Winter update
In which we count our blessings and move on
Dear Everybody,
It’s the end of another year, with all the successes and failures that come with any major endeavor. The house and I are both better off than we were last December, and I’m holding firmly to that.
If you’ve been reading about the weather we’ve had over the last couple of weeks, let me first assure you that we have not washed away. The Ark is on back-order, as we might need it by spring, but for now the record amounts of rain, fallen trees, and power outages have been only minor inconveniences here. I got some help with a couple of clogged gutters early this month, so I was able to sit back and listen to the water without worrying.
I’m very glad that I pushed to scrape and prime the windows (well, most of them) during the last bits of dry weather, as the rain came early and just… didn’t leave. It’s been cool and drizzly when it hasn’t been warm and pouring. Only one round of heavy frost so far, and lots of weather around 50F, which is unusual for December. I’m hoping that the tropical storms will give way to our regular Arctic ones soon; as uncomfortable as colder weather may sound, it comes with less oppressive humidity and fewer pests and diseases for the new year. Plus, snow!
The major achievement this quarter was upgrading the electrical system. It took two full days (past 5pm) of work by a journeyman and apprentice both, plus a followup to take care of the last bits, but the house now has 200A service, a larger and more modern panel inside with AFCI breakers to safeguard the old, ungrounded house wiring, and an additional panel outside to feed the outbuildings and the heat pump. They had to raise the attachment point above the roof, and I ended up putting flashing over the old holes in the wall (as a temporary measure) because all of the new equipment is configured differently. I’m still waiting on the power company to make the permanent connections and verify the meter is all right, but I already feel much better about the system.
One feature I requested specifically was a surge suppressor to cope with thunderstorms. I’m very unlikely to get a lightning strike near the house, since I’m well below the ridges on all sides, but nearby strikes can still cause surges in the lines. It will be a relief not to have to flip breakers for the stove and heat pump, and unplug my computer’s power strip, every time I hear a rumble overhead. It’s not foolproof, but now all I need to think about is the most delicate equipment.
Having the new panel was the first step. The next phase should be simpler, involving a couple of new runs from the panel: one to the modern outlets I installed in the office, and one to the mudroom for a dryer. I’m still hoping to get that done this winter. The third phase will be the Annex, which is a whole big project of its own. It has no subpanel, just some splices in work boxes on the wall, and even I’m not clear on which lights and outlets are served by which of the three sets of wires strung between it and the garage. The main feed across that gap is so old that the insulation between the wires is nearly worn away by sun and weather—I could almost see the hair rising on the back of the chief electrician’s neck, and I noted that they quietly neglected to reconnect it to the panel. The only lights I use in the Annex still work, and it’s just storage at the moment, so I have no objection. I need to move a bunch of stuff out to make room to work along the inner walls, and that means it’s yet another thing depending on getting the office finished. But it’s On The List.
I’m so close to finishing the office I can almost taste it. If I leave fitting the closet door into its frame for a later project, and if I paint the rest of the room before putting up drywall on the alcove (to allow access for the electricians), I have about a day and a half of work left before I can start painting. Painting itself would take several days, but it’s not the hardest room to do. A week of undisturbed progress would allow me to start moving things in, and that would be a tremendous relief. Maybe I can get snowed in for a while…
The other major project in progress is the buried fuel oil tank. This house used to have forced air heat, supplied by an oil furnace. The last furnace died around 2013 and it was removed in 2019, but the fuel tank remained underground in the Enclosure, on the north side between the house and the driveway. I deliberately avoided landscaping that area beyond cutting down the old box bushes and hauling some gardening supplies out, because I was aware that the oil tank would need to be addressed. So, with a strong new driveway bridge and room to park both vehicles under cover and out of the way, I called around and found a remediation company to come have a look.
