Ready for Winter

NOW we are ready for winter. Almost half-way through the season and the house is much more comfortable. The nice young men from the county weatherization program did a wonderful job finding the air leaks, the poor fits on doors and windows, insulation. Cute young men - if I were younger, thinner, single - who am I kidding here?

Some embarrassment occurs when strangers start fussing about your house, at least for me. Finding dust bunnies, cobwebs, grease spots - I swear I went around this house looking for those issues before they arrived. The guys were nice about it; they said that the blower they used to test for leaks knocks stuff out of the smallest corners, etc. I can imagine some of the things they have seen. Our most memorable incident for them was finding a dead snake in our fireplace. The one guy said "I don't want to upset you, but we found this snake..." To which I said, "Another one!" He was expecting the 'girly' response; I know he will be talking about that to the 'guys.'

What really impressed me is these guys were working very hard, squeezing into tight areas, moving heavy equipment, including a refrigerator that did not fit into the door very well - and they never cursed once! Not even a sincere "darn!" We had snacks and coffee and donuts for them, but they insisted on eating their lunch outside in their truck each day. We told them to come inside, etc., but I have a theory - they were talking about us and getting any cursing/cussing out of their system during that break.

It was really cold each day they were here, so of course they had to keep the outside doors open to weatherstrip them. We had snow, so of course they were outside putting a new storm window up. It was slippery, so that would be the perfect time to bring in a new refrigerator (nice one, too). The only damage we sustained was a latch on our back storm door when the refrigerator caught it. Not bad.

So now that is all accomplished, the weather has broken and we have had 40 degree temperatures today with no wind. My husband and I took advantage of the warmer weather and did some additional weatherization, such as covering our exhaust fan and fixing some plastic we had on the windows. I wish we were as efficient as those young men were - what would take them 1/2 hour at most takes us two hours to complete.

Winter will be back soon, so I am sure this will show how well the improvements function.

God's Flashlight

Amazing! We hit close to 90 degrees yesterday! Again, not really ready, as most of our summer clothes are still in the attic. Yes, the weather people predicted this, but it gets so we do not trust them very much. Besides that, we are in the 'higher elevations,' where exceptions to the predictions prevail. We coped okay - t-shirts and jeans are suitable all year and always available.

For the cold weather we cover the windows with plastic, put up heavy drapes, and arrange the furniture to prevent any winter chills. Now with the nice weather (we hope) the plastic has to come off, the drapes washed and put away to be substituted by lighter curtains, and the furniture can be placed to enjoy the lovely views of the blooming flowers and trees. So as this occurs, God's Flashlight comes out. This is an expression my husband has developed that explains the angle of the sun coming in the windows 'just so' to highlight the "floating fairies in the air" (dust) and the muted sheen of the furniture (more dust). This is why we have spring cleaning!

I feel it is a never ending battle here in the woods. The air is clean, but the pollen is plentiful. And we have cats and the ever present litter boxes. (There is no such thing as a "dust-free litter." - those marketing people need to really use the stuff - in a home - with windows open - and really, truthfully tell me their litter is "dust-free!") In addition, the winter containment harbors the dust and the removal of the adaptations just releases the result. So we try to keep everything clean, take a day or two as the official spring cleaning days, and the next bright, sunny morning - the dust is back! Never ending battle.

Fires

We have not had rain for a while, so everything is very dry. The humidity is low, which makes for beautiful blue skies, but fire danger is very high. We have a burn ban in effect (the day after my husband had his fire incident), but people being as they are, some insist a campfire or or burning trash is their right. As a result we have had some massive brush fires, some very close to our home. We respect the firefighters and what they have to go through, so when we hear the trucks from the station up the street, we are understandably concerned.

It is quiet here. We have cars go by and logging trucks and school buses, so we are used to those sounds. But when a State Trooper puts on the car siren in front of your home, you pay attention. That is what happened to me this morning, sound asleep, the siren goes off and I 'stuck the landing' before I was fully awake. I was up, on my feet, looking out the window before I knew why, what time it was, where my husband was - I was prepared and unprepared all at the same time! I figured I had a decision to make - not sure why, but I was decisive. I decided to go to the bathroom! I realized very soon what had occurred and started to laugh - some way to start a day! I found out this evening the trooper was called to a chemical spill on the Interstate - our road is a shortcut to get the next entrance.