Archive for ‘June, 2014’

Tales of the chimney

The first winter I was in this house, I had a chimney fire. It was not much fun, but the good news is that Doug Heil, of Heil Brothers was the person I called. He was at my home the next day and replaced my damaged chimney, inspected everything including my wood supply and that was the start of a most excellent business-friendship.

We speak once a year when he comes to clean and inspect all.

Since that first visit, it has been a quick clean, “all is well” and then I hear about his family and I share my stuff and it is what life in a smallish town is made of!

We missed last year as I did not use the woodstove the winter that Bear had his surgeries. I had phoned the office last July to say why I didn’t need a clean, but instead of Doug’s wife Sandy, I spoke to an employee so did not get a chance to catch up with either of them.

It had been in the back of my mind to call earlier this year. I closed the damper and doors on the woodstove…early May…thinking not only the bats of past years, but the yellow jackets of the recent year.

Then, last week, on the way to the dump…there is the Heil Bros truck parked by the side of the road. I pulled over. It was Doug. We chatted, etc. and the upshot is that he was here on Friday to clean the Chimney.

The cleaning was fairly non-eventful.

Doug did note that there were a number of Yellow Jackets (DEAD!) in my stove.

We discussed the bane of the yellow jacket thing and I told him about my traps this year. I also told him there was a nest on the house and that I’d had a ladder set for the last week, but kept putting off dispatching the nest.

He said: “Oh, I’ll spray it, I do it all the time”. He sprayed it and did not get stung and the nest fell to the ground.

I was SO relieved! I absolutely HATE dealing with the nests. I told him about my nest spraying “outfit”.

I just wanted to hug the man.

He said that my spray was the best he’d used. It is a foam spray from the local hardware and my personal favorite as it goes a good 20 feet with a significant amount of foam which seems to render anything in its path…DEAD!

I told him where I got it and then gave him one of the 3 cans I had in my arsenal as a THANK YOU!

As we were “settling-up”, Doug said that I should start a fire in the stove. The recent driving rains had soaked the chimney, the stovepipe and the stove. He said a fire would dry things out vs some rust happening.

So…a fire…in late June…with the windows open and me in shorts.

Bear stayed away from the heat.

Tales of the Chimney: Summer 2014.

More rain

After 5 days of sunshine, temperatures in the upper 70’s/low 80’s (F) and a final day, Wednesday, of perfection at low 70’s with a wonderful breeze…we are back to rain.

But Wednesday…no photos as I was out after finishing my work, enjoying… enjoying feeling 100%, enjoying a perfection of a day and also doing a few of the yard chores that I missed over the weekend.

But, today, Thursday:

Raindrops on everything.

So far, this round, it has been drizzly vs pouring rain.

I think it got to 57F today.

It feels good.

I am enjoying the green and the cool and the moisture.

More rain.

A better day

After last night’s 3:00 a.m. “quick piddle outing” ….OMG a skunk in the front yard! (Thankfully, due to a short lead on Bear, and porch light on, the skunk spritzed a wee bit of its perfume – in the excitement – with none hitting us) ….

We still managed a good and early start to Monday work day.

I started fading late morning, but a 15 minute after lunch nap revived and I had my work day in by 5:00 p.m. ON…THE…DOT!

Bear was ready for an afternoon outing and out we went.

It was so very quiet…5:11 p.m.

I guess too early for the off at 5 crowd to be getting home.

Clouds building over the mountains to the east.

So. VERY. Quiet.

Peaceful.

I sat and was thankful for the day and the peace and quiet of that time.

A better day.

First weekend of Summer

I had big plans for the weekend.

After a very rainy week – and actually the last few weekends have been rainy – and with Wild Thing in shape to de-Winterize, load, etc… my weekend plans included getting her situated for at least some short outings, mowing the lawn, blowing pine needles off the roof of house and garage and some general yard pick up.

The plans went awry.

Between a medication, summer light and nighttime wildlife (skunk!) causing serious sleep disruption…my get up and go, got up and went. I had some energy first thing but by late morning…pfft…out of gas.

I’m not a “just push through it” kind of person as well as I know when I try to do things when I’m not 100%, I often end up hurting the equipment or me and/or botching the job, so I came inside, made a batch of herbal iced tea and wiled away the weekend streaming tv, reading and puttering just a little in the kitchen when I felt like it.

Actually, it felt pretty good to have a low, slow, quiet weekend.

Bear and Auggie enjoyed cool mornings… walk and a treat…

I don’t think the treat was shared.

To the left (north) of the front porch is the cat hidey-nap spot that was a favorite with Bob…

And now with Auggie.

I can find him there most afternoons.

Bear prefers the cool house and his gecko.

Chutney was on my cooking list. I added strawberries to the small amount of rhubarb I had for a strawberry-rhubarb chutney.

Dump all in a pan and cook down to desired consistency.

The house smelled wonderful…

And a beautiful jar of chutney was the result.

I love a little on a spicy, sausage pizza. Also good on grilled salmon or chicken. Or coconut-curry rice. Good stuff!

I did get Wild Thing de-Winterized and a tank of chlorinated water is in her. I’ll drain, rinse and refill during the week as there is time. The grass…well, it has been long before…all will get done. Just not this first weekend of Summer

A low key Friday

Although I really needed a good work day…the sun, the breeze… everyone else in my work group doing other things…

I did get a half day of work in but otherwise puttered between the kitchen, the front porch and the side yard.

We are enjoying the front porch these last days…the cool and rain and breeze and no yellow jackets. Today a few YJs but nothing to drive us away.

Auggie-boy was outside the live long day! He comes in almost on the hour to say hello and grab a bit to eat…and I catch him napping in the tall grass just south of the front porch…the spot that Mr. Bob also favored. Just like Beardog point is the Beardog lookout, the grassy spot is apparently the cat hidey-nap spot.

A good day of a bit of work, time outside with Bear and Auggie and beauty all around.

A low key Friday.

Rain, rain, it has gone away

Well, at this point it hadn’t gone away.

This is Wild Thing with her brand new windshields.

They got a good test with a night and day of pouring rain…

Hoo…I say HOO-RAH!!!

A dry dash in record setting (we set records for amount of rain 2 days in a row and records for the lowest high in 100 years) – I was so very pleased to walk into Wild Thing the last 2 mornings and see no drips, no puddles, just a normal dry dash.

And today, Thursday…it started a bit drizzly, but cleared and the sun came out…

We jumped and ran for joy!

Rain, rain, it has gone away.