Notes From The Verge

fitzw @ 2026-04-26T14:52:00

2026-04-26T18:54:17Z

New one today.

We have an over-and-under dishwasher, large drawer on top, smaller drawer on bottom. We don’t use the smaller drawer because it won’t stay closed (and the grate over the air filter is now broken, but that’s a different matter).

Today, almost all of the control lights for the lower drawer were on, and wouldn’t clear when I hit the cancel button.

I went into the basement and cycled the circuit breaker for the dishwasher, and that cleared the lights.

Weird.

The dishwasher came with the house over 13 years ago.

comments

fitzw @ 2026-04-07T17:18:00

2026-04-07T21:30:11Z

There have been six friends who have died since late December. That is too many in such a short period of time.

ETA: As of this morning, it is seven friends.

———

I did manage to accomplish a few things yesterday and today, during which my fitness tracker recorded eighteen flights of stairs today and fourteen yesterday:

Re-seated the O-rings on the connector for the water line for the refrigerator and hooked it back up. After turning the water back on, I got two cups of filtered water from the spout. So far, no leaking.
Attempted to clear the nozzle on a can of spray foam insulation. That was a failure.
Stuffed fiberglass insulation into a gap between floor boards in the living room. Hopefully the living room won’t be so drafty in that corner now.
Made myself some tea using that filtered water.
Started another batch of distilled water (distiller is in the basement) for use in H’s APAP machine.
Forwarded a copy of my latest dental bill to DTA as part of our SNAP requalification.
Managed to get two days’ worth of focused moderate exercise (30 minutes each day)
Took a shower on one of the two days

comments

fitzw @ 2026-03-27T11:28:00

2026-03-27T15:33:41Z

Later yesterday:

Did a load of dishes
Did a load of laundry (clean sheets)

So far today:

Found tap-and-die set in barn (working with an acquaintance to repair a favored swing-arm lamp) — it was not where I expected it to be
Pulled precision compass drawing set out to show to acquaintance above — figure he’d appreciate it
Coffee and breakfast (yes, after barn trip)

Later today, will work on repairing leak under refrigerator…

comments

Things getting done

2026-03-26T19:32:44Z

A few things that have been done so far this week:

Negotiated a lower premium with the car insurance company
Couple-three loads of laundry (so far)
Vacuumed the coils under the refrigerator (They’re visible again)
Got CoVID boosters
Got petrol for the car

There’s more, but I do not recall what else at the moment.

comments

Distilling water

2026-01-10T19:33:13Z

Making a note to myself that I am running two cycles through the water distiller today, so that I have a better idea of how long the distilled water lasts.

Side note: two furry intruders were evicted with prejudice from the basement today.

comments

fitzw @ 2025-11-03T20:18:00

2025-11-04T01:26:59Z

A few things done today:

Put a new tarp over the small greenhouse frame that we’re using as a pass-through shelter between the house and the barn. New tarp is longer, so it comes down the sides farther, overlapping the bamboo fence walls. Some effort was required to anchor the tarp to the frame; there will be more effort to secure it tomorrow.
Raked some leaves out of the labyrinth in preparation for the winter.
Took a small tarp of leaves from the front yard to put in the raised beds attached to the greenhouse to protect the chard and the garlic.
Took a small tarp and a small wheelbarrow of leaves from the back yard and added those to the raised beds.
Remembered after dark (and after the rain had started) that the small tarp must still be on the lawn next to long raised bed on the south side of the greenhouse. Heather managed to find the tarp in the dark (green tarp on green grass) and dragged it into the enclosed porch so that it wouldn’t blow away.

comments

Father's Day

2025-06-15T23:43:28Z

So, this morning, I got up early and

Took a shower, and then
Collected the trash and recycling in house and barn, and then
Took the trash and recycling to the town Transfer Point, after which we
Went to Wicked Good Cafe at Elmer’s for Father’s Day, and then home where I
Took a bag of volunteer mushrooms from the greenhouse to the far compost tip. I then
Dug in the garden patch, in final preparation and then I
Mowed a margin around the garden patch, so that we then
Planted three rows of corn, which needed us to
Water the rows of corn, and then we
Planted six bush-type acorn squash plants, which needed us to
Water those squash plants, and then I
Mowed more of the meadow near the roadside, until the batteries ran out on the mower.

Somewhere during that I hooked up the garden hose from one of the greenhouse rain barrels to fill the rain barrel near the garden patch.

And then I went inside.

comments

Ginger Water recipe

2024-01-21T01:10:06Z

This is not the time of year for this, but I found this copy of the recipe from 2013, so I thought that I would post it here.

Old family Ginger Water recipe:
1 cup medium maple syrup, ⅓ c vinegar, ¼ tsp ginger, and enough water to fill the white pitcher...

( The white pitched held about 3 qts of liquid. )

comments

Firewood

2023-11-15T22:03:44Z

I’ve been spending a lot of time recently cutting up logs that were left by the tree crews on our property after they cut back trees from the power lines (“15 ft clearance from ground to sky”). I’ve been focusing on the ash logs, as those are easier to cut and much easier to split.

