Christmas trip.

Merry Christmas everyone!  

 

I didn't get to make the final post before I left on vacation, the last day at work was rough, and then just never got around to it after I took off.  I did notice when I made another trip to Home Depot to get some stabilizer and mechanic in a bottle for the snowblower since the one I bought ran a little rough from sitting, that there finally exists an electric weed wacker that can use a metal blade.  Milwaukee is an expensive system to get into though, though Northern frequently runs what at least appear to be decent sales on them.  

I also got my wrapping all finished up.  

I tried to dig a channel to drain out some of the water in the trench since ice is a really poor insulator, but the ground was frozen solid.  

On the 18th I worked a half-ish day.  We got a bunch of precipitation we weren't supposed to though.  It actually looked kind of pretty though. 

Some random tracks, my failed construction hasn't scared everything away.

I got home with a couple hours of daylight left, so I tried one of my siphon bulbs.  It didn't work either.

Since I was running short on time at this point, I kind of just said to hell with it and tossed the sand bags in anyways. 

Literally.  Oops, I soaked myself too.  I had to do laundry before taking off the following morning anyways though.  

The drive down wasn't bad, though I did hit a deer.  Fortunately it didn't do much damage to the truck.  It looks like it just popped off some clips on the fenderwell.  The Subaru behind me took the brunt of it. 

As is frequently the case, I worked on a bunch of projects while I was down there.  I helped dad and Benny (neighbor) attach the drains to the house, added a handrail to the steps, I replaced the paneling in the living and re-laid the carpet down (admittedly poorly), swapped out an exterior light and fixed the wiring for it, and helped Bill work on the hot water that had the top element in it cooked.  Hopefully those pictures make it up onto other blogs (notably my dad's and sister's) but here is a couple of pictures just in case.  

A nice sunrise while I was down there, even despite Google's best efforts to make the picture look terrible.  

I came back to my Aunt's and Uncle's on the 27th and stayed there.  Christmas Part 2. Along with the supervisor who later shredded all the tissue paper.

The Christmas trip was 2029 miles, and I averaged just under 20mpg (the computer is a bit optimistic).  

Thinking about this, my Aunt is going to be selling her car when they trade in my Uncle's car.  Her car is in good shape, only a few minor dings which I don't care about, but it has less than 100k on it.  I checked while I was out there, and it is large enough I could set up my sleeping bag in the back and sleep in it for a night if needed.  This would be an excellent mileage sponge for my truck, which as you can see above is already well north of 62k, and is only a little over two years old, so I will be buying that when it becomes available.  It would also be really nice to be able to drive fast again without my gas mileage falling off a cliff; when I take the truck to KY I normally don't go faster than 65-67mph, since just below 70 is where the mileage starts declining quickly.  The CR-V won't have that problem, or at the very least it is a lot faster than 67mph before it drops (I have driven that car to KY before). 

I got back home Sunday evening and it appears that the sand bags worked; I had no apparent split pipes or mud in my water, and everything was in working order, despite the frigid temperatures while I was gone.  I really didn't do much yesterday, mostly napped.  Ate some, caught up on videos from while I was gone, and napped some more.  It rained all day and I didn't feel any particular motivation to do anything.   

Today though I got a bit more restless.  I finished my unpacking, and went out for a walk.  It is the last time for a while that we will be up in the 40s, another colder air mass is moving in.  I also decided to go out and see if I could do something for the drainage ditch in the back.  It was full again.

 

The ground wasn't frozen, so I dug a little channel.  It is still draining as I write this.

I still have another day off before I have to go back to work, so I might try to start some of the winter projects; I can at least do the easy ones like changing the faucets.

Winter Projects:

• Build shelving for second room
  
• Design deck
• Eliminate cap
• Install whole house filter.
• Install new faucet in kitchen
• Install new faucet in master bath
  
• Access panel upgrades in master closet
• Cut trails, or at least mark paths.

2025 Projects

• Insulate the water lines
• Take scrap metal to Buffum.  Clean up trash.
• Storm doors
• Gravel the driveway
• Side yard drainage
• Build Deck
• Add the roof over to rocks
• Move carport up hill
• Smooth grade to shed.
   

Short update, the snowblower is free.

This is the picture I forgot yesterday; the front being all cleaned up.  

The big news from yesterday though is that when I got home last night, the tractor was all freed up.  

