What To Do Once You’re Retired

11:58AM: Today we are continuing the destruction of the kitchen floor. Ideally, I would like to get the whole rest of the linoleum cut up with the saw and be done with the messy part of this project.

I have completed the first half, cutting up everything to the south of the island. I even moved the fridge and cut up the floor under it.

Susan is presently vacuuming while I am writing this portion of the post. When she is finished, we will move the Piano Bar and mini fridge and other assorted items that are in the way so I can proceed to cutting up the remaining linoleum near the doors to the deck.

3:00PM: The floor is cut up in to nice bite sized squares. I do not feel like pulling up any of those squares. We are concentrating now and some dust remediation. Now that the floor has been completely cut up, the dust storm this house has endured is at its end. So we can dust and clean the thick layer of dust I have been creating since this started back on the second week of August.

But first, I think I deserve a dip in the pool.

Mo Flo

Susan took a Covid test this morning and she tested negative. Finally! She has been feeling better the last couple days. She was feeling good enough yesterday to help with floor removal.

We pretty much got the pantry room completely linoleum free. I have a little to do along the edges where the cabinets are. It seems the flooring is under the cabinet so it’s giving me some grief about coming out.

I figure we still have 340 square feet to go.

Cabinets and Radiators

We met today with Rick from CabinetPro. He took and bunch of measurements and talked about what we had in mind for the kitchen. He's going to work up a plan and give us some ideas plus a quote of what it will cost.

I'm anxious to see what he comes up with. We should be hearing from him by the end of the week.

In the meantime I am dealing with this radiator...my nemesis.

It's giving me trouble because I cannot disconnect it. I've drained the radiators so I can pull this and the radiator across the room out of the way to get to the flooring underneath.

I've got the left side disconnected, which only required loosening the connection with my pipe wrench. The other side is soldered into place and so far, it's not cooperating.

I made no progress on the floor today as I had a golf date with Mark.     

Kitchen Kontinuation

I'm slowly plugging away on the kitchen floor. I figure if I do a little work on it everyday, I will have it done in no time...which is equal to about two or three weeks.

One problem I have run into involves that radiator in the picture up there. I need to drain the system and remove the radiators in the kitchen. That's not going to be too much of a problem, but it will take time and will be my project for tomorrow.

When they put the linoleum down, they did not remove the radiators. They put the linoleum around the radiators. I can't get under them without removing them. 

Don't worry. It'll be fine.
 

Kitchen Man

Today was the first day of the rest of the Kitchen  Floor. We are going to be in battle, that floor and I. I will eventually win, but it will NOT be without casualties.

I started about 10:00 and stopped for the day at 1:00.

I have removed 18 square feet of a 400 square foot kitchen space.

I can tell you that a sharp saw blade makes all the difference. I've also gone from 60 to 24 teeth so it tears it up pretty good.

I am doing this by myself right now because Susan is down with Covid. This is Day 2 1/2. So far, I feel fine.

I'm happy to be doing this on my own right now because I'm trying to figure out the process. One thing I learned today is to cut small squares. It's much easier to pull out a small square of floor in one piece, which saves on clean up and searching for nails. 

Kitchen Floor

I am not counting today as the start of the Kitchen Remodel. But I did take some distinctive action.

I got out my circular saw and cut out a section of the kitchen floor. I wanted to see how easy and/or difficult it was going to be. It turns out that it is going to be easy but difficult because it's going to be slow going. 

I didn't do any more than this small section because my saw blade is so dull. I went out and bought a couple new blades that I hope will work for a while.

I went on YouTube to look up some videos on removing a sub floor and it appears I am doing it properly.

So, tomorrow, I'm going to hit it hard as soon as I finish mowing.   

Plugging a Hole

A while back, I discovered this fairly large hole in the base of our foundation right next to the basement door.

Susan discovered it a couple weeks ago and insists that it be fill in. Susan is the reason that anything gets done around here.

So we went out and bought an 80 pound bag of mortar today and went to work on the problem. In addition to the hole, Susan worked on a couple of other areas in the outside stair well where the mortar has turned to sand.

We found rocks around the yard to fill in the bulk of the hole and then slobbered mortar into the space.

It looks pretty good and now the mice will have to have to find a new way to get in. I'm sure there are plenty of other holes.   

Se7en Two Six

The heat continues its onslaught here in Spokane. I think it was close to 90°.

Susan has been working all day on cleaning the main floor of the house. I have been working on the Play House. I got up early and drove to Coeur d'Alene to get two 10 inch by 10 foot cedar boards for the Play House siding. Cost: $69.00!

