The First Day of Skiing is When?

 My tasks for today included fixing the rain gutter at the back door (Completed), raking up the leaves in the front flower garden (Completed) and getting everything out of the storage unit so we don't have to pay for another monthly rental fee of $140.00. COM-Pleted!

Now I'm going to get the truck washed.

Okay. The truck is clean.

I was able to work in the yard quite comfortably as it was 57°. It's been warm for the last couple of days. Which is very depressing.

That is what Mt. Spokane looks like right now. Two days ago, it was white with several inches of snow. Yesterday, It rained for a good part of the day.

Opening Day is getting farther away.

After Thanksgiving

We have made it past Thanksgiving and boy, do we have a lot to be thankful for.

First of all, I only gained a pound. On top of the other 15 pounds I've gained since summer, it's not so great. So I guess I'm not thankful for that. 

Back on November 9th, we had a chimney sweep come to clean out our fireplace flue. I chronicled the event in my other blog (Adventures in Phatness) and you can read about it there. www.porkymccorpulent.blogspot.com

The upshot of the visit was that our Fireplace flue is gorgeous and nice and clean now. However, our furnace flue had a blockage in it and we shouldn't be using the furnace. You know, our main source of heat. He had another appointment to get to and was unable to clear the blockage.

His suggestion was to buy a new boiler and remove the archaic wrapped in asbestos dinosaur that vents to the bad chimney flue. I checked into a new boiler and we are looking at about 20 grand.

It's a great time to be a chimney sweep. I called five other sweeps and they are all booked out through December.

I managed to find one who had an opening for us last Tuesday, Nov. 23rd. The guy finally showed up around 4pm and was able to clear the flue. He cleaned out a bunch of leaves and a couple of bricks. That means the flue is not in great condition.

But we have our furnace back. Not that we stopped using it after the first chimney guy told us not to. I bought a couple of Carbon Monoxide detectors as a safeguard. We are still alive.

We are now enjoying a peaceful Friday at home after the big turkey feast last night. We slept in, went on a walk, and are now preparing to go to the Hub for the annual  Apple Cup Football competition (WSU Cougars vs U of W Huskies) followed by a visit to another bar called Pints to watch a little college basketball - Number One Gonzaga play Number Five Duke.

Epilogue: The Cougars whipped the Huskies handily and the Zags lost by three.

First Snow of the Season

We got our first snow of the season yesterday. The forecast was for one to three inches. I think we barely got a dusting. And then it turned to rain. All the sidewalks, driveways and streets are bare and wet.

As for Skiing, it looks like Mt Spokane has a good start. I hope it doesn't turn to rain up there.

Working Monday

 In the span of one little Monday, I did more today than I did all weekend.

With the help of my pal Randy, I got the bed cover installed on the truck. There is still a little tweaking that needs to be done but I have to wait for it to stretch out a little.

I would not have been able to figure this out without Randy. Having an extra set of eyes really is essential.

After Randy left, I got myself a burger and went to the Hub. That was a nice diversion for an hour.

I came home with a really strong hankering for a nap. But I forced my way past the hankering and did some clean up work in the garage. 

I hung the tandem bike up on the wall which created a bunch of room for moving stuff around. That bike is going to be in the yard sale in the spring.

Lackluster Weekend

 We have had a pretty uneventful weekend here at the estate. I cleaned out the garage a little and vacuumed the vehicles. I have a little more work to do with stowing the bicycles for the winter along with a little more organizing of the garage. 

Beyond that, I had a really nice nap yesterday.

I finally got the truck bed cover I ordered for my truck a couple of months ago. I am having difficulty figuring out how to install it and have help coming tomorrow. I hope to have pictures.

Leaf Day

 It's Leaf Day here on the park. I've never gotten to see Leaf Day because I was working. Now I'm retired and able to attend wonderful events like this.

It's a wet, rainy day. I went out and blew the front porch and the leaves were very wet, so very uncooperative. 

One of the sites I am visiting a lot right now is mtspokane.com. I've been checking the webcams for signs of Winter.

I got a sign today. It won't be long now.

Still Finding Clocks to Change

 One of the stupid things we do is change the time by one hour twice a year. In the Spring, we create Daylight Savings Time and move the clocks ahead one hour, effectively losing an hour for that day. In the Fall, we return to standard time and get that hour back. I haven't used my hour yet. I may need it in order to get all the clocks tuned in correctly.

I am hoping that there will come a day (perhaps soon) when we move to Daylight Savings and stay there.

