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

Parts are inbound. Snow is melting.

I have been accumulating parts and stuff during the week.  I went out the other night and picked up a cheap scissor jack.  I also picked up some epoxy and some flat stock so I can fix the latches to the cap.  My new bumper also came in this week.  Nothing like delivering a box in the rain outside so it can get saturated.  Fortunately the bumper better by unhurt by it.

The weather has been really warm the last couple of days, and we got some rain last night.  My driveway is finally melted off, no more ice, at least for now.  It is still February, so I expect more will come.

The path up the shed isn't melted off yet, but I am hopeful it will melt off this weekend.  

It is supposed to be really nice this weekend, and I think I have everything that I need to make good progress on the shed this weekend.

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

Floor ready for jacking.

Saturday was really nice out, and rather productive.  It was finally warm enough out that I felt comfortable charging the battery bank.  Batteries lose charge over time, and it hadn't been charged in a few months.  According to the inverter, it is now back up to 13.2V which is tip top (lead acids are considered full at 12.8V).  

I also ran the new extension cord around.  For now I just put it on top of the snow.  

I just laid it on the slab for right now.  I will have to unplug it and move it when storms arrive so it doesn't suffer the same fate as its predecessor.  

I was a little disappointed at how much hasn't melted off, considering most of the week was 40s and sunny.  

It makes things slick.  Especially when your shoes look like this.  It might be time for new ones.

So the first thing I did was dig out my salt container.  I don't use much in the way of salt typically. and put some (okay, a lot) down hoping that the almost 50 degrees and sun would clear everything off with a little help.  

My new glasses arrived on Saturday.  They have far less heat shrink and cracks in them.  The first thing I noticed though was the anti-glare coating, which has long since worn off the old pair.  Sun and snow will do that though.  While there is a little bit of oddness with them, I get a fisheye effect if I am looking near the edges of the lenses, I am not sure if that means I measured my pupillary distance wrong or just that my lenses have gotten that thick on the edges.  I might stop up at the eye place today and just get a formal measurement.  It is only ten bucks.  Get that done before I order a spare pair and sunglasses.  The frame size seems a bit small; they tell you all these things to measure to determine frame size, but never tell you how to turn those numbers in a S-XXL size.  I took a guess, and while wearable, it appears small.  The arms press into the side of my head, though I haven't gotten a headache from it yet or anything.

With the power to the shed restored, I went up and finished removing nails and got the first piece cut out.  The bottom of the subflooring and the joists are actually in really good shape.  I also got the nails pulled out of the other piece, though I will need to finish the first piece before I can shift enough stuff around to get to the second piece.  One thing I noticed: my floor jack won't fit under the joists, and there is no chance of using a bottle jack.  I was going to try to find a small scissor jack, but I haven't gotten around to finding one yet.  

After jack hunting, I decided to finish clearing off the ice on the slab.  My metal shovel was frozen into the ground, so my plastic shovel got some abuse.

The salt did its job though.  Which considering how much I used, isn't that surprising.  I put down around 6 lbs of rock salt and calcium chloride mix.  And it was almost 50 and sunny.

I only had a pound or so left, so I used it on the apron.  One more than one occasion I have almost ended up in the yard since the bottom is a solid sheet of ice.  The apron being covered in ice makes pulling out slow and difficult as well.

The thick stuff (some of the ice was almost 4 inches thick) I ended up doing the old fashioned way with an iron bar and effort.

It took a couple hours, but the slab is completely cleared off.  At least where I would walk anyways.  There is a tiny strip next to the house and next to the carport that isn't cleared, but everything in between is bare concrete again.

I didn't do much on Sunday.  I started to assemble the GoPro.  It looks like I am going to have to make a custom base for it.  I watched the Superbowl at work.  Ate some (a lot) pizza.  It was a good game, the commercials were better than last year, though not great.  The halftime show wasn't the kind of music I like, so I didn't watch most of it.

Good progress was made on the shed.  

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

Tundra vs Snowbank. Snowbank wins.

