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Weekend Roundup
Aug. 15th, 2023 08:55 amI baked saturday morning, starting with getting bread rising (Gluten free sandwich bread from America's Test Kitchen), then I tried cheese, corn, jalapeno corn muffins from Ken Heidrich's Country Baking which was hmmm, okay. I resented that the butter and batter sealed itself to the muffin tin (I hate cleaning muffin tins SO MUCH. eta: I hate the paper cups, I hate the silicon cups, I hate cleaning muffin tins. cleaning the tins is the least bad) and I think I put too much cheese in so the interior of the muffin is hardened cheese. They're edible though! Then I made oatmeal chocolate chip cookies because they're delicious and finished off with granola, then threw the bread in to bake. I did some video game playing while the last few things were baking.
After that, I was determined to do an actual house project, so I got started on removing the electrical from the balcony. I figured out the breaker it was connected to a little bit ago using the extremely fun no-contact tester, which is delightful beepy fun to use. I turned the breaker off and taped it down with duck tape so no one would accidently flip it back on. The good news is that there is a junction box in the house right where the wire goes out that I can use to connect the line from the breaker to the UF wire that I will run out of the house. I also figured out why there was two wires running from the switch on the porch, it was actually a three way switch and there was another light switch in the basement. I got the glorified stepstool and started cutting the wire and pulling out the staples. The hanging lights were surprisingly easy and difficult to get down. The first one was easy because they were mounted on the junction box which was plastic nailed into the wall, where the plastic had given out so it was actually just hanging from the electrical wires (yikes). The second one was difficult because it hadn't broken down and there was no real way to get the nails pulled out. So I broke the plastic and got it down. I also removed the flood light and all the other wiring on the balcony. I just snipped the wires on the outdoor switch but didn't remove it yet because I was getting tired and needed a crowbar.
I ended there although there is more wiring to remove from the underside of the balcony and running into the house because it requires the big ladders and F wasn't home. I have a decent fear of ladders, which feels mostly reasonable to have. I will go up them but I hate going up shaky ladders or unstable ones, or rickedy ones or tall ones. I'll do it, I just hate it and end up shaky afterwards. So I don't go on the big ladders when no one else is around. It's not a fear of heights, I'm fine with those. Just scared of ladders. I could probably start putting up the junction boxes, light switch box and outlet box. I also swept the floors.
Sunday morning, I played video games all morning. It was great. I did some spinning after that, spinning a Soay roving that I bought years ago. It was incredibly soft and full of medium vm which could be pulled out but was such a pain to do that I gave up on it. It'll go into the rustic/scratchy bin of yarns that will someday be used for rugs or something. I also got half of the Pansy Pandimonium chain plyed, it's going faster than I thought. My plan for this afternoon is to Skein All The Things since I filled up all my Eel Wheel bobbins and need to keep chain plying. I'm almost done re-tying the heddles, just 10 more to go then cutting and tying the extra 40 or so. Then I can get weaving!
I also did a sidejob plan, one of the last for a bit I think. There's usually a break in late summer/fall.
Sunday night, it was nice and cool so I kicked the fan on and opened the windows. Then around 11pm, Mara started barking at something. I was sleeping but eventually I sat up. By that time, she had gotten herself up and was standing in front of the fan sniffing as hard as she could, then staring at me, then sniffing, then staring, then sniffing. This is alarming because that window is on the sideporch, so if there was anything out there, it would be RIGHT THERE.
I texted F to see if she was awake, she was and had checked the outdoor camera when Mara started barking. We went outside and looked around and found nothing! Eventually we came to the conclusion that something (probably raccoon?) had pooped under the porch and the smell was being pushed in the house by the fan. We went back inside and I wanted to sleep. Mara continued standing in front of the fan sniffing so I finally flipped the fan around so it blew out and flipped the AC unit across the room to fan mode to get some air movement through. After a couple of minutes, Mara went to sleep.
