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.

Another Meltdown?

I was expecting to wake up to five or six inches of snow but we only had a whiff of whitey. That gave me the time to remove the headlight from the snow blower in order to get a replacement. I'm glad this light only burns out once every eight years or so. It is quite an ordeal to remove it from its housing. The bulb is held in place by to un-accessable bolts. My hand got worn out manipulating the plyers around these bolts. But I finally got the bulb out. I'll get a new one at lunch and then I'll be ready for the next storm...supposedly coming tomorrow...or next year, whichever comes first.

Twelve Days

It was just starting to snow when I got up this morning and by the time I hit the road for work, it was coming down thick and strong. The snow continued all day and when I arrived home this evening, there was twelve fresh inches of heavy grade snow all over my formerly clean driveway. It was astonishing how deep it was. Only yesterday, there was bare pavement showing and puddles developing.

The National Weather Service now says we have had 61 inches of snow and that has all fallen in 12 days. Sixty-one inches is more than we get all winter in some years. We are well past the previous record and we still have two days to go in the month...and the year.

It took me an hour and half to do my usual rounds and I am not satisfied. However, I have a long weekend coming up and snow maintenance and clean up will be high on my agenda. Of course, more snow is forecast between now and then so my agenda may simply be snow removal.

I neglected to mention that my anemometer appears to be functioning again. When I was up on the roof yesterday, I was surprised to see it spinning gaily in the afternoon breeze. I'll have to check it tonight because it's been quite windy. A good deal of the snow I blew tonight ended up in my face. I'm sure we will register some impressive wind gusts...even without me speaking.

631 Meltdown

With the temperatures up in the 40's, it felt like short sleeve and bermuda shorts weather. It gave us a good chance to get caught up on snow maintenance details.

My first detail of snow maintenance concerned the evil forces of ice. Normally benign and satisfying when in your drink, but vile and pernishous when hanging off your roof. The rule to follow then is, Ice in Glass: Good! Ice on Roof: Bad!

I would like to announce that I am victorious over the Voluminously Monumental and Herculean Icicle. It took some doing and I had to sacrifice a mediocre Made in China chisel, but I have come out the victor.
Another detail of snow maintenance involved the shoveling of the roof. I am also happy to announce satisfactory progress in that area. I did indeed climb up on the roof and did some snow removal. The main area I concentrated on was where the Jumbo Ice Cube hung. I cleared away the snow and ice at the edge of the roof which allowed a great lake of water to cascade to the ground below.

In interior snow maintenance details, I am pleased to announce that Susan is victorious in her struggle with the forces of uninvited dampness. She has successfully repaired one panel in the dining room ceiling and is working on the other. The second panel has a bit more damage. It pretty much fell away from the ceiling when we removed the trim holding it in place. However, now that it is down, it should be easier to work on and repair.
The official snow fall for December now stands at 51 inches. I think more snow is forecast for tonight but I am doubting whether they really know.

Now that this Global Warming thing has made its point, it will soon be time to turn back to Winter Freezing. In fact, it's happening right now.

Winter Damage

My post for December 21st shows a mammoth icicle hanging off the roof on the side of the house. I have been considering doing something to remove it or reduce it but I wasn't sure how, and I wasn't sure I should. Now I am sure I should.

While in the midst of our restful day yesterday, Susan started yelling that there was water in the dining room and the ceiling was leaking. It was in the very spot where that ginormous icicle was growing.

I quickly threw on my snow clothes and went outside to inspect it. It was of course, on the side of the house where nobody had gone so I had to slog through four feet of snow just to get to the area.If you look at the wall of the house behind the Goliath icicle, you can see ice freezing to the side of the house. I quickly surmised that the water was leaking into the wall at that point. I got up on the ladder and began smashing off the ice with my hammer. I managed to break off a good chunk of the monumental icicle without damaging the roof immediately below it.I next went to work on breaking off all the ice on the house. I have a new respect for people who swing a hammer for a living. Ten minutes of this and I was spent.

The water continued to drip all day and through the night. I came home from the bar today and the leaking appears to have stopped. There is a ladder and a blow dryer in there so I assume Susan has been working in there.

It warmed up tremendously today but it is supposed to snow again tonight. I had plans for getting up on the roof and shoveling snow but decided to wait until daylight. I still have to get the rest of that colossal icicle down without damaging the roof below it. I plan to take a chisel and remove small bits until I take a bunch of weight off it.

Finally, here is a picture of our damage in the dining room. There is some slight discoloration in the light yellow wall to the right of the plate. The anaglyptic paper in the ceiling has bubbled and there is some staining on the dark wood trim. It remains to be seen how we will fix this. But first, we have to make the leaking stop and that means the removal of the voluminously prodigious icicle of titanic proportions.

Christmas After-Glow

Wow! What a great day Christmas was. Everything was great. I didn't get to bed until two and that was after several bottles of wine.

Our dinner guests were my son Scott, his girlfriend Corissa, her daughter Lily, my stepson, Rob and his wife Jennifer. It was an odd gathering in that I had met Corissa once (and kept calling her Clarissa) and I had not met Jennifer ever. She and Rob were married last March. In fact, it was a bit of a re-connection with Rob.

Scott was feeling crappy as he had a 24 bug that had been passed on from Corissa and Lily. So they didn't stay very long.

We ended up having a great time talking with Rob and Jen and getting all caught up on wazzup.

Our friend Mark showed up around nine and helped us drink more and more and more wine.

One of the great benefits of the Solstice Party is that we end up with a shit load of fabulous wine. Everybody seems to bring a bottle and several of them don't get opened. Several of them were opened last night however.

We were considering going skiing today but decided that it was nice to have a day with absolutely nothing to do. With five more inches forecasted for tonight, I think I will go out and do some snowblowing clean up.

According to this mornings paper, this is officially the snowiest December since record keeping began in 1880. Forty-Se7en inches have fallen. And all of that was within a week and a half period. I am going to take a reading in the yard and record the official Corbin Park snowfall data here.

In the meantime, here are a couple of nice pictures I took yesterday when the sun broke through the clouds briefly.

Merry Christmas

Five more inches fell last night so whoever it was that wished for a White Christmas...you got it...and then some.

Susan and I had a very pleasant enjoyable morning, followed by three hours of snow blowing while she prepared dinner. We are expecting to have se7en of us for dinner. The festivities start at five. I guess I better start helping out.

Pillar of Sun

We had a brief break in the snowfall on Monday and it actually cleared enough to let the sun shine through for a while. I managed to catch a photograph of the most unusual sunset I have ever seen. See what you think.It really looked like a pillar of light beaming into the sky. It was most irregular and very striking. I took the picture while entering the freeway at Liberty Lake. I would love to know what sort of refractive properties are at work here. That beam of light from the setting sun seemed to reach straight up into the sky.

It's Christmas Eve and the snow is still coming down. I expect to clear off 5-8 inches of snow in the morning. that is on top of the few inches I removed today. That will give us about 36 inches of snow in just over a weeks time.

I don't know who it was that prayed for a White Christmas, but I would like to shake their hand.