Back at home.

I am back from my dad's house for the holiday.  We had some helpers for Thanksgiving.  

On Sunday my sister and I went to do a 5k that I tagged along on.  I was official (kinda), and even had a number.  

I got a few pictures of the lights, since the 5k was through the Southern Lights display.  I will post all of them when I get the pictures from Heather (more on that in a sec).  Here are a couple of samples though.  

My phone randomly died despite thinking it had 30% battery left though.  Not sure if it was the cold or whatnot, but I ended up taking most of the rest of the pictures with my sister's phone.  Hopefully this isn't a harbinger of things to come with that phone.  I don't have a particularly strong desire to replace it.  

The other big project this time was finishing up the cabinets that I got my dad for Father's Day.  The first part was building up the cabinets that were shorter (so much for standards...).  Fortunately my dad had a chunk of plywood that was within 1/32 of an inch of the proper thickness, so I cut some strips and and tacked them on.  

I also took a flap wheel and cut a notch in the bottom of the base cabinet that goes over the new flooring and old flooring.  

We also cut a piece of flooring to help fill in that random missing piece.

The cabinets were then assembled.

And put into place and leveled.

While this picture was taken before the endcaps and stuff were done, but the countertop and end caps and all that are done.  The cabinets are now completely installed.  All that is left is to paint them.  

Dad also repaired the holes in his underbelly where it had been cut up for plumbing work.  I let dad do most of the crawling around in the grime though and just offered some help, but the house is now sealed up for winter.  

My truck got excellent mileage on this trip, noticeably better than the first time around.  On the way down I was in the low 23s, and almost hit 24mpg on the way home.  I drove slow on the way down, but by Maryland on the way home, my speed started to creep up a bit.  

Winter projects:

• Knock down the dead knotweed. 
• Winterize equipment.  Fire up the generator

• Get the building permit.
• Complete detailed house plans.
• Work with La Valley to get a concrete contractor.  Get the plan/schedule in place. 
  
• Design future method of travel.  Consider building the prototype.
  
• Shed floor.
• Shed windows.
• Fix generator box.  Decide/do something about power center.
  
• Clear/mark walking trails.

First snow. Winter has arrived.

We got our first snow last night.  It is a bit late this year, but it was significant enough to stick even though it was melting quickly as it was falling.  

I went around and took some pictures before work this morning.  

A couple of other truck updates: the tires are not good in the snow.  I expected this, but it will be annoying this winter until they are worn out.  I am not intending to replace them until they wear out.  

I also played around with engine braking this morning.  The force downshift engine braking was pretty much worthless though, which means I will be navigating the hills using the brakes instead.  I don't like the sound of that, but I will have to get used to it.

On a positive note, the heated mirrors come on and stay on when it is below freezing, so it was able to melt the snow off the mirrors this morning.  They may suck for rain, but work in the snow.

I got the truck back from the dealer before the LAN (I just didn't mention it in the last post).  So far my experience with Ford's service department is pretty poor.  They fixed the fog lights, which is nice, but they failed to fix the squeaking seat, didn't do anything about the AC being on when it shouldn't be, and apparently the trip meters resetting randomly is a feature, not a bug according to my owner's manual.  That is a pretty big black mark against Ford; essentially the truck has no reliable trip meters.

No updates, though I think I have the task list complete for the plan.  Still working on estimates and the like for it, but so far my timelines seem feasible.  I don't expect I will post again until after Thanksgiving at this point.

Winter projects:

• Knock down the dead knotweed. 
• Winterize equipment.  Fire up the generator

• Get the building permit.
• Complete detailed house plans.
• Work with La Valley to get a concrete contractor.  Get the plan/schedule in place. 
  
• Design future method of travel.  Consider building the prototype.
  
• Shed floor.
• Shed windows.
• Fix generator box.  Decide/do something about power center.
  
• Clear/mark walking trails.

Nice weekend at the LAN. Just a short blurb.

I didn't do any work last weekend since the LAN was last weekend, but my laptop finally got its first real performance testing.  It did well.  I definitely think that I would have been better suited for a 1080p screen though.  This one is 1440p, and apparently games don't play nice with DPI scaling.  So I had to make everything look small for the weekend.  I could read everything just fine at 1440p though so it isn't a big deal, it is just smaller than I like.  It was nice to be able to move my whole setup in a single backpack though.