No critter poop found, but I spent yesterday afternoon cleaning the accumulation of stuff from the porch and there was a dog towel that smelled like animal pee, so that may have also been it. The towel is out in the yard being rained on right now. I also mounted a dry erase board on my bedroom door to write house projects on, mainly because I keep forgetting what I want to work on. I think a lot of my inability to get house projects done this year has been Mara's decline and my worry about it. Plus all the normal summer stuff. Plus sheep shearing. It was a lot. But I've got some energy and momentum now and I'm hoping to get some more things done. The balcony electrical and the fencing for the garden are the highest priorities currently.
After that, I was determined to do an actual house project, so I got started on removing the electrical from the balcony. I figured out the breaker it was connected to a little bit ago using the extremely fun no-contact tester, which is delightful beepy fun to use. I turned the breaker off and taped it down with duck tape so no one would accidently flip it back on. The good news is that there is a junction box in the house right where the wire goes out that I can use to connect the line from the breaker to the UF wire that I will run out of the house. I also figured out why there was two wires running from the switch on the porch, it was actually a three way switch and there was another light switch in the basement. I got the glorified stepstool and started cutting the wire and pulling out the staples. The hanging lights were surprisingly easy and difficult to get down. The first one was easy because they were mounted on the junction box which was plastic nailed into the wall, where the plastic had given out so it was actually just hanging from the electrical wires (yikes). The second one was difficult because it hadn't broken down and there was no real way to get the nails pulled out. So I broke the plastic and got it down. I also removed the flood light and all the other wiring on the balcony. I just snipped the wires on the outdoor switch but didn't remove it yet because I was getting tired and needed a crowbar.
I ended there although there is more wiring to remove from the underside of the balcony and running into the house because it requires the big ladders and F wasn't home. I have a decent fear of ladders, which feels mostly reasonable to have. I will go up them but I hate going up shaky ladders or unstable ones, or rickedy ones or tall ones. I'll do it, I just hate it and end up shaky afterwards. So I don't go on the big ladders when no one else is around. It's not a fear of heights, I'm fine with those. Just scared of ladders. I could probably start putting up the junction boxes, light switch box and outlet box. I also swept the floors.
Sunday morning, I played video games all morning. It was great. I did some spinning after that, spinning a Soay roving that I bought years ago. It was incredibly soft and full of medium vm which could be pulled out but was such a pain to do that I gave up on it. It'll go into the rustic/scratchy bin of yarns that will someday be used for rugs or something. I also got half of the Pansy Pandimonium chain plyed, it's going faster than I thought. My plan for this afternoon is to Skein All The Things since I filled up all my Eel Wheel bobbins and need to keep chain plying. I'm almost done re-tying the heddles, just 10 more to go then cutting and tying the extra 40 or so. Then I can get weaving!
I also did a sidejob plan, one of the last for a bit I think. There's usually a break in late summer/fall.
Sunday night, it was nice and cool so I kicked the fan on and opened the windows. Then around 11pm, Mara started barking at something. I was sleeping but eventually I sat up. By that time, she had gotten herself up and was standing in front of the fan sniffing as hard as she could, then staring at me, then sniffing, then staring, then sniffing. This is alarming because that window is on the sideporch, so if there was anything out there, it would be RIGHT THERE.
I texted F to see if she was awake, she was and had checked the outdoor camera when Mara started barking. We went outside and looked around and found nothing! Eventually we came to the conclusion that something (probably raccoon?) had pooped under the porch and the smell was being pushed in the house by the fan. We went back inside and I wanted to sleep. Mara continued standing in front of the fan sniffing so I finally flipped the fan around so it blew out and flipped the AC unit across the room to fan mode to get some air movement through. After a couple of minutes, Mara went to sleep.
No critter poop found, but I spent yesterday afternoon cleaning the accumulation of stuff from the porch and there was a dog towel that smelled like animal pee, so that may have also been it. The towel is out in the yard being rained on right now. I also mounted a dry erase board on my bedroom door to write house projects on, mainly because I keep forgetting what I want to work on. I think a lot of my inability to get house projects done this year has been Mara's decline and my worry about it. Plus all the normal summer stuff. Plus sheep shearing. It was a lot. But I've got some energy and momentum now and I'm hoping to get some more things done. The balcony electrical and the fencing for the garden are the highest priorities currently.
