal Rodent chewing on the house this morning. I went outside and sure enough, the little bastard was up on the roof above the back door, chewing away trim on the side of the soffet.

So I pulled out the ladder and climbed up there to retreat the chew areas with more Pepper Spray. That should hold it for a while but I have to get on a schedule where I treat it every couple of weeks. That should train them to stay away.

They are persistent. I am not!

Symphony Update

It is astonishing to me that in a sleepy little sometimes backwards berg like Spokaloo, Warshington, we have an orchestra of the caliber of the Spokane Symphony. The performance we saw this afternoon was fabulous. One piece in particular was a Duke Ellington tune that they played in the first half of the show that was magnificent. It was great to hear a really off beat jazz number performed by an entire orchestra. You could tell that they were really enjoying playing it. The central piece they played was a commissioned symphony called "Letters from Lincoln". It was commissioned by the symphony to help commemorate Abraham Lincoln's Bi-Centennial. The lyrics used in the tunes were from actual Lincoln writings. Thomas Hampson, a rather highly regarded Baritone in the Opera world and local boy sang as the symphony debuted the piece. I snapped the above bootlegged picture at the end of the performance. Standing in front are the composer, the aforementioned baritone and the conductor. It was a great way to spend a Sunday.

Susan and I went out for dinner afterwards and made it home in time to lay about and watch some TV.

March Comes in Like a Socialist

The snow pole fell sometime yesterday. So if you picked February 28th, you win.

I made some good progress on the stairs Friday night. I have two treads left to sand but that does not mean I'm almost finished with the sanding. I have several risers to get to as well as a good deal of trim and all of the railing. However, I think I'm making good progress and we will be ready to re-stain and paint after St Patrick's Day.

We are accomplishing very little around here today. We have tickets to see the Spokane Symphony this afternoon and will follow the performance with a little dinner on the town. We are terribly social. You might say we are Socialists. However, I do not want Universal Health Care. Somehow, I have horribly strayed from the subject.

More Sanding and Snow Pole Update

I am going to be waaaaay off on my Snow Pole Prediction. Fortunately, there is no money involved so I'm not really out anything except my dignity, which went out the door a long time ago.

We have had nothing but rain for the last few days and all the snow I was hoping for in January and February has failed to materialize. I was so hoping to break our seasonal snowfall record this year but that is on the same trip with my dignity.

I guess I should concentrate on my other goal of getting the stairs sanded before St. Patty's Day. That seems more attainable, especially after my progress tonight. Both upper landings are cleared of stain and I will be moving on to more steps tomorrow. Now that I am not obsessed with bare wood, I am moving along quite nicely.

I was forced to stop tonight because I ran out of sand paper. It was not from lack of planning. It was from lack of purchasing the right sized belt for the belt sander. I have it correct now and will have the right stuff here for tomorrow's session.

I would like to write now of my impending senility. It's coming quicker than I had planned. I have had two recent episodes that left me wondering how much longer before I'm in diapers.

A few weeks ago I was installing a new light in the hallway. I went downstairs to my electrical supplies box to retrieve a switch. I quickly found one and proceeded to bring it upstairs to install it. Somewhere between the basement and the installation area, I lost the switch. I had it in my hand, got distracted by something, put it down and let it fall into an vortex that has not reappeared. I still haven't found it.

Tonight, I recieved my license tabs for the car in the mail. The tab was taped to the new registration paper. Almost as soon as I untaped the tab, I got distracted by something and placed them in the same vortex as the switch. I looked around the kitchen for 45 minutes trying to figure out what I did with the stupid little tab. It was not to be found and I could not for the life of me remember where I might have laid it. I went so far as looking for the number of the county registrar of lost tabs department so I could explain that I lost the tab in my Depends.

Fortunately, I had an epiphony which allowed me to locate the tab hidden on top of a cookbook with an uncanny resemblance to the back of the tab. I probably would not have found it had I not picked up the book to look under it.

Still, I'm sure my sanity is waning and it is only a matter of time before poor Susan will be feeding me and then shipping me off to a home. At that point, she will find the switch and put it away.