The PTO shaft as well.

As part of my shopping list last night, I picked up a bunch of tube sand.  I plan to put this in the trench over top where the water lines are.  The hope is that the bags of tube sand will survive long enough to be removed in the spring (I always have a need for fill) and provide the insulation needed for the below zero weather this weekend.  

The trench is still underwater, but at least the ice on top has melted enough (this picture was taken this morning).  By tomorrow I expect that it will be completely gone.  

I still need to do some greasing (the tractor is due and I haven't greased the snowblower yet since my grease gun was frozen over the weekend) and attach the PTO shaft (should be quick now that it is free), but it looks like the snowblower will be good to go for this winter.  Good news for a change.  I think after Christmas I will create a new winter checklist, since some of the winter projects like the shelving that I started, and the various faucets I wanted to replace aren't on there.

Before Winter:

• Back yard drainage.
• Close up tiny home.  Seal up plumbing.
• Clean off driveway at top.
• Smooth driveway enough to not catch the snowblower.
• Winterize equipment

Unlikely to happen at this point until next year:

• Build shelving for second room
• Insulate the water lines
• Take scrap metal to Buffum.  Clean up trash.
• Storm doors
• Gravel the driveway
• Side yard drainage
• Eliminate cap.

Winter Projects:

• Design deck
• Install whole house filter.
• Access panel upgrades in master closet
• Cut trails, or at least mark paths.

Tractor snowblower not working either.

The focus of the weekend was trip prep and winter prep.  Saturday I started on winter prep.  I forgot to take a picture, but I got the front area over by the steps all cleaned up.  I had intentionally left the sawhorses since there was a bunch of little blocks and the like over there.  Those are all cleaned up, and the sawhorses moved.

I also gave it one more crank, and the old snowblower still won't turn over, even after spraying the cylinder with PB Blaster, so it get deposited in my graveyard.

The carport looks a lot better.  

I also got all my Christmas presents wrapped (except the last one that hasn't come in yet), and did some cleanup in prep for my trip this week.

Sunday was dedicated to getting the tractor snowblower going.  Once I remembered all the tricks, I finally got it on without issue.  It is harder to put on than the grading blade since I can't really move it around (it weighs almost 600 lbs).  Unfortunately the good news kind of ended there.  I managed to get the chute freed up.  It had iced up, and the ice patch looks conveniently like a leaf :P  For those curious, the liquid on top there is chain oil.

I checked the gearbox oil, it still looks good.  

Despite all that though, I couldn't get it to break free.  Last year I was able to turn everything easily by hand.  This year the second stage (which is scarily rusty for a unit that is only a year old) was frozen up.  I don't know if it is iced up or just rusted up.  I hope it is the former.  I sprayed everything down with lube and it is now under cover.  The next couple of days are all supposed to be above freezing, so it should thaw out if it is ice.

On a side note, I have been thinking about it a bit and am starting to warm up to the idea of a used Uhaul.

Pros: 

• Cheap.  You can get a UHaul with under 100k miles on it for about $10-11k
• It is expected that this would still be true when it comes time to rebuild/replace the vehicle
• This is cheap enough that I could just buy one next year and start on it at my leisure (because I clearly need another big project...).  It doesn't require trading my truck in to purchase
• I haven't yet run the budget, but this might actually make it tenable.
• The box is already built and watertight.
• The box is all metal, so I don't need to worry about resealing it periodically like an RV roof..
• Low deck height means I don't need to build stairs.
• Comes with a big back bumper.  I might be able to put a moped or something on there so I don't have to take the truck itself everywhere.
• Comes set up for towing.
• There is plenty of available exterior space to add toolboxes and stuff to the frame for exterior storage.
• The 10' U-Haul is over a foot shorter than my truck (a 10' uhaul is 236" long, similar to a van, whereas my truck is 250" long), so adding a box or something on the back isn't a big deal.
• I might even be able to bump up to a 14' truck (which is actually only 2' longer than a 10')
• No side door to eat up a bunch of wallspace (unless I want to add one)

Cons: 

