Leaks

Happy birthday Jess!

 

Last week was mostly uneventful.  Something that did come up was that I need a way to better identify the frozen meals.  This meal was not what I thought it was, and as a result I put the wrong kind of cheese on it.  One thought I have had is to use a different pasta for the different meals, so I know if it has rotini in it it is a specific meal, whereas if it has farfalle it is this other thing.

 

When I got back from shopping, the moon had a halo around it.  There is supposed to be a blood moon caused by an eclipse this week.  I wonder if I will get to see it, right now the weather is not looking promising.  

 

The snow we have been getting is slowly sliding off the carport.  I always find the way it comes off amusing. 

 

As work is getting ready to move all their manufacturing overseas, they had a bunch of hardware up for grabs.  I went and grabbed a big bag of 1/4" bolts, and a bunch of T slot stuff for extruded aluminum, which I intend to use a lot of in the box truck build. 

 

Then came Friday.  I heard a pop right before lunch on Friday, and discovered that my roof has been leaking, on both sides of the wall between the second bath and bedroom. 

 

I don't have a ladder tall enough to get on the roof, but as I started to roof rake it, I noticed that there was a huge ice buildup on the back side.

 

It is still really deep back there too.  Even with snow shoes on, I was sinking almost a foot.

 

I ended up using the step ladder leaned up against the house.  It kinda worked, but it wasn't very stable in the snow and fell over on me at one point.  Fortunately I was only up a couple of rungs.

 

I now have a fully packed snowshoe trail behind the house.  

 

Since I can't see up on the roof, I took a video roughly where I think it was leaking.  It seemed pretty clear to me what happened; the ice dam built up all the way to the exhaust vent of the bathroom.

 

After that I went and got a hammer and  tried to create a channel for runoff.  I missed a bit to the right, but oh well.

 

While I was hammering apparently I knocked the picture off the wall.  It was thankfully not damaged.  I did notice however that it knocked the face plate off some of the switches.  Apparently the switches in my house don't use traditional electric boxes, the box is built into the switch itself.  I have seen this with lights (the puck lights where you toss the box inside for example), but never wall switches.  Rather interesting.  Not necessarily bad, but it is odd.

 

Saturday was mostly spent monitoring and checking on the roof.  A couple of other things in between checks were I got the rust stains in the tub cleaned up.  

 

I also pulled out the stuff for the cart for Jess and Heather's dishwasher.  It was nice enough Saturday that I had debated cutting the final pieces, but quickly realized that I never labeled which was which, and had forgotten which piece I was missing.  I did get it sorted out, but it was late in the afternoon at that point, so I cleaned up some of the edges and called it a day.  

 

Sunday wasn't as nice as Saturday, but I felt comfortable at that point that the roof raking had fixed the issue, so I went out for a bit.  I walked the canal trail.  Unfortunately the random people who plowed Otter Brook this winter (Keene Park and Rec is responsible, but they haven't plowed it at all this year) didn't do it after the last big snowfall.   The canal trail was pretty clear though.  There were a few really icy spots, but most of it wasn't too bad.

 

The creek that had almost dried up last year is full with the meltoff.  

 

I also went and visited the far end of Otter Brook, down by the dam.  It is unusual to see Otter Brook completely vacant of people.  There wasn't a trace anywhere of people being on the lake, and there weren't even snowshoe trails on the hiking paths.  I guess the lack of plowing has pushed everyone elsewhere. 

 

The only other thing over the weekend was I finally tried the last of my exotic meats.  This time was ostrich.  It was quite good actually, very juicy and tender, and while it had a bit more flavor than store bought meat (similar to the stronger flavors Aunt Lisa's free range beef has), it wasn't gamy or anything.  It is also really lean, so I cooked it with a little butter in the pan.  I don't think it will displace my top meats, but it is absolutely something I would eat again.

 

I double checked last night, and the floor is dry, and the ceiling is drying out.  A little touch up paint and a carpet wash and it will be good.  