In the meantime, I have a side yard that requires some raking. I'm going to try and do a little raking every day and thereby complete the task without killing the tasker...me.

After some mopping and soup making, I returned to the great outdoors to continue clean up on the side yard. I worked until after five when it just got too dark.

We have a nice looking Crescent Sphere in the sky tonight. I thought I should make note of it.

Fall Back

 While in Prosser last month, we visited a nursery that Susan has always liked and we stop at every time we go to Prosser. We purchased some fertilizer for the Arbor Vitae, which are in serious need of help. 

I just went out and raked up all the leaves and debris under the front line of shrubs in the front yard. Then I distributed a healthy amount of the fertilizer around the base of the shrubs. Finally, I applied a generous amount of water to work the "fert" into the soil.

I also put some fertilizer down on my corner patch of grass. I'm just starting there and using it as a test site. If it responds as I hope it will in the Spring, I will put it on the whole lawn.

Susan is trying to figure out a carpet shampooer we inherited from Mom. The instruction manual we have is not for this machine. She found a manual on-line and is trying to figure it out from there.

Other than that, we are having a lazy Sunday here at the estate. It seems lazy because we gained an hour with the change back to standard time last night. Now the sun will be setting around 4 which I don't really care for.

I wish they would just make a decision and settle on one time setting or the other.

Great Pumpkin Toss 2021

 Here are the photographic results from today's Great Pumpkin Toss.

Suffice it to say that there were more misses than hits.

On A Roll

 I think I'm on a roll here. Today is the sixth day in row that I have posted something.

I forgot to write about a very significant event last Wednesday. A technician from Pool World showed up to work on the hot tub. An internal breaker kept tripping to shut off the heater.

It turns out that the circulation pump had quit working. So the heater would come on, build up a lot of heat because the water wasn't moving, and then trip.

I know it's going to be at least $128.00 for the service call and then however much for the new pump.

The technician told me that one of my two heating elements appeared to not be working. He said it will work fine with the one element. It would just take longer to heat up when changing out the water. However, when the other heating element goes, I might be done. That part is no longer stocked or even made. That's the problem with a 30 year old hot tub.

He mentioned that he remembered seeing three of these elements on a shelf in their warehouse and two of them got used. I told him I would be interested in purchasing the remaining element if they still had it.

They do and it will cost me another $350.00 for it.

Now it is time to get out and finish the leaves from yesterday. It is 10:00.

1:38PM: I have just returned home after a trip to the dump to dispose of my bushels of leaves and a stop at the Hub for some beer.

Nothing of any consequence happened during my trip but I got the pictures shown above.

Suffice it to say that the front yard is clean...for today.

Halloween Clean Up Continues

 I made pretty good progress yesterday in cleaning up all our Halloween mess. I got the front yard cleaned up and a lot of decorations stowed. We got even more stowed when Susan got home.

Then I crashed and went to bed about 9:30. 

So here I am today with the goal of getting everything related to Halloween put away. Let's see how I do!

12:08 PM: I am making some good progress. I've just about gotten everything stowed in the Carriage House and trying to beat the rain and mow up some leaves.

2:23PM: I have a new phrase I memorized for when Susan asks me what I did today. "I completed a series a tasks that led to the well being of our household." That is what I did today. A series of tasks. I got most of the Halloween paraphernalia put away with only a couple of things remaining to be cleaned up. But for now, I'm going to go mow some leaves.

It looks like there is no rain in the forecast until Thursday so I'm going to start mowing up leaves now and finish up tomorrow.

5:10PM: While mowing up leaves, I remembered that I had a 4:00 appointment with the Cat Vet to get Delilah in for an inspection. It was about 3:15 when I remembered.

So I shut down the yard work, loaded Delilah into the cat carrier and listened to her bitch, moan and meow for the next hour.

All is well with the cat and the most important thing is that we are all back at home and I have a beer.

Halloween Recap

We don't have any accurate numbers on how many Trick or Treaters were out last night but the general consensus is that we had about 1,400 ghouls and goblins come to the door. We shut everything down about 8:30. All the candy is gone...except for the few pieces I stashed away for myself.

After standing in the yard in my Grimm Reaper outfit and listening to the comments of the people coming by, I was reminded why we do this. First of all, it's fun. The set up and the tear down are a lot of work but hearing how appreciative some of the parents are, and the great comments we hear about the tombstone's and the pumpkins make it all worth it.

I have my work cut out for me today. My goal is to get the yard all cleaned up. I'm waiting for the sun to get warmer.