It is a mystery

I don't think the upstairs bathroom will be done before christmas but I have accepted this, these things happen. I've got some momentum going with it, which is perfect, that will keep me working on it until it is done, my guess mid-jan. There just isn't enough time to get it all done with everything else that needs doing in the next three days.

But! I have laid the second layer of plywood, which was a fight, stapled it down and have started working on the flooring. The area that needs flooring is an L shape around the shower, with two pipes at the end of the wall for plumbing and the one wall is the uneven plaster and lathe. I cut it exact to the dimensions needed and couldn't get it fit into the spot because I forgot about the one pipe that is the not-hooked-up heating pipe. The plywood was 3/4 inch, it was 47x80 inches and heavy as fuck. So getting it picked back up was an absolute nightmare. It only worked because I was able to brace one foot against the wall above the plywood and pry up with a prybar until I could slide a chunk of wood between it and the wall. Then I tried fitting it in the other direction and ran into issues with destroying the drywall that stuck out slightly too far on the other side. Finally, I just cut the plywood in half and slide both pieces into place in two minutes. The whole process sucked! The third piece that went in was comparatively easy even if it needed three notches.

I got them stapled down quickly, it took as much time to get the compressor pressure correct as it did to actually staple everything in. I caulked it this afternoon although the caulk was old and I think there is something wrong with it since it has been at least three hours and it is still wet. Might need to run to town for more. (steps still to go: drywall on two walls, toilet in place, sink in place, their plumbing to be hooked up). I will lay vinyl flooring soon.


( more projects under the cut )

I attempted to do social things twice this weekend and neither attempt happened. Saturday was an SCA event, but I looked at the weather and our wood levels and decided that I needed to split wood on Saturday instead. It was the only day that even approached near freezing, it hovered around 30F with only a little wind. In contrast, yesterday was 25F with 10-20 mph winds. Freezing cold, I was displeased, today is also supposed to be windy.

So Saturday, I split wood. I had to chainsaw a lot of the logs as I went since the bobcat can only pick up 16 foot lengths and the logs we had delivered were 32. That warmed me up nicely for sure. Nothing wanted to start and run well since it was so chilly first thing in the morning. Once I did that, I started with our outdoor burner wood, I split big logs into big chunks in the back of the dump trailer. This is probably two weeks of wood. We split this pretty much as big as we can lift, although I like a eight inch diameter log to be split in half for ease of throwing into the burner. Once it gets heavier, it is hard to throw it to the back of the burner. 



( cut for more wood info and house renovation fun )

we took two small truck loads of things over to the fun house in the past week and we are working on getting my parents' office stuff over there in the next few days, which will actually happen! They are taking this very seriously finally which is super appreciated. I feel like I'm not helping enough but my job is to carry things and boxes to the vehicle and into the house, not to pack their things. My mom keeps asking me about their stuff though, "did you want to keep this counter/cabinet/applicance???" and every time I just say "if you want to take it, take it, if you don't want to take it, I will figure it out" which I don't know that it is helpful to her but I also can't deal with managing this anxiety spiral stuff. She has been diverted into having anxiety about christmas gifts since my siblings finally sent their gift lists. "is hardcover or paperback better??? they're the same price, which one should I get him???" jesus. I'm trying to figure out a way to tell her this is not a normal level of anxiety. 

We did get the rental flooring completed Sunday, which is great, there's still a bunch of stuff to do, putting trim back on, some other minor things but we are working on all sorts of things. I am looking at the upstairs bathroom in the farm house, which needs drywall and flooring before the toilet and sink can go in, but I got my mom to order the flooring at least. That should be coming this week. I need to learn to do drywall which doesn't look difficult just tedious. I mentioned this to my mom and was subjected to a whole rant about spackling. to which I said, "okay" 

saturday nights, I have a standing hangout with former roommate Jade, where we watch the Great British Baking Show. We did a rewatch in the past year or so until this new season came out and then we've switched to playing co-op stardew. When we watch things, we do discord text chat but when we play games, we hop on voice. I guess I never really got into the frustrations with living with my parents very deeply via text because I mentioned a couple things that had been frustrating me and she said that I wasn't being unreasonable and it all sounded really really irritating and unreasonable of them. I know you all have been reassuring me but I couldn't really tell if I was being persnickety but Jade lived with me for 8 years, so she knows what I'm like so it was nice to get someone's perspective on it that knows me a little better. I couldn't tell if I was just being a bad roommate because I felt a little like this with F in NY as well. But I suspect I have just been living with incompatible roommates lately. I do miss living with Jade, it was really nice to live together if not long term viable due to life plans. I need to try and find someone to move in within ten years or so, I suspect I will not do well living on my own longterm. 

