Archive for January 2014
Is It?
Yesterday at work, I was describing the effort that was required over the weekend to clear snow from the entirety of our driveways, walk ways, and deck at Wintervale.
“Is it worth it?” the employee asked.
It didn’t take any time at all for me to switch from whining about all the work our enterprise demands of us, to the immediate acknowledgement, “Yes, it is absolutely worth it.”
Don’t get me wrong, I definitely have moments of wondering how we got ourselves into this situation. More often than not, we are in over our heads with issues that exceed our knowledge and abilities. But hey, nothing ventured, nothing gained. If we would have waited until we knew how to do everything we have accomplished thus far, we’d still be sitting in the suburbs, staring out the window at the side of our neighbor’s garage wall.
On Sunday, Cyndie took this picture of me enjoying one of the views we have earned from our move to the country.
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Taking Steps
The weather gives, and the weather takes away. After a couple of days with high winds, limited visibility, and repeated doses of accumulating snow, we received a gift on Sunday of blue sky and warm temperatures. We headed down to the labyrinth to reclaim it from days of blowing snow.
I had just walked the labyrinth wearing snowshoes last week, to clearly define the route, but now it was filled in to the point of being difficult to discern. It looked like it had been neglected for most of the winter. I made it most of the way through before finally getting fooled and taking a misstep. Actually, I just went a step too far before making one of the u-turns.
When we started into the effort yesterday, the snow was powdery, but in a very short time it became very sticky. That made our work a bit more taxing, and soon we were shedding layers in the heat of our second January thaw.
I hope that doesn’t sound like a complaint. It was magnificent.
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Practicing Exhaustion
I am plum beat. Late blog post this a.m. because I went out to feed the horses in a spectacularly beautiful snowstorm and ended up wrestling with gutter and ice problems that I had let accumulate on the drain side of the barn. I was able to easily knock down the drifts and ice buildup on the edge overhanging the gutter that runs across the shelter area for the horses, but the tub we had placed under the downspout on that melty day last week had turned into a pending disaster. Oops, I forgot about it.
There went a couple good hours, donated to draining my strength at a time when there is about two days of plowing and snow clearing facing me. Then it will be back to work full-time next week to cover for my vacationing assistant. It would be a fine time to practice living in the moment, but I am finding myself repeatedly working on mentally psyching myself up for the coming effort.
Sad, because I know better. Alas, I put myself through double the work by focusing on it before it gets here, and then also when I am actually involved in it. Funny how that works.
I think it is related to already being drained by the day I spent getting Cyndie to her surgery and back, and then mentally trying to stay ahead of her trying to do things while she is supposed to lay down and rest. I failed to get the vacuuming done in time and she was ensconced in that chore plus some laundry by the time I got back to the house this morning.
No wonder I’m tired.
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Driving Day
In the early morning darkness yesterday, with the wind blowing fiercely, mixing ground snow with the on-and-off cloudbursts of new flakes, I set off in the car with Cyndie by my side. I had taken the day off from work to transport her to a day surgery appointment tending to a minor issue with the middle finger of her right hand. I suspect I will be seeing a lot of that finger from her in the days ahead.
Since this day was all about her, I figured that most of the time would consist of restful idleness for me. I hadn’t thoroughly considered what effort it would take to set off in the pre-dawn darkness, through a fresh coating of snow on the roads, down a totally unfamiliar route, to a destination that was over an hour away from us. That drive alone turned out to be pretty exhausting. It didn’t help that we needed to get up so early that I only logged a fraction of my full night’s sleep, waking at the point of deepest slumber.
Since her appointment was early, we were one of the first patients arriving, even getting there before her nurse. As one of the first appointments of the day, they were able to get her ready for the doctor in no time and I wandered off to the family lounge. I leisurely made my way through the newspaper, hoping the reading would lull me to sleep. Before I got through the last section, the doctor arrived to provide a report of what he found. So much for a nap.