Snow Competition

I have been keeping an eye on my snow pole and wondering when it will fall over. If the rain continues the way it did yesterday, it should fall over within the week. If we get a little snow as they are suggesting we might, it could be longer. I'm going to choose March 13th.Currently, the snow pole is sitting in a bank of snow that is about se7en inches high. However, the area of snow around the base of the pole is a bit lower as it is melting more around the pole than the surrounding snow. If it snows in the next couple of days, it might fill in that hole and add additional support. It's very hard to say and I am only speculating now in order to make more words in today's post.

Sanding continues on the stairs but we have decided that I am being too aggressive in my efforts. We will be re-staining the steps a dark dark brown so it really isn't necessary to sand them down to bare wood.

When I say we have decided I'm being too aggressive, I mean not me. However, after consulting with others, I been persuaded to believe that perhaps Susan is Ri...rrrrrr.....not wrong.

Anyway, I shall continue in a less aggressive manner and hopefully have it all done before...oh let's see, I'm not very good at setting goals and then meeting them. Okay, let's say St. Patrick's Day!

I have started a new batch of beer which I am planning on entering in the fair this coming September. I am developing what I believe to be a rather unusual recipe. I shall not reveal my ingredients at this point. I think it will suffice to say that "Skunk Pelt Beer" will be the talk of the fair.I was surprised by the amount of spooge (official brewing term) the primary fermenter (another official brewing term) contained when I racked (Yup) the wort (uh huh). There was a good inch of spoogie sediment in the bottle. Probably a good idea to get it racked outta that stuff. (non-official brewing term)

I also had to add almost a gallon of water to top it off. It didn't seem to effect the taste or the gravity reading but it definitely effects the alcohol content. This should be around 5 percent. It's a porter and they are generally not high alcohol beverages.

I will be bottling it in about a week which means I better start now to get all my bottling equipment together. I'm only going to bottle about a gallon of the five gallon batch. The rest will go in the keg. The requirements of the fair force me to bottle. I don't do it often and so I am often scrambling to find everything I need at bottling time. (Drink beer now)

Sanding Continues...Sort of

I didn't do very much sanding tonight because I had to perform a meticulous search of each and every step for hidden staples, nails and foreign metal objects. It took the bulk of my time to get this accomplished and it was a necessary task to get out of the way. I severely damaged a couple of perfectly good sanding pads last night because of contact with foreign metal matter causing rips in the sand paper.

I also found more trim to remove that I had not previously considered for removal because I did not see it. Trim can hide in the most unexpected of places. It's as if they purposely stuck it in all sorts of nooks and crannies. Nooks aren't so bad but the crannies are very difficult to get the trim out of.

Anyway, I only used two more pieces of sand paper tonight. Many more to come.

Sanding: #01

The Staircase renovation has begun. Susan had to work tonight so it seemed a perfect time to begin sanding the staircase. I believe I made fairly good progress.

Here you can see the base of the stairs as they were before I began the arduous task removing 99 years of stain, dirt, mold, slime, goo, schmagma, crap, and poo from the surface.

I started with our detail sander but quickly realized that I should start large and finish small. So I pulled out the palm sander and, using 60 grit sand paper, went to work. The treads and the siding sanded to bare wood pretty easily and quickly. I discovered that you can't get too attached to any particular piece of sand paper. You use them up quickly and without prejudice. When it is no longer doing the job for you, it is not prudent to keep using the same worn out piece of sand paper. (There are so many metaphors I could use here, but every one of them gets me in trouble with someone who might read this)Once you add a fresh replacement, the difference is amazing and readily noticeable. I only completed four steps tonight but that was in the span of about an hour and a half.

The odd thing is that the side trim and the treads sand to wood pretty easily. The risers are much more difficult to sand. For one thing, I can see that we missed a LOT of staples and nails when we pulled the carpet up four years ago. I'm going to have to meticulously examine each riser for staples and nails. If you miss one, particularly a broken staple, it rips the hell out of your sandpaper.

I used one sheet of sand paper on tonight's efforts. I figure I need about se7en more sheets. Probably more!

times se7en!

Happy Valentine's Day

Many people will be surprised and totally caught off guard to learn that today is Valentine's Day. We call these people "Men".