We have been having some warm days and cold nights of late, and my driveway is melting down during the day and refreezing at night.  Yesterday morning the back of the truck slid a little while I was backing up to turn around to leave.  The back end hit one of the piles of snow.  The snow won.  My bumper was in sad at best shape before this, but now it looks really pathetic.  I had intended to replace it before trading the truck in, but since it unfortunately whacked one of the license plate lights; I now need to replace it before getting it inspected in a few weeks.  Time to order a new bumper I guess.

There was no visible damage to the snowbank.  It very clearly was the superior structure.

I haven't done too much project-wise, mostly just prep work for the trip.  I did decide to remove the second Texas stop.  I have most of the reservations made.  The campground at the Grand Canyon itself was full of spots that weren't trailer compatible (supposedly, I think they are full of it), so I only have one place left, plus some of the attractions I want to see require reservations.  I had to make some modifications to where I was staying though, since even though most of the places had availability a week or two ago when I started looking at making reservations, a lot of them had completely dried up.  A month and a half in advance is clearly not enough these days.

This weekend is the superbowl so I won't be doing much on Sunday.  It is supposed to be really nice on Saturday though, so I hope to get the new power cord run and maybe get some work done in the shed.  I need the cord since I need to cut the floor, and I have no desire to do it with a handsaw.  I also hope to finish up the trip reservations this weekend when I go in Sunday to watch the superbowl.

Not a lot of progress.

I didn't do much over the weekend.  I did get my new prescription on Friday and ordered new glasses.  I do have a follow up on May 4th since apparently my eye exam revealed some unusual nerves, and they want to run some additional glaucoma testing, but at least I will have new glasses (and sunglasses hopefully) for my trip.

Saturday I went out and picked up some tires for Heather.  On an interesting side note, the price of gas in NH deviates a lot more than it used to.  Gas up in Laconia was almost 50¢ a gallon cheaper than Keene.  The I-93 corridor has always been a little cheaper, but the difference was never anywhere near that large.  I filled up while I was there.

I noticed as I went out that apparently the deer have started using my driveway.  They came through at night though.  The snow came in Friday night, and this was taken Saturday morning.  

I also went out and took a look at the extension cord.  It looks fatal.  I might still be able to cut this chunk out and splice it back together, but its days as a permanent outdoor fixture are at an end, even if I splice it I wouldn't feel comfortable leaving it buried in a snowbank or puddle (depending on season).  I will pick up a replacement this week.

Outside of trying (and failing) to scrape up some ice with the tractor, I didn't do much else on Saturday, and on Sunday I went out snowshoeing in Otter Brook, though I didn't really need the snowshoes.  All the rain and muck on Thursday and Friday packed everything down really good.  Unfortunately I had another casualty while I was out though.  It is still warm and wearable, but its age (I got this from Dad decades ago) is catching up to it.

One other thing to complain about: when I moved to Sullivan, the plowing was top notch.  They were the best in the whole Keene area, and it wasn't really close.  I noticed a couple of times late last season after a storm that they didn't seem to finish cleaning it up, but it isn't uncommon for highway departments to run out of salt or whatever towards the end of the season.  This winter however, Sullivan has routinely been among the worst plowing in the region.  It is not quite VT levels of bad, but pretty close, and I am not sure what changed.  This is what the road looked like on Friday.  In the middle of an ice storm on a road that has a ~10% grade in spots.  There was no salt to be found, the slush was freezing in the road, which had not been touched.  This is troubling because the only way to avoid that kind of steep hills involves going 10 miles out of the way on similarly poorly cleared roads.  Thus far I haven't had any issues, but I have had to use 4WD a lot more this year than in years past.

I thought about working in the shed on Sunday.  It never got past the contemplative stage though.  I did some thinking about my trip though, and I am debating cutting out either the first or second stop in Texas.  I am concerned that the trip doesn't seem to have any actual downtime in it, and this would free up a day.  I have everything I need to start making reservations (which I really should have done last month), so I will need to decide soon.  

