Late Evening Sunset against the House

Tuesday Evening Sunset against the house.

Can't wait to get the rest of the house washed.

Power Washing the Deck

This Memorial Day weekend we spent some time washing the front porch and back deck.  I do not think this has been done since the house was build.

The front looks great.

We still have a lot of work to do on the back deck.  The back deck smelled like algae from a pier.



The little brush contraption on the end of the power washer work like a champ.  I would highly recommend one if you have decks to wash.

Raised Garden Bed

So, we build and installed our first raised garden bed.  This was a Mother's Day gift to Marty.

First, Jordan (son) and I dug out a small flat area into the side of the hill that comes up to the back of our deck.  Than we build a 2x6 foot box with 6" footers for stability into the ground.

Once in place, we filled it in with planting soil so Marty could start planting veggies.

It turned out rather nice and we plan to make another one a few feet in front of this one.

Zucchini

I started some seeds in order to plant a small garden.  These are two of my very quickly growing zucchini.

Spring

Sorry it's been so long since the last post.   Lots of stuff has been going on around here.

Spring in a new house is fun because you learn what plants are hiding in the ground and what all those bare trees actually are.   We have a redbud and what we think is a dwarf paw paw.

All the things are covered in pollen.   Including the inside of the house and all my nasal cavities.  It's amazing! But I discovered I really like Benadryl.

That's all for now.  I will post a pic of something else green very soon.

Marty

New Lawn Tractor

Before you say anything, yes it is a John Deere and no we are not rich.

We bought our first lawn tractor after shopping around for the last few months.

John Deere was the last tractor I looked at because I've always heard how expensive they were.  I looked at about five different brands.  While out, I stopped but a hardware store that carries John Deere tractors.  To my surprise, they were well priced with a great warranty.

So, we now own a John Deere.

Next we will need a small farm tractor once we get horses.

Let me know if you have any recommendations.

First Closet Almost Complete

I know what you're thinking.  How long have you been working on this?  Well, unfortunately I have not been able to dedicate as much time to these projects as I would like.  It has been a busy few months and I have not dedicated the time need to get this done.

So, I have finished the inside of my son's closet and now need to make the door and attach it.  I have all the hardware but will definitely have to get move wood to do my daughter's closet.

Bathroom Project Continues...

After getting the kids bathroom pipes and walls re-insulated, we decided instead of closing these walls up I would build a small linen closet within the bathrooms.

I will have to rerun some of the plumbing going to the showers but I think this we will try to build these new closets in the bathrooms.

More to come...

Area where linen closet will go.

Snow (more snow)

So.  This is our second "big" snow this winter.  And some good things happened.

We cross country skied!  Because we had our boots AND the skis this time.

It's warmer this snow so our amazing neighbor was able to get his tractor started and plowed our driveway!

We left the truck at the top of our driveway so I will hopefully not get it stuck again.

And we got some photos of the house in the snow.

Pretty fun and good.

Marty

Hard Winter

You know those pioneer reenactment tv shows?  Where people go out on the frontier and try to survive like our forefathers in the 1800s?  They have a team of experts critiquing and advising on things like building a chicken house so the chickens don't die or run off or get eaten by wild animals.  And digging a root cellar to keep the veggies edible for the winter.  And cutting enough fire wood so they don't freeze or starve to death.   No matter how much advice they get they are never prepared for their first winter.   I believe that's historically accurate too.  There was probably never one pioneer family that wasn't caught off guard by something their first winter.

That's how I've felt here.  Caught off guard by our first winter.

Pretty soon after the cold weather started we realized that there were places in this house,  a lot of them,  where the caulk between the logs was just not doing it's job.   When the wind blew, a breeze could be felt coming through the log joins.   Hmm.  The outlets and switches on the outside walls fairly stream cold air. The window and door frames leaked great gusts of wintry wonder also.

We've spent a fair amount of time this winter tearing things apart - carefully - and putting them back together after sealing and insulating the insides.  (When I say we, I mean Gilbert)  Caulking log joins, filling holes, replacing insulation.   All the while going through outrageous amounts of heating oil and electricity trying to stay warm.  We are going to try to install an alternative form of heat by next winter.  But having a fireplace built is expensive.  

This has been a record breaking winter for cold.  It is possible that the pipes that froze here this winter have never frozen before.  But, to be safe and because  there are some who say we are at the beginning of a long term cooling trend, Gilbert  pulled walls apart and insulated pipes and sealed cracks and put everything back together.

Then came the snow.  The first snow was gorgeous.   Light and fluffy and not at all like Maryland snow is wont to be.  We were complacent.   We cleared out the cars but not much else.  Because we had no idea that the driveway is the conduit for all drainage on this side of the property.  So we didnt know that soon our drive would be a slick of ice and snow packed ice.  And then the regular Maryland snow/sleet/freezing rain came.  And I got the truck stuck IN THE DRIVEWAY.  TWICE.  And the mail lady got the mail truck stuck in the driveway.  And Gilbert has had to work from home a lot.  Because if the department of transportation says stay off the roads and you can telecommute, then you really should.  Especially if I'm your wife.  Because I'm a worry wort. (Not literally , I try to stay away from the wort because it's stinky)

Anyway.  It's a good thing I like this house because I've been spending a lot of time with it lately.

For your viewing pleasure,  a picture of the truck stuck the second time.  Near the driveway.   It was stuck across the driveway but I got it out of that situation and into this one.

Frozen pipes in kids bathrooms.

So, Sunday February 15th my daughter said her toilet was not working right.  After further investigation, I noticed the tank was not refilling.

The toilet sits in a dormer in the bathroom on the outer wall.  The poorly insulated, lack of proper chinking and chalking has created an ice box under the toilet.  And buy the way, my son's bathroom is the exact same set up. 

Yes, the water supply going to both toilets were frozen from Sunday morning to around 3pm Monday.

Even though the water pipes are running again, it must be repaired.

Since this is a log home, one does not simply access the pipes through a panel in the ceiling in the floor below.  No, you have to remove the walls first.

Yes, this is going to be a major project... Sorry, two major projects.

Snow!

So, we had our first bit of snow here.  The first bit that stuck around long enough to take photos!

The sky was still white yesterday morning but this is what the cabin looks like with snow.

Marty

Freezing Rain Chains

With the snow and freezing rain we had this week, the frozen Rain Chains made a very neat still water fall.

A Cold January

This month has had some very cold and windy days.

The wind has helped us find leaks in the outer walls where the cold is blowing into the house.  We ordered some log home caulk (which is almost all gone) to seal the log joints.  I still have a lot of work to do but it is getting better.