• They get bad gas mileage (~13mpg if I don't build it heavy)
• It should be noted that while worse than a van, 13mpg is in the expected range of a truck house.
• Suspension tends to be stiff and low-travel, this is how they get the low deck height.  It also means no ground clearance.
• The engine is undersized; they come with a 4.8L V8 (for the 10').  
• The 4.8L however is bolt compatible with the 5.3L and 6.0L though if I want to update it down the road.
• I would not expect a uhaul truck to make 200k; it is likely to be beaten up/run hard when I get it.
• Requires more work, they are very de-featured trucks.  I will need to add the following before I would take it out, at least off pavement.  This is in addition to the list of adjustments for a regular truck/van (things like the light bar, winch, etc):
• Cruise control (no, they don't have it)
• Locking rear differential.  4WD is out of the question, so this is a must.
• Swiveling seats (I would probably replace the seats, Uhaul seats generally suck).
• Significant exterior work since they typically only apply a wrap to resell it, they don't remove the Uhaul decals and whatnot.  This may not need to be done immediately though.
• Cut out the passage between the cab and box.
• Remove/replace rear door.
• Roof and flooring insulation might be limited.  Some of these trucks are only 6'2" tall inside (depending on the year), before insulation.  They do have plywood flooring that I could remove to add a little extra insulation.  
• I don't have a problem putting laminate flooring like what I had in the tiny home down directly on top of foam board, I think it would be rigid enough.

I drew up a quick floorplan too.  It is very similar to the van one I drew up.  This has a full size fridge in it too, not a short under counter one like the van had.  This is roughly to scale, each square is 4" (since I didn't put it on the diagram)

I am not sure if I will have another post before I leave for Christmas.  It did get down to single digits over the weekend, and my water line was okay, but it looks like we are supposed to be below zero while I am gone, so I am going to go ahead and put down some sand bags anyways.  I thought this was supposed to be a mild winter; it has been well below average for temps thus far.  Grumble

Reinforcements have arrived.

I went and picked up some snow reinforcements the other night.  I forgot my ramps, which wasn't really an issue since the guy had a ledge in his yard I could back up to.  It started rough, but I did get it running okay eventually.  The guy said it hadn't been used in a couple of years.  Hopefully it lasts longer than the last one I bought that had been on the shelf.  The last one only made it through 2 or 3 driveway clearings before it blew out the main seal.  At least this one was cheap though.  Turns out it doesn't fit under the cap which surprised me a little.

The bar for the shifter came off as I was trying to cram it in the back of the truck.

This one is a Toro, but it looks literally identical to all the MTDs I have owned.

So the forecasters finally got it right.  It has been rain the past couple of days.  Most of my snow is gone now.

More importantly though is the path up to the big snowblower is now clear.

I was curious and took a look at the trench.  It is very full.  Looks like I have a bit more slope than I needed too.

One annoying bit though is that I apparently didn't fully close the door of my truck last night.  Ugh.  

It is supposed to be brutally cold this weekend, but I really need to get the snowblower on anyways, as unpleasant as it might be.  With all the snow gone I might need to put down foam board or pick up some sand bags or something to put down over the water lines too.  

Before Winter:

• Back yard drainage.
• Close up tiny home.  Seal up plumbing.
• Clean off driveway at top.
• Smooth driveway enough to not catch the snowblower.
• Winterize equipment

Unlikely to happen at this point until next year:

• Build shelving for second room
• Insulate the water lines
• Take scrap metal to Buffum.  Clean up trash.
• Storm doors
• Gravel the driveway
• Side yard drainage
• Eliminate cap.

Winter Projects:

• Design deck
• Install whole house filter.
• Access panel upgrades in master closet
• Cut trails, or at least mark paths.

Colossal snow equipment failures.

The theme for the weekend was snow equipment, which you might guess by the title of the post didn't go well.  

To start the weekend off, when I got home on Friday, I noticed that my humidifier had tripped the GFCI again.  This is the third time, but it only does it when it runs dry.  I don't think there is any electrical risk here though.  And for those curious, the stool that is in the middle of the kitchen is the one I need to fix and yes my kitchen is a mess.

Saturday was a snow day.  I got the tractor pulled out.  It turned over slowly, but I guess it hasn't run since September I think?  I am not sure I have run it since I got back, most of the outdoor work was all excavator since my trip.  I tried to bring it up the hill to put the three point snowblower on it.  It didn't make it.  I will have to put the chains on it this year it looks like.

