Didn't quite get the window ready.

The half day I took yesterday was gorgeous and felt like spring and even the 10 day forecast looks really nice (take that you stupid woodchuck!).  

I took advantage of the daylight to start adding the window to the shed.  I measured the rough-in for the window.

When I built the shed, I was a bit more "lax" about strict and tight measurements.  Normally when you work on something, that causes you a lot of pain.  This is why when you look at the shed none of the rafter ends line up for example, compared to the carport where the attention to detail was paid and is very nice.

In this case however, it worked out in my favor.  One of the studs is a little crooked which means I won't need to install a new king stud.  In a house I would anyways, but for a shed it is less important.

I managed to get everything but the siding cut away.  The siding I won't do until I am ready to silicone the window in.  Unfortunately I couldn't find my chisel to properly square up the bottom cut which wasn't perfectly perpendicular; I guess I didn't hold the reciprocating saw at the perfect angle.  I will pick up another chisel tonight on my way home.  

Despite that though, I have everything cut and the header is built.  

After that I enjoyed the rest of the day.  Though my phone overexposed it, it was nice sunset yesterday.

The carport wanted to slide off, but didn't quite.

Looking at the driveway this morning, I kind of regret not clearing it the other day.  It was only a couple of inches, which pretty much all melted off yesterday, but if I had, a good portion of my driveway would have been bare.  Looking at the ten day forecast though, it looks like it won't take much longer.

The snow banks are nearing critical mass.

Most of last week I didn't do much outside.  It is kind of nice to be able to see when I get home, but it has been cold and windy.  While tightening up the house made a difference in how often the heat was running, I still had weird things like excessive static.

I did some clearing and puttering around on the tractor over the weekend.  The snowbanks seem to have hit critical size.  I am no longer able to pile them higher, they are taller than the bucket on my tractor will go.  I have also hit the point where I can no longer knock the top off by rotating the bucket, the pile is getting too deep now.  

The bottom of the driveway is a solid sheet of ice.  Even in 4WD the truck spins going up the driveway now if I stop when I turn in to get my mail.  

I cleared the whole thing, even though it wasn't really deep.  The last storm was only a couple of inches of fluffy light snow.  We are supposed to get more during the day and tonight though, so I wanted to clear as much as possible.  This storm is only a few inches, I will probably only clear the slab and the apron. 

Using the rear blade has chewed up the driveway a little bit.  Still faster and easier than the snowblower though.  Since it chopped through the ice in a few spots though, I will have to use caution if I use the snowblower anymore this winter since it will pick up rocks that the blade has deposited on the ice at this point.  

I noticed something when I was doing the top.  I normally flip the blade around and push it, but something happened and the chain for the pin that swivels the blade is stuck in one of the holes.  I tried to pull it out, but didn't have any success.  I would rather not have to cut the chain (it keeps you from losing the pin), but if that is what it comes to, I might have to.  

I did the top with the blade the other way and it appeared to work fine though, probably because it wasn't much.  

Sunday I went out showshoeing and went up by the rock cliff near the edge (I unfortunately forgot my phone inside).  I only lost the snowshoes once, which isn't bad considering going up steep inclines in snowshoes doesn't frequently work well.  I am off this Wednesday afternoon, so maybe I will go visit Goose Pond or something.  Or perhaps I will work on the shed windows; it is supposed to be really nice (40s and sunny).

Tightening up the house.

For whatever reason I got today off this year.  I would rather have the extra floating holiday though personally.  

It was already sleeting when I got up this morning so I decided to do some inside work instead.  Since this winter has been colder than average (or at least Jan and Feb have been) I decided to start with improving some of my ceiling panels that had started to sag a little.  This should help minimize the heat loss through the ceiling.  While I was putting in a few more staples, I had a rather unusual jam.  

The ceiling panels are all flush again though, so no more heat pump blowing directly into the attic insulation.  I never did put the trim pieces over the seams, and probably won't bother at this point.  

I did notice however as I was doing this that my air compressor is more sick than normal.  The RPM of the motor consistently drops after it starts.  I have been saying I need a new one for a couple of years now though, so I am not too surprised.

I also got a more proper tube sand thing to reduce the draft under the door.  I took a little closer look; it isn't the silicone that is the problem from the door insulation, it is the sweeper/gasket on the door itself that is the problem.  Large chunks of it have dried up and crumbled apart.  Couple that with the fact that door has shifted since it was installed is what is causing the draft around the door.  If I were going to stay in the tiny home for more than another year or two, I would probably replace the door and beef up the framing around the door.

After discovering that, I recalled that I had some foam insulation that I had picked up a couple of years ago.  I put a couple of layers of that in the door frame to help it fit more tightly.  I put some on the sides too, as well as along the sill plate.

Since the gym at work has been closed for almost a year (and I really need the exercise), and even the ones in town aren't fully reopened yet, I picked up a little elliptical last week.  Unlike a normal elliptical, the motions don't feel completely natural, but it is still a low impact machine.  It bends the ankle a lot more than feels natural because of its very short motion range, but it doesn't put pressure on it, so while it feels weird, it isn't a problem.  It is intended to be used under a desk while you are working at it.  The unit has magnetic resistance, which I found disappointing even on max, but is understandable for how it is intended to be used.  It isn't meant to be the foundation of a workout, but it is all I can fit in my limited space so it doesn't have a choice.  When I first unboxed it, I tried it sitting on the ottoman, which was a mistake.  The ottoman was not stable enough, I felt like I was going to fall over when I used it.  It isn't bad from the deacon's chair that I built though.  I can even turn the setup sideways if I wanted to watch my TV while using it.

