I went down to KY with my Aunt on the 22nd. We left a day early because the weather was supposed to be nicer. It was supposed to be rain all the way down. Pennsylvania had other ideas though.
It was cold in KY. Colder than NH. I ran out of propane at one point in the camper. I like the cold, but I didn't wake up until it was cold enough to form frost on the inside of the camper. It wasn't fun changing out the tanks at 1AM in below zero weather.
I didn't take a lot of pictures of stuff we did down there, but I did get a few sunset pictures.
One of the things I brought down was a little 1.2 cubic foot freezer. Sometimes they need an extra little bit of space when the cows go in, since they are getting bigger. I realized when I was cleaning out my Aunt's car that I forgot the shelf for it. Oops.
I finally got home late on the 28th. The cold had one last hurrah; I had one of my electric heaters fail while I was gone. The light was on, it was powered, but nobody was home; the fan was dead and there was no heat coming out.
It was chilly when I got home. I could see my breath inside. Fortunately, I use two electric space heaters to heat the place and the other one was still working, it is just inadequate on its own (especially considering I didn't even have it on high) and it is on the other side of the house from all the plumbing.
I checked the faucets and nothing was frozen thankfully. My water system was reporting no flow, so I didn't have anything leaking under the house. The input from the well has heat tapes on it, so that would have been fine.
I was off until the third (today), so I got some project work done for the rest of the time off. Despite several days of sun in the 40s, there was still a bunch of snow in the back of my truck, so I shoveled all that out.
I also went and picked up the lumber for the truck cap. Ripping the 10' 2x6 boards was a pain, but after enough coaxing the table saw decided to straighten up and fly right.
I decided to build it piecemeal, in case I ended up with something unusable. It is difficult to predict weight of lumber structures for example, since the weight of lumber can vary widely from board to board. I created the basic box part of the shell, and size-wise it seems fine. This wasn't intended to be final, it was just a "can I fit through the back, does it clear the bedrails, can I at least move around if the top isn't up" and that kind of stuff.
It was nice to be able to store it outdoors while I was working on it.
I had run out of materials for the cap on New Year's Eve, so I decided to work on the shed floor, which was one of my other big projects for the winter. I got it cut open and took a look. Nothing too bad here. No real rot or anything.
I got the joists jacked up and got one bracket in each joist, but I didn't have enough brackets to finish the job.
I got the floor braces installed too. At which point I had run out of materials for the shed floor. And apparently Home Depot closed absurdly early on New Years Eve, so I just kind of did nothing the rest of the day.
New years day started really warm. The camera didn't capture it well, but the light filtering through the trees looked pretty cool.
In case you were curious, this is what an ice block from a 5 gallon bucket looks like.
I got to Home Depot before they opened and got everything I needed to complete the floor and for the next stage of the truck cap. They unfortunately didn't have the acrylic I wanted for the windows (only lexan which is really expensive), and didn't have the roofing material in 10' sections (only 8' and 12'), so I will have to order that online. It was a pretty sunrise though.
I did finally manage to finish the flooring in the shed though. It looks nice and feels solid.
I also spent a good chunk of the afternoon reorganizing it. I don't like it, but at least everything is accessible again.
As I went and cleaned up the shed a bit, I also pulled out my kerosene heater and fired it up. Thankfully mine still works fine.
That took most of the day since I didn't really get started on the shed until around lunchtime, but that evening I also did a couple of interior things. I put up a shelf so I could put my air filter up. The space heaters I heat with now don't filter dust like the heat pump did. I am hoping this will help combat the dust problems.
Yesterday I got back to work on the truck cap. Since it isn't a size concept anymore, I got the support boards moved to their final locations, and replaced the long parts with their final boards.
I was intending to bracket all the joints for rigidity, and had a bunch of these from a prior project, but they are too big for 2x3 construction unfortunately, so I will need to go buy a bunch more braces.
I got the middle uprights for the windows built and have a few of the rafters cut, but I can't install the rafters until I get more braces. I could pocket the screws (or just buy some longer ones), but I want bracing on it anyways so I didn't bother. For those curious, the long part sticking off the far end goes over the cab of the truck, and the aluminum at the far end is what the hinges will attach to. It has what look like double top plates, but the topmost is the structure that will lift.
It is kind of surprising that when I got home everything was still completely white, but by yesterday afternoon, snow coverage was down to about 40%. A lot of the ground is thawing too.
Even up by the shed which is mostly in the shade is largely melted off.
At that point it was nearly sunset.
I decided to use my clothesline the last couple days, figuring it was above freezing the entire day, breezy, and partial sun. Despite the breeze, things didn't dry well. Even after two full days on the line (I washed them new year's morning and took them off yesterday evening before it froze), the jeans were still damp. The base for my clothesline had a structural failure too; if you look underneath the dump truck drum, you will notice that the rolling stand it was on basically completely imploded. Oops. I will deal with it in the spring.
Now that things are back in full swing, I need to start working on the house again. But the shed floor is done, and significant progress has been made on the cap. I don't see any bitter cold in the forecast, but precipitation is coming which means I might be able to make little bits of progress here and there.
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.
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