I did get the driveway cleared though with the bucket and grading blade.  I found a way that works better with the bucket, I think the last time I cleared with it I just had the bucket at the wrong angle.  It still won't clear feet of snow, but if you angle the bucket so that the front is a few inches off the ground, but the back is on the ground (the kind of angle you carry material at), it compacts what it doesn't push (which isn't good and will make ice), but it pushes everything above that point.  I just simply didn't try to clear it all the way down, and will trust the tractor and truck to drive over whatever it doesn't clear.  The grading blade I just ran backwards, but that isn't new, that is how I have always used it for snow (except in the tiny home where I used it to dig down to the concrete up at the slab).  This will work for now until we get a big storm or I can get my other stuff working again.

One thing I noticed when I was clearing the driveway.  It really really looked like someone had put a box on the steps down here. I checked it out, but it was just mother nature playing tricks on me.

I took a look at the pushmower, and tried to start it (which failed).  I knew I had almost run it out of gas, but I don't recall it running out last time I used it.  I opened up the gas tank though and it was bone dry.  

So I just folded it up and tucked it into the corner of the carport.  I can clean the carb on it in the spring if I have to.

Next up was the snowblower.  I did remember to walk to the parts store at lunch on Friday and pick up the oil for the snowblower.  Other then the oil draining super slowly since it was cold, the oil that came out was still transparent.  Other than being a year old, it really didn't need an oil change.  I couldn't find my drain pan (likely in the back yard since I was at one point planning to change the fluids in the excavator, that ought to look interesting come spring...), but with it running so slow, I just put the jug underneath it directly.

Then I went to fire it up, and lo and behold the engine has apparently seized.  I never turned it over when I first brought it down since I didn't want to run it with old possibly separated oil (I typically use the cheapest O'Reilly has to offer).  Even the electric start wouldn't budge it.  Ugh.  I might play with it a bit to see if I can loosen it up, but otherwise it might be time to look at replacements.

At that point I was pretty frustrated, so I went and took it out on my old humidifier.  It was getting dark anyways, despite only being 3:30PM .  It had a bunch of scale and stuff on it, and frankly cheap humidifiers don't have a good track record of surviving an offseason of non-use.  I did get it working though.  It puts out a lot more moisture than my new one.

Sunday was actually fairly nice, but I didn't do much.  I looked at snowblowers on Craigslist, but this is the worst time of year to try to find one (right after the first major snowfall).  Pretty much everything under $500 on Craigslist is either a complete unknown (ran three years ago and hasn't been touched kind of deal), needs work, is really small, or looks really rough.  Odds of finding a unit that would survive the winter did not look promising.  I also briefly looked at new ones.  It is a shame electric ones are so expensive, I really am sick and tired of gas engines that never work when you need them to; I have had to repair fuel issues on my push mower each of the last two years (I bought it three years ago), and the lawn tractors that seemingly blow up every couple of years and eat batteries every year, and the weed whacker that hasn't run in three years now, and my brand new friggin' chipper that wouldn't start in the fall, my generator that I haven't been able to start in a couple of years, and so on.  

I just really wish it wouldn't cost an arm and a leg to switch to electric.  But considering I would need an extra set (or 2) of batteries because of how long my driveway is, it really doesn't make sense.  Even if I went with a single stage unit that is comparable in cost to a two stage gas (a single stage electric will throw further than a single stage gas), those still struggle with deep snow and don't have drive, you have to do all the pushing, plus it would be a pretty significant size downgrade (my current useless unit is 28" wide, the e-go single stage ones are only 21").  While most of those are less of an issue than it sounds since it isn't intended to be the primary (I spent 2 grand on a tractor snowblower to be the primary if I could get to it), they are still considerations.  It is worth keeping in mind the first couple winters I used a far less capable machine to do all the clearing, the 5HP 24" unit I got from Greg that wouldn't clear more than 12-18" at a time because it would bog and stall, so it is doable.  Of course in those days clearing my driveway was a 6 hour venture.  Would I really be willing to sign up for that again should something happen to the tractor?  

Then there is the whole "how much longer will I be here" question.  I did briefly look at used U-Haul trucks, and I could afford one next year to start the converting...  They are a less than ideal situation though, so the looking was more grumbling than actual action.

