Time has flown by and I didn’t even realize that I hadn’t written on my blog in a while.  We have been so busy trying to get the house in livable shape so the inspector has something to go on.  Working on the downstairs bathroom trying to get it ready for sheet rock and putting down a new plywood floor has taken up a lot of our time.  So much time we forgot about house chores.  That means laundry, dishes, sweeping and dusting what we can around boxes, sheet rock and plywood.  It’s a real pain.  So, that took us the morning and half the day to get it ready for the inspector.  Which was nice, someone had to light a fire under our asses to get the “normal” things done.

The other day the humidity was around 70% which in this cold weather magnifies the mountains and the bay.  It was so big looking that it almost felt like you could just walk over there and touch it!  It was very cool.

Saturday, we had a belated Thanksgiving dinner with my neighbors’ family and friends.  There was so much food that Dad and I ate ourselves into a coma.  Sunday, was a slow day due to the amount of tryptophan we consumed the night before.  I woke to a little finch like bird in my bedroom for the second time.

I had to open the window and shoo it out for the second time.  We are not sure where this little guy came from but he was there.  Dad ate chicken noodle soup and of course, I ate more leftovers and was just about worthless.  We managed to get the plywood up on the bathroom wall and now is ready for sheet rock.  I took the dogs out to use the bathroom and I saw an ermine!  They are cute little buggers!  It was all white except for the tip of it’s tail which was black.  They eat voles!  Which I hadn’t seen those little critters running around in the  house in a while.  I wish I would have videoed the little guy.  He/She was jumping in and out of it’s snow tunnels looking at Taco and I.  I borrowed a picture off the inter web to show you have freaking cute they are.

They are in the weasel family and are very small.  They turn white in the winter.  During the spring and summer they look like this.

Still cute as a button!

Also, the weather channel said the biggest storm on earth might get us!  My friend Tammy saw the same thing on the weather channel and was worried about us.  I get Alaska Severe Weather updates on my email and didn’t get anything so I had no idea a big storm that looks like a hurricane was heading through the Gulf of Alaska.  So, I started preparing by hauling wood to the house and chucking it in.  It’s the fasted way to get wood in your house but extremely messy.  Then, it needs to be stacked.

This jet sled is a girls best friend, not only can you drag firewood and other stuff on it, but it makes a human sled!  I can’t wait!

Monday we woke up early and finished the bathroom floor and managed to clean the house to the best of our ability.  We were as ready as we were going to be.  As far as we know the inspection we well. Dad and I cleaned dishes and then I needed to go to town to  mail something and get some salad stuff and suddenly realized I was craving lasagna.  So, I decided I was going to make it myself.  Got everything I needed and headed home.  Then it was time to prepare dinner.  It has been the best lasagna I have had in a long time.  I sautéed onions, shallots, and garlic then added the beef.  Let that simmer.  My sauce started out as a glass jar of marinara and too got the special treatment of a nice Cabernet, garlic, spices, a little sugar and sautéed for about an hour.  Mixed ricotta cheese and partisan with some mozzarella cheese and was ready to put together!  Once baking in the oven and prepared garlic bread as well.  Safeway has this french baguettes that are to die for.  I have to buy two because the first one is almost eaten by the time I get home.

So dinner was yummy and we will continue to eat leftovers until I need to freeze them.

Homestead Day 62 Wednesday 11/22/2017

Today was another day beautiful day. The air was full of humidity and it magnified the mountains across Kachemack Bay so that they appeared even larger and a lot closer than they really are. Skipped breakfast again unless you count 8 cups of coffee as breakfast. Read some of the usual bad news from around the world while consuming ‘breakfast’ and then got on with the work.

The first order of business was to close the inside wall of the old cabin, It makes up one side of the hallway and leaks cold air like crazy. I caulked every location that even appeared that it might leak and the floor to ceiling gap where the cabin and the house were joined. You could see daylight through that crack. I installed to sheets of wafer board and then sheet rocked over that. That was the end of that pneumonia hole. It’s fate was sealed.

Having finished the hallway I turned my attention to the downstairs bath. While it is sealed up and not leaking cold air into the house, it needs the same treatment as the hallway. The first project was to removed the remains of the old sheetrock that was under the edge of the tiled tub surround. And do it without knocking down all of the tile, of course. Several attempts later, I hit upon the idea of putting one of my worn out sawzall blades into my RYOBI saw. Worked like a champ. Got all of the sheetrock out of slot deep enough to get the wafer board slightly behind the tile. The tub and the tiled surround are truly ugly and the tub plumbing leaked and the floor under it needs to come out. The rigid joint between the tub and the drain pipe broke due to the settling of the house. All will be replaced in the Spring, if we don’t fall through the floor beforehand. Back to the wafer board. I had a piece leftover from earlier project and it almost fit perfectly. It was the right length and width. All I need to do was cut a notch where the support beam for the upstairs comes through the bath and use the holes to cut out for the vanity plumbing. Just as I finished screwing it to the studs I heard “Daa-a-ad”.

Summer had discovered that the kitchen sink was leaking underneath to the connection to the sink from the drain pipes. Yep. Both of them. I had, apparently, tightened every thing but them to the max. The root cause of the leak was that the sink drain line had frozen. That line had so much drop in it I didn’t expect that is would or could freeze. Summer headed off to town to get a pipe heating tape at 3:30. She was hurrying as she wanted to shower, dry her hair and get ready for dinner and drinks with some new friends. It was still almost an hour before she returned.