 

The leaks definitely threw a wrench into my plans, but thankfully everything is drying out now.  I had hoped to finish up the cart this weekend, but that didn't happen.  This week looks like more snow most likely, though it has been switching back and forth between freezing rain and snow in the forecast.  As much as freezing rain sucks I think I would rather have that at this point to help get rid of the snow.  The cart just needs one piece cut and then it can be roughly assembled, minus the drawers and top.  And I still haven't done any of the car camper improvements yet.  I should be making reservations for my spring vacation already, but I think I might end up using that week off to catch up, so I don't have a project backlog when I am supposed to start building the deck and roof over.  My next trip to KY will be in the truck anyways; I have stuff going down that won't fit in the car (assuming Jess still wants the futon anyways).  My new checks came in, so I can make the final payment on the mortgage from last year to stay on track for paying it off in 5 years.

Not only snow.

It's been a couple of weeks since the last update, and most of what has been going is just snow.  The snow two weekends ago was nice and fluffy, and I was actually to just sweep it.

 

As usual, the weekend two weekends ago was doing snow work.  I was finally able to get this area cleaned out.  Without getting the tractor stuck this time.

 

I also discovered that if I park the tractor obscenely close to the shed, I can turn the CR-V around and don't need to back out of the driveway, so I rearranged how I had been parking.  It makes parking the tractor a bit annoying, but its nice to go forwards out the driveway.  I cleaned up this area more than usual too.  

 

During the week (not last week, the week before), I also went out and picked up some rims.  They should fit my Dad's Camry.  

 

My truck went in for the coolant leak.  Bob's couldn't find it, and they couldn't repair the stupid felt skid plate thing either so I just had them rip it off.  

 

The past week was actually really nice most of the week.  One of the days that it got up into the 40s, I decided to try to start the excavator.  It was a no go; it just clicked, so it looks like I will have to charge up that battery come spring.

 

Unfortunately the latter half of the week was a double whammy.  We got about 6" on Wednesday, and it was obnoxiously wet and heavy, which made clearing it painful; it was wet enough that even the tractor bucket was constantly trying to ride up over it instead of clearing it.  

 

Then last weekend we got another 8-9 inches.  Thankfully this was more dry.  It was drifting really bad though, which made for some interesting edge.

 

Monday I finished clearing it.  If we get too much more, I will have a big problem.  My snowbanks are already taller than my tractor can lift, and too deep for me to push.  They have already encroached and consumed a few feet of the end of the driveway.  

 

I actually dumped more than a few bucketfuls across the street.

 

Annoyingly one of my turn signals on the tractor got whacked.  I don't see any damage though, so hopefully they were just knocked off.

 

While I haven't done too much else (I have been really lazy lately), I did start to think about how the "utility room" is going to work in the box truck.  

I did eventually do the math.  It won't all fit, but all the important stuff will.  Barely.  And I do mean barely.  Enough that board thicknesses will have to be monitored when building it.

 

I also started to document everything I will need in the barn I am planning to build in KY.

This is what I will need to have in my workshop:

• Storage Room

• Totes

• Couch

• TV

• Speakers

• Desks

• Hot Tub?

• Freezer

• Bed

• Dresser

• Shop

• Freestanding Tools

• Table Saw

• Miter Saw

• Benchtop tools

• Drill Press

• Bandsaw

• Router Table

• Planer

• Jointer

• Benchtop grinder

• Sanding station

• Shop vac

• Tool boxes

• 2 tables

• Storage for lumber and a few finished goods

You may recall I was going to try to do my own meal prep.  I started to do so, and it wasn't actually all that bad, but I quickly ran out of containers, so I bought a bulk set.  They are cheap and flimsy, but supposedly dishwasher and microwave safe.  I got some two compartment, and some single compartment.  Washing them all was fun; they had oil and smears of stuff on them from the factory.  They are cheap enough too that even if they don't last more than a half dozen uses, it isn't a big deal.

 

Short unexciting post.