I re-joined Cyndie in the prep/recovery station. There had been a chance that they would want to take skin from her arm for a graft on the knuckle, so the anesthesiologist made sure Cyndie’s entire arm had no feeling or function. It turned out they did not need the graft, which was great, but the arm was done for the day. She couldn’t get a finger to even twitch. They supported her sleeping arm in a sling and off we went, in search of some breakfast.
All too soon, I was driving again, this time with Cyndie sound asleep beside me. At least now there was daylight so that I could see where we were going. Travel was still treacherous, with snow blowing across the road in many places. At one point, when the road turned, it was obvious that someone’s car didn’t, and it sat buried in the snow straight ahead. That could easily have been us if it had still been dark.
We arrived home safe and sound, and both fell right to sleep for a nap. When I awoke, it was time again to venture out for a drive to pick up her pain medication at our usual pharmacy which was in the opposite direction from where we had been in the morning. More wind, more snow over the road, and more driving than I have done in one day for a long time.
Just to make a fatiguing day of doing pretty much nothing even more exhausting, there were complications with the prescription I was hoping to pick up. Our usual pharmacy just happened to be having technical difficulties this day. They suggested I try a different pharmacy. Had I known this in advance, we could have chosen one closer to home. I turned around and headed back toward our place and pulled up to the drive-thru window of the second pharmacy.
How many of you can see this coming? They were having difficulty filling the prescription because it looked like the first pharmacy already took care of it. Lovely. It was a tangled mess, but pharmacy #2 made many phone calls and found a way to help us out. My little errand to pick up her prescription took twice as long as it needed to.
Finally, I was driving home again, now into the dark of night, navigating drifted roadways, and already mentally preparing for this morning’s pre-dawn hour-long commute to the day job. I wish I had driverless car technology so I could do it with my eyes closed.
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Winter Installation
They showed up! The gutter installers surprised me at the house yesterday morning. I guess the snow didn’t intimidate them one bit. I was just about to head out the door, wishing that Delilah wasn’t barking from her kennel so soon after I put her in there, when I heard a roof rake pulling down snow. That’s what she was barking about.
I opened the front door and told the guys they must be gluttons for punishment, trying to un-winter winter.
“You should have seen how bad the home we just finished was,” the foreman replied.
He claimed my house would be easy by comparison. After allowing him to up-sell me on improvements to the soffits for increased ventilation to help mitigate our ice buildup, I left them to their task and headed to work in the cities.
When I returned home in the afternoon, it appeared to me as though he over-sold the ease with which he was going to clean off the roof so they could commence with the work. It’s a good thing they pre-bid the job, because if I was paying by the hour, this ‘working in the winter’ thing would really chafe me. However, the advantage I see in doing it now is that the growing icicles are dead giveaways to areas where the old gutters are poorly installed and creating (or covering) more problems than they are solving.
One problem is just outside our bathroom window, and I’ve been suffering an uneasy feeling every time I looked out when it is dripping wet outside. It always seemed as though more water dripped over the side than washed out the downspout, and too often that drip was coming off the roof-side of the gutter! They definitely weren’t doing the job for which they were installed.
I asked the guy if he could tell if these were very old, because they seemed pretty new to me. He guessed 4 or 5 years and claimed to know who was marketing the gutter cover system these employ. He says they didn’t stay in business. I didn’t do any fact checking, because I want his version to be true, since I am now paying him to replace them!
I just hope the plan to do this work in the winter doesn’t compromise the integrity of the outcome. At least I’ll have plenty of chance to see if icicles form anyplace they shouldn’t, soon after they finish. My favorite local weather blog is making boasts about this winter having the potential of making quite an impact:
Winter is halfway over according to the calendar, but just kicking into high gear on the weather maps. In fact those weather maps look downright brutal at times the next 10 days in the Upper Midwest.
From the sound of our house creaking against the wind gusts outside overnight, combined with everything we have already experienced thus far, I think this winter may have already achieved its notoriety.
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Clean Steps
The snow just kept falling and falling. It also was blowing. I left for work as early as possible yesterday to get ahead of the expected slow commute. It looked like there was hardly any snow on our deck, and they predicted the accumulations would increase toward the east, so I headed west, hoping for the best.
