2020 Punkin Carvin'

 Tonight we carved our two pumpkins. I did my usual semi scary pumpkin and Susan did her usual cool cat pumpkin.

They came out just about as you might expect.

And they look pretty cool when lit up.

Halloween Prepping

We are closing in on the scariest day of the year and trying to prepare our one little decoration we are putting out.

Frankly, I happy to not be putting out all our regular decorations this year. With the snow still hanging in the yard, it was going to be even more of a job to set everything up.

This year, we have made a new tombstone that we will put at the top of the steps to the front porch.

Along with the tombstone, we'll put up some Police Tape to further enhance the message that we are not handing out candy this year.

The plan for this year is to invite our regular Halloween friends who come over to help out with crowd control and crowd scaring. Susan is making up some chili and we are going to watch "The Nightmare Before Christmas"...a Halloween Classic.

Beyond that, we have done some minor inside decorating for Halloween. And when I say "We", I mean Susan.

Snow Fall Out

Yesterday's paper said that we set a record for the most snow in a single day for October. The paper also mentioned that we received 3.3 inches of snow last year on October 6th. So this wasn't the earliest snow fall of size, but it was biggest.

There are tree branches all over town that have fallen. We lost several branches off the big maple tree on the west side of the house. Upon further inspection, we have a couple of branches that have snapped but not fallen. They are leaning up on the roof around the area of the chimney.

Above are some pictures of the damage. You can see that the one big branch that snapped off is still up and needs to come down. I'm calling Randy the Insurance Guy tomorrow.

This early snow has really caught me off guard. I haven't shut off the water to the outside faucets although I was smart enough to disconnect the hoses and put the sprinklers away.

I also need to put the rain barrels away for the season. Unfortunately, they seem to full of frozen water and are not likely to be moved anytime soon. I'm hoping we will be having a warming trend in the next couple of weeks that will help me out.

My organizational skills were put to the test today as I attempted to find a cord of heat tape that I wrap around the faucet in the backyard. It took me a while because I did not remember where I stored it and it wasn't in any of the places I looked first. But I found it. That's another 40 minutes I wasted.

By now, I would imagine I've wasted a year of my life looking for stuff that I didn't put away properly.

First Snow

 We have received the first snowfall of the season. It started about 9AM and has been falling all day. It is now almost 5.

The above picture was taken at 10:30.

And this one was taken at 12:30.

At this point, I would say we have about 4 inches on the ground.

A snowfall this early in the season usually doesn't stick around for very long. But we have so much snow on the ground, I'm thinking it may hang around for a while.

We have a fire going which is adding to the ambiance of the wintry scene.

It's 7:00 PM and it's still coming down.

I had to go out and knock snow off the satellite dish. I think this may be the earliest big snow we have ever had. It's certainly the earliest big snow in my quasi-faulty memory.

Post Anniversary Post

A rather non productive day around the house as Autumn is setting it's clutches into the scenery.

I have no idea why that would lead us to be non productive, and in fact, we were a little productive.

Susan continued work on her floor repair project and I worked on the closet door, sanding it smooth and filling the old screw holes. It is almost ready to paint.

It's kind of dangerous to walk up our walkway. The chestnuts have been raining down and they are everywhere.

I just had some kids come by asking to rake leaves. I told them I'm waiting for more to fall before I tackle the yard.

Our marriage turned 16 yesterday. Quite an achievement for both Susan and I. We are celebrating tonight with a night out to our new  place we visited once and liked, the Texas Roadhouse.

It's quite an ordeal to get in there. We call in to get on the Wait List. We want to go about 7 so I'm calling to get on the list at 6. By then it should be a good 45 minutes to an hour wait.

When we arrive after our appointed wait time, we check in at the front door. Then they will tell us to wait in the car until we get a text telling us it's our turn.

We're heading to the Hub first for a pre-anniversary beer.

8:35PM: We have returned from the Texas Roadhouse. We waited all of five minutes before we were seated. I find my opinion is not the same as last time. My steak was okay but not rare as requested. The other thing I noticed is that their food is really salty. The mushrooms they served with my steak were heavily salted. The Baked Potato skin is waaaay to salty and so I didn't eat that.

