Cooper and the chaos of Christmas

We had 4 extra people here on Christmas day.  Wonderful, but not the quiet routine that Cooper is used to.  E enjoys reading to him. (picture)

All was going well, presents opened, breakfast eaten, until #1Son tried to hug Cooper.  Not good.  Cooper reared up in fear and bit #1 in 2 places on the cheek.  Paul and #1 spent the rest of the afternoon in the emergency room as none of the urgent cares were open. He required 6 stitches.
I grabbed Cooper and put him in his crate where he spent the afternoon with his head to the back.
We both received a letter from Dept of Ag telling us of our rights and responsibilities after a dog bite.
That pretty much sucked the joy out of the day.

Jingle bells

I tried to turn some Christmas Bells this year. My first attempt at turning a bell from memory was not a success. It has the look of a bell that was squashed. I Googled "Bell" and placed that picture in back of the lathe so I could see it as I turned. The next 5 bells actually look like bells.
Once I had shaped the exterior of the bell I used a Jacobs chuck and a Forstner bit to hollow out the interior of the bell. I added a small ball shape at the top of each bell and drilled a hole through the ball for a ribbon to make is easy to hang the bells from the tree.
I used several species of wood: maple, cherry, ash, walnut. One bell was made from an old blank of Red Maple that had been completely shot through with worm holes. I only noticed it while I was turning when I hit the worm holes a cloud of dust would appear around the piece. The holes are packed with sawdust and frass left by the beetles or worms. When cut open, the frass and sawdust flies out because of the centrifugal forces of the spinning blank. When I finished this bell, some of the exposed holes still had sawdust packed in the exposed holes, so I used a dental pick to clean the holes out. That bell has a unique, weathered look.

Merry Christmas from our pack to yours

Gambol, Buddy, Kilo, Hank

Christmas Eve 2011

We all dressed warmly and walked in the meadow looking for Rudolph.  We saw lots of red lights; maybe one was his.

Finishing touches

Dwayne, our electrician, returned to complete some electrical work when my last lighting fixture finally arrived. I had ordered the fixture over the kitchen sink back in August but the producer kept delaying the delivery. When they failed to deliver it by Christmas and only said it might come in January, I cancelled the order. I then ordered another fixture similar to the lights under the catwalk which arrived shortly after the New Year holiday.  Dwayne replaced some lights in the breezeway crawlspace with some low profile fixtures and  installed 3 flat floor receptacles in the great room and another receptacle near the rear entry so the Christmas tree can go there next year.

He installed the over sink fixture in the master bath. We'll need to bump up the wattage in this fixture but it matches the glass tiles in the shower and the color is a perfect match to the paint.
The low voltage lights over the butcher block island in the kitchen area and the chandelier over the dining room table were adjusted to their final heights.
He also explained the mystery of the master bath exhaust fan: it senses when moisture has built up to a threshold so we can leave it in the on position. It will turn itself off when it has done the job. Or, we can  override the sensor by flipping it on twice.

We were warned that checking, loud cracking noises like gunfire, occurs in new houses like ours. We remember hearing it in the Carriage House but, of course, we couldn't see the results under the drywall. It gives the house character, I tell myself.  It seems that more checking occurs in posts than in beams; some cracks are 1/4" wide. Bigger posts, bigger checks. The floor boards haven't checked since they don't contain the pith, but when they shrink and separate a bit the finish seems to crack loudly. Sometimes it's just one gunshot; sometimes it's more like ripping. Character, character, character....

We burned the Christmas trash this morning .  The brand new burn barrel is half full of ashes but the RTV is empty.
Christmas is all over: the tree and accouterments are packed away for next year.  Even the high chair is in the basement.  The dehydrator is still in the kitchen, but we have agreed to put it in the garage on one of the racks that we already have.
Then I decided I’ll  I couldn’t stand the Carriage House that filthy, so I purged some and washed it down some.  About half better but it took all afternoon.     It still has stone cutting dust from the patio construction.
Paul constructed a couple more speed bumps.  We are expecting ¾ inch rain tomorrow so he wanted to slow down the run off.

