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Showing posts from December, 2006

Christmas Day

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Found a couple of old friends in the basement. I had thought that the bindings would have deteriorated like Jo-Ann's but they hadn't so I got to take them out for a spin today. Up to Grandma's then right along the ridge line where the moose have been hanging out and then back to the house. It was pretty apparent that I was shushing through their living room. Lots of beds. And Moose poop. Moose beleive in onsuite plumbing. What fun. A pre-emptive strike at the Christmas Turkey Jo-Ann and I were planning for supper. Didn't work. I am sitting here in a stupor. Turkey overload. Got some neat loot for Christmas. A Mike Holmes autographed book and Some Mike Holmes coveralls. I put them on and had to stop myself from ripping out all the plumbing in the upstairs bathroom. Hope you are having fun too.

Window Trim

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Finished a nice little project I've had on the burner since before the shop collapsed. I am really starting to like the Barn Wood. Not finished, just left like it came off the wall. Well these pieces came from a door on one that was hanging there on one hinge. I managed to save the hinges too. This is the window in the upstairs library area. I had taken the window framing off in order to seal around the edges with spray insulation as there was a heck of a draft on this West facing window. Now with it sealed and some stretch plastic over the glass it's warm as toast. I still have a few more windows to do. But will probably wait untill I erect scaffolding so I can paint all the fake wood paneling. Or ..? We spent yesterday decorating the Hall for Tiny's Christmas eve. It was always a tradition in my family to have Christmas on Christmas eve. Maybe because the kids could stay up late and not have to get up at 4:00 am to open presents. Tom likes to invite some of the old timers

Up to my Ass....

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....In Snow. Must remember for next year: 1) Pick out Christmas tree in July and tag it 2) Make sure it's not too far from road 3) Wear snow shoes ( if snow is up to Butt ) 4) Don't invite a Dog that likes to bite shoes and runs around going " Ha Ha, look how much better four legs are than two", and: " Hay, let's go say hello to Mrs Moose. She went that a way" Anyway, time for a cup of tea, change the pants, and go charge the batteries in the sawzall so I can trim the thing. Weird thing about Christmas trees . Did you ever notice how much smaller they are when they are standing in the wild? And then they grow when trying to get them through the door. Check out the Missez Blog for pictures of the adventure. Hope your Christmas is going well. Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. I have been doing a survey this year. When ever I get a chance I say it to people. Just my way of protesting the Happy Holidays politically correct idiocy. It's amazing how

Ladies "Wrasslin"

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Jo-Ann mentioned on her Blog that we were trying to humiliate the dog with the usual Christmas flashing reindeer lights. Here's how we did it. No dogs were hurt in the makeing of this embarrasement. We bought a pack for her( Xena ) when she was just a puppy and we put that on her also. She didn't mind it too much and kept it on for an hour. When I went outside she came with me and discovered a strap was hanging down - and that was that. Anyway doesn't she look like she's just ready to deliver Christmas presents. I beleive she was singing "Xena the red nose reindog" at the time...

On the Case

The Case skid steer that is. Tom came up and we replaced the battery, fuel pump, swore a lot, got the throttle working and spent the rest of the day play-er clearing the snow out of the yard. Good thing to. When I look out there this morning I can see that about a foot has come down and it has been drifting. You can hardly see what I cleared out yesterday. Hopefully the snow plow will be back up again today. And then Christmas lights. I put a new GFCI circuit at the bottom of the house so that I can string them along the front fence line. Better than a bunch of extension cords from the deck outlets. I beleive they were wired in wrong anyway. If I use them I break the microwave circuit. Time to do some re wiring. The Microwave needs to be on its own circuit anyway. Certainly not a GFCI circuit. But it's broken now. Fortunatly we have a spare in the basement.

Sanctum Artimus

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Yay! I got the shop powered up and heated yesterday. Just in time for another foot of snow to fall. Well when it comes off the roof it won't hurt anything this time. It sure was nice to get the fire going ( it uses electricity for its fans ) and watch the place dry out. Today I will add a few more circuits and a GFCI circuit under the front porch to power up the fence line Christmas lights. The plow guy just drove up and did our driveway so I shouldn't have to put the chains on. It has been touch and go the last couple of days with the temperature hoveing just above zero and the driveway covered with ice and water and slush snow on top of that. My brother Tom phoned a couple of days ago and said he had an "old thing" he got from the dump for us. Here it is: I don't think it is playable but it sure is neat. And I don't play the violin yet anyway. There is some sun shining through today. With all the fresh snow on the mountains it sure looks awesome.

Mike Holmes would not approve

So I have the Blue Shed back weather tight. Tomorrow, God willing and the snow doesn't fall too deep, and I can find a 3/4 to 1" reducer I will have the panel back up (the right way - so I'm not embarassed if any of my Electrician friends drop by) and power back to the shop. I found out what caused the service to get ripped right out of the wall. Yes it was the snow that pushed it but it was dry rot that was the problem. There's a reason Mike Holmes fixes so much problems caused when the vapour barrier gets put on wrong. This shed is a great example of the wrong way to do it. The vid below shows the details. Remember the vapour barrier goes on the warm side of the wall. Or the condensation will wreck havoc. Eventually. Really looking forward to getting the shop back up and running. I have a few Christmas projects that need a "gettin" done.

Sometimes you have to go backward to go forward..

We've had snow drifting over the top part of the driveway so it was time to call the snow plow in. Just the small one, no need yet for the grader. The weather has really been warming up. Today, for example, it's hovering just a bit on the minus side of zero, with a freezing rain last night. Well the little warm up sure made the road slippery after the freeze up. I always now the roads bad when I see the plow guy trudging up the road. He's stuck. So I put on the chains and pull him out so he can do the rest of the road. I am trying to talk him into getting a set of chains but I guess there a pain for him to put on everytime he comes off the highway. Here's a vid of the pull. He had gone off the road into the ditch and got high sided. I had to pull him quite a way down the hill to free him up. Right after that he went up the hill and I went down to turn around. We met at the spot he was stuck in and I tried to drive around him. And of course, drove right in