The first thing I discovered was that our deck was a bad reference point. The wind must have been blowing it clean. There was over two times as much snow on the roads in our area as I anticipated. It took me twice as long as usual to get to work. By noon, Cyndie had called to alert me that it was deep at our place and drifting even deeper. I needed to get home to plow so she could get out for an evening commitment.
It was almost too much snow for the Grizzly. As I tried to push snow beyond the full width of the driveway, a fair percentage would roll back down. Just like I did with the diesel tractor last year, I got the ATV stuck at the end of the driveway. Luckily, our neighbor spotted the Griz tilted over the edge and came down to rescue me, but not before I hoofed it back up to the garage to start the New Holland and begin putting the chains on its wheels.
I couldn’t find one of the mating links for the chains, so I was wandering around in a search when I spotted the neighbor uphill from us headed down on his tractor. He would be able to save me work, so I hustled down to meet him, only to find he was headed back up to his place already. I was able to catch his attention with a wave, and we eventually were able to make short work of it. 
All that was left for me to do at that point was plowing in front of the shop/garage, plowing around the barn and the hay shed, retrieving the mailbox from the ditch, re-mounting the mailbox again, shoveling to clean up the areas I can’t navigate with the Grizzly, and then shoveling out the front steps.
It was a nice dry snow, so I was able to get the front steps pretty clean again. Unfortunately, high winds are forecast, so I may be doing this all one more time in the near future to clear out drifts that pile up. I took a picture of the drifts on the roof over the front door because I thought they looked interesting.
Maybe the reason I think they look interesting is because I don’t have to shovel them. I wonder if the gutter company that wanted to start installing on our house yesterday is glad I asked them to wait until later.
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Just Do
I guess it pays to write about my “to do” list. Yesterday, with Cyndie back at work (and me home for my ‘Monday off’) I decided I should act on some of the tasks I itemized in Saturday’s post. After feeding the horses in the morning, I headed down to the basement and dove into the project of pulling sheetrock off the old entertainment center in the corner we have been using as storage space.
It went pretty well, and I was able to finish and clean up with time to spare. With that, I headed out to the shop and removed mower blades to be sharpened and started cleaning the bottom of the mower deck. The sunshine and warm temperatures dried up the asphalt in front of the shop garage, so I also spent a little time out there cleaning up miscellaneous neglected tasks that were piling up.
Now it is clean and clear so I can walk all the way around the Griz and the diesel tractor in the garage.
Too bad the dry pavement didn’t last. New snow fell overnight to cover it. But that will also mean the accumulated manure in the paddocks will be out of sight again. Bonus!
I received an email yesterday indicating that the company we hired to install new gutters on our house wanted to start working on the job today. I notified them that there is significant ice build-up on the side in the shade, and that predictions were for 3-5″ of new snow. It seemed like the wrong time to start. They are reconsidering their plans.
I noticed the snow sliding off our hay shed looks totally cool in the way it holds together and curls over the edge. This is why I had “stops” installed on the back side of the barn roof. With the new road passing behind the barn, I didn’t want large sections of snow rolling over and breaking off. The stops will hold it in place to melt and drip. I can deal with the ice that will accumulate from the dripping, but I don’t want it to be a large pile of snow getting covered with ice, like happened last year.
So far, so good, on the stops doing the trick. We’ll see if everything is still working well after snowfalls begin to pile up.
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January Warmth
We heard temperatures would get above freezing on Sunday, but didn’t expect it to rise into the 40s! Cyndie came up to the house after feeding the horses in the morning, and reported how nice it felt outside, as she grabbed a toy for Delilah and went back out to play.
When I peeked out at them, I found Cyndie on her hands and knees, coaxing Delilah in a game as she crawled toward her. I went right for the camera, because they looked too cute together to resist.
The horses have been free of blankets for 2-days now, and they looked very comfortable with the relatively warm afternoon breeze we were experiencing.