I have been pro-active in the whole Valentine's thing because I realized early in my marriage that, despite what a woman may tell you, Valentine's Day is very important and you better not blow it.

I have done many little things around the house this week as part of my Valentine's gifting. I installed a light that shold have been installed a loooooooooong time ago.

I cleaned my closet. That was long overdue.

I bought two dozen roses to be delivered to her at work with a cheesy poem.

And last night, we went to dinner at the Cedars Floating Restaurant.

So while I have successfully fulfilled my Valen-duties, I must say that Susan out did me in the gifts department. She made me some little Valentine's Cakes, she bought me cigars, as well as some Hershey's Hugs and Kisses, and she had an old watch that was my grandfather's repaired. That was perhaps the best and most thoughtful gift.

I'll have to try better next year.

Wrecking Havoc

We've been stalled for a week trying to figure out our next move. I really wanted to see what was behind the wall in the front entry way, so it was decided that the wall comes crumbling down.It didn't really take all that long to remove the plaster. No more than a couple of hours from start to finish, including clean up. Unfortunately, removing the plaster did not reveal the hidden door frame we hoped was there.

We have always suspected that upon entering the house, there was a door into what is now our TV room. We thought it might have been used as a receiving parlor. We were hoping to find a door frame verifying our suspicions.No door frame. There are two water pipes in the wall that at one time were tied into the Boiler Radiator system that heats the house. They probably fed the radiator in our bedroom. Sadly, the bedroom radiator was removed before we moved in. If we want our door idea to work, the pipes will have to go as well.

I must say how much I enjoy removing plaster and lath. It's very cathartic and destructive. I also like the rustic look of the lath.

Having made this move we are well entrenched into what will now be known as, "The Year of the Entryway".

A Lazy Sunday

I don't want to run the risk of offending the National Football League and getting into copyright infringement issues, so I will only say that today there is a big game known as the Uper-Say Owl-Bay.

We went out to Scotty's Bar & Grill for the festivities. That gave us a lazy morning to sit around and do nothing. We still managed to be a little bit productive but nothing on the house.

At the start of the season, I was involved in a Fantasy Football League where you pick 4 teams and then you win points depending on how your teams did. I didn't do too badly because my teams were Colorado, San Diego, NY Giants and Arizona. Arizona won me $20.00 by making it into the Uper-Say Owl-Bay and I had the opportunity for $40.00 more if they won. You can therefore make your own assumptions about which team I was supporting.

Unfortunately, they came very close and made it a great game but I will not be doing the happy dance. The final score was 27-23 with Arizona not winning. I will not say the name of the team that won even though I am really not emotionally vested in either team.

Anyway, congrats to those other guys and now it is time to get back to work on the house.

House Dicks

While removing linoleum tonight, we have uncovered some interesting evidence that has us supposing up a storm. We have turned into House Detectives trying to decipher the clues the floor has revealed. It raises all kinds of questions about the layout and subsequent changes that were made when the house was turned into two apartments...probably sometime in the 1940's.

We had this one little bit of linoleum to remove. If things went as well as last night, it would take no more than an hour and a half to get it up and cleaned up. We were on a roll.

As usual, the first layer of sub-floor came up quite easily. After removing the nails and staples, I went to work on the next layer. The first chunk of flooring I pulled up revealed a different floor. It was darker wood and similar to the floor that is runs through the upstairs. When I finally got everything up, it was clear that this darker floor continued into the TV Room, or what we believe was at one time a Receiving Parlor.
As we looked at the way it was laid out, it made no sense to us for the floor to suddenly become a different style in the middle of the hall. The picture to the left is one that I lamely stitched together from two photos to show the span from the floor to the ceiling.

Beyond the arch, there is a built in Linen Closet with drawers down below. We have surmised that this closet was an add on. The room originally filled all the space to the arch.

Behind the Linen Closet is another large closet that you access from that room. You can see it in the other lamely stitched together photo below that shows the other side of that wall.

It certainly explains the floor changing in the middle of the hall and it adds credence to our theory that there was once an entrance into the TV Room/Receiving Parlor from the front entryway.