That said, this makes getting the snowblower on the tractor really important since my backup plan is seized up; the tractor bucket and blade would be rather painful to clear a 18" snowfall with, and this is supposed to be a mild but very wet winter.  For the immediate future though, the real question is whether the storm coming tonight is rain (as forecasted, but meteorologists are batting 0% so far this winter) or whether it is snow.  I might find out quickly how the new plowing method works with a foot of snow.

Before Winter:

• Back yard drainage.
• Close up tiny home.  Seal up plumbing.
• Clean off driveway at top.
• Smooth driveway enough to not catch the snowblower.
• Winterize equipment

Unlikely to happen at this point until next year:

• Build shelving for second room
• Insulate the water lines
• Take scrap metal to Buffum.  Clean up trash.
• Storm doors
• Gravel the driveway
• Side yard drainage
• Eliminate cap.

Winter Projects:

• Design deck
• Install whole house filter.
• Access panel upgrades in master closet
• Cut trails, or at least mark paths.

Snow won another round.

I was on autopilot last night when I came back from work, so I will head out at lunch today and grab the oil.  I decided I could go out and shovel some at least.  I didn't get far.

Thankfully I had a backup and at least got the steps finished.  I also dug out my winter boots and got the plastic sawhorses put away.  I got the big wooden ones broken free (they were frozen into the ground).  I didn't move them over because they are currently covering wood scraps on the ground, so right now they are basically a driveway marker.  

Of course as soon as I finished, mother nature got angry and it started snowing again.  Sigh.

It is currently supposed to rain early next week, which is likely to create a large mess, but as long as it stays rain will be good for me.  

Before Winter:

• Back yard drainage.
• Close up tiny home.  Seal up plumbing.
• Clean off driveway at top.
• Smooth driveway enough to not catch the snowblower.
• Winterize equipment

Unlikely to happen at this point until next year:

• Build shelving for second room
• Insulate the water lines
• Take scrap metal to Buffum.  Clean up trash.
• Storm doors
• Gravel the driveway
• Side yard drainage
• Eliminate cap.

Winter Projects:

• Design deck
• Install whole house filter.
• Access panel upgrades in master closet
• Cut trails, or at least mark paths.

More winter.

I did my typical shopping run on Monday.  I added a Walmart stop (which I am not a fan of, especially in the holiday season) but it actually wasn't bad.  I wanted to pick up another humidifier.  The one I had last year was inadequate.  This one was surprisingly cheap.

Before cooking dinner the humidity was 18%.  

I went up to schedule my truck for an oil change and did some looking around at cars.  Bob's had a Ford Focus that was only $5k, but had some rust on it (not uncommon for a northeast car), and a Subaru that looked pretty clean underneath but was a bit out of my sister's price range.

After 24 hours, the new humidifier only got it up to 30%, so it looks like I will have to clean out my old one and hope it still works to give it a helping hand.

I started to pull down the walk behind snow blower last night, but realized that I didn't have the right kind of oil to change it.  This one takes 5w30, not SAE30.  Sigh.  I did that because there was another storm moving in, albeit not a bad one supposedly so I just figured I would drive over it.

This morning I woke to more unexpected snow.  This storm was only supposed to be 1-3 inches, but we had around 6".  Ugh.  Fortunately my truck has excellent tires on it and I was still able to just drive over it, but we are approaching critical mass of snow, I really need to get the snowblowers ready.  That will be priority 1 this weekend.  Clearing the top area so I can run the snowblower without hitting stuff will be priority 2.

Samsung has a warranty checking online, but it sounds like my heat pump should be covered.  I will still have to pay the labor to get it swapped out, but hopefully the cost of the unit will be covered.

I finally got around to publishing the pictures from the southern lights stroll 5k I did while down in KY.  Those pictures are available at:  https://photobucket.com/share/bcce0035-407f-4cc8-b8b9-b9761a43f17a 

Before Winter:

• Back yard drainage.
• Close up tiny home.  Seal up plumbing.
• Clean off driveway at top.
• Smooth driveway enough to not catch the snowblower.
• Winterize equipment

Unlikely to happen at this point until next year:

• Build shelving for second room
• Insulate the water lines
• Take scrap metal to Buffum.  Clean up trash.
• Storm doors
• Gravel the driveway
• Side yard drainage
• Eliminate cap.

Winter Projects:

• Design deck
• Install whole house filter.
• Access panel upgrades in master closet
• Cut trails, or at least mark paths.