Today we are getting anywhere from 1 to 4 inches of potential snow, ice and/or rain depending on location so that will be interesting. I'm going to do some outdoor work this morning and some baking this afternoon. 

Z's train got in 2.5 hours late on Friday morning. for a 2.5 hour train journey. womp womp. But we had flexibility, so it was fine. We went out to lunch at our local queer cafe and ate tasty food which was good. I don't think she brought snacks and hadn't really eaten breakfast, so the delayed train was not great. 

Headed back home and then packed all the food up with ice packs and loaded the truck up. I had loaded most stuff, included some popup tents and cinderblocks, plus chairs, tents, etc. 

The drive up was lovely, it was a beautiful day. We got up there around 6pm and the campsite was busier than I'd ever seen it but it was a holiday weekend. I love this campground, it's awesome. Almost all of the sites are far apart from each other, it's quiet. Putnam Pond. Main downside is that it's got hella bugs. But they mostly both you when you're out walking and not while in the campsites, so it's not the worst. There's a very pretty lake.

We mostly sat around and read books, I spindle spun cotton, made food. Z slept a bunch. I made risotto for the first time over the fire which was fun and turned out extremely delicious. I had cooked a whole chicken on Thursday and brought along cooked meat and stock for the risotto. We also ate hot dogs, s'mores, cookies, fruit and other munchies. We went for one long wander around the campsite, looked at the lake. 

The weather was not terrible. It definitely was warm on Saturday, but there was a good breeze, we were in a fully wooded area and then there was a brief pouring rainstorm that cooled us down a lot. Turns out I had grabbed a popup tent that was just the frame, but I always have a tarp in my truck, so I made a tent and it lived over our food table. So during the rain, we just hung out under it and the storm moved through within a half hour. We also went out and got ice cream and checked our phones since there was no cell service in the campsite. 

I slept decently and I slept in which was nice. I dozed in the chair by the campfire sometimes. 

Sunday we got up, had a relaxing morning. At that point, everything was damp, so we just kinda ate and then packed up. There was a ton of traffic on the way home, I'd never seen that much traffic that far north. But I had to keep reminding myself, it was a holiday weekend and to be expected. 

We got home around noon, fully unpacked the truck and laid our tents and the tarp out to dry in the sun. I hopped in the shower real quick, then Z hopped in. I went down to the basement to empty the dehumidifiers and discovered that our main septic line had clogged and water was coming out the basement toilet, same as it did in fall 2022. But clearly we caught it very fast this time as the water had barely spread around. So I got on the phone and called a plumber and he came out within two hours. This time we paid for the expensive plumber with the waterjet thingy and he cleared the line. Then he put a camera down the pipe and oh boy. 

There was multiple major problems with the line. I expected this since twice in two years indicates a big problem. There was a slightly disconnected PVC section, where a tiny bit of dirt was visible. Then in the cast iron pipe section, there was a big wobble in the line and a mat of roots growing in it, then at the intersection where the pipe goes into the septic tank, there was only about an inch of open pipe leading in because that intersection had dropped so much that the pipe wasn't even vaguely connected. Also full of roots. The plumber was really awesome and cleared out as much of the roots that he could but he couldn't fix the problem at the septic tank which will continue being a huge problem

He estimated it would be probably 10-15k to fix and said their company could do that kind of work but that we should take the video he took and get a couple of quotes from a couple of companies. Sigh. Oh well. It's clearly more important than the windows, so we'll make it happen soon. The guy said it would be much cheaper if we could get an excavator to come or if we knew someone with a backhoe. That may or may not be something we could manage but we'll see. 

Saturday I woke up a little sore from shearing but not too sore so I decided to Do Things. First, I took a load of recycling and trash to the transfer station, including so many cardboard boxes that had been piling up. Then I took a combined C&D load and metal and junk plastic (including styrefoam, how neat is that!). 

When I got home from load two, F was in the kitchen and commented that I had left the basement door from the first floor down open about two inches (oops) and how it was good she didn't see either cat go down there since she had come downstairs right after I had left with the second load of stuff. We'll come back to this later.

Also took down fence that I put up on the septic leech field for the dog since the grass was growing up and causing issues with drainage. Mostly my fault, I wasn't weed whacking it, but easy up, easy down. Short fencing bits will be used for tree protection, long sections for future hill garden someday.

I went and mowed the lawn until I ran out of non-ethanol gas (arg), but I did the most difficult part of the hill first. When I started mowing my way down, I noticed the mailbox was open, when it hadn't been when I got home. Weird I thought. Went over to close it and a mouse had built a nest on the mail that was from the day before. What the fuck. I evicted the nest and babies in the next into the swamp and continued mowing. Later I relayed this to F and realized I hadn't actually gotten the mail. Went back down and discovered the mouse built another nest, was in the mailbox under the mail and had brought another baby into the mailbox. I swore at it and evicted everyone again. F checked the mail again today and the mouse came back again! So she's trying dryer sheets and if that doesn't work, a mouse trap will do with a sign for the mail person, who has gently been pushing the mouse nest out of the way when they deliver mail. 

