Home on the Hill

And the Library. We have a couple of tons of rocks we've collected over the years and really haven't taken them out of the boxes. Need some display space for them. So when we had to move the low shelf from the living room to make room for the Christmas tree the libray got a display case. It has been unseasonly warm. Yesterday it go up to +12. Everythings melting. With dirt sticking out of the road in places. I don't know how long it will last but we sure don't use a lot of firewood. We haven't had the furnace going at night for the last four nights. I have been dismanteling the steering column on my truck to replace the ignition. It has crapped out and either sticks with the steering wheel locked or turns and won't start. In order to get it off to put the replacement on I have to drill out two security bolts. So far I've managed to get one out. Today the saga continues. My brother has a theory about why newer vehicles are so hard to work on. Appa...

This is the out takes from the new Endako hit movie, Jack-Hammer Jo . Thought they were worth preserving as a great example of what movie producers have to go through. So I was having trouble getting into the blue shop. The doorway is two feet lower than the road and was just dug out enough to swing open the door. Tried stabbing it with prybars to widen it to no avail. Then I borrowed an electric jack hammer from my Nephew who uses it in his contracting business. What a difference. the frozen ground was like concrete but I managed to dig out a five X six X one foot entrance to the joint. Nice to be able to walk through the door without having to be sideways. Jo-Ann couldn't resist trying out the ultimate testostorone power tool. She looks like she was having fun. I know I was. Next Blue shed project: replace the Chimney piping. The wind has blown it down and it's pretty burnt out anyway.

The skidsteer that is. It was down for the count the other day. No move on one side. Tom thought it was ice in the right hand chain drive channel. The left one would steer but not the right. So I wrapped the whole shebang in a canvas tarp and then a large poly one, put a 1500 watt heater inside, charged the battery and plugged in the block heater. Lo and behold after we drained and changed the chain oil it moved. Yippee. Sure makes keeping the yard clean a lot easier. Got some chains coming for it so I will be able to keep the driveway clear and maybe beat a path to Grandmas. I have to get a path up there for the upcoming skidoo poker ride. Got a cool tool for Christmas from the kids. It's called a FuBar . It seems that theres not much innovation in hammers these days because all the carpenters use nail guns. But the Stanley company caught some carpenters swearing about twisting some 2X4's and the FuBar was born. It's really quite the deal. Don't thi...

Our neighbor, Walter Read, came up last night with a four wheel drive tractor and dunged out the driveway. Easy Peezee. So we got to go to the Endako Hall meeting and yesterday went to town for lunch and toilet paper. In case of emergencys we like to keep a months supply of food and fuel. Now we've added toilet paper to the list. Got me to wondering who invented toilet paper . What a great scam. But better than the alternatives so far. Talk about an invention that hasn't changed in a long time. I mean they've consumered it to death with pillows and what ever the add agencies can come up with, but really perforated paper on a roll. What a concept. I just caught the Mizzes combing her hair with a metal spoon. Apparently this is not strange behavior but helps relieve the head demons. Static Electricity. She won't follow my suggestion and wrap her head in tin foil - which works for me. And the dog. I guess I will turn on the humidifier. I now get cell phone cov...

So were waiting for the grader to come yesterday and I get a phone call from the local YRB manager informing me that they won't be doing our driveway any more. It's just to hard on the operators and the branches from the trees hit the cab. J.E.E.Z. The local guy ( see previous post) had cleared everything but the top most part where it drifts and he's just driving a pick up truck with no chains. The grader has done it several times before when the snow was totally worse - but now: No grader. To Hard for the grader guy. CRAP. I am glad I have some people helping me or we would really be in a bad way. My Brother Tiny has got some chains for the Skid Steer but they won't be in for another week. And then he will have to deliver them by ski-do. Until then ration the toilet paper. Keep the fire burning and use powdered milk for the porridge. I guess it could be a lot worse. It's a beautiful day today. Clear and Sunny but colder than a Witch's nose. -28, so ...

What a surprise. We drove home from the Coast and our driveway down at Savory road only had about two inches of snow. Different story at the top where the road comes out of the trees and into the open meadow. The snow had drifted over the road so bad we barely made it. The next morning it was impassable. The fellow with the snow plow came by and managed to clear away the bottom part but couldn't clear the top part. The drifts were six feet high in places. So here we sit waiting for YRB to drop by with the road grader. Failing that I can work away for a day or so with the skid steer and get us out of here. Not that were in a big hurry to get anywhere. It's twenty below today and another foot of snow has fallen. I have been looking at getting another computer. When I tell people the machines I work on they tend to laugh. Well there was a time when an 800 MHZ machine was a big deal. And 500 Megs of ram was over the top. Now I am looking for a cheap 1.2 mhz machine with...