Whatever the case may be, we are now very eager to do something that we have not made a priority of. That being finding the original plans for this house. The possibility exists that they are buried in some unknown long forgotten warehouse that the County has somewhere along with the Lost Ark of the Covenant.

I'm not sure where we go from here. I think we will begin working on the stairway. That involves sanding and sanding and then some more sanding only to be followed by more sanding with some sanding on top of that. Then, we will sand. If there is anything left of the stairs after that, we will sand.

Squirrel Maintenance

I had a brain freeze just now and couldn't remember the correct login information. What a dumbass! I find myself saying that a lot.

Living around a park, squirrels are a given. They are fun to watch when you have a Squirrel-Proof Bird Feeder. But can be terribly annoying as well. I have documented here on more than a couple of occasions some of the damage they have caused around the house.

The most annoying problem I have had is when a particular squirrel (I don't want to single out any names) decides to burrow into the eves of the house. I have lined the eves with sheets of metal. I've filled up cavities with foam. I have dusted areas of the roof and trim with Cayan Pepper and other anti-squirrel preparations. They all work but squirrels are tenacious. You can deter them but they will always come back to try again...when you least expect it.

Yesterday must have been one of the days when my expectations were approaching the least. I came home to a back porch covered in little shards of foam. At first I thought they where packing peanuts and I was looking around for a box full of them or a package. Upon inspection, I realized that the little bastards were back at their devious plan to winter in the roofing.

So, in the face of the brisk morning air hovering somewhere in the low teens, I hauled out the ladder this morning and climbed up there to spread a little more anti-squirrel preparation. That should keep them away for a day or so until I can more thoroughly coat the area with more metal or preparation. It appears to me that the squirrels are totally ungrateful for all I do for them, which is feed them. I bought a wonderful squirrel feeder a few years back. I put it up on a tree and regularly filled it with unsalted peanuts. Well, to show their appreciation, they chewed the hell out of it and then turned their chewing attention on the house.

That gets me all pissed off and I swear to never feed them again. And then they do something cute and squirrel-like and win me over again.

I have now come to realize that I am not going to be rid of them and they are not going to stop chewing. And so we live in an uneasy co-existence where we each remain weary of the other and tolerate the comings and goings of our respective selves.

It's a very holistic approach to life that I have yet to fully embrace. Every time I start to align my chakra into the Fung Shway of life with arborial rodentia, the little bastards chew up something else and send me for the shotgun.

Oooooooooohm!

More Floor! What a Bore! What Rhymes with Prostitute and Just How Long Can I Make These Headers

Susan and I have been oh so busy enjoying life and everything that goes with life that we just have not had time to stop and smell the Blog. Finally, a brief recess has entered the picture and I can now update on the things that need to be dated up.

Let's talk Hardwood Flooring! Here are a couple of pictures showing our progress and where we are right now.

We now have about five feet of linoleum remaining to remove. We have been removing it in small little sections that take a couple of hours to do. That way, it is not too taxing or rigorous for us to get through.

As we pull up linoleum and uncover the old hardwood, we are discovering the truth about the history of the floor. Apparently, part of that history involves a good deal of water damage to the hardwood floor in the area just in front of the bathroom. We have determined that a few boards of hardwood will need to be replaced. My feeling is that when this was a Home for Retarded Adults, they knew where the bathroom was but they just couldn't get there fast enough.

Because we have a passion for old homes, we are drawn to those who share our passion. Last night we had dinner with a couple of guys we have met who have purchased and are restoring what is believed to be the oldest standing residence in Spokaloo. In order to keep things private, we shall call them Mike and Steven. It is totally a coincidence if that turns out to be their real names. One can see what they are doing and their impressive results by visiting http://www.muzzymansion.com/.

We sometimes get a big head and think we have accomplished a lot in four years. These guys have accomplished a crap load in two years. I'm not too concerned because they have a lot more work to do than we do. However, I'm not taking any bets on who will be finished first.

(Psst! Don't bet on us!)

Time Off

I have nothing in particular to write about tonight. As far as working on the house, we have taken the last couple of nights off. Specifically, we have done no further work on the floor.