Today I cut seven “super” chunks that were at least 20 inches in diameter, and then split them small enough to be able to fit into the car for transport back to the house (I am working at the edge of the property). I split the super chunks into at least six pieces, because at four pieces they were still too large to put in the car.

We intend to take pictures of the firewood in process. It’s green, so we won’t be able to use it until next year at the earliest.

When I’m done, I might have as much as one stacked cord of wood. We will see.

comments

fitzw @ 2023-06-11T11:10:00

2023-06-11T15:18:37Z

Things that I have done today (so far):

Made breakfast

Taken rubbish and recycling to the town transfer point

Attached a drapery hook in the doorway into the greenhouse, to hold the [anti-insect] curtain to the side

There’s a story behind why we wanted to put a drapery hook in the doorway.

We have been draping that curtain over an ironing board that is standing on end on the porch, right by the doorway, because it was convenient.

One day, I came into the greenhouse from the other end and found the ironing board on the ground inside the greenhouse, at the bottom of a short step-stair that I had built for getting onto the porch at that end. Apparently, the wind through the windows on the porch and into the greenhouse was strong enough to blow the curtain hard enough that it yanked the ironing board through the doorway.

So now, we have a hook for that curtain, and the ironing board can be stood on end somewhere else…

comments

A relatively busy morning

2022-07-31T19:00:42Z

Made pain perdu (French toast) for breakfast using a sourdough-based cinnamon raisin bread that helwen picked up at the local farmers' market.

Made a run to the Transfer Point for trash, recyclables, and returnables, including the blade of a spade and an old standing fan that had a burnt out motor.

Picked up a container of ice cream at the local convenience store.

Attached legs to the platform for the base of the new stairs/stile for the retaining wall in the courtyard. Helwen took care of placement while I worked on other things.

Inflated a soft tire on the riding mower — a bicycle pump fills the tire faster than the 12V tire inflater that we carry in the car.

Attached the battery charger to the riding mower.

Moved the computers from the front room office to the living room, where the air conditioner is.

That's a start. It now being 3:00 PM or thereabouts, that might be a finish for today.

comments

That cedar shed

2021-11-12T00:58:22Z

helwen has been posting updates on the construction of the cedar shed, both on Dreamwidth and on Facebook. Progress has been in fits and starts for various reasons (weather, illness, fatigue, etc.).

Yesterday I did all but the final course of half shingles on one side of the roof (the second side from where I started). Today I got a late start because of driving a housemate to an appt. to deal with an infection in her foot. Driving tends to tire me out, so shortly after returning home and eating lunch, I took a long nap. Then I finished that final course and then worked on the side that I had originally started on, doing all but that last course of half shingles. Those half shingles take more time because of needing to trim them to length before nailing them down.

I’ve decided to modify the shed design yet again. The kit plans have two boards that overlap at the peak of the roof, but I want a little better protection against rain, so I’m going to either cover those boards with brown flashing, or lay down the flashing first and cover it with those two boards. Either way should provide better protection.

We already plan to put screening and hardware cloth in the soffits under the eaves to keep out squirrels and wasps (although the cedar will probably go a long way to keep out the wasps), and we’ve made other modifications to the plans to accommodate the cold pit in the old milk house foundation that we’re building the shed on, so it’s not like we were being faithful to the plans.

Tomorrow we’re expecting rain in the morning, but hopefully it will clear up enough that I can at least finish the roof in the afternoon.

comments

Doing things

2020-06-14T14:40:08Z

There are, of course, things happening. A local march in solidarity with Black Lives Matter, a local, silent vigil being held this evening. Preparations for voting in November.

At the same time, there are tasks that need to be taken care of around our smallholding: mowing the lawn, trimming trees, digging up aggressive, invasive plants.

To that end, here is a small list of some of the things that we’ve accomplished so far this year (not exhaustive, and in no particular order):

Pruned one of the apple trees along the roadside way back, to keep it away from power lines and give it more chance to grow in other ways. We have plans for the other apple tree along the roadside, but this year the robins built a nest high up in the tree, so that will wait until next year.

Pruned the two smaller apple trees, but not as much.

Installed a stockade fence above the retaining wall on the north of the courtyard area between barn, solar array, and driveway, to provide some privacy and protection for the small garden beds that we’ve put in above that wall.

Prepared a garden bed for planting sweet corn this year, double-turning the sod under the soil, applying compost mulch from one of our compost bins (there was a lot of ready compost in the bottom of that bin), tilling that mulch into the soil, watering the ground afterwards to help spread the nutrients. Today should actually have the planting of seeds.

Prepared a new space for one of the two sheds and hired in a contractor to move the shed with some heavy equipment. The preparation involved removing sod, leveling the space, and laying a lot of the rocks that we dug out over the exposed soil to deter wildlife from moving in underneath.

Started work on clearing the old concrete pad that the shed was on as a place for my son and his wife to move their camper/trailer to that will be closer to house.

