Happy 4th of July!

7-5-13

Very hot and humid.   The last three weeks have seen a lot of rain but it's been fairly dry the last four days.  The deer flies are out and very bothersome.

I've been here for two weeks and Char is spending a week of vacation here now.  Her parents were here for five days and left this morning.

Char has been tending the roses and harvesting currants.  We washed the large rug in the long room.  I have vacuumed spider webs out of basement ceiling.  The garden, consisting mostly of lettuce and tomatoes, is doing well.

De-Humidifier #2
Up to know, I have only been dimly aware of a 2nd de-humidifier in the basement and I've just checked it and got it working.  Like the one in the middle of the basement, the 2nd one is mounted on a platform, but it's in the southwest corner, straight ahead if you're coming down the stairs.  It's the same brand as that in the downstairs bedroom.

The intake faces a passage from the main part of the basement to the area under the downstairs bedroom, so I assume it's meant to address moisture under there.  Whether it will help with considerable sweating on the lower part of the walls in that area of the basement I don't yet know.

De-Humidifier in SW Corner of basement

Passage from main basement to area under bedroom - the hose seen here goes to the de-humidifier in the bedroom.

Basement wall "sweating"

6/18/13

Summer in full swing but it's been wet and cool.  Much rain and the ground is well-saturated.  Things done on recent visits: cleaned out and put screens in rain gutters, worked in garden, strimmed, started up de-humidifier in basement, dug a small trench around remaining standing apple tree near wall (to prevent swamping), trimmed trees around the periphery, dead-headed Lilacs.

Water Heater
I had turned off the water heater and had trouble re-lighting it.  We had John from Ormsbee out and he cleaned the burner, thermocoupler and pilot tubes, and it lights and runs much better.  $75.

Apple Tree
I cut off the dead parts on one of the apple trees outside the back door.

Beaver
There is definitely a beaver in the beaver pond now and his dam threatens to flood the road.

Paul mowed today.

Saturday May 4th

Picked up Char, Sarah and Robin in Hudson for a day of antiquing.  Had lunch at Swoon.

This weekend: Char planted some lettuce and other things.  Robin supervised the cleaning and painting of a lot of the porch rails.  Turned furnace pilots off.  Took them to train Monday morning.

Lilacs nearing full leaf.   Roses leaves starting.  Many little bugs.  Moths starting to appear.  Lawn flowering.

Spring Visit

Char came up Friday with Sarah and Robin and I met them here.  This trip: cleared garden!

Monday: 3pm drive up - Black Chrysler 300 with MA plates beginning with 444.

Still much snow but some warmer temperatures and rain so it's melting fairly quickly, resulting in considerable seepage in the basement.

It is very, very muddy with fully saturated ground.  I BARELY made it up the driveway, with the very bottom after the turn being the biggest problem.

This trip: vacuumed firebox and lower parts of chimney.

March!

Arrived afternoon of March 1st.  All in order.  Still lots of snow on the ground.  Temperatures warmer than last visit.  Spring on the way!

Storm Nero
Nero passed last night leaving perhaps 18 inches of snow on the ground.  Travel bans in effect in MA and CT ($500 fine and up to a year in jail) being lifted this afternoon.  We just barely made it up before the roads became un-passable.  Below is a timelapse of the drive up from Winsted (best viewed in HD).

No power outage (yet) and no ill effects to the house apart from some snow trapped in the space between the storm windows and normal windows.  The melting snow will undoubtedly cause the seepage situation in the basement.  Road plowed today at about noon.

2-9-13

Manuals and Receipts

I have put two large manila folders next to the phone in the long room in which I'm putting manuals and receipts.  As of this writing only manuals for the thermostats and freeze alarm are within.

Squirrels!
We caught two squirrels; one in the barn and one in the house!  The red squirrel had been seen going into the barn for some time and the black one was heard in the attic for a few days before capture.  It would come down at night (probably via the wall between the long room and downstairs bathroom) and poop around the kitchen.  Both were driven down West Street and released.

The house squirrel would not be caught with the Have-A-Heart trap I found in the barn after repeated attempts.  I was obliged to purchase a smaller model which worked on the first attempt.  The barn squirrel was not so discriminating.

Barn Squirrel

House Squirrel

Winter and Pipes

In the middle of January I came up during a stretch of days with temperatures frequently in the single digits at night.  I had trouble with the cold water in the kitchen sink, both bathroom sinks and both toilets.

In the case of the kitchen sink I thawed it by placing a space heater under there for a few minutes.  The hot water in the downstairs sink was persuaded to run by blowing a hair dryer down into the hole in the floor where the pipe descends.  The others sort of came around on their own.

The temperatures that appear to be the problem are teens or colder, multiple days in a row.   It hasn't been quite that cold for so long since then, and I have not had trouble again, but I have also:

• Blocked the excess space in the hole that the kitchen sink drain uses to pass into the basement - it was cut too wide, allowing both cold air and, judging from the scratch marks in the wood, mice.  I also insulated the cold water pipes in the sink cabinet.