We accomplished very little other than some intense TV watching. In fact, it is because of TV that we cannot do anything tonight. There is a great comedy line up starting with “My Name is Earl” at 8:00. We have a brief half hour respite from anything we like from 8:30 to 9:00. Then it’s “The Office” followed by “30 Rock”.

These programs are among the select many television shows that we watch at all costs. The house suffers as a result. However, the house is nearly 100 years old. Certainly by now it has developed a sense of patience.

There are some small one night projects I could work on. For example, tonight I did complete a preliminary surveillance over an Electrical Fixture that I would like to involve in a procedure to remove it from the ceiling and replace it with something other than it.

Susan has also expressed a desire for this particular light to be, at the very least, not dangling by it’s wires suspended a foot below the ceiling. She feels that more than enough time has passed since this little fix should have been completed. Like eighteen months worth of time!

She mentioned another electrical project that would be relatively easy to complete. I know I could do it pretty easily. But it is also important to keep the focus on the project at hand, namely the floor. We still have several feet to go to complete the removal of linoleum on the main floor hardwood.

But before that, we have this pesky television line up to watch. And so, another night off.

Episode IV, A New Hope

There's a new Sheriff in town and his name is Barack Obama. He's not the guy we voted for but he is our Sheriff now and we both support him. "W" left him him quite a mess. The whole country seems to be pretty jacked up and excited for the days and weeks to come.

I'm not terribly optimistic about the immediate future. I think things are going to get worse before they get better. I don't know what will happen in these days and months to come but I hope it involves getting a faster computer. This one sucks and the hard drive is full to overflowing. You should see all the data that falls out onto the floor.

Fortunately, we have cats to lick it up.

Hardwood Rolls On

The picture above shows our progress on the floor to date. We have cleared the linoleum from the front door all the way back to the kitchen. Except for the holes I have already talked about here, the floor is in good condition.

We pulled up the floor in little bit into the kitchen because we were curious to see what we had there. It appears that the hardwood stops at the kitchen. The best that I can tell right now is that there is a very old linoleum floor over a soft wood flooring. It looks pretty similar to the flooring that is upstairs.

Our plan for the kitchen is tile but we wanted to make sure there wasn't any hardwood there.

The next step will be to remove the rest of the linoleum that leads to the bathroom and then to the TV room. I can tell you it is going to be tough. The two of us spent about three and half hours on the section we removed today. After measuring the area, we cleared 35 square feet. It doesn't seem like much for all the pain and soreness we are currently experiencing. I am so beat right now I feel like I'm ready for bed. And it's only 5:45PM.

Phase 1, Part A

We have completed the first part of the linoleum removal job. That is, we have removed the two layers of linoleum from the entry to the Living Room to the Front Door. Part B will be to remove it from the entry of the Living Room to the Kitchen. That will then be followed by Part Three, Subsection A, Stroke Slash Slash Operation Huh? Anyway, this is how it looks now. And, even with the holes, we are happy.

Holes in the Hardwood

With the start of the New Year and the Holidays behind us, it is time to return our focus back on the main reason for our existence...remodeling the house. We have finally returned to work on removing the linoleum from the entry and restoring the hardwood floors hidden underneath.

We have pulled up another another four or five feet of linoleum in the entryway. Upon removal of this section we came upon a most unsettling discovery.

At one time in the history of this house, it was divided into two separate apartments. There was one apartment on the main floor and one on the second floor. We believe that was the case from the mid 1940's until the 70's.

In the picture below, you can see that there was once a wall just inside the main door. There must have been two doors. On the left, the door was the entry for the upstairs apartment. On the right, the entry for the main floor residence.

The floor clearly shows the shadow of the old wall which divided the two living spaces. We know that part of the upstairs landing was the kitchen area for the upstairs apartment. When tearing the wall down on the landing, I discovered water pipes for a sink.

With the removal of the linoleum, we have found that they ran the water line up to that kitchen through the now defunct wall. I assume they also ran the drain down through that same wall. Suddenly, it is clear why they put linoleum down over the hardwood floors.
At some point, somebody drilled a shitload of holes into the floor to accommodate the pipes they ran. Never mind the crimes against hardwood they committed, they had to have a sink.