In addition to the mailbox mouse, we've had a mouse infestation in the house. It's in the junction between the wall of the first floor, the ceiling there, the wall of the second floor and the floor there. There's one little ledge in the first floor area where the mice have been dropping insulation onto the floor. So F put mouse traps up there and we're up to seven mice. I had to kill one, she had to kill one and the cats have been delighted by mice falling from the sky that they don't even need to chase. 

So I was laying in bed Saturday night, watching GBBO with J online and I heard a funny noise coming from that way. I texted F and said I thought she'd be getting a mouse present shortly. Instead, she came downstairs and said she hadn't seen Willis all day and it was a little weird. The other cat, CJ, had acted all normal all day and had accompanied F downstairs and looked in the basement but hadn't gone down. Oh no. Willis went in the basement. 

F attempted to get the cat to come out with treats, but they are former ferals, so I went looking in good hiding places and found him under a shelf, behind some boxes, scared out of his tiny brain. I sent F upstairs, put some gloves on and pulled him out. He only got me a little on the arm before he wiggled out of my grip. Hid behind the washer, so I just grabbed a plastic pipe left from the living room baseboard heating project and shooed him out. He bolted up the stairs and is apparently completely unbothered by this entire experience. 

Sunday I went grocery shopping, picked up more fuel and then did some baking. Original plan was bread and vanilla cardamom ice cream. However, it was 60F in the house that day, so I figured I should run the oven to make the bread rise well. So I decided to make chocolate cake which makes three layers of cake. And cake needs icing and I have so many eggs whites left, so I made chocolate swiss meringue buttercream. I almost made a double batch, but as I put the eggs and sugar in the bowl, realized it was way too much to whip, so dumped it in a bowl to deal with later and made a single batch. I was going to toss it but F said she'd eat meringue cookies if I made them, so I ended up making two trays of vanilla and two trays of mint meringue cookies. Mixed reviews on them.

The two layer cake and some cookies went with F to family dinner which I didn't attend, half of final layer of cake went in the freezer to take with me to my sister's later this week. I haven't churned the ice cream yet but that will happen soon. Baking! 

Yesterday, I ran out to my boss's place and picked up a load of sand on the way and we made sandbags all morning. Then in the afternoon, we seeded corn into trays for transplanting. Fun stuff. I was out and about this morning and will be again tomorrow. 

After I hit post on this, I'll be going out to finish mowing the lawn.

Yesterday was an absolutely gloriously beautiful day, 75F, sunny with a breeze.  Originally I didn't have much work on my schedule but my boss texted and asked if I'd like to come out and do some stuff. I did! 

We put out some tarps on the production fields, then did some greenhouse work, mostly thinning the plants.

We were planning to place tarps after JP laid plastic next to the section of field we were going to work in, but then they were out of the correct plastic and JP had an appointment, so instead we planted out shallot bulbs. Those will be for seed production, seeing if they are similar to onion seed production and collecting yield information. 

It was an easy workday and the weather was so nice. I got ice cream on my way home, strawberry-banana twist soft ice cream. So good. 

When I got home, I climbed up on the roof and cleaned out the gutters. Both of the gutters hadn't been draining properly and we are due for three days of rain. I hate ladders, but used one to get up on the side porch roof before realizing I could have simply climbed out F's bedroom window. 

The porches have very gently sloping rubber roofs so they were easy to move around on. I have a healthy respect for roofs, so I just scooted around on my butt near the edge. Side porch gutter was absolutely filled with leaves, so I put them in my bucket and then tossed them into the side garden. 

Then I climbed over the peak of the house, which was kinda fun. Also unnecessary I realized later since I could simply climb out the window of the cat room. Ah well. 

Other porch gutter was less dirty, but had a lovely congealed sludge blocking the top of the gutter hole, aggravated by the bad installation of the gutter, which had two screws that pointed into the vertical gutter. Whatever. Turns out our roof on the balcony porch ripped and has been ripped for long enough that the wood underneath was completely grey, so it possibly could have been before we bought the place. We knew the whole roof needed replacing and it's been on our list. But now it's going to happen this summer no matter what, so we're going to make it happen. I think both of the porches will need their subfloor replaced, they're a mess. But we'll probably put metal roofs on for a slightly cheaper option. 

I did it and complained the whole time. Climbed back in the window of the cat room. Did some garden work while I stopped sweating in fear. 