I've spent the day struggling with them. Cutting to the correct length, priming them, fitting them into place and a crap load of nailing.

The old boards rotted from the nails and fell off a couple of years ago. Here's one of them.

I'm happy to say that it looks half way decent now. I'll do the final painting tomorrow. 

Then I have to get to work on a thorough cleaning of the front porch.

I should also mention that today is Susan's birthday. We will be enjoying her traditional birthday dinner of cheeseburgers, corn, potato chips and cottage cheese.   

First Day of Retirement

Today is the official first day of Susan's retirement. Friday was her last day of work but today is the day she didn't have to get up and go to work.

We celebrated with a mile and a half walk and a pair of Bloody Mary's afterwards.

I was out checking the garden and found my first ripe tomato.

It's a cherry tomato and there is another right behind it. Oh boy! Here they come.

By the way, it was delicious!  

Major Investment

In the world around us, we are enduring a tremendous rise in inflation. Gas is hovering around five bucks. Food prices are going nuts. The value of my retirement fund has dropped 70 Grand.

We decided to stop some of the bleeding and make a huge investment.

Our mortgage is set to be paid off in May of 2025. We accelerated that a bit.

So yesterday, after moving some money around with our financial advisor Glen, I called Wells Fargo Mortgage Services and paid off the remaining balance on this house.

We are now home owners in the truest sense of the word.

It doesn't feel life changing yet. But it will when we restructure our monthly expenses.

Needless to say, we are pleased with us.   

Garden Update

Back in May, I repaired this little garden space on the back of the house. Then I planted a bunch of tomatoes, peppers, basil and chives. 

Amazingly, I never took pictures after I planted everything. I’m a huge fan of before and after pictures, in case you haven’t noticed. I don’t know what the hell I was thinking.

Other than turning on the water every day or so and doing a little weeding, I really haven’t paid the garden much attention.

Tonight, my son stopped by and asked how my garden was doing. We went out back to look and he was amazed at how well it was doing. Upon closer inspection, I have a crap load of tomatoes. I have a nice little bush of basil ready for harvesting and there is something that looks like a jalapeño pepper, which I am not interested in. But Susan can use it.

Preppin' for a Party

 I don't know if I've mentioned it before now but we are having a Retirement Party. I have been retired for a year and Susan is fast approaching her date of July 22nd.

Among the many things we are doing to prepare for the party is to paint these old resin chairs that have been out in the weather for who knows how long.

I painted a couple earlier in the week and they turned out good enough that Susan wanted to do the rest.

She bought a bunch of cans of green spray paint and went to town.

I was toiling elsewhere in the yard while she painted six chairs.

They came out looking great in a couple of cases and acceptable in a couple of other cases.

I worked on forever sealing the skunk access to under the garage. I hope I have been successful. Don't worry. I made sure the skunks had moved on before I filled in the hole.

My other project was to drill into this stump in an effort to remove it. I drilled the holes and then poured Roundup into them. Later this week, I shall light it on fire and slowly burn the stump away.

You can look into the archives here and find other examples of Stump Fires.

Holiday Float

We took advantage of what appeared to be the only sunny day of the Fourth of July weekend to float the Little Spokane River with our friends, Karen and Randy.

It was a great day although someone fell off their diet and also got a little sunburned.

It was an excellent way to spend the afternoon.      

Cuckoo for Clocks

When Mom died last year, I inherited her Cuckoo Clock. She never had it running so I was surprised when I set it up and it ran beautifully.

Susan also had a clock that had been a gift from a German Exchange Student who lived with her family when she was growing up. It has been sitting in a cabinet in pieces since we got married. I took it to my local clock guy and he put it all back together.

Mom's clock is upstairs on the landing and Susan's clock is in the living room. They can both be heard throughout the house. One of my jobs every morning is to wind the clocks (the weights keep the clock going for one day) and keep them ticking. 

I have become a little anal about getting them to Cuckoo as close together as possible. At the present moment, they are right on!   

Summer Musings

We have just ended and cool and rainy Spring. On the first day of Summer last week, it was a summer day and we broke 70° for about the third time this year. It's been nice warm summery weather ever since. It looks like we are heading into a hot Fourth of July weekend.

I got out and mowed today. Including the front, back, side yards and blow job, (Leaf Blower) it took me about two hours. I'm much slower than I used to be. 