I started listing out the tasks I will need to complete and when they are needed by; basically developing the plan for next year for the building permit application.  I made it as a separate tab on the building costs spreadsheet which can be found here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1of4w616ubED7IKwuVprNup7BjnlXKA95wPjGLvukh84/edit?usp=sharing

Here is what I have so far.

It looks like winter is coming this week, despite being 70 over the weekend.  We are supposed to get a winter storm on Wednesday.  All things considered, this is pretty late for a first snowfall.  I can get the generator done whenever though.  The knotweed kind of requires daylight, so I can't do that during the week.  I will be leaving for Kentucky this weekend, so there might not be another post before Thanksgiving.  The detailed house plans are now in progress though.  

Before winter:

• Deal with town and get the variance.
• Knock down the dead knotweed. 
• Winterize equipment.  Fire up the generator

Winter projects: 

• Get the building permit.
• Complete detailed house plans.
• Work with La Valley to get a concrete contractor.  Get the plan/schedule in place. 
  
• Design future method of travel.  Consider building the prototype.
  
• Shed floor.
• Shed windows.
• Fix generator box.  Decide/do something about power center.
  
• Clear/mark walking trails.

No progress, but nice weekend.

I didn't do much during the week.  Just a few odds and ends, nothing noteworthy.  I did find a couple of bungee cords that were sitting in the middle of the road on my walk on Friday.  They were nice ones and not damaged either.  

I got home late on Friday and had a visitor.  

Saturday I mostly just enjoyed the weather.  Even in Sullivan it was right near 70, very odd for this time of year.  After doing laundry I decided to go out for another new trail.  The Cheshire rail trail was oddly desolate considering the weather, I only saw a couple of bikers.  

I started at the bridge.  I can understand why this isn't a terribly popular trail.  Despite the lack of people, it was kind of loud and noisy since it runs right alongside route 12, even the stretch downtown is quieter from a car noise and is more peaceful.  

There also isn't really anything to see either once you get past the bridge.  Just trail.

There were a few strange things.  Like this random hole.  Hopefully no bikers get caught in it.  A few random poles and stuff too.

This was pretty much it for scenery.  

It was quite breezy though, so I got to watch the trees swaying.  This trail was probably quite pretty when the leaves were changing, but most trails are I suppose.

Sunday I didn't do much before the rain came.  I got a log set up for axe throwing in my back yard and did that for a bit, but that was pretty much it.  This log isn't going to last long though, it is too soft and rotted.  I used it because it was pretty much right there.  The lack of a backstop if you overthrow is something that might need to be addressed though.  

I haven't gotten a single nibble on the old snowblower, so I might just put it down by the road at this point.  I put a little bit of thought into the ordering of the real house and whatnot, but haven't written anything down.  There aren't too many weekend in November where you have 70 degree weather, and I wanted to enjoy it.  

Before winter:

• Deal with town and get the variance.
• Knock down the dead knotweed. 
• Winterize equipment.  Fire up the generator

Winter projects: 

• Get the building permit.
• Complete detailed house plans.
• Work with La Valley to get a concrete contractor.  Get the plan/schedule in place. 
  
• Design future method of travel.  Consider building the prototype.
  
• Shed floor.
• Shed windows.
• Fix generator box.  Decide/do something about power center.
  
• Clear/mark walking trails.

Short update from town. Just some text.

No pictures, but I just wanted to post that my variance got approved, with some time limits imposed, but they are all well within my plans.  They want the building permit by April, site work by June, and move in by November.  I was planning on moving in hopefully by June.  They even hinted at living in the tiny home while the construction was ongoing wouldn't be a problem.  

This knocks the most important remaining item off the checklist.  The generator and knot weed is all that is left before winter.  I cleaned up the list a bit.

Before winter:

• Deal with town and get the variance.
• Knock down the dead knotweed. 
• Winterize equipment.  Fire up the generator

Winter projects: 

• Get the building permit.
• Complete detailed house plans.
• Work with La Valley to get a concrete contractor.  Get the plan/schedule in place. 
  
• Design future method of travel.  Consider building the prototype.
  
• Shed floor.
• Shed windows.
• Fix generator box.  Decide/do something about power center.
  
• Clear/mark walking trails.