Stuff and things.

My stuff is coming in.  The GoPro and its accessories arrived.  I got a 1TB card which will hopefully be adequate.  I do have a few 64GB MicroSD cards kicking around that are reasonably fast should the need arise (maybe not fast enough for 5k video, but plenty fast enough for pictures). I made a few stops last night and picked up some magnets at Home Depot.  If I get some free time this weekend I might try it out and make sure it will stay mounted to the truck.  It is a 45lb pull strength magnet, and the GoPro is very light, but I don't know how it will handle going 70mph.

I decided to beat myself up on Tuesday.  I went for a skating lesson when I got out of my truck and fell on my back on the step to get into my truck.  That didn't feel good.  I also decided to slice and dice my finger when I was chopping a zucchini which didn't feel too good either.

I get my prescription on Friday, so I went and measured my pupillary distance.  It is kind of a pain.  As soon as I get the exam though, I am ready to order new glasses.  

I am close to completing the itinerary for my trip in March.  Which is good, since I have already found a lot of places full when I started to poke around at making reservations last night, so I need to get on that sooner rather than later.  Here is where the itinerary stands.

To KY 3/11-3/12.  Build box for generator and prep camper (de-winterize).

Leave for TX 3/19 AM for Palo Duro Canyon.  Google says 16:10, @55 ave = 20:21

Arrive afternoon 3/20.  Fill camper water tanks.

Stay at Hackberry RV Park night of 3/20, 3/21

Leave for Fort Davis/Davis Mountains 3/22.  Google says 6:09, no interstate

Arrive afternoon of 3/22

Stay at Limpia Creek RV Park night of 3/22

Day of 3/23 - Visit views and sites.

Leave for Carlsbad caverns 3/23 afternoon.  Google says 2:48

Stay at Parks Ranch Campground night of 3/23, 3/24

Visit Carlsbad cavern and white sands 3/24

Leave for Petrified forest 3/25 AM.  Google says 7:53, about half interstate, so likely 10 hours

Stay at Rainbow Ranch night of 3/25, 3/26

    * 3-26 - Painted Desert and Petrified forest

Leave for Prescott National Forest area 3/27 morning.

Stay at xx 3/27, 3/28.  Time is around 3 hours.  Update when location picked.      

    * 3-27 - Tip Top Ghost town, Arcosanti

    * 3-28 - Montezuma Castle, Lake pleasant park?  Have time for another thing.

Leave for Grand Canyon 3/29.  Google says  2:18, little interstate.

Stay at Mather Campground night of 3/29 - 4/2

    * 3-29 - Western Canyon - Grand Canyon Skywalk, Eagle Point, Guano Point, quartermaster point,

    * 3-30 - South Rim - Desert View drive, other hikes

    * 3-31 - North Rim - 

    * 4-1 - North of north rim - Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, Lone Tree Access Point, Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument

    * 4-2 - Rail tour

Leave for KY 4/3 AM.  Drive back through Monument valley (only adds ~1 hour driving time).  Google says 28 hours, ~33 hours @55 ave.

May have to work from camper 4/4 and possibly 4/5 on the road since it is a seriously long return trip.

Or here is another way to look at it as a day by day breakdown.

3/11 - Take off to Albany.  Deliver Aunt's late Christmas present.

3/12 - Drive to KY.

3/13 - In KY.

3/14 - Remote work in KY.  Build generator box.

3/15 - Remote work in KY.  Build generator box.

3/16 - Remote work in KY.  Build generator box.

3/17 - Remote work in KY.  Build generator box.

3/18 - Remote work in KY.  De-winterize camper.  Prep truck.

3/19 - On the Road to Palo Duro Canyon, Texas.  Sleep on the road.

3/20 - Arrive at Palo Duro Canyon, Texas.  Fill camper tanks.  Stay at Hackberry RV park.

3/21 - Explore Palo Duro Canyon.  Stay at Hackberry RV park.

3/22 - Leave AM for Fort Davis TX.  Arrive early afternoon. Stay at Limpia Creek RV park.