• Partially blocked some of the vents in the basement that allow cold air to flow in so freely - I used roughly-cut cardboard pieces so air still comes in - they are not sealed.

• Insulated nearly all of the hot water pipes in the basement.  Not all because not all are easily accessible.  I don't know if this will ever prevent freezing but it will take those pipes longer to cool after use and increase efficiency.

• Re-sealed some of the insulation around the cold water pipes in the basement where they ascend into the kitchen.  They had not been well-applied.

Additional Precautions

I routinely run the water a bit in each faucet and then turn the water off at night.  On very cold nights, I turn the water off AND run the cold water out of all of the faucets after doing so.  

On very, very cold nights, or if I won't be here when very cold weather is forecasted, I've done the above and also drained excess water out of the cold water system via a valve in the basement (the one without black insulation).  It never fully stops coming out because I think there is a link to the hot water system, so I stop when it slows down.  This technique will fill a bucket halfway (if you've already run the faucets out of water).

Use the thermometer hanging near the de-humidifier as a guide.  If it's 33 degrees expect problems.  If it's 36 degrees or above it should be fine based on past observations, and none of these precautions should be necessary.

Temperatures in the basement change fairly slowly and are fairly uniform.  I tested this by temporarily placing a 2nd thermometer near the fuse box - over several days it always displayed the same temperature as the one near the de-humidifier.

One night of single digits will not likely bring the temperature in the basement from, say, 40 degrees to 32.  Observations have been informal but I've never seen it vary more than 4 degrees in one day.   

The plumber, Louis Ludivico, has said that getting as much water as possible out of the system is good when there is danger, but that even with the precautions outlined above, if the furnaces fail there WILL be frozen, and possibly damaged pipes.

Freeze Alarm

I purchased an inexpensive freeze alarm (Control Products Model # FA-B-CCA).  It is attached to the phone line in the kitchen and lives on top of the shelf near the oil lamps.  If the temperature drops below 45 degrees it will call me.  I would then call Paul and/or drive up.

Additional Notes

- The kitchen sink pipes don't descend directly under the sink.  They travel down into the sink cabinet, then along the baseboards through a hole in on the right side of the cabinet, around the corner behind the hot water heater, along the back wall a bit and then descend.
- The bathroom toilet downstairs is connected to the hot water supply.
- I typically keep the thermostats set to no lower than 55.  If there will be temps in the 30's or 40's I may set it to 52 for short periods to save propane.  I may set it lower still as late winter temperatures rise.
- As of late January 2013, the large propane tank is full, which should be enough fuel to last through spring and hopefully, summer.
- The garden faucet froze.  We thawed it using a hairdryer on the metal pipe.  We removed as much water from the line as we could and closed the dedicated valve in the basement.  The water line from the basement to the faucet itself is PVC or some other kind of plastic.  Char thinks it's too deep in the ground to freeze.  We'll see in Spring.
- I have only used the valves for the garden faucet and cold water system.  The cold and hot water systems are joined in a way I don't understand and I'm afraid to mess with the hot water system because of implications to the hot water heater.  When I drain the cold I stop when the strong flow diminishes and the water gets warmer.

Cold Water Pipes Under Kitchen Sink Insulated

Hole Around Kitchen Sink Drain "Sealed"

Cold and Hot water Pipes in Basement.  Hot water pipes have the black insulation.

Pipes where they ascend into kitchen near hot water heater

Freeze Alarm

1) Valve for the line leading to garden faucet.
2) Valve for the cold water system.
3) Valve for the hot water system.

1-6-13

Shed Break-In

At some point during November or December 2012 during a period when we weren't around, someone broke into the shed by prying the hasp off the wall.  Nothing appeared to be missing but I filed a report with Officer Rosario of the Sandisfield Police Department and I re-attached the hasp.  No evidence of an attempt to enter the house or barn was seen.

FYI, the Sandisfield Police Department is a part-time department.  If they are not on duty the State Police out of Lee typically back them up.

Shed Hasp Pried Up

EDIT: Paul noticed some time in January that closure on the barn door to the right of the double door was also damaged.  When I was able to get here to see it myself, it was clear that it had also been tampered with.  In this case, the wood supporting the hardware had been hacked away, making entry into the barn possible.  I assume this was done at the same time as the shed but there's no way to know for sure.  Back when the shed was broken into and we inspected the house and barn, I may have only looked at the barn doors I always use.  I have repaired it.

FYI, the lock currently on there is a little tricky.  The key must not be all the way in to open it.

Damaged

Repaired

Hurricane Sandy

We passed the hurricane at the house and, at one point, noticed black things flying by the windows in the long room.  We went outside to see roof shingles on the long room roof being lifted up and torn off by the wind.  I went up and hammered down shingles to prevent further loss.

In December, Paul brought over a roofer, Charlie, who did a temporary fix designed to hold until Spring.  He has indicated that he would not want to do just a patch, but that whole side of the roof.  He charged $125 (EDIT: Bill received 2-6-13 and will be paid by Arnold or Char).