With Elysa over for a visit, we re-inflated the big red ball, sealed it with a borrowed plug, and took it out to see if the horses wanted to play. It was the time of day when I would usually find them laying down for a nap, but they showed some initial interest.
It took a bit for them to figure out what the attention was for, taking turns scouting for treats, checking the ball, and investigating why Cyndie and Elysa were inside the fence with them. Then all of a sudden Hunter began pushing the ball with his nose, picking up speed and running up the hill of the big field. I was watching it all from a distance, and the sight of him playing with such gusto, and doing so all by himself, triggered an involuntary guffaw. It was a fabulous sight.
After that, despite several attempts, and eventually my joining them in the pasture to try enticing more energetic interaction with the ball, there were no further runs. Legacy’s only interest seemed to be in getting a grip of the plug with his teeth. I think it is safe to bet that he was the culprit in pulling the plug the first time I put the ball out for them. At least now we know better than to leave it with them unsupervised. We took the ball back to the barn and allowed them to resume their willful idleness.
For the first time since this season’s snow first fell back in early December, our front steps are clear and dry. That first precipitation started with a freezing rain that turned to snow and was then followed by a significant drop in temperature. We were never able to completely clear the front steps of that ice before each additional snowfall added to the mess. Some days it was interfering with our ability to close the storm door. Yesterday, I was finally able to completely scrape off the accumulated ice.
Thank goodness for the annual January thaw.
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Opportunity Aplenty
Here are some of the issues that are crowding my realm of possibilities this morning:
Our male cat, Mozyr, has fallen into the behavior of peeing on our bed. I’ve been told that once that gets started, it is unlikely to change. We must deal with this immediately. I hate that stench.
We are getting more than enough urine smell from our manure pile. I had no idea what was involved with manure management, and I’m thinking now that the spot we selected seems undersized. I still feel like the location we selected is good, even though the smell sometimes wafts up toward the house, but I fear we may need to take out a few additional trees to expand the square footage.
Speaking of taking out trees, I now have all the equipment to do some serious lumberjacking and there is a dead tree on a corner of our property by the road. It is a chore that is overdue to have been started. Every day that goes by, the task feels more delinquent.
We spent time yesterday testing out the Grizzly ATV for assisting with cleaning up manure in the paddocks, with mixed results. The manure is frozen in multiple layers and much of it covered in snow. We tried both dragging the rake and pushing with the blade. Each seemed to make improvements, but manure that gets collected still needs to be scooped up and moved. That remains and laborious and lengthy endeavor.
I’m supposed to be clearing out our storage corner in the basement. In my search for a solution to the fractured triangular window beside the fireplace, I have connected with a local builder who stopped by to measure for the replacement. Over the phone I mentioned that we also were interested in having a storage room built in our basement. That seemed to go a long way toward enticing him to take on the window replacement. Now I need to get that space ready for the basement work to commence.
It is now nearing the middle of January and I never got around to preparing engines for winter storage. I understand that the primary reason engines fail to run well, or to even start, is leaving old gas in them over the off-season. I am my own worst enemy there. I have a hard time keeping my engines running properly, because I have a hard time getting myself to prepare them for the months of storage.
I took the mower deck off the little Craftsman garden tractor last fall, then flipped it over to be cleaned and to remove the blades for sharpening. It remains where I placed it, untouched.
I’ve got a half-built fence awaiting my attention down the hill from the house. The first snow of the season put that project on hold, but when it’s not bitterly cold, there is progress that could still be made there. I’m afraid the fence has gotten lost in the blur of other work that needs attention.
Meanwhile, we have plans for a Wintervale web site to market Cyndie’s services as a leadership trainer and to offer seminars and retreats here. The “under-construction” image is as far as we’ve gotten.
I’m sequential in nature, so I’d like to go back and get the first things done, so I can move on to the next few, but life doesn’t work like that. I’m back to playing “Whack-a-Mole” with whatever pops up in the moment.
Yesterday, since I had the Grizzly out, I ran it up and down the driveway to clear off the drifts that had developed over the week of historically cold temperatures. It was pleasing to so quickly and easily “whack” something from the list.
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Relative Something 