The salad was really good though.

Mulling Over the Boiler Game

I am thinking that the Boiler Game will end tonight. 

It was a little on the nippy side in the house last night. We had the space heater going in the kitchen and it kept us comfortable but I think we are getting to the point where we need the extra boost. Of course, turning on the boiler is quite a boost to our Avista bill as well.

I just checked our bill on line and we have a $32.00 credit. That bodes well for starting off a new season of consuming mass quantities of natural gas.

I'll have to talk to Susan tonight to see what she thinks. The longer we hold off, the more money we save.

6:00PM: The Boiler Game is over! It ended at 5:38 PM today. 

I talked to Susan about it when I got home and we decided it was time. I took her downstairs with me because I don't think she has ever seen how to restart the gas and turn on the furnace. Everything went smoothly and almost all of the radiators heated up. I have two that don't seem to warm up. There was no leaking.

For the eighth year in row, the winner of the Boiler Game was Hugh G. Rection of Altoona, PA. Mr. Rection's guess was September 2nd at 12 midnight. That's not very close to the actual date and time but as in years past, Mr. Rection was the only person to enter.

Boiler Game Update

 It's getting very close to the end of the Boiler Game. The mornings are quite chilly. I'm not sure how much longer we can hold out.

For some reason, October 13th hangs in my mind as a day of significance concerning the boiler game.

I just checked the archives and the date to beat is October 21st. That record was set back in 2011.

Other information I discovered while looking back, it's been three years since we had the new garage door installed and we have been catless for over a year now, losing Oscar last October 5th.

So now the race is on to see if I can wait eight days to tie the record. It does not look promising for a new record. The forecast calls for highs in the 50's and a good chance of rain. Plus, today there is a wind advisory for this afternoon with possible gusts up to 60 mph.

Stand by!

A Sunday in Autumn

Since I announced the end of Summer in the last post, I decided it was time to do some end of Summer yard work. I didn't rake any leaves. I don't see the point yet. Besides, the rain made them wet and heavy. More rain is coming and will probably knock down a bunch more leaves.

I concentrated on the hops and the grape vines. I cut the grape vines waaaaaay back and pulled down the hops.

I also started cutting the trim for the front window in the TV Room. I have three of five strips prepped. I had to stop because Lou came over to help with the door.

First he used his door planers to even up the strip of wood we glued to the door.

Then he clamped a board on the door to use as a guide for making a nice clean cut on the edge.

It took a couple of cuts but we (Lou) made it fit.

I'm quite happy to have salvaged this mistake. Obviously, we still have some work to do. Sanding, painting and filling some holes.

Susan cannot give up on the floor we damaged when we reinstalled the radiator. She just worked on this little strip and I can't say she dramatically improved it.

The improvement that made a difference was painting the crown molding.

All the little imperfections have disappeared with a fresh coat of paint. Nice job, Susan.

Fall Arrives, Halloween is Killed and a Rookie Mistake

 Autumn has officially arrived as of this morning. The newspaper reported we are into the third warmest October on record. The rain that fell over the night and into the afternoon breaks a 99 day dry spell that has not been equaled since 1917.

I'm continuing to work on the door but I'm taking a different approach. I'm including a professional person in my repair. My neighbor, Lou came over yesterday and we glued this strip of wood onto the door and let it dry over night.

The next step is to use a door planer on it. Since I have no experience with that, I shall wait for Lou. In the meantime, I moved the door out of the rain and removed the clamps. I'm going to return them to Lou right now.

Susan is decorating the inside of the house for Halloween. We are not decorating outside as Covid has killed Halloween 2020. At least as far as we are concerned.

We decided not to participate in Halloween this year because I can't justify handing out candy to throngs of people (mostly kids) who cannot keep a six foot distance. They just pack in too tight.

Here's are a couple of reminders of how thick it can get.

It's just after 3:00PM and we are waiting for a woman to come by who has some grapes to crush. She drove down to Benton City this morning, picked up her grapes and is returning here for a crushing.

After we bought our Crusher, I put up a flyer at Jim's Home Brew and have gotten a few calls from it. I'm going to have to give Jim's a commission.

