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.