Bogieblog

Getting Ready for 2024/25 Winter

Last weekend as well as this weekend I have been getting the house ready for winter. Of course that work will continue as I remember little things that need to be done.

Last weekend I replaced the firebox door gasket to the downstairs pellet stove as well as the ash bin door gasket of the main floor pellet stove

I brought in the house plants from the back porch. Although they were under cover, they do not like temps below 50* and this morning it is 34.

While bringing in the plants, Spot decided to be helpful by holding down one of the water catchers in the kitchen bay window :)

I've mowed leaves 3 times so far, including yesterday, and expect to do so again today. This will be a constant thing for the next couple of weeks.

Yesterday I got the basement pellet stove all ready to do its thing. That consists of removing covering from the exhaust, reattaching the outside air kit (OAK) to the stove (and removing the newspaper used to block it up), vacuuming behind the stove to remove any cat hair (not much down there - the upstairs stove will be a different story), and blowing out dust from the fan motors. I haven't started it up yet, but will soon - probably this coming week.

Last weekend I installed the plastic strips on the perimeter of the back porch to deter snow and wind. It's not perfect, but worked well enough last year - much better than leaving it open.

Things that are on my to-do list:

• Start up the snow blower to ensure it is in running order. But first I need to run out all the old gas in my gas can and fill it with new gas. I'm hoping they have the winter blend gas at the stations by now. Summer blend has more ethanol, which is not good to sit in the engines even using stabilizers.
• Get the main floor pellet stove ready to go, which steps are pretty much the same as the basement stove. But, using the mini split to heat the main floor makes that less urgent and actually desirable to wait before uncapping the exhaust / hooking up the OAK.

I'm sure there are more things to get ready, I just haven't recalled them yet.

Oh, and something that will be down the road, when the humidity in the house gets low enough, is to change the clothes dryer vent to inside instead of outside discharge.

I'll also need to remember to close the front door storm door window. Right now it still gets too warm in the afternoon to close it without potential consequences, but it shouldn't be long now.

I make lists then forget to look at them, or remember things not on the list that need to be done first (or I am more willing to do at the time). I'm just happy that I've made progress - LOL

Getting More for Fall Colors

Although we have had fairly mild weather, the plants know what is coming and work to their own internal clocks. The garden pictures are from last Sunday:

Giant Autumn Crocus

Burgundy Belle maple is starting to turn

Husker red pentemmon gets the most amazingly bright red foliage (it is purplish during growing season)

Autumn fire sedum

Uggh, new things are happening with Typepad: No matter how I save the pictures on my hard drive, they are now loaded in an off orientation. And when I try to use Typepad's picture manipulator, it gives me an "ImageProxy HTTP error: Unknown ImageProxy error". So, they are all sideways. I guess I should be grateful that I managed to get them uploaded at all.

Finishing Along the Fenceline

Friday and Saturday I worked on finishing up the work around the fence that I had moved.

I moved all the plants to inside the fence on Friday. I realized that the reason I had placed the plants there in the corner to begin with was mowing that inside corner. Sure, I could weed wack it, but I like mowing a whole lot more than weed wacking. I usually only use the weed wacker 3 times a year and leaving that corner uncovered would mean I'd have to do it more often.

When I say moving the plants, there was a whole lot more work than that. I dug out all the grass/weeds , transferred the hard ground coverings, then placed the plants there. It had rained the night before (first time in weeks), so pulling up the grass wasn't too bad. I did repurpose the grass to low spots and areas that had gone bare from ants.

I had a super hard time finding sod to fill things in. Although I had just seen sod for sale at BBS the week before I moved the fence, there was none to be found the day after I moved it. That is not exactly true, I could order a full pallet and pay delivery charges, but no one had individual rolls (I certainly didn't need a pallet). One thing I found out was that most landscaping companies and landscape supply stores only carry hardscape materials. Sod is a special order - and again, they would only order by the pallet. Who knew? I tried appealing to locals on some of the FB pages to see if anyone had a few rolls left from a recent landscape job. But I had no luck.

I finally found Tim's Turf and Landscaping Material in Litchfield, NH that I could get sod from. I contacted them on Thursday and they were happy to sell me 10 rolls (2' x 4.5' each) to be picked up on Saturday. Nice guys when I showed up. Someone even called while I was there looking for a similar amount :)

Picking up the sod took a couple of hours and then I got straight to work. Pictures are of the basic laying of the pieces, I also filled in the outside edges and the buttressed edges with a couple of bags of yard soil.