I had lunch today with a bunch of the guys from work. There all looking older. I don't quite know what to make of it. Anyway it was great to see them all again. I miss seeing them on a daily basis. Trying to talk them into coming up to Xanadu for a serenity trial. I think some of them are going to give it a try. Picked up my daughter Treena in the west end. Driving in traffic- like driving a bike, only faster and theres thousands of them and there all in a hurry. Xena couldn't believe how many new potential dear friends there were. Tonight is take out from the Memphis Blues ( we just call it the house of Meat ) and a bit of a Christmas celebration with the kids. I've always wanted to try the "Priscilla" but I think you need a rugby team to do justice to it. So before supper I had better go for a little walk and try and get some of the great lunch we had to disappear.

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.

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...

....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 ...

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...

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.

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.

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.

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...

Well no. Just returning from Grandma's. Got heat tape on the pipes, fixed some burnt up wiring in the crawlspace so now we have some heat via baseboard heaters there. Just turned them on low to keep the frost off the inside of the building. Tommorrow with any luck I will be able to go to Vanderhoof to pick up some electrical connectors so I can use some Tek cable to get my shop powered back up. Well no time to daly. Have to drop by the Hall to load up the pellet furnace and then off to a meeting in Fraser Lake.

Well, I just thought it looked "Homier" with the light on. I am sure Grandma appreciates a little light on the subject. I got the water flowing last night. It was under Grandma's house --just not where I thought. It was on the other side of the house. I manage to get it un thawed and we now have running water. Amazing how we take the simplest things for granted. Until we can flush the toilet.. I'll have to go and make some permanent repairs today. Well enough to get us through the winter. Next summer I need to bury the lines instead of leaving six foot chunks exposed. For now I will put some heat tape on the exposed parts, insulate them and put a heater in the crawlspace. I need to do some electrical work underneath also. I discovered a box that has some burnt up wiring in it. I am also going to put a 220 volt heater in the upstairs part of the house just to take the chill off. I am sure Grandma ( not to say the packrats ) will appreciate it.

It's -25c the taps are wide open but no water comes out. Frozen solid. I think the problem is with a six foot stretch of pipe that is exposed under Grandma's house. It's been on my "to fix" list for ever. I put some heat tape on it about five hours ago and tomorrow I will install a bigger electric heater. And hope. If that doesn't work it's drag a paint sprayer up there and try and shoot hot water down the lines. The water line is about a quarter mile long from our well under grandma's house and then down to the main house. So it could be anywhere but Grandma's is the place I would bet on. My neighbor Audrey, says she has noticed that problems with plumbing here are always conducted when it is -20 or colder. Just something we do here. I think it's just because I won't listen to that nagging voice - or review the nagging to do list. ----And that after a career of doing maintenance work. Progress to be hoped for. Perfection never. ...

I finished the painting job so now have some time to play wi--er work in the yard. My brother Tom came up and dropped a bobcat off for us to use. He makes it look easy. When I use it it's a little more jerky operation but I am starting to get the hang of it. It can sure move a lot more snow in an hour than I can with the snowblower or shovel. It's down to -14c here and we certainly have the furnace going all the time. I am hopeing it snows some more to cover up all the dirt that I dug up while practicing with the Bobcat. Here's a video of Tiny showing me how a pro uses the BobCat. Actually it really shouldn't be called a BobCat as that's a trade name for a similar machine. I guess calling it a Case Skid Steer while more accurate, isn't that helpful tho. He's moving the snow away from the blue shed so I can get at it to make some repairs. In the vidio you can see the service stack being removed from the snow. We found out why the stack came down wh...

The before: The after: Well at the blue shed. So much snow came off the roof that it pulled the service stack right off the building. Must be a reason the electrical code says you can't put service stacks where snow loads can slide into them. We had some very high winds here and that probably contributed to it. It pulled it right off the shed, split the wall and just about pulled the panel through the wall. Heres a closeup of the damage. Lots of work to fix that one up. I will have to straighten the service pole and take a teck cable run underground to the shop. Of course that will entail moving about 12 tons of snow. And rebulding the wall, and ..I don't have the time right now as I am in the middle of a painting job. Oh well. Tom brought his bobcat up and left it here so I can have something more powerful than a speeding bullet--well a snow blower anyway, to clear the snow from around the building. And just when I got the airtight heater all fixed up and working. It sure is ...