Shed blocked. Weekend not as nice as advertised.

I ended up not getting much done on Saturday since it was a white-out most of the day.  I brought the stuff up to the shed and snow kept blowing in and smashing the doors against the siding, so I didn't do much else. Sunday was nicer, but was a lot colder than expected.  I still managed to get up to the shed and the jack worked fine.  The handle they give you sucked, but I was able to raise it with a screwdriver without issue.  I got the first joist raised up.

Then I noticed this.  

That will need to be pounded back in from the outside.  There is only one problem: I can't get to the joists from the outside right now.  This really put a damper (as in stopped dead) the progress on the shed.  Kind of a shame too since I had Monday off too and probably could have finished it.  

So instead I went for a walk around the property.  One of my longer term goals was to put walking trails in.  I walked one of the proposed routes.  I happened to notice this though.  I really have no idea what it is for.  Girdling a tree like that is a common way to kill it, but I don't understand why the tree wasn't just cut down.  It was kind of high (this is about 5' off the ground) on the tree to be an anchor for something.  That was beefy 3/4" metal cabling too, so they meant business.  

This was the other end as far as I could tell.  It didn't appear to go anywhere, but I didn't find the actual end of the cable, that will likely have to wait for spring.

I was supposed to get the remaining parts for the GoPro on Saturday.  They claim delivery was attempted, but other than at most a drive by no attempt was made.  Not a single print in my driveway from a car or person, just raccoons who I am pretty sure don't work for the USPS.

I went and collected the driveway markers that fell down.  They are no longer frozen into the driveway, and I don't want to hit them with the snowblower.

I didn't really want to go back inside, so I went and shoveled off the slab.  It took a while doing it by hand, but that was fine with me, I have been feeling a little cooped up inside of late.  And with how nice Monday was, it worked out good.

I also went and redid the wiring for the new laptop.  Those plastic clips were clearly not doing their job.  The were adhered to the bottom when they were installed.

The wires are all zip-tied in place now.  

I had Monday off for some reason (Two years ago they started giving us Presidents day off and took away one of our floating holidays which I preferred), and it was as nice as advertised.  It was so nice outside that I went out without my coat on and even used my clothesline for the first time this year.  

While they didn't even try on Saturday, they did deliver the package on Monday.  I got the magnetic truck mount installed, but I don't think it is going to work.  I can't get the various mounts tight enough to the point where it is rigid to my finger.  If it can't stand up to that, there is no chance it will survive being on top of the truck going 70mph.  I am going to try to replace their screws today with actual bolts and see if that helps, but otherwise, I might just take the center piece (it is a giant battery) out and use a windshield suction cup mount.  I wanted it on top of the truck to get it over top of the traffic and so that the picture quality wasn't dependent on the cleanliness of my windshield, but oh well.  

Since most people had to work on Monday, I went for a hike as well.  Despite this only being 2 miles from my house, I have never been here (except once for a work party which stayed up near the gate).  Mostly that is because typically when I drive by the parking lot is overflowing.

Given how little snow is left in Sullivan, I expected this to be clear.  It started off that way.  It didn't stay that way for long.

Fortunately I keep rubber creepers in my truck.  This is mostly a holdover from the Nissan when it would fail to get up the driveway, but I was happy to have them today.  Wearing bald shoes on wet ice isn't fun.

Some pictures of the area.  Google has finally (after literally years) fixed the sizing issues, so you should be able to blow them up and see them bigger again.

One of the trails looks like it flooded then froze.  I don't know the trail well enough to know if there were dips in it, and I didn't really trust the ice.  Not with the loads of warm weather the last couple of weeks, so I didn't chance it. I just went the other way.

Other people have apparently though.  

More pictures of another trail that got flooded and froze.  I am kind of curious what this place looks like when the water levels are normal.  I bet it is a lot different.

I don't know the history of the trail, but there were definitely some oddities, like this bridge, right next to the bridge I was standing on, that went nowhere.

There was also some cool looking ice on one of the hills.  That windswept snow pattern is frozen inside the ice, not on top.

Since the shed is now waiting on snow, todays snow coverage: ~75% but declining rapidly.  

Despite it feeling like spring the last two weeks, there is another significant snow storm currently slated for the end of the week.  If the side of the shed melts off, I might see if I can find some T1-11 scraps and protect where I need to hammer.  The scraps I cut out from when I installed the window are still sitting up there, since I never lit the burn barrel before winter.  I think it will melt off, there is rain tonight, and 50s tomorrow.

As much as I hate sinking money into a truck that I am trading in when I get back from the Grand Canyon, I ordered new tires for it today.  $600 of rubber was the cheapest I could find that I would trust (they are Yokohama Geolanders).  My current tires won't pass inspection, and I don't really want to make a 5000 mile trip towing a camper with the truck on tires that are already bald.  

Winter Projects:

• Install chains and anti-gel in tractor.
• Get power center out of truck.
• Fix shed floor.
• Review options for house (mobile home vs stick built vs modular)
• Put up more shelving/hooks in the carport