I had also manage to procure a "Heavy Duty Mast to Mast Mount Bracket Kit" to better clamp the fence panel to the inside post. The hardware is rounded and fit the OD of the larger post perfectly. I did have to buy a couple of extra nuts to secure the V-jaw plates. I am unsure why the kit doesn't come with those. Although the picture clearly shows only 2 nuts, I obviously didn't pay attention to that and expected 6 nuts for each clamp assembly.

 

Oh well, the local hardware store was able to help me out so it all worked out. I replaced the much wider square U-bolt that I had bought locally as a temporary fix as well as putting a mast mount bracket down lower.

The sod is in and the gate panel secured with well fitting brackets so it was a productive couple of days.

Making the Backyard Smaller

When I originally moved here and fenced in the backyard, I had to install it so the ramp wouldn't be blocked in. That meant that an additional 10' of fence stuck out on the north side of the house. It mad for interesting mowing and snow blowing along that north side. picture is from a couple of years ago:

Since removing the ramp last fall, I've wanted to remove that extra 10' so the gate would be more protected from the snow (for convenience on my part), make mowing easier, and as a bonus, improve aesthetics from the front side of the house.

One of my hesitations was that the 10' panel between the gate and corner of the house, was doing the major work of keeping the north side fence stable. Once I removed that section, I would have to find another way for stabilization.

Last weekend was the time to do something. On Saturday, after mowing that area, I removed the excess panels and put them at the side of the road for someone to claim (they didn't last long). Those panels were old and beat, although still usable. I still have a couple of panels behind the shed in case I need to replace any down the road.

First picture is before I moved the panel from the corner of the house. It is still supporting the gate panel that was moved inward. Although it is hard to see that extra panel, you can see the far end of it as it appears as a weird vertical line in the top half of the gate.

Then I moved the T-post, pounding it in 2' with a sledge hammer. Oh, and I forgot that I strated the day by putting in stone blocks beneath where the gate would be

Potted plant are now outside the fenced in area

Although the T-post would hold the fence, the end of the gate was wobbly and it would not survive the hits from snow sliding off the roof. After researching online, I found that attaching that corner to the house was strongly discouraged. So Sunday, I trecked up to Concord and got a couple of posts.

Although the work did not go as smoothly as I'd like, I pounded in a support post just to the inside of the corner, then pounded in that extra T-post (standing a couple of feet from the corner in the pic with the ladder) on the outside of the corner (which you can't see in the following picture). The T-post has 3 clamps attached to the gate post.

I need to get appropriate clamps for the post that can be seen in the picture - right now it is just what I was able to obtain at the local hardware store since the other fence clamps that I have are too small. But, even the way it stands now, it is very stable and solid.

Right now I am debating as to whether to move all the potted plants back to the inside of the fence (in that same corner), or whether to line them up along the outside. Either way I'll need to finish off in that area as well as at the gate with some sod - hopefully there is still some around at the BBS.

 

If I didn't get all 3 error messages (unsupported file format (for a JPEG), socket error, timeout - after 0.5 seconds) while uploading pictures (not at the same time, or on the same picture mind you), I would not know what to do with myself.

Who Had Manhunt in Hillsboro, NH for September 2024?

Sorry, you only get that title reference if you are into memes and/or are on FB/twitter etc.

So, when I left off Friday the 13th, they had closed school for the day while the fugitive was still in the area. The locals were calling in potential sightings thru the day. between 1:30 and 2 pm, a helicopter started circling the west end of town (this started on the east end the previous night).

At 2:30 pm they announced they had caught the guy

Once the tension was over, the jokes started coming. Not saying the first one was wrong . . .

Some sharp-eyed people had noticed that the handcuffs used were pink

So a clever guy put everything together and if it was on a bigger platform instead of a private town FB page, probably would have gone viral

 

Hopefully that is it for excitement for a while!

Excitement in Town - Shelter in Place for ELVD

Well, my town has had it's share of exciting stories the last month or so. Several car chases of up to 100+ mph, a couple of alleged child porn creators/possessors arrested (one from Deering) and more. But, the big news is that lst night around 9pm (after I was asleep) we had a fugitive man hunt going on in the ELVD (Emerald Lave Village District) over at Fox Forest following a car chase. They had a Shelter in Place order for ELVD (links are to local PD website).

The man is a wanted felon from Oklahoma and is thought to be armed and dangerous. Here is a news story from the local TV station, WMUR (also has video that said US Marshals and State Police were also involved).

According to local FB pages, they had helicopters and at least one dog out, but have not caught up with the guy yet. However, they have lifted the SiP order as of a couple of hours ago - but they warn everyone to remain vigilant.

Screen shots are from the local PD and are in links above (the ones not marked from WMUR).

