First night snow clearing.

 We got some snow the other night.  I am very glad I got the extra light.  The headlights on the tractor are just barely adequate for driving it at night, clearing snow wouldn't be pleasant with them alone.  The extra light however is awesome.  I don't even have to use the night mode on my phone camera to take pictures with it.

We got 6" (yay for 2-4"...).  I was able to drive over it, and was tempted to just clear the bank at the end, but looking at the forecast, it isn't going to melt down pretty much at all before the next storm moves in next week around Groundhog's day.  So I went and did the whole driveway.  It only took about an hour, maybe a touch longer  I even did the parking spot at the bottom, which I had previously neglected.

I have noticed that I am using the rear blade more each time, and this time I came across another issue.  Apparently the rear blade when it is loaded up, it will toss the back end of the tractor if you hit a block of ice.  I also really need to tighten up my 3 point hitch, it has a lot of sway in it.

I even did the middle part this time.  I did most of it with the blade, and it only dug in a few spots.

The only part I didn't do was where the truck was parked.  I will park the truck on the other side tonight and finish it up.

I made an oops when I was pushing snow out of the carport.  Sigh.

During the week, I made a couple of doodles on possible expansions of the tiny home, mostly just to pass the time (and as part of the sales pitch when I go to sell it).  This one looks really easy to do.

Been doing unexciting stuff.

Last weekend was kind of chilly so I didn't do much.  I have been mostly going through and doing some digital cleanup on my PC.  I was originally looking at building a new PC so that when I built the entertainment center, I didn't have to fit a large (and mostly empty) mid tower in it, but I think what I might do instead is just pull the PC out of it completely, perhaps get a docking station, and just use my laptop to power the entertainment center.  It has enough juice to do it, and if I put all my stuff on the Drobo, it will have access to all my documents and stuff.

I went to the town meeting on broadband.  I will be in the first pass, which is expected to be completed mid to late fall.  So it looks like I will have an interesting decision to make this fall as to whether I get the tiny home to wired up for fiber or wait for the real house.  I don't really understand how it works, but apparently the infrastructure is "free".  The town gets a bond from the state, pays it to Fibercast, and then Fibercast does a rent to own type thing for the network and pays the bond until they have paid for the network.  They claim the installation of this network will not raise property taxes (it won't change the assessed value of the land).  I don't understand all the specifics, but the town treasurer was on board with the plan.  The only risk to the town is if Fibercast goes belly up the town might have to make a few payments on the bond until they can get another provider.  Unfortunately the Fibercast guy wasn't at this meeting (he was at the one that I missed), so I didn't get any information about their plans since the website is vague and not well designed, but I will worry about that later.  

Even though my W2 still isn't available online (last year it was available the first week of January), I will be paying off the land today, I finally have enough to cover it.  Time to start saving for the real house.

We are supposed to get a bunch of snow and even more cold this week through the weekend (below zero cold), so I think it might be time to go and get some of my heavier winter stuff out of the shed.  I am still debating on my next project, but perhaps now is a good time to do some work in the shed where I can fire up my salamander to take the edge off.

Nothing at Lowes either. Updated

UPDATE - I built up the online cart at work today, and came to a realization.  I am having a hard time justifying 500 dollars for a couple of cabinets I don't have an immediate need for (there is nothing planned to go into them and all my kitchen totes in the shed are empty), and an extra three feet of countertop.  The counter top would be nice, the little 2 foot section between the fridge and the bathroom is too small to be used as an appliances counter effectively, but I have a system that works already (even if it is obnoxious).  I am also still on the fence about the reduced capacities, it would really suck to shrink everything down and find myself constantly out of fridge or freezer space (or worse yet bring back a cooler of meat and only be able to fit half of it in the freezer).  So I think for the moment I am going to back away from the project.  It is a lot of expense for basically a couple feet of countertop.  It would definitely make the kitchen nicer, but there just isn't enough payback there.

I made a trip to Lowe's last night after work.  It wasn't productive.  They didn't have anything close either.  They had a similar style but in a different color which might be an option though.  It will be noticeably different, but perhaps not bad looking.

This was the closest they had.  This will kind of stick out I think.

They still had the same cabinets that I used in the kitchen too.

Interestingly they had a 15" variant too.  Not sure I have the space for that though.  The 12" already pushes the pantry very close to the coat hangers by the door.  And to be honest, I don't actually need more cabinet space.  This is just to hold up the other end of the counter.  Typically you only see 6" increments up to 36" and 1' increments after that.

I also came up with a complete list of what I need.  I will be headed up to Best Buy in Concord tonight to pick up the fridge.  They have the Frigidaire version on sale for 30 bucks cheaper than Home Depot has the Magic Chef.  I might stop by the Lowe's out that way and grab the cabinets and counters.  That would allow me to complete the project this weekend.  Given the current temperatures though, I am not sure how I am going to get all of this inside, since I can't leave any of it outside.  It is well below the fridge's operating temp outside right now, and I don't want to leave the counter outside because I will have to cut it, which means colder is more brittle and more likely to chip the formica.  Maybe I will leave the stuff outside and just bring it in Friday night and do the assembly on Saturday.  It is supposed to be really cold this weekend though.