Prepared the courtyard garden beds for planting, which involved (again) removing sod and leveling the space, laying down old paper feedbags, placing four raised bed frames and filling them with soil taken from the new space for the shed as part of leveling that space, and laying cedar bark mulch in the paths between the beds (Heather did much of this work).

Planted tomatoes with some companion plants in several really large pots that we have (Heather again).

Moved two tall plant hanger poles from in front of the house to allow space for a roof to be added over our main entryway, reconnecting the hops growing next to the house to one of the poles that was moved.

Worked on preparing another space to receive two yards of gravel and be covered with pavers, as a place to put two planter boxes and a water fountain/bird bath (it’s dry — the bees and the birds will need a place to get water that isn't just the brook across our property).

Hung shade cloths inside the greenhouse so that it doesn't get too hot in there (again, mostly Heather).

Began the process of transplanting new lilac shoots to the brook bank, to help stabilize it.

Planted some new trees in various locations (again, mostly Heather).

All of these efforts were affected by the strange weather that we had in May, including one day where it seemed that we had all four major seasons on the same day (including snow).

comments

Portrait

2019-09-11T13:51:48Z

I'm testing out how to upload images to Dreamwidth.

comments

Plans and all that

2019-09-07T14:27:59Z

It’s always interesting when you make plans for a day, and then other people make plans for you that they expect you to drop everything for.

Today’s plans involve going down to the valley to pick up more materials for the work in the library (puzzle mats for flooring in one section), plus do some needed grocery shopping.

Added into the mix is putting out hay for a customer who called last night (while I was doing some soldering work on an electrical item, so Heather took that call) who always seems to call only when she is out, not before, so there is usually no leeway on when the hay needs to be put out. Going to the family farm is a side trip; it’s not really on the way to the valley.

There was also the matter of pulling out the sections of cut beech out of the van so that there will be space for the construction materials. The beech was left on our property by the tree crew that has been cutting back brush and trees to allow more clearance for the road equipment that will be used to repave our road. That wood has been added to the pile of butternut wood that was left by the same crew but right next to the driveway. Unloading the wood was anticipated, though.

When we get home, there will, of course, be unloading of the van again, plus unloading the bag of Sackrete from the trunk of the car for smoothing and leveling a section of concrete floor that the puzzle mats will be going over.

In the end, this all will probably take the entire day for me, or close to it.

By the time all is said and done, there may not be time for me to accomplish any yard work today. Probably just as well, as the heavy rain last night left everything soaked.

comments

Weekend work

2019-08-17T16:11:18Z

[So, let’s see if I remember how this works.]

The summer has been full of stops and starts, with weather and mild illness (summer cold) slowing progress on the projects.

One section of the lawn hasn’t been mowed for weeks (it’s the section that had the meadowlark nest earlier in the summer).

So, this past week, I set the walk-behind mower to it’s highest setting and mowed a large part of that section. After it settles, I’ll be mowing it again at a lower setting. We want that section clipped because it has a number of plants that we do not want to spread around the property.

Today was a trip to the local Transfer Station: two bags of trash (mostly items that we are removing from the barn), a bin of demolition material (old asphalt shingles from the barn, old weed blocker fabric that wouldn’t block anything, &c), an old car bench seat that was left on the property from some previous owner, a non-functioning computer monitor (there’s a special container box for large electronics, e.g. televisions, computer monitors, printers), paper recycling, some old books for the book exchange. I’ll have to go back this weekend, because I neglected to include the container recycling.

comments

Stonework

2017-05-25T15:10:10Z

Starting some time before we bought our current house, the whole stone walkway (with the doorway stoop) has been slowly settling for years, until it’s below the level of the driveway and the lawn on either side. So, in wintertime during a thaw, it fills with about 3" of water, which then freezes solid. After complaining about that for a while, I finally decided that it was time for that to change.

So, over the past few weeks, I’ve been digging out and lifting the flagstones (most of the stones are about 1½" thick), in preparation for putting fresh gravel underneath them to raise the whole walkway back up.

Finished lifting the stone walkway between the house and the driveway over the weekend, as well as the front stoop. The last stone (right in front of the stoop) was the hardest, being about 3' x 4' and 3" thick (it’s an old lye-leaching stone). Rather than lifting it, I basically just shifted it about two feet away from the stoop using a 4' straight pry bar.

The stoop has been [mostly] repaired and put back on a refreshed bed of sand and gravel.

The lye stone is in place on refreshed sand and gravel, set higher than the rest of the path to make a low step in front of the stoop (which is about the same size).

The remaining stones have also been laid out. I’m not completely happy yet with the final height of the stones, so I'll be adjusting the gravel amount under them for a day or so before starting to fill in the spaces between the stones.

comments

fitzw @ 2017-04-12T11:27:00

2017-04-12T15:28:42Z

Last post to LJ.

From now on, all posts will be to Dreamwidth only. Look for me on http://fitzw.dreamwidth.org — I may actually do some more posting there.

comments

Dreamwidth account

2017-01-04T02:41:15Z

Test cross-post from Dreamwidth (not that I've been doing a lot of posting on LJ).

comments