Thanksgiving week, two hearty workers came with a truck, a trailer, and two large reinforced storage tanks. They pumped approximately 500 gallons of diesel out of the tank, then started to dig. It was larger than we thought—the person who came to map the area and probe the ground to find where the tank lay was apparently confused by the large tires which had been laid on top of the tank before burial. But they excavated the tank at last, cut the top off, cleaned out the sludge at the bottom (with buckets of peat moss), and cut holes in the bottom to get soil samples. Then they covered the hole and fenced it off while we waited for test results to tell us whether the tank had been leaking.
Having seen the soil that went into the sample jars, it was not a surprise to hear that the tank had, indeed, been leaking. At least it’s empty now, and we’re working out the logistics and scheduling to excavate the tank and haul away the surrounding soil. It’ll involve cutting out a bunch of the old hedge and removing some of the woven wire fence, which I had planned on doing at some point anyway. This winter has been so wet that I don’t know when we’ll manage all this, but I’m crossing my fingers it can be accomplished before the heavy snows in the spring.
One thing I did finish off was the box of wasps. I had been dusting them periodically with diatomaceous earth and not seeing much of an effect, but there came a time in early October that I realized there was no activity around the cooler chest. There were maybe two dozen wasps on a remnant of the nest attached to a bit of junk, but the cooler was quiet. So I hauled it out of the Bug Bay one night, and got no response. The DE had worked, gradually, tearing through the vulnerable nurseries and the queens even though it affected the workers only slightly. The main nest collapsed, and I was able to scoop the remnant into a plastic bag and toss it in the freezer without any trouble. My major fear, that it would manage to overwinter and come back stronger next year, has been allayed. And I can get firewood out of the Bug Bay with impunity now.
Granted, I still have the rolled-up rug full of wasps in the workroom porch rafters, but that can be handled once the really cold weather hits. If I sink a hook into the rug and haul it out with a come-along when it’s 20 degrees F, I doubt they’ll be able to do much to stop me. Some time exposed to the winter weather should finish them off too. So that’s part of why I’m hoping for things to get colder…
Artie is not so thrilled about the cold weather. I’m running the woodstove more often than I might otherwise, just because having the house warmer really reduces his anxiety. He still insists on going out and freezing his paws off in the cold rain, but when he can come in to a warm dry place it feels a lot less like his memories of being homeless. Cricket does not complain about the opportunity to melt in front of a hot stove either, and sometimes she’ll wrap a paw around my ankle to ask me to light it up. The two of them only tend to argue when they’re cold or hungry these days, and to be fair, that seems about average for most housemates.
The community garden was a better success than I had expected. Harvest season here is about three months long, and only a third of the available space was producing, but I still harvested 626 pounds of vegetables to donate to the food banks and a few individual seniors. Half of that was the haul from all of Jenny’s pumpkins and squash; they made a pretty picture, piled up at the foot of the scarecrow, before getting sent off to feed people in November. I got one of the pumpkins myself, and made two very tasty pies, along with several delicata squash. I brought one of the local reporters over to take photos and gave him some details for an article, but wires got crossed and I’m not sure the community center board ever gave the paper the go-ahead to run the article. The garden manager did, at least, run an ad for the end of the season thanking everyone, and it included the total poundage. So hopefully fewer people will respond to my mention of the garden with “…wait, we have a community garden?”
My fall harvest at home was not so successful. Animals stripped all the apple trees before harvest, leaving only the quinces. A friend came up to fetch about half of those, and the rest went to the food banks, but I had to scramble to find a tree to supply my winter apples. I found a lovely older woman along the main road who was a bit distressed about being unable to harvest her trees herself, and spent a good afternoon picking winter pears and small Golden Delicious apples. The pears lasted until December, and the apples are keeping well despite the unseasonably warm temperatures.
The brief frosts were less of a problem for my broccoli and cabbage than the weeks and weeks of soggy rain. I got some of the broccoli before the heads rotted, but the slugs reduced the napa cabbage to lacework, and the lettuce never recovered properly from the frost. I didn’t manage to dig the potatoes or parsnips, or plant the garlic; I had figured I would do that during a dry spell in November or December. I’m still waiting, as the ground is far too saturated to dig in. I’m hoping I get an opportunity before the hard freezes arrive. On the plus side, I’ve already dried two batches of kale for soups and pasta, and there’s at least two more rounds still out there. And I can plant the garlic any time before full spring, as long as the ground can be worked. So that’s something.