Snow clearing. Tractor leak.

Sunday I went and cleared the driveway.  It didn't take long, only a half hour.  I also noticed when I went out to start the tractor that I appear to have developed a very minor hydraulic oil leak.

The source of the leak appears to be where all the lines connect (whatever the hydraulic equivalent of a master cylinder is called)

Despite the small leak, there didn't appear to be any issue running the hydraulics.  I found a combination of the rear blade and the bucket to be the most effective.  The tractor really isn't good at clearing the middle of the driveway, it is just too uneven.  In a really big storm I would likely still have to clear that with the snowblower.  But the rear blade worked well on the lower part of the driveway.  I used the blade to drag the snow down to the apron, and then used the bucket to scrape it off and dump it in the drainage ditch.

Something else I noticed, the tractor doesn't warm up nearly as much in the winter.  It was chilly and windy out, but the gauge is usually a little over half.  It is also time for the next greasing.  

After that, I went to Home Depot.  I was trying to find a match for my current countertop:

These were the closest that Home Depot could get, and these would be a special order, they weren't something that was stocked.

They had unfinished cabinets, but they look different than the ones I got.  My entire kitchen came from Lowes (cabinets, counters, and even the over-the-range microwave), and I will probably make a trip there later this week.  I think these wouldn't be too noticeable if push came to shove though.

One other idea I had was putting a butcher block countertop on the other side.  It is only a little bit heavier than a formica coated MDF counter, and wouldn't look terribly out of place.  They are a fair bit more expensive though and require maintenance (they are supposed to be treated periodically and stuff like that).

Another interesting thing I noticed while I was there: small chest freezers might fit under a countertop.  This unit was only 34" tall.  It isn't something I will ever implement (I don't have a large cabinet I can sacrifice) but worth keeping in mind should the house end up in someone else's hands and they extend it.

Short post. Pretty lax couple of weeks.

 I haven't really done much the last couple of weeks.  Last weekend I went to the LAN party, which was a good time, got to reconnect with people I haven't talked to in a while.  

This weekend I was intending to go to a town meeting about running fiber to all the houses.  The weather decided to put the kabosh on that though.  It was supposed to be a mix of rain and snow, resulting in no accumulation.  That isn't really what happened though.  Instead we had this.  

I have now confirmed that the AC cover works.  There was nothing inside the heat pump.  It sheds snow very very well too.  The combination of air flow underneath and its steeper pitch (it is roughly a 8:12 pitch).

We are supposed to get more tonight.  It is supposed to be rain too, but I am not holding my breath.

Working from the tiny home kind of stinks.

I have been attempting to work remotely this week from my tiny home and have discovered that it is really not properly equipped.  Internet aside (tethering my phone doesn't work well enough to really be productive), I don't have a proper table since I haven't finished building it yet.  That means that I am literally on my couch the entire day with the laptop on my lap.  Usually by 2 or 3 my back and shoulders are getting upset, since the only table I have is the ottoman, which means leaning hunched over all day.  The table might get a bump in priority.  I only have one piece left to stain and then I need to urethane it though, so it might have to wait until spring.

I haven't really done much since I got home.  I did find the culprit for the leak in the shed.  It is the fuel stabilizer.  The bottle has pretty much emptied itself.  It was a quarter full when I cleaned out the shed.

Also for Dad since I have never gave him a good picture of it:

I have been doing some research on fridges.  The next tiny home improvement idea is to take out my monster fridge and put in a smaller under counter unit and a separate in-cabinet freezer above the counter.  This will give me more counter space to better utilize the space that my fridge is occupying.  I only use maybe one shelf of my current fridge (less than a quarter of it).  I think I decided on going with this one, even though I am not a huge Magic Chef fan: https://www.homedepot.com/p/Magic-Chef-4-5-cu-ft-Mini-Fridge-with-True-Freezer-in-Stainless-Look-HMTR450SE/305026371#overlay

Unfortunately I haven't been able to find it in white, so my appliances won't all match anymore.  Oh well.  This one has a door shelf large enough to hold a gallon jug.  It has a separate freezer (not just a metal chiller) which is nice, though I have the freezer I got from Aunt and Uncle as well.  Here are some pictures of that unit:

That freezer is smaller than I thought it was, it is only 1.1 cubic foot.  It is smaller than the tiny dorm fridge in the shed. I thought it was 2 to 2.5.  Even in combination with the freezer on the fridge though, I am losing just under half of my freezer space.  My current freezer is around 3.5 cubic feet, but doesn't have any shelving and loses some for an ice maker that isn't hooked up.  I will definitely want to keep the old unit around for a while though just to be sure the smaller capacities are acceptable.  I would be losing around three quarters of my fridge space too.  

I am going to the LAN party this weekend, so I probably won't start anything until next week at the earliest.