This was a rather discouraging discovery for us. But once we got past the shock and dismay, we regrouped and figured out what to do next. Orange shag carpet was our first thought. But it is only two board that are damaged, and we will have flooring to use for their replacement because of the hardwood we will pull up at the front door and replace with tile.

And so, we battle on!

Pineapple Expression

The picture above was taken on New Years Day at about 12:30 in the noon time. You can clearly see that my snow gauge indicates the snow is just below 24 inches. A day or two after this picture was taken, we received more snow which put the total up above 30 inches.

The picture shown below shows the snow level as of this morning at about 7AM. That is seven days and twelve inches of snow since the previous picture. What a Winter!

I can tell you that the level of the snow has dropped another two inches since this picture was taken this morning. We are about 14 inches away from having the most snowfall ever in a single season in the history of weather and if it happens, 90 percent of the snow will have fallen and melted within a three week period. I guess Al Gore knew what he was bullshitting about.

One slight mistake you may have noticed is that the twelve sticker on my homemade snow gauge has been placed one notch too high. I shall attempt to remedy that sometime in April.

Finally, I am happy to report that with the win of Florida over Oklahoma in tonight's BCS National College Football Championship game, it believe I have won second place in my pool and tied for closest total points. That should provide me with enough money to fix my homemade snow gauge and perhaps buy a donut or three.

Forty-Eight Degrees

The side streets are icy, the main streets are bare and wet with occasional iciness. I have lost six inches of snow depth since yesterday. See the header for todays' expected high.

The latest addition to my roll call of little maintenance details to keep an eye on is the basement door area. The stairs go down from the back of the house and the cement entry at the bottom has no drain. Therefore, there is quite a bit of standing water that develops there. It is not seeping into the basement yet. I used the shop vac to suck up about three gallons of water last night and then again this morning. Looking at it, you wouldn't think there was that much water there. But it's about a three foot by three foot pad and the water was about an inch deep before I started vacuuming. You do the math.

I drilled a line of little holes through the cement a couple years ago in hopes that would work as a drain of some sort. However, they are pretty small holes and I suspect they are plugged. I'll break out the drill tonight and try to open them up. In the meantime, I will continue to suck.

I cannot tell yet whether the work Scott and I did last night on the roof is helping or night. There is currently sooooooooo much water streaming off the roof and onto the deck that it is difficult to see what is leaking and what isn't. I need to drill a few holes into the deck to allow for drainage. It's a sloppy mess out there.

"I Want You to Build an Ark"

The warming trend that has been threatened to come upon us has come upon us. It snowed a couple of inches last night so I broke out the heavy equipment this morning and did my rounds. I figured that if it did indeed turn to rain, I didn’t want a bunch a sloppy un-blowable mush all over the neighborhood.

I heard on the radio this morning that the official snow fall for the season is se7enty-se7en (77) inches. The official “Corbin Park Snow on the Ground” reading is 26 inches as of this morning at the 631 Weather Depth Gauge.

The most snow Spokane has ever received in a season is 93.5 inches back in the winter of 1949-50. They say that January and February are traditionally our snowiest months. It looks like there is a very good chance of the possibility that maybe the conditions could be favorable to allow for the eventuality that we just might surpass that figure, perhaps.

In the meantime, I have been keeping busy with the roof. It is no longer leaking in through the french doors in the kitchen. However, it is leaking all over the outside of the french doors. I have to regularly open the door to break through any icicles that may be forming to block its door opening path.

I spent about two hours last night up on the roof, shoveling snow and breaking up ice. I have my son Scott coming over tonight to help me remove more snow and ice. If it rains as they predict, it is going to be a mess up there. It’s going to add to the weight of the snow we have to remove which adds to the amount I sweat while working. But if it’s raining, that works out great for me because I rarely shower anyway.

Later that same evening: Scott has come and gone and we succeeded in removing a tremendous amount of snow and ice from the roof...along with a couple of small shingle bits. It's really sloppy outside right now and the temperature is 43 degrees at 10PM. It is also windy out. I went out on the front porch earlier and all I could hear was wind and dripping water.

The next few days should be very interesting. Already I can see snow has melted considerably from portions of the roof. You can barely go down the back steps without avoiding a shower.