3/23 - Explore Fort Davis.  Leave PM for Carslbad caverns.  Arrive in evening.  Stay at Parks Ranch Campground.

3/24 - Visit Carlsbad caverns and White Sands National Park.  Stay at Parks Ranch Campground.

3/25 - Leave AM for Petrified forest/painted desert.  Arrive late afternoon.  Stay at Rainbow Ranch.

3/26 - Explore petrified forest and painted desert.  Stay at Rainbow ranch.

3/27 - Leave AM (could be pushed back if I want to see more) for Prescott National Forest.  Arrive late morning.  Visit Tip Top Ghost town and Arcosanti.  Stay at ???

3/28 - Visit Montezuma Castle.  Relax at Lake pleasant park?  Stay at ???

3/29 - Leave for Grand Canyon AM.  Arrive mid morning.  Visit Western Canyon.  Stay at Mather Campground in park.  See  Grand Canyon Skywalk, Eagle Point, Guano Point, quartermaster point

3/30 - Visit South Rim.  Stay at Mather Campground in park. See Desert view drive, and ???

3/31 - Visit North Rim.  Stay at Mather Campground in park. See ???

4/01 - Visit places north of the Grand Canyon.  Stay at Mather Campground in park.  See Vermilion Cliffs National Monument, Lone Tree Access Point, Grand Canyon Parashant National Monument.

4/02 - Take the Steam locomotive tour of the Grand Canyon.  Stay at Mather Campground in park.

4/03 - Leave AM for KY.  Drive through Monument Valley.

4/04 - Remote work from the road.  Return to KY.  Possible late arrival, but unlikely.  

4/05 - Remote work from the road.  Return to KY.

4/06 - Remote work in KY.  Clean out camper.

4/07 - Remote work in KY.  Clean out camper.

4/08 - Remote work in KY.  Leave PM for NH

4/09 - Arrive in NH mid-afternoon.

4/10 - Sort pictures from home.  Will upload while at work week of 4/11.

Another snow filled weekend.

Saturday was snow.  A lot of snow, though not as much as it was supposed to be.  I did some cleanup and chores on Saturday.  I did notice that my really big flash drive doesn't work acceptably with the new laptop.  It isn't clear as to why, the drive works fine in every other machine I have plugged it into.  It is really annoying though.  I also learned that the ports on the right side of the laptop are very deeply recessed into the laptop.  A very annoying problem.

UPDATE - it turns out the flash drive is broken.  Even though I have been using it for months.  I can still get the stuff off the drive at a miserably slow speed that will take weeks to copy everything off.

Most of the day Sunday was spent clearing snow.  We got around 6-8", but it was hard to tell because it came with a lot of wind.  The wind blew it literally all the way into the carport.  

The clearing did go quicker this time, since I was able to run the snowblower a bit faster.  Unfortunately I went a little too fast when I pulled the tractor out.  Looks like carport repairs will be on the project list for next year as well.  Sigh.

My blunders didn't end there.  I also dug up and yanked the power cord for the carport and shed.  When I get the real home built, I will definitely be burying the power wire.  This one was buried a couple of inches where I push the snow, but apparently I didn't do it enough.  I will have to look at the extension cord and see if it is damaged this weekend.  It would really kind of suck if it is.  100ft 12awg cords are expensive and trying to run it in the middle of the winter would be obnoxious.

I am surprised that these still haven't fallen off.  It is hanging down almost three feet now.  They should come off this week though, it is supposed to be warm today and tomorrow.  If not, I can't imagine it would take much more than a poke to get it off.

Everything is still in progress.  I will hopefully get the wiring inspected this weekend.  The outer insulation was damaged, but I couldn't see if the conductors were damaged because of snow.  There is, of course, another large snowstorm coming in Thursday and Friday, so a good chunk of this weekend will be spent clearing snow as well.  The good news is that I have a half day on Friday, since I have an eye exam.  I am finally going to get new glasses that aren't held together by heat shrink. 

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