I'm heading for the dump shortly and then meeting my friend Geoff for a beer. There is likely a visit to the pool in my future as well.

1:25PM: Back from the dump and off for a beer.

10:16PM: The wind has been pretty gusty all day and that kept the temperature down a bit. I still find myself sweating no matter what I'm doing. I think I need to change clothes about twice a day. At the very least, I need a set of clothes for when I'm working around the house and another for when I go out.   

Skunk Family Update

What we have suspected for a while has come to fruition. We have baby skunks.

Along with Mom Skunk, there are four cute little stink bags as well. They're very timid, running for their hole whenever we make the slightest noise when they are out.

My plan is to wait until they're gone and then fill in the hole really well. Better than I did last year.

They are cute but they are quite annoying as well.    

Kegerator

Today I took a road trip half way across the state to purchase a kegerator. I have been after one for years and I finally connected on a nice one for a reasonable price, $150.00. They can cost an easy grand and up for a new one.

Although the price of gas is as high as it is, I decided to make the trip. It cost me another $100.00 to pick it up, not to mention the better part of my day.

The guy that sold me the beer fridge lives in Orondo, a small town on the Columbia River about 15 miles north of Wenatchee. It was a nice day for a drive and it took almost three hours to get there.

I got it set up in the Carriage House for now. The next move is to brew some beer. I'm planning to do that soon.

In the meantime, I have a half keg of beer that has been sitting (unrefrigerated) in the basement. I hooked it up just to see the thing work. I got nothing but foam. 

After the foam dissipated, I took a small sip and was pleased to find the beer drinkable. I am currently in the process of adjusting the CO2 pressure to eliminate the foam. 

It is a work in progress. 

Solstice

It’s the first day of Summer and the weather matches the season. After a very wet Spring, Summer looks like the sun is finally here. 

Today’s major task is to power wash the deck. It is finally nice enough to do it. I’ve been waiting and waiting for the right day and it appears that this is it.

So far, it’s slow going because I have stop and rest often. Gotta pace myself if I want to be allowed to do stuff.

Another Brisket

I'm going to cook another brisket today. This time I bought just the point. The roast is only 3 1/2 pounds so I think it is going to cook pretty fast...probably less than 5 hours.

I got the brisket on the grill at 12:25 and once the Meater program calculated the time to get to 170°, it indicated an hour and a half. Then I need to wrap it in aluminum and get it up to 205°. After that it needs to cool to 160° and then it will be ready to eat. Hopefully around 6PM.

I have discovered that the Meater lies. It starts out by giving you a time but as the cooking progresses, it does not recalculate. It slowly counted down to an hour and then it stayed there for quite a while. The actual cooking time to get to 170° was 3 hours. This is fine but I wanted a more accurate estimate of time.

The brisket cooked much quicker than I expected and it was quite tasty. Another successful cookout.

Memorial Weekend Sojourn

We have just returned from a long Memorial Weekend where we drove a 20 foot U-Haul truck loaded with furniture down to my sister in Sacramento.

It wasn't the way we wanted to spend our holiday weekend but it needed to get done. We've been paying to store all this stuff since Mom died last June.

So I rented a truck, got it loaded and drove it down last Saturday. We made it as far as Klamath Falls, OR and then stopped for the night. That was about eight hours of driving through some pretty intense rain at times.

The next day, Sunday, we drove the remaining five hours to Pilot Hill, a small town in the mountains outside of Sacramento where Stacey and Craig live.

We arrived about 2:30 and slowly unloaded the truck. We then drove it to a nearby hardware store that was a U-Haul dealer and dropped it off.

We had Monday to lay about and do not much of anything and then flew out on Tuesday. The whole thing went smoothly but we are glad to be home.    

Two Big Projects

The forecast for today calls for no rain, which turns out to be very beneficial for my plans for the day. I have two big projects and I will be performing each one at the same time.

Project one is to finish this flower bed. I believe I have all the ancillary equipment and material to get it done today.

My second project is to slow cook some meat.

I bought half of a corned beef brisket, the flat rather than the point. I am going to use the same slow cooking method I have used before on a full sized brisket using a charcoal snake. I will light one end of the snake and it should provide enough heat to last around six or seven hours. I'm not sure how long this smaller cut of brisket will take but I'm going to start it now.

7:05AM: I prepared the charcoal snake yesterday so all I had to do was get a few briquets of charcoal going and place them at the start of the snake.

7:35AM: The brisket is in the Weber. Here we go.

I am using my new bluetooth meat thermometer, the Meater! You can see it sticking in the right side of the brisket.