Most of the progress here lately has been supervising professionals. That’s a job by itself, of course, as I want to stay on top of what’s happening and catch any problems or needs as they come up. I have accomplished much less with my personal efforts, to my frustration; most of my energy has gone to maintaining myself and the cats, and to a lesser extent the vehicles and the house. It’s nice to be at a stage where things are stable enough to coast like that, and I can be comfortable without working too hard at coping with my environment. Having lived for significant periods here without conveniences such as running (hot) water, working toilets, effective heat sources, or room to turn around in, I am actively grateful for simple comforts.
That said, I have spent most of this year sick, and it’s impacted my progress significantly. The exposures I get are coming less often from the house itself, though there are still a few small sources I need to be wary of. Mostly, the solvent I have trouble with is continuing to expand its reach, creeping into the offices of veterinarians and dentists, appearing in libraries and public spaces. It’s showing up in more laundry detergents, which means that the most recent exposures have been from people coming here, rather than remaining a hazard of the outside world. After catching a whiff from the electricians’ clothing, I had to keep the doors open all day and air the house for an hour in the evening both days they were here, only removing my respirator in my sealed bedroom to eat. I don’t usually consider myself too fragile to live a normal life, but when even small exposures make me sick for multiple weeks, having it reach into my safe space has had an oversized impact on how much I can do.
I normally have more control over my environment here, so I have to trust that this year has been an outlier. To that end, I’ll write it off and look to next year. If I can get through the rest of the work on the oil tank (guess who needs aggressive grease-cutting solvents more than most people? Folks working with fuel oil) and the minor amount of work needed to wire the circuit in the office, I think I’ll be able to minimize the risks for the rest of the projects on my short list. And the more time I spend in the mountains, the faster I can recover from what I do run into.
Looking toward the near future, I’m hoping to collect enough energy and motivation to clear the mudroom and pull the dryer into it. The table that is currently there will need a place to go, which was originally going to be the workroom, but that’s still a mess (and it gets very cold in the winter). So I might have to swap the table into the spot in the garage the dryer is currently in. All of that is (surprise!) depending on getting the office done so I can get more elbow room in the garage. Seeing a theme?
So yeah, the office is at the very top of my list in the next month. Logistically it’s possible, it just depends on my health. Crossed fingers.
At the top of my “averting disaster” list is to buy the braces and install posts to support the Shippen overhang, if only temporarily. The current post is unsecured and resting on a bottle jack, which I dislike for multiple reasons. If it ever stops raining, I’ll spend an hour or so propping that up so I can breathe easier when the snow flies.
Next year, you can guess what I’m focused on: fences. Lacking even the old broken-down ones that had been here has shown me how essential fences are for protecting my plants, infrastructure, and the cats. I might find myself erecting “good enough” fences to last a few years until I can clear the fence lines I want, but anything would be better than what I have now.
Other than that, it’ll mostly be clearing out brush, pruning trees, and doing lots of dump runs. Business as usual, really. I’ll schedule Jevon for grading, and have him dredge the pond after midsummer. I’m sure more things will crop up, in addition to taking care of Jenny’s affairs, and I can count on at least one crisis. But if I keep my focus and dodge most of the slings and arrows, I should have a good year.
Thank you to everyone who bought a calendar! I thought they came out well this year, and I hope you like them. For anyone who didn’t want a physical calendar, remember that I pulled those pictures from this year’s photo album, which you can visit any time. If you would like to support my efforts here in some other way, please leave a tip at my Ko-fi page; I’ll need to order more flea meds for the cats soon, and help with that expense is always appreciated.
My next post will be on the Spring Equinox in March, which seems like a world away right now. I hope you have a delightful end to the year, and I’ll see you then.
—Sam
