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| Jesse's favorite cold weather spot! |
We started Monday with a jolt. Or rather lack of a jolt. When JB turned on the water pump, lights started flashing and beepers started beeping. Then all the power went off. Knowing that he had tightened all the cables and connections to the batteries, he called Larry to see if he had a suggestion. But his answer was that when anything like that happens, something is loose. So JB walked up to the panels and turned the switches off so no power would be coming in. He then rechecked everything, and found that one of the cable ends had become jammed against the battery lead which was causing it to spark. When he took out the bolt that was holding it in, it broke in half. When the bolt was replaced and the cable end was back where it belonged, I went up to the panels and turned the power back on while JB stayed in the battery shed. As we turned everything back on, one by one, it all seemed to work fine. And still is. Thank goodness.
It never did warm up much on Monday even with blue sky and sunshine. Didn't make it out of the 30's. We finally made it out to work about 1:00 p.m. JB had to get my Jeep working with our new trailer as there was some electric issue. I used Larry's chain saw to cut the small logs that did not need to be split. Ended up putting two good loads on the porch. But the saw was just too heavy. I was able to start it the second time, but not the third. JB had to do it. So when he was done with the trailer, he used the saw to cut most of the bigger logs. We got another load of wood for the porch and a big pile for the splitter. I think I am just going to have to buy another electric saw, and just plan on doing that every three or four years.
It was very cold on our evening walk. Am going to have to start wearing my big winter coat. With the change back to standard time this next weekend, we will have to start taking our walk before dinner. That means that Jesse will be going on a forced march because he knows it will be time to eat when we get back to the house.
We celebrated JB's 69th birthday on Tuesday by loading up the trailer with the last of the garbage and taking it Down There. Did some shopping, picked up the mail and JB spent some of his birthday money. They we really celebrated by going to Jack in the Box for lunch. Afterwards I bought my only second or third latte of the year - Yummmm! I used to buy one on the way to work almost every day, but that was in my past life.
When we arrived back home, I managed to get our Red Neck drainage system just about finished. That is, putting the heavy black plastic on the ground along the sides of the house so the water coming off the roof will flow away from the house instead of sinking into the ground and running into our crawl space. Outside the side door RJ and JB had framed in a landing and one step down. In 2010 I made a mosaic of flat rocks inside the landing frame, however the water from the roof falls about 10" in from the end of the frame and just seeps into the ground and probably our crawl space. So today I dug out the rocks back to about 16" and put black plastic down so it comes out under the front piece of wood in the frame. Then I put in gravel sized rocks I gathered from the south ridge and covered them with the dirt I had shoveled out. I put the flat rocks back in and - Viola! - a drain (I hope). Now I just have to get some more tent stakes to tack down the plastic when I go Down There next Monday for my annual mamogram.
And. . . when I was done with that, the wood stove was cool enough for JB to replace the old catalytic combuster with the new one and for me to clean the stove. What a productive day! And what a cold day. I think our high was 32.
Thought for the day: How to handle stress like a dog:
If you can't eat it or play with it,
Then pee on it and walk away.
It never did warm up much on Monday even with blue sky and sunshine. Didn't make it out of the 30's. We finally made it out to work about 1:00 p.m. JB had to get my Jeep working with our new trailer as there was some electric issue. I used Larry's chain saw to cut the small logs that did not need to be split. Ended up putting two good loads on the porch. But the saw was just too heavy. I was able to start it the second time, but not the third. JB had to do it. So when he was done with the trailer, he used the saw to cut most of the bigger logs. We got another load of wood for the porch and a big pile for the splitter. I think I am just going to have to buy another electric saw, and just plan on doing that every three or four years.
It was very cold on our evening walk. Am going to have to start wearing my big winter coat. With the change back to standard time this next weekend, we will have to start taking our walk before dinner. That means that Jesse will be going on a forced march because he knows it will be time to eat when we get back to the house.
We celebrated JB's 69th birthday on Tuesday by loading up the trailer with the last of the garbage and taking it Down There. Did some shopping, picked up the mail and JB spent some of his birthday money. They we really celebrated by going to Jack in the Box for lunch. Afterwards I bought my only second or third latte of the year - Yummmm! I used to buy one on the way to work almost every day, but that was in my past life.
When we arrived back home, I managed to get our Red Neck drainage system just about finished. That is, putting the heavy black plastic on the ground along the sides of the house so the water coming off the roof will flow away from the house instead of sinking into the ground and running into our crawl space. Outside the side door RJ and JB had framed in a landing and one step down. In 2010 I made a mosaic of flat rocks inside the landing frame, however the water from the roof falls about 10" in from the end of the frame and just seeps into the ground and probably our crawl space. So today I dug out the rocks back to about 16" and put black plastic down so it comes out under the front piece of wood in the frame. Then I put in gravel sized rocks I gathered from the south ridge and covered them with the dirt I had shoveled out. I put the flat rocks back in and - Viola! - a drain (I hope). Now I just have to get some more tent stakes to tack down the plastic when I go Down There next Monday for my annual mamogram.
And. . . when I was done with that, the wood stove was cool enough for JB to replace the old catalytic combuster with the new one and for me to clean the stove. What a productive day! And what a cold day. I think our high was 32.
Thought for the day: How to handle stress like a dog:
If you can't eat it or play with it,
Then pee on it and walk away.
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