Next year I am installing chains

This weekend was pretty much all abysmal weather.  Saturday snowed all day, though admittedly not as hard as expected.  Sunday was a mess and whatever whim of the clouds felt like at that minute; it was changing between snow, sleet, freezing rain, and gale.  Monday was also windy, but at least dry for the most part.  

I woke up early enough on Saturday to test the campfire in a can.  It took a little bit to light, but it took off once I did.  It put out a fair amount of heat (more than expected anyways), but still far less than a campfire.  It wasn't terribly smokey, but I still don't think I would want to use one indoors or without ventilation.  It would be okay in a tent though, or at least mine which is well ventilated.  

To put it out, just put the lid on (the lid on my ammo can is removable) and close it.  I only burned it for about 5 minutes, but the ammo can itself didn't get hot, though the very edges didn't catch.  I imagine it will eventually burn out the seal, but when that happens it was only a 10 dollar ammo can from Harbor Freight.  

The rest of the weekend was mostly playing games and cleaning.  I got all the carpeted rooms cleaned up  and vacuumed (except the third bedroom, though I did make headway in there as well).  All that left is to swiffer the floors.

For reference, this is what the bedroom looked like before I cleaned it up.

I did a little bit of cooking, and I think it might be to call Time of Death on my crockpot.  This is the second or third time it has burned the crap on one side, and the other side didn't cook well at all.  I might start looking at new ones, or perhaps something like a sous-vide or something; I don't use the crockpot that often.

I worked from home yesterday, so I waited until yesterday afternoon to do the clearing from the weekend weather with the faint hope that the wind would die down a bit.  There was so much wind that it had almost erased my driveway completely.

I had to do some digging but I found my winterizer stuff for the diesel, the tractor was running low.  

Unfortunately, I quickly realized that my tractor didn't have enough traction.  I spun out three times just doing this little bit so I could get the tractor out of the carport.

So I figured this might be a good opportunity to get the walk behind out.  I put gas in it, and it started pouring out all over the ground.  Great....  It didn't do that when I put gas in it when I bought it. it was dry so the guy let me put some in it to make sure it ran.  So that is something to look into.  Ugh.

I ended up doing it with the tractor a few feet at a time.  The biggest problem was steering, though having chains on the back would have helped the few times I started spinning pushing the snowblower.  Because of the steering I couldn't do the top part of the driveway pretty much at all.  I did a couple of passes with the bucket, but I literally had no control over where it went and slid sideways several times.  I was lucky a couple of times I didn't get the tractor stuck and had to push the tractor back using the bucket.  Yuck.

I had a casualty while I was out snowblowing.  It is annoying because this was off my new fake fur hat.  Grumble grumble.

None of this stuff is on the checklist, so no movement there.  I am still leaning towards the smaller deck with the pool behind it, and maybe I will draw up something more formal for it.  Thankfully there is currently no snow in the forecast for the 10 day.

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.