Just to assure everyone - ELVD is a couple of miles from me and last they knew he was on foot (he ditched or crashed the car in ELVD - probably because that area is full of dead end roads that he didn't know). Even though he hasn't been found yet, it is unlikely that we will cross paths as I would expect him to either follow the highway, or at worst, stay away from the developed areas like where I live.

UPDATE: 45 minutes later. Local schools have closed for Friday 13, 2024 because of this. Let that sink in - Friday the 13th :)

I Don't do Pretty Toes

I was at a friend's place yesterday and her granddaughter was there (she is in her mid 20's). She had on sandals and commented that I shouldn't look at her toes as her last pedicure was a couple of weeks ago.

First, I don't look at people's feet for two reasons: I have no reason to look down there and I can't really see that far anyway for something so small. Unless she had on a screaming yellow or green, or she had her feet resting on top of the table, her toes would not be visible to me. I'm not sure I would even notice them then - LOL.

I commented that I had never had a pedicure and she was like, "OMG, why not?" Seriously, that wasn't a thing when I was growing up. I can't say I ever heard of an acquaintance getting a pedicure until the last 15 years or so (or maybe I didn't pay attention). I don't do pedi's or mani's because there is no point to it in my mind. Sure, I lop off the nails when they get long, but that is it. I'm just not a maintenance type of gal.

Speaking of feet, I had something fall on my pinky toe Friday afternoon and it is not happy with me. It is swollen as well as all black and blue, even the mole is discolored. I had to hobble around the rest of Friday, but by yesterday I can walk normally in shoes - even if I still get twinges of discomfort. Walking barefoot (which is my norm at home), I have a bit more discomfort and I've adjusted my foot position while walking to keep my weight off the outside of the foot. I've broken that toe before but think only at the worst I may have re-cracked (but not broken) that area. Nothing to do but wait it out.

Picture taken about 24 hours after the happening. For some reason it doesn't really show the darker purple, although you can just see a tinge close to the mole and on the very inside close to the other toe. Actually, now that I think of it, a lot of times pictures of deeper reds and reddish-purples (such as my deep red rhodie in the shade garden) are turned just plain red on my phone and I can never get them adjusted to what I actually see.

Passing Along for a Renewed Purpose

Sunday morning there was a post on the local swap FB page asking for a small bookshelf. I happened to have a small bookshelf that I have been using to hold acrylic paint bottles, and a few odds and ends, for the last 8-9 years. All that paint is 7-9 years old and hasn't been used in 5-6 years. The teacher's need spurred my to gather the paints into a bag (to be gotten rid of) and pass it down. The bookshelf started out blue, and back in the early 80's I scraped off the paint and stained it.

Fall is starting to make itself felt with nights in the 40's. One of the maple trees out back starting to turn and pincushion flowers are blooming.

[Imagine that, it took until Tuesday for Typepad to allow me to upload those two pictures although it was happy to let me upload the first to pictures the first time]

These are the nice days, where the days are cool enough not to need AC, warm enough not to need heat, the mugginess leaves the air, and letting in the solar gain in the afternoon warms up the house enough that the house is just the right temperature in the morning. We will still have some "hot" days but then we will inevitably slide into winter. It remains to be seen how fast that slide is and how soon we see snow.

The Rest of the Exterior Paint

As promised, here are the results from painting the other two sides of the house.

Yes, the color does change from blue to green to gray depending on the lighting - both strength and angle.

These two sides of the house were challenging because the kitchen windows are original and everything was painted brown. She did a fabulous job of painting around the panes.

I am looking at 3 different colors for the front door:

Benjamin Moore AF-505 (Blue Echo)

Benjamin Moore 2136-40 (Aegean Teal)

Magnolia Home MAG011 (Sir Drake)

Yes, this post was started yesterday, but after 3 different errors when trying to upload the pictures, I gave up.

Rest in Peace My Friend

Jeff Soyer was one of the first bloggers I ever met way back when blogging was THE thing. He and I hit it off because our preference was to stay at the outskirts of the goings on at the shindig at the Weekend Pundit's old Manse. He generally gave up blogging to turn to modern FB and forum formats. He had great presence amongst several gaming and writing online communities and he asked me to take over moderation of one of those FB communities about a year ago when his health really started deteriorating. In March of this year the doctors weren't quite sure why he was still above ground.

He was an older generation gun nut with a love of reading, a cat lover. a big donor for varous projects in his community, and a gay guy with a great sense of humor in a time when being "other" was not as acceptable as it is for the younger generations coming up.

Rest in Peace my friend. Although sad for the loss felt by family and friends, I am so happy you are out of pain and have joined all your 4-legged furry friends who passed before you.

His preliminary obituary is here.

Jeff's FB page (for posterity)