While Summer drove cautiously fast, I moved the wire shelving she had assembled earlier to the newly warm hallway. This led to clearing canned goods and whatever off all the flat surfaces in the kitchen. The Steele Family has always had and is a carrier for a terrible disease. It’s commonly called FSD which stands for Flat Surface Disease. The symptoms are every flat surface in the house is covered in some manner with paper, books, magazines, small cardboard boxes and detritus from all manner of places. This manifests itself as being too lazy, too busy or not knowing where to put the whatsit and then just placing it on the nearest flat surface until you have time or can figure out where it belongs. Over time the flat surface accumulates so much stuff that it begins to fall off. This is when you rake most of it into a trash bag and throw it away or burn it. There is some sorting of the pile, but we aren’t hoarders. We pay all of our bills online so there is rarely a piece of paper important enough to miss it, if it gets burnt in the stove.

Summer returns. I get dressed for crawling under the house. I round up the duct tape, the insulation, the flashlight, the heat tape, an extension cord and crawl under the house. Thirty minutes and some very cold hands later, I crawled out with the deed done. Now all we have to do is wait for the pipe to thaw and the sink to drain before attempting to wash dishes.

Summer left at about six and I sat down to read the news. I didn’t get through my usual 10-12 news sites this morning so I was feeling seriously uninformed. About 8:00, I made myself a three egg omelet with onions, some cheese and red pepper flakes. I sautéed the onions in butter and when they were translucent I poured the egg into the piled on the cheese and sprinkled the red pepper on the egg. It folded properly for a change is it was a nice easy dinner. Nice easy clean up too, I ate it out of the pan.

I woke up with the sun blasting in the window into my eyes.  It seems I slept in.  When the sun is over the mountains and bright you’re looking at maybe 10am.  It wasn’t just me Dad slept in too.  We drank our morning coffee and went back to work.  We finished sheet rocking the wall by the front door and Dad started working on the bathroom wall.  While he was doing that I was figuring out the bits and pieces of wire racks that I dismantled back in Florida.  Only to see there are parts missing on one.  It took me an hour or so to locate parts and figure out what goes where.  In between all this I am helping Dad as well.  I’m able to put two of the racks together and we about to start the dishes in the sink when low and behold it’s not draining.  It seems when we went underneath the house “the Underworld” wrapping heat tape and insulation around the pipes we failed to think about the sink.  At the time it was not installed.  So, out of sight out of mind.  The sink also started leaking at the seams, but was easily fixed by tightening the fittings.  So off to Ulmer’s  I go.  Another stupid trip to town to get more heat tape.  When I got back Dad went under the house to wrap the heat tape and insulation around the pipe and I got in the shower.  I was going out with some new friends!

My blow dryer died back in October and haven’t had one since.  I ordered a new one from Amazon but have yet to receive it.  Even though we are Prime members there is no such thing as free 2 day shipping to Alaska.  Bummer!  So I had to use Dad’s old appliance blow dryer that he used to defrost refrigerators with.  It’s beat up and has no protective backing to it.  Which means no protection from the little fan inside.  Trying to dry my hair with that was slow and scary.  I got my hair stuck it in once, then I started smelling something burning.  I run down stairs to check the fire and it’s okay right where it’s supposed to be.  In the stove.  So, I wonder around the house trying to figure out what was burning, then I realized that the blow dryer but have sucked in some of my loose hair and incinerated it.  I’m glad it wasn’t still attached to my head.  This whole time I have a mirror propped up on the sink with one light bulb that has a yellow hue to it.  Which brings me to trying to put makeup on in a dark shadowy bathroom with this yellowish light.  Makeup went on extremely fast and was less dangerous than blow drying my hair.

Took the dogs out one more time before I left and off I go to town.  Driving in pitch black at 5:45 in the evening is interesting.  First, it’s dark no street lights and the road is black.  Second, the snow and ice make it difficult to drive on and when you pass another vehicle the road just disappears.  More dangerous than the blow dryer.   First stop Alibi for some yummy halibut fish tacos and a couple libations followed by two pints of water.  I was greeted with open arms by my new friends.  We were laughing most of the time.  It’s crazy how you can just meet people and fit right in instantly.  The tacos are excellent but I wish they were blacked and my friend Tammy knows I like them spicy!

Next we head to Kharacter’s which is a bar full of characters.  It was darkish, it had a pool table, and wasn’t very crowded due to the fact it was early.  LOL!  I met everyone at Alibi’s at 6pm.  We talked, laughed and a had a couple more drinks with about 4 or 5 glasses of water with it.  Then we all said out good byes and headed home.  It was a fun night.  I’m glad I went out.

Taco and I went to town together to see if we could find appropriate footwear for him.  Seems I can’t find one business that sells tiny snow proof boots for a Chihuahua. I had to find them online and order them.  They will get here in about 4 days.  But I bought what they had to keep his paws protected until his new ones come in the mail.  They are a little big and Taco has a little bit of a hard time walking in them.

While Taco and I were out it started to snow.  Funny it didn’t feel that cold, but it was a whopping 22 degrees.  From there we headed to Sav-U-More to pick up a few things and then to Safeway for yams.  From there we hit the Post Office and then Spenard’s for some wafer boards so we can finish the walls by the front door and in the bathroom.  We got that loaded up and headed home in the snow.

When we got back I dropped Taco off and headed to my neighbor’s house to discuss Thanksgiving.  Enjoyed the visit, went home and back to work.  We got the wall covered by the front door.  We also had some water problems again this time a little crack valve or something that was leaking pressure so the water wouldn’t flow.  We fixed it and have water again.

Still feeling blessed to have real seasoned firewood.

For dinner we ate Tamale casserole.