February 24, 2012

JB cleaning snow off the panels
on Wednesday



Our drainage channel through the ice
in front of the porch

















We didn't have to wait til next week for everything to freeze up again.  There was a cold front right on the heels of Tuesday's warm front.  It got down to 26 and big, wet snow flakes fell most of Wednesday.  We received 1-1/2" of snow at the house and more than 2" up on the south ridge.  Elsie called to say the road above their place is solid ice.

When we checked the cistern after doing the wash on Wednesday, the float was almost straight up.  The pump automatically turns off when the float is about horizontal, so there must have been a rush of underground water that pushed up our well and filled the cistern without the pump.  When I went to get potatoes from the box in the crawl space Thursday morning, I discovered that we were flooded again!  In looking all around the house, there is just no water getting in.  So I am thinking that it is coming up where the water pipe from the cistern comes in.  It seems like the other two times this happened was around the same time we had water coming up the well on its own.  There is nothing we can do about it until summer, so JB is going to get a sump pump and lots of hose next week Down There.  Meanwhile, today I will crawl under there with the shop vac and get as much out as I can.  Am so looking forward to that. . .

As I mentioned before, winter is Dinga's favorite time of the year.  The first thing she did when let out in the new fallen snow was to make snow angels.  Then she runs with her mouth open, scooping up snow & eating it.  And she loves the chunks of ice.  We spent a couple hours on Thursday chopping out a drainage channel in the ice in front of the porch and she grabbed several of the chunks to chew on.  In many places the ice is still a bit slushy, but of course not where we needed a drain.

I finished the 10 Patterson books on the Women's Murder Club and will be trading them in at the used book store, since I have read them each at least three times.  Now I have started the book I gave to JB for Christmas - One Man's Wilderness.  Absolutely fascinating!  I so envy him all his sightings and experiences with the wildlife - except for the mosquitoes and that bear with the attitude.  I am sure I will be reading this book at least once a year.  As far as food goes, I love his simple fare.  Would enjoy all of it, except perhaps the caribou brains he scavenged from a fresh wolf kill.  But everything else is just amazing.  A "must read" for anyone with an interest in this kind of life.

I think we have decided to sell our dryer.  Have had it for three years and never used it.  Don't even have the exhaust tube installed.  Will advertise it this spring or summer when the road is passable.  Just don't need it Up Here.

No more yellow jackets in the loft for the past several days.  Hopefully that's all there were.

Thought for the day:  Unthinking respect for authority is the greatest enemy of truth.  Albert Einstein