Cousins

Elise:  (8 months) Little Miss Sweet Cheeks Army crawls very fast to get whatever she wants.  She'll go around or through anything in her path.  She loves Cheerios and any other food bit placed in front of her; the dogs didn't take long to find their place under her chair. She perfected her kisses, so-bigs, and applause while she had so much attention. She prefers to warm up slowly to new people, but once she's established her comfort zone, her eyes sparkle when we come near.

Jonathan:  (3 1/2 yo) Oma has 2 foxholes for sleeping and one skunk hole (in the red bathroom) for storing stuff. He was very effective in finding Opa's woodsprites hidden in the forest...even the one without a nose. Santa brought many games, most of which were too noisy, like the Hungry Hippo marble game and we always had someone taking a nap.  The wooden trains, memory games and puzzles were the best quiet play.
Jonathan and I played restaurant:  first we made brownies, then he made me a virtual dinner of hugs and kisses stew and presented me with a check which he asked me to sign. We had a scary moment when Jonathan stepped around David's chair which was part of the fire blockade and put his hand out touch the stove.  Opa yelled  LOUD and scared everyone; luckily Jonathan was scared most of all.  Mom and Oma rushed his tiny hot spot on his hand into a bowl of cool water to stop the burn.  A few hours later as I was standing inside the barricade warming my buns, Jonathan told me in no uncertain terms to get out of there!

Shawn: (18 m) Reverse kisses (slurps) and loves 2 Buddies. We had a 4-car train on a track around the Christmas tree which lit up his eyes. Oma made sure we had plenty of boo-boos (blueberries) for Shawn. Shawn rocked our giggles with his duck walk: he bent his knees, put his head out and arms back like wings and raced around.  When we laughed, he threw his head back and belly laughed. Later when I tried to make him do it again, he'd grin and say no! which, of course sent me back into fits of giggles.
Shawn's learned that trains say, "Whooo whooo!" and loved to play with the plethora of them in the loft (both on and off the fancy train table).
He finally started saying Oma and Opa and knew exactly who they are.
I think Jonathan taught Shawn what a dinosaur is, how to say it, and that it says, "roar!"
He was on the constant lookout for bock-bocks and would point them out whenever one was in sight.
He loved flicking the kid-height lightswitches in the foxholes off  and on, though not enough to sleep there... yet!
He'd join us in the carriage house after J2 & E went to bed so he could play with blocks, red Rx bottles, etc. a little longer and not get hushed (he was on Chicago time, afterall) .

Hardwick Family

Puri Family

Reading: Decision Points George W. Bush.  **** not on Kindle... I forgot how heavy a hardback book can be!

Christmas tree

Thanks to the YMCA's Festival of Trees for this year's tree.  WOCC sponsored a tree which I decorated with a real pinecone skirt, deer skull, black snake skin, grape vine, pressed leaves, milkweed seeds like snow. When I undecorated it I brought it home to reuse it.  We lifted it on a table so keep inquisitive fingers and noses away.  Although we can count the little tree that the Hassingers gave us our first Christmas here, this is the first live tree we've had since Shannon graduated from college.  This tree had some of Mom Kitty's ornaments on it as well as the beer balls and cap ornaments but no pigs nor any harps.
No ladybugs this winter.  Hurrah!

beginning ice sculptures

We have a small ice sculpture display around our main entry.  The ice shapes are from a large rubber watering pan we use for the chickens and a smaller silicon Bundt cake mould. Candles at night make pretty sparkles.  The watering pan is over 2 ft in diameter and some of the ice we have from it is 6 inches thick.  With temps below freezing for the past week, lots of things are frozen solid, and our ice sculptures are a fun way to mark the cold.

I got