At least, so far, we are dry in the house and the areas of previous leakage are not a concern. But we are watching. Watching and listening. Soon...bailing!

Warming Trend?

There was about five inches of warming trend on the driveway this morning. I fired up the snow blower at just after 6AM and went to town on the neighborhood. It was still coming down when I finished and is expected to turn to rain later in the day.

That does not bode well for our roof. I have a lot of ice clearing to do over the next few days. The quicker I complete it the less chance of more kitchen leakage. The leaks around the french door appeared to slow down over the night but I'm sure they are going to continue as long as I have snow and ice up there.

It turns out there was nothing wrong with the headlight on the snow blower. I replaced the lamp assembly and plugged in the loose wire I found and it was as if magic had occurred. So now I have spent $35.00 plus shipping on a headlight that I will more than likely loose before I need it.

Back to Reality

The lights are down, the decorations have been packed into boxes and stowed in the basement and the tree has been unceremoniously tossed into the gutter for the birds, mice and small street urchins to make into a home.

Now comes of the task of getting back to the real world. All the time off in the past two weeks now appears to have been put to no good use. I could easily use another couple of days just clearing ice damns from the roof.

I got the big ugly one cleared off on the west side of the house today and removed the miniature icicle that was trying to take root. However, I now find I should have been paying equal attention to the roof above the deck on the east side of the house. A five or six inch ice damn has developed there and water started dripping through the french door in the kitchen today.

I cleared away a three foot wide swath where the door is in hopes that it will open up enough to let the water drain off the roof rather than into the house. It will probably take a couple of days before I know if I was successful.

Here are a couple of pictures from up on the roof.

The picture to the right shows the mast where all my weather gathering equipment is located. It's on the peak just above the giant icicle site and this is looking east. It was quite a beautiful day although it never got up above the high 20's.

The picture on the left is from the same location only looking west. You can see the area where the two peaks empty to and create all the trouble.

I will probably be up there several more times this season to deal with the snow, ice and subsequent water.

I left the house yesterday morning for my bartending job and there was a car parked in our driveway right behind my rig. I didn't know what was going on but was able to maneuver around it and get to work.

I pretty much forgot about it until I arrived back home and it was still there. The door was unlocked so I looked around for a name. The contents of the glove compartment were emptied all over the vehicle so I was beginning to suspect I had found a stolen car.

The was no number listed in the phone book for the name on the registration so I called the police and actually managed to talk to someone. That has been a challenge with our police department in the last few years. Crimes are only supposed to happen during regular business hours.

Anyway, I got through and reported the Nissan Pathfinder I suspected was stolen. To my amazement, a patrol car showed up about fifteen minutes after I made the call. The officer told me that it was indeed stolen and she was trying to contact the owner.I was concerned that they were going to call a tow truck and haul it away and then charge the owner $300.00 before they could recover it. That happened to us a couple of years ago when Susan's car was stolen.

Fortunately, the owner was contacted and came and got the car. So, I have done my Crime Buster Good Deed for the New Year.

Happy New Year

As the sun comes up on a New Year, the snow continues to fall just like last year. It was noted yesterday that December 2008 is now the snowiest month on record. That means we have close to 60 inches out there. I'm going to be out snow blowing later but I'm waiting for it to stop snowing. I may have to settle for waiting until six inches have fallen.

We had a very low key New Years Eve. Along with our buddy Mark, we started a new tradition of having black-eyed peas on New Years. It's supposed to bring good luck. We then went and saw a movie. "Se7en Pounds" with Will Smith. A good story but a bit of a downer story for starting a new year. We wanted something lighter but the schedules were not convenient.

We got out of the movie at 11:35 and made it home in time to open a frosty bottle of champagne and go out on the front porch and listen to all the illegal fireworks going off...as well as some legal ones downtown at the park.

I need to get up on the roof at some point today and do some ice damn maintenance as well as remove a bunch of snow from the deck.

We will also start the tedious and somewhat sad task of removing the Christmas finery from around the house. However, in the Burke Family Bylaws, as revised in 1986 under a new administration, Section 25, Paragraph 3 clearly states that Christmas Decoration can remain up three days past January First. Beyond that, it is a violation and serious repercussions will ensue.