It fits in my closet kinda.  It is only 25 lbs, which I can easily manhandle around, but still heavy enough that it doesn't slide around in use.  The weight is actually one of the common complaints with the unit I bought, but I think it is perfect.  Personally I think the people complaining need to be lifting weights if they can't move 25lbs.  I am considering getting some resistance bands so I can do an arm workout at the same time.

Maintenance update.

I didn't do much yesterday, but I did get some maintenance stuff done.  It was actually quite pleasant.  The sun was warm, no wind, and compared to the past couple of weeks, the temperature was pleasant (we almost broke freezing yesterday).  I even went out without a coat for a while.  

Apparently the tracks in the back were made by my new neighbor.  She stopped by yesterday to introduce herself and she seemed pretty nice.  She is planning on building next door in the field.  Apparently the town gave her a lot of grief and made her buy the field by the road, the back field, and the lot behind mine before they would give her a building permit.  I am not entirely sure why (probably either a current use thing or some sort of setback issue), though with my experience dealing with the town, I can't say that I am surprised.

The rest of the day was just puttering around.  I finally got around to greasing up the tractor.  This greasing is a bit late and the grease gun doesn't seem to work well in the cold, it was very stiff, but it is all done.  I also filled up all the tires, the front tire on the tractor was soft, and my truck's TPMS has been going off for the past week.  

I also went shopping last night and made an interesting discovery, I found those spatula/turners that I like.  

I need to find a new project.  The past few weekends have been dull and boring.  I am considering working on building a bridge over my creek.  Even if it takes a while since this winter has been surprisingly snowy and cold.  

Snowshoeing

I didn't do too much over the weekend, but I shoe-goo'd my boots and did get out some of my heavier winter gear (finally) and went snowshoeing around. My immediate back yard indicates that there are some rabbits or something living in the last pile of crap.  The pictures in this post may be difficult to see (indentations in the snow don't show up well in a highly compressed image).

I do definitely still have deer in the back though.  While the "highway" I found last year wasn't as heavily traveled, there were still definitely several sets of tracks.  

The little clearing behind the tree line is still the most active spot.  

I also came across some non-deer tracks.  These belonged to a two legged creature with rather small feet.  These were roughly a size 8-10, and narrow (or maybe it just seems that way since I have duck feet).  At this point it is worth noting that the active area is right on the property line.  I never paid for an official survey when I bought the place but I did my own, and the ribbons that someone else put up before I bought it (several trees have pink high visibility ribbons) are close but not on the property line.  They favor the lot behind me.  My lot goes back at an angle because Hubbard Rd isn't straight, but the ribbons go perpendicular to the side with periodic backwards corrections.  So it isn't really clear whose lot the high activity area is on.  The footsteps were, with only one or two exceptions, all on the other side of the ribbons.  This is all a really long winded way of saying that I am not the only person interested in the game back there.

I apparently had several blow downs back there.

Even though I haven't seen them, the deer are still curious.  There were many sets of tracks that went into these trees.  These are the beech trees that line the back edge of my back yard.  There is a good chance that from in there they can see the house, but because the beech trees don't lose their leaves until spring, I won't see them (brown on brown is good camouflage).

From this angle (and zoom in a little), you can actually see the red of my truck in the center if you look hard enough.

I also walked around the rest of the yard a bit.  It looks like my well is overflowing again.  

My guess is the daylight pipe that drains off the excess is frozen up.  Good luck finding it though.  It is in here somewhere.  If you think this just looks like snow, you would be correct.

Apparently I have had a couple of deer scoping out the front as well.  This trail actually went up by the shed and looped all the way around to the trails in the back.

While I was there, I noticed that my power pole is leaning again.  

I appears that it had another branch come down on the lines.  It is only a little one though, so I probably won't do anything with it until spring.

Sunday was the superbowl, so I didn't do too much except burn up all my cell data I could buy for the month and eating pizza.  We also got another couple of inches on Sunday we weren't supposed to.  I am noticing that I still have daylight when I leave work these days, so perhaps I will start installing windows in the shed (assuming it isn't frigid out.  It is hard to run all those tools with mittens on).  

Winter shenanigans. 8-12 was actually 8+12.

It was cold last weekend.  I also noticed something while it was cold: there is a draft that comes in under the door.  Short term I fixed it with a random piece of foam.  I didn't put in any of the expanding foam underneath the door, just a layer of silicone to seal it since the door frame was directly on the floor subframing.  It appears that the silicone is no longer doing its job.

It was cold enough that the pipes for the washer froze.  Last year they were fine down to about -20.  We only got to -14 this time though.  So I had to wait until Sunday late afternoon to do my laundry.

Yesterday and through last night we got a nor'easter.  We were only forecasted to get 8-12", but it came out closer to 8+12".  It is hard to measure because of the wind, but I think we got 16-18".  The cinder blocks holding down the tarp on the siding I never put up went from bare to completely buried, and they are 16" long and behind the carport, so not much drifting.  The slab had close to two feet on it, but down by the road there was only a little over a foot, so I am not sure.  

I forgot that I never repaired/replaced my boots.  Oh well, they still kept my feet warm and under me this morning.

The wind was definitely blowing though, it got into the far corner and even covered the top of the Craftsman tractor.

One thing I noticed: no oil stain.  It appears that the tractor leaks a little when it is parked and then that is it.   

I used the snowblower to clear the driveway today since 18" is taller than the blade I have on the tractor.  My snowblower has developed a new interesting problem; pushing the throttle cable all the way down didn't shut it off. I had to wiggle it and raise and lower it several times to get it to shut off.  Looks like the throttle cable needs to be greased or replaced.

I didn't finish all the clearing before I went in to work, so I will finish it up tonight.  We definitely have enough snow to warrant pulling out my snowshoes and doing some exploring though.