Did some sidejob work, plyed some yarn. Then I heard a weird noise from the kitchen. I could hear F was upstairs, so I went to investigate and found a mouse that had stuck it's paw into a mouse trap and was flopping around on the floor. The mice have been up on a ledge between the ceiling and a sidewall, so F had put some traps up there. I killed the mouse, removed it from the trap and tossed it outside. One of the cats then hopped off the chair it had been sitting on and went upstairs. Useless cat. 

Today began with a pouring rainstorm and I'm getting things done on my to-do list. 

Our countertops were gross. They were laminate tiles (floors?) that were glued on and the corners taped. It was so easy for dirt and gross stuff to get stuck in the tape and it was just icky. I picked up some supplies last week and got started on it Thursday afternoon. I started on the smaller but more difficult counter since it holds the sink. Here is the counter before, the sinks is off to the left


( pictures and progress )

 I got up and checked the temperature inside, it was 55. Oh no I said, we ran out of propane or the boiler died! I ran down and checked, all fine. We're waiting on a propane delivery right now so that was a logical assumption. Then I said, oh no the thermostat broke in the storm! Started clicking through the settings and it turns out that I had actually set the night temperature to 55 instead of 58 like I thought, but it hasn't been cold enough to get the house there. *Facepalm* 

It is 9f outside right now. Anyway, now I need to calm down and then start working out. 

The goal for today was a solid half day of work work, then go and do some house work. Got the work stuff done, then had to take care of Mara and eat lunch.

My goal for the house work was to start the chainsaw. That was it. I was a bit afraid of trying to start it. I haven't actually used a chainsaw in ohh, 15 years or so, back when I was a teenager on the farm. Plus last time I tried, I completely failed to start it, although it wasn't my fault probably. I watched a video and re-read the manual. And I started it! It took a little bit, the pull start was really hard to pull at first, but once I gave five or six pulls, it loosened up and I was able to start it without flooding the engine. Woo!

Then I looked at the tree.

( pictures )

I'm now back inside and answered some work emails that popped up. I have plans to do other projects tomorrow afternoon and all day Friday (shelf for cones of yarn, ramp for Mara for my parents' house) and only the ramp needs to be done before we go traveling for Christmas. I think the tree will wait until next week when I get back with knowledge and some thought put into where the logs will actually go after I cut the tree up. And all the limbs. hmmm

Had a good and long conversation with F last night about the cost of the roof and how much more I could put in on the house (basically nothing right now). I am also worried about what happens when my truck dies. We discussed what we're both doing for a bit more money and what actually was significant. F is getting a promotion next year (hopefully) that will come with a 12k increase, which will help a ton. I'm looking at decreasing some of my expenses and I'm keeping an eye on the job market, although it's not looking amazing. I'm hoping the sheep shearing will pan out in a few years. I'm planning to start selling some of the fiber stuff at farm stores and I suspect I will actually set up some kind of small LLC for shearing and fiber stuff, hopefully not too expensive. The weaving looks like pretty reasonable profit to work ratio so I'm listening to the Professional Weaver's Podcast (very cool anyway) and going to do some time tracking. 

Other than that, we also talked about the basement and potentially if we could get it renovated, we could rent it out, which would help a ton with the mortgage. So we set up a plan for some house projects. The goal for December is to do at least one truck load of destruction from the basement. In order to do that, F's stuff needs to be out of that side of the basement, so I'm going to get the shed worked on to empty the basement of tools and stuff, so F can put her stuff in there. 

So order of stuff is:

1. build shelving/storage in shed for tools/misc stuff
2. hardware cloth up
3. F's stuff gets moved out of basement
4. destruction of basement

The whole basement needs to be torn down to the studs on that side so there's a bunch to do. I'm also going to see if my parents want to come up for a visit, my dad would have a lot of fun with that sort of thing plus some outdoors projects too. The rebuild is pretty doable, we might need to get someone with plumbing experience in, but everything else should be doable by us. The floor is a big issue, we need to put moisture barrier down, level the floor, raise the doors slightly, figure out how to put a ceiling up that is not a hideous drop ceiling, although we need some kind of drop so we cover the electrical and pipes. Lots of work. 

Then the project for January is to replace the kitchen counter surface. It's currently stick on linoleum that has duct tape covering the corners. It's gross and difficult to clean. I can borrow a tile saw from C, so F is going to stop by Habitat Restore in the next two months and pick up any and all tiles. It doesn't matter if they're ugly, we just want a different counter top. The grout and tile stick mixtures are inexpensive and the whole thing is pretty easy to do and quick, so we're just going to do it, half of the counter at a time. 

In the next two weeks, I'm going to get the generator and the snowblower started up to make sure they work and are ready for winter. And the balcony electrical is in the December to do list. 

Projects Will Happen.