Last weekend was cold and snowy, again, so not too much happened.  I finished pulling the tractor out Friday.   I decided to use my shorter tow rope since I don't have a lot of space in the driveway, but it was not up to the task.  Thankfully it failed gracefully, and didn't turn into a whip.

 

It came right out with the regular strap, it just took 10 minutes of winding it around things because it is so long.  Thankfully no flat tires on the tractor since it was rubbing up against the side of the trailer.

 

I noted a coolant leak in the truck a few posts ago.  It has gotten a lot worse apparently.  Time to bring it in.  I don't mind if it loses a drop here and there, but in the half hour it took me to pull the tractor out, it lost what looks to be a lot more significant amount than that.

 

I mentioned in my last post that I had stopped the meal services that I was trying.  Instead I am trying a different approach of just cooking normally but increasing the volumes; like for this cajun chicken pasta, I made 4 frozen meals and had it for dinner.  We shall see how long that lasts.  But I did end up making 6 frozen meals over the weekend.  At least in the winter this should work, since I am not doing stuff in the evenings when I get home from work and have the time to cook. 

 

It looks like we have more snow coming in this weekend, so I am guessing the next post will be equally short and boring. It is at least supposed to warm up, and even might get above freezing this week though, which will be nice.  I never did finish cleaning the drieway between the tractor getting stuck, and running out of diesel.  I did pick up more when out shopping last night.

Time to go woodchuck hunting.

The cold has persisted, so not too much has gone on.  According to the radio we set a new record low last week in Keene.  It dropped briefly to -12, though I had put my phone away by then since I was driving.

 

Last weekend was another indoor weekend.  I finally got around to changing out the shower head in the master bathroom.  

 

It interfered with the basket, but I picked up a bathroom hook to move the basket when I went shopping last week.

 

The big task for the weekend was to get the truck out and finish clearing up top.  The bed was literally full.

 

It got it all shoveled out and cleared off though.  

 

It drove itself out, but it seemingly has developed another few annoying problems.  My locking diff failed.

 

It now does this too, as if the computer can't detect when the ignition is turned off anymore. 

 

I also got the tractor stuck again. 

 

Despite the issues though, I got the truck to at least pull the tractor back onto the driveway.  The back end is buried in a snowbank, but I think if I shovel around the grading blade, it should be fine.  Or just move the car and finish pulling it out.  It ended up over here because of my limited space in the driveway.  I will deal with it this weekend before the snow comes back on Sunday.  It ended up scraping along the trailer.  I really need to get rid of that trailer, though admittedly the trailer is all that protected my septic tank from being driven over by the tractor.

 

I also did a couple of other odds and ends, some cleaning and organizing, and some things like cutting holders for the hard egg cases I got from Aunt and Uncle.  large eggs moved around in the case a little bit more than I liked.

 

So I finished up the new game I bought, and I also ate the last of the CleanEatz meals that I bought.  In general, I found them to be plain, and less filling than the Factory ones.  I will post reviews of them in my reviews document at some point this week (available here: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1DKy7eu7u7MPrF9hXWjVT1ANctkXLLzsvnxWYXUKmz1w/edit?usp=sharing).  I have been thinking though, and even the CleanEatz which were much cheaper than Factory and actually arrived shipped properly, they are still a little over 6 bucks a meal.  For the cost of two of those meals, I can buy all this and a bag of cheese, and it will make more than 2 meals, and taste better.  I typically add seasoning and cheese to the frozen meals anyways, so why not just make my own?  That way I can portion them the way I like and I won't be rummaging around in the kitchen an hour later.  The biggest problem is it means I have to not be lazy and cook, which was one of the biggest reasons I made the switch to begin with.  Hmmm.

 

The snow is supposed to return Sunday, though this week hasn't been as bad, it has at least warmed up during the day.  Sadly, nobody has eliminated the pesky groundhog, but it really does feel like we are in the later stages of winter, so hopefully he is wrong (though his accuracy isn't any worse than the other forecasters these days).