This is the first time we've used the crusher in two years. We couldn't get any grapes last year because of an early freeze that took out a lot of acreage.

We're not even sure we will be able to get grapes this year.

4:47PM: The lady showed up and we crushed about 90 pounds of Cabernet grapes. They were very sweet. I did a really dumb move though. 

She had three bins of grapes that were approximately 30 pounds per bin. The receptacle she had for the crushed grapes didn't look very big so after we crushed the first bin, I suggested running the grapes through again. I totally forgot about the juice we already had in the can and when I poured it through, we lost a bunch of juice. Stupid! We didn't loose too much but it was a rookie mistake of colossal proportions.

Fortunately, she was nice about it.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

 We attempted work on the TV Room this weekend, but we did not achieve great results.

We tried to hang the closet door and ran into a problem. It wouldn't close. There's no reason it shouldn't close. It came off the same door jam. However, stuff might have gotten moved around during dry walling, trimming or passage of time.

We made note of where the door was hitting and went about the task of really screwing up the door.

This picture does not show the problem very well but there is a wide gap in the middle of the door on the strike side.

I took a belt sander to the side of the door to try and remove some wood where it was hitting the jam. I was too aggressive. I tried working on the door today but I'm really not sure yet what I'm going to do.

I had better luck with the crown molding.

Here's a picture from last week when we put it up.

Here's a picture from today after I caulked around the top and bottom of the crown.

Once it's painted, it will be totally awesome.

First Fire

For the first time in what may be four months, we have received some rain. About a quarter of an inch according to my rain gauge. To celebrate, and because it's a little chilly, I built a fire.

It's wonderful to have the flames back in the Living Room, even though it contributes to the smell of smoke in the house. It also contributes to the warmth and comfort of the house, so that's a plus that cancels the smell of smoke.

I should add that this in no way effects the outcome of the boiler game. I am hoping the conclusion of that is still a few weeks away.

Finally-Crown Molding

I hired out for professional assistance today in order to put up the crown molding and the picture rail. The picture rail went better than the crown molding. It is now up to the Queen of Spackle to clean up the problems.

 

Finally-Radiator Day

The smoke has hung around all week. Some days were better than others. I haven't really seen the sun all week. Just an occasional glimpse of a glowing ball in the sky.

We got a little rain last night and it was enough to knock down the smoke. It's a cloudy day but I actually saw some sunshine and a little blue sky today.

A milestone was reached today in terms of the TV Room project. For the first time in two years, the radiator is back in the room.

Mark came over to help while Susan panicked. She was very worried about the tile floor in the entry way where the radiator has hung out for two years. She was also very worried about damaging the floor that we had just refinished. 

All I can tell you is we did not damage the tile.

We loaded the radiator onto two furniture dollies I use to move the piano. We got one under each end.

In the course of rolling it into the room, one of the wheels on the dolly created a little divot in the wood. It's not a disaster, but we are going to see it for years to come...and be pissed about it. That radiator has to be about 700 pounds.

Once in place, it wasn't too much trouble to reattach the nut on the left side and sweat the pipe on the right. It's not very pretty so stop looking at it!

Now came the moment of truth. Is the radiator really properly and securely attached. The only way to find out is the fill the system. It took about an hour and it was very tense while waiting for all the radiators to fill.

We kept a very close eye on the pipes while it was filling. I had to run around to all the other radiators (eight of them) and open the valve to bleed out the air as they filled.

I am happy to report that it looks like all is well. I can find no leaks on the newly installed radiator or any of the others. That means that the Boiler Game has not been canceled due to Covid or any other natural disaster and will carry on.

The days are getting cooler so we are close to the conclusion of this year's Boiler Game.

Susan finished painting the other side of the closet doors and then helped me paint the crown molding that will be installed tomorrow, along with the picture rail.

Once that is complete, we will be very very close to being finished. It doesn't seem possible.

7:07 PM: Because of the Covid-19 Pandemic, lots of stuff that we like to attend every year isn't happening. Pig Out on the Park took a year off. The Greek Festival is canceled. Bloomsday was moved to this weekend and has become a virtual event where you go out and run by yourself. And the Interstate Fair is not happening. 