I bought the Meater specifically for this purpose. I've used it a couple of times but this is the event I've been waiting for.

It connects to my iPad and shows me all kinds of information. I am waiting for it now to get up to heat and give me an estimated cooking time. In the meantime, I'm going to have some french toast.

8:11AM: Okay breakfast has been had and the dishes have been cleaned up and put away.

While preparing breakfast, I had a visitor.

The Meater has set itself and I'm a little surprised by the data.

This is supposed to take a few hours. Meater says fifty-five minutes. I went out and shut down the lower vent. I was hoping to keep the heat around 275°. I'm well into the 300's. I opened it up to take a look which is a no no. But I was hoping that pulling the lid off would cool it down a bit and let me make sure that the lower vent was closed. It didn't appear to make a difference as far as the cooking time goes. 

Well, on to the garden.

9:37AM: The Flower Box project is going much faster than I thought it would.

I have the first layer down and my measurements for the length of boards I needed are spot on. I can't afford to screw up a single cut. So far, so good. I'm going to cut the second layer just like I did the first layer. Then I'll be able to screw everything together and back fill. Then, I just have to level the dirt and roto-till.

The Brisket project has evened itself out.

 I came in to check the temp and the thermometer had lost it's connection. 

When I got it back, it was a little more in line with what I was expecting for cooking time. It helped to shut down the lower vent. I have opened it just a crack and the temperature in the barbecue is rising. It's already back up to 303°.

10:45AM: I just pulled the brisket from the grill and wrapped it in aluminum foil. It took 3 hours and fifteen minutes to cook it to 170°. Now I have reset it to cook to 205°. I'm waiting now for Meater to give me an new estimate.

I opened up the vents so that it will raise the temp. I'll have to keep an eye on it.

11:10AM: It only took 25 minutes to get to my finish temperature. So this recipe is all screwed up when using a smaller cut of meat. It was designed for a full brisket weighing around 12 to 15 pounds. It remains to be seen if it will be any good. The brisket is currently sitting in an ice chest and I'm waiting for it to cool to 160°.

I am done with the border to the flowerbed and am backfilling the dirt. Then I will break out my little roto-tiller and mix some good dirt in with the crap that's there and get it all evened out.

11:53AM: It's not even noon and I am finished with the two projects that I thought would take all day. The brisket is still cooling and it expect it will take another hour before it gets down to 160°. I think I am going to go buy a couple bags of manure to mix it and maybe some tomato plants as well.

It didn't take very long for the brisket to cool to 160°. While this recipe didn't work exactly right as far as the time goes, it still worked.

The meat is tender and tasty. I consider this a success.

 

631 Update

Time for some updates to catch up on wazzup.

Here is our skunk. She has no name yet but we have decided her pronouns are her, she, and shmelly. I just don't know what to do with her. I could trap her and relocate her out to the country as I have done in the past. I'm thinking I have waited too long and soon there will be little puppy skunks running around. I don't want to trap her if she has already had her shmelly litter.

Yesterday was one of the first nice days of this Spring. We have yet to have a 70° day this Spring. I think we hit the high 60's yesterday. We took advantage of the nice weather to toil in the yard. Susan finished painting the light fixture for the TV Room and I worked on my Halloween Paper Mache Pumpkins.

Then we moved out front and cleaned up the flower beds. They are all nice and clean and ready to accept some flowery vegetation. When that will happen is anyone's guess.

Since Susan finished her overhaul of our light fixture, I took the time today to get it installed. Formerly, it was a shiny gold finish. She bought some spray paint that gave it a mottled brass texture and it looks fantastic.

We bought new shades for it a while back that cost $120.00 plus tax. I think they look great...like they cost #150.00, so we made a little money there.   

SkyFest 2022

 All kinds of traditions are returning. We had Bloomsday earlier this month, we will have the Lilac Parade in a week and today we had SkyFest.

SkyFest is an event at nearby Fairchild Air Force Base. The base is open to the public and there are lots of aircraft to see and aerial demonstrations of all kinds. The stars this year were the Thunderbirds, the Air Forces elite formation flying squadron.

We didn't want to go out to the base and face the throngs of people but we settled on driving out to Airways Heights and watching from the parking lot of a grocery store, along with several other people who had the same idea.

The show was really awesome. Those jets are loud and they are fast. I took over 200 pictures and these were among my best.

Maybe next year we'll go all the way and attend on base. I'm going to need a chair. Maybe a walker.