They are trying to salvage what they can by having some of the competitions...like Wine Labels. (Susan won) And they decided to offer up a Drive Thru Fair Food Event. That way you can satisfy your hankering for a Corn Dog or Deep Fried Oreo.

We went out last weekend and it was canceled due to smoke. We tried again tonight and were told that the line was 2 1/2 hours long.

We ended up at the Union Tavern and had a nice dinner of bar food.

I'll have to wait until next year for my Corn Dog.

Varnishing Point

It is another smoky day of smoky smokiness. It seems it is worse today than yesterday. It is after 3PM and I can finally see that filtered glow ball in the sky for the first time today.

The authorities say our air is hazardous. The index is up to 468. I don't know what 468 relates to. Dirt units? Smoke Modules? Nasal Impairments? I'm told the scale goes to 500.

In any event, it's not terribly healthy out there. We see very few people walking around the park and the basketball court is silent.

The good news for me is I don't feel terribly affected by the bad air. I'm not coughing or wheezing (any more than normal) and I don't feel particularly burdened by the smoke.

We made a little more progress on our remodel project. Susan got the doors painted on one side and we varnished all the trim and baseboards I installed. I would show you a picture but it doesn't look any different than what I posted yesterday.

Trim Time

The weather has been hot and sunny for what seems like an eternity. We have had very little rain since July and every day seems to be the same as the last. Clear, sunny and hot.

Until today! It is cool with an overcast sky. The unusual thing is the forecasters are saying the clouds are from fires in Eastern Washington and as far as California.

They have issued a warning concerning our air quality that extends through Monday. 

While it is overcast, I do not smell smoke, which has been the case so often in the past. I have never really had issues with poor air quality in the past but I am getting older and my respiratory system is certainly compromised because of my heart.

We shall see how I fare over the next couple of days.

I made major progress with the TV Room yesterday. The trim is up. I am mostly satisfied with the results but I can tell you that I am no finish carpenter.

I have one little mistake to fix.

I did not notice this gap when I put the door trim in place. Susan noticed it right off the bat of course. It is a huge faux pas but totally correctable, as you shall soon see.

12:15 PM: I guess I spoke too soon about the smoke. When I left the house and headed towards downtown, I could see the smoke was substantially heavier. I also started to smell the smoke. That's a heavily filtered sun in the upper left corner.

I was easily able to remove the side rail of trim from the wall, remove the nails, fill the nail holes and replace without a gap.

Wow! That's is a crappy picture. Let's see if I can do better.

Ah! Me happy now.

4:41 PM: Susan has spent the afternoon working on the closet and hall door for the TV Room. She's got them all cleaned up, patched some screw holes and now they are ready for paint.

 I completed trim installation by putting down the base shoe. I was surprised at how fast it went. Everything fits really tight and I almost feel like a finish carpenter.

It all looks pretty good if you don't look too close because despite how I may feel, I am no finish carpenter.

Labrador Day Chill

11.32 AM: We have been so efficient this weekend with organizing and completing our projects, we have a lazy Labor Day Monday to look forward to. It is sunny and a little windy, with threats of it becoming more windy.

We are just puttering around the house, eating some left over brisket, washing clothes and cleaning up the barbecue and cooler from yesterday.

If the wind doesn't become too much of an issue, I think I'll chill out at the pool for a while. 

12:25 PM: I'm thinking of mowing the lawn, but I'm not terribly motivated. Chillin' by the pool is not in the cards. Too Chilly!

3:47 PM: The most important thing we have accomplished today is going to Michael's so Susan could purchase some tiny fake pumpkins. Then I drove us over to Jo-Ann's fabrics and bought some iron-on patches to fix a hole in a pocket of a pair of cargo pants.

We stopped for a small pitcher at the Hub and have now returned to the house.

The patch has been applied and I shall be testing the fix tomorrow with actual on the job testing.

Now we are just hanging out and preparing to retire to the front porch with beers.

So ends our Labor Day Weekend.

Labrador Day B

Today was filled with excitement because we barbecued the brisket today. Here it is after sitting over night with a gentle rub of salt and fresh ground pepper that we drizzled over both sides of the meat.

Before going into those details, lets talked about varnishing.

After getting home from church, we went to work on the floor. Today was coating number three for the varnishing.

As before, the sanding was hard and took some time, the varnishing took ten minutes. We are happy with the results and consider the varnishing project to be complete.

Now lets talk about barbecuing.

I got up at 7:00 and fired up ten charcoal brickets in my chimney. I had already prepared the 116 bricket snake that lined the perimeter of the kettle. I placed five chunks of hickory evenly around the snake.

I modified this picture in Photoshop to show the snake. It was really dark. You can see the 8 inch gap in the snake at the bottom of the picture. The pans held 6 cups of water. I guess to keep things moist.

I poured the starter charcoal into the right end side of the snake, replaced the grill and put the meat on so that the fatty point was over the gap.

I stuck a meat thermometer into the thickest part of the point and left for church.

By the time we got home, the meat had been roasting for three and a half hours and was already at 170 degrees.

We opened it up and wrapped the meat in foil. This method is called the Texas Crutch. I added a chimney full of charcoal to the gap, replaced the meat in the same position as before and let it go. The plan was to leave it on for another two hours or when it reached 205 degrees.

At this point, we were way ahead of schedule. It reached 205 degrees in about an hour and 15 minutes. It was only 12:15 and we told our guests to arrive at five.

We were in the middle of varnishing so I shut down the vents and let it stay on the grill.

When we got back to it, a half hour had passed and the temperature was at 210 degrees. It had been on the grill for five and a half hours. We had been planning on eight hours.

We pulled the brisket and put it upside down in a cooler. The recipe called for it to be in the cooler for three hours were it would drop to 160 degrees.

We pulled it out after four hours. The cooler was warm and the meat was 140 degrees. Still warm enough to eat.

It came out perfect. It was tender and juicy and melted in you mouth.

The recipe we followed came from "Cook's Country" on PBS. We recorded the episode and watched it several times, writing down the details until we felt pretty familiar with what to do.

We definitely plan on doing this again and using the same method to slow cook ribs or a turkey.

The only thing I would do differently next time is to close the top and bottom vents half way. We left them wide open and I think that is why it cooked so fast.

Labrador 2020 - Day One

 It's Saturday and we are prepping for all kinds of events. The main events today is to get the Brisket seasoned and apply Coat Number Two of varnish to the floor.

As I type, both are completed and it is approaching 2PM.

I'm going to do a little clean up on the deck and Susan is finishing her painted carpet project on the front porch.

The 146th running of the delayed Kentucky Derby is set for 4:01 PM, PDT. We'll be heading over to the Hub for that event.

I guess that covers all the events for today.

5:49PM: No big surprise, we lost. Neither of the horses we drew finished in the top 5. Oh well, we got to wear our fancy derby hats and we had a walk and we had some beer.

Labrador 2020 - Day Oh - Day Ay Ay Ay Oh Day I Say Day I Say Day Ay Ay Oh

It's Friday at the start of the Labor Day weekend and I am on a mission. I have a lot to get accomplished today and it is not being helped by me sitting here and tapping away at this keyboard.

I'm about to head out to acquire a bunch of stuff. Varnish, a varnish applicator, a new roller pan, and a few chunks of hickory wood.

One of the main goals we have for the weekend is to barbecue a twelve pound brisket on our Weber. We have a concise recipe to follow and it should take about 10 hours to create this jewel of steaming meaty goodness.

If you're a vegetarian, this is not a post you want to hang with.

I shall continue upon my return from the errands.

12:27 PM: It took all of 10 minutes to get this first coat of varnish down.

I did great with my errands. I first stopped at the General Store, my "Go To" neighborhood hardware store. I managed to find one of the items on my list that I thought was going to be difficult to find, chunks of Hickory. It's a main ingredient for my barbecue project.

I also scored on the star of the barbecue...

The Brisket! It's 12 and a half pounds and it cost $45.00.

I made a few other stops and got back to the house about 11:15.

Here it is now, just before one, and my goals for the day are complete. I guess I need to find some new goals.

Oh! I thought of one. I need to give the cue and good cleaning.

7:21 PM: I cleaned the barbecue. I weed whacked the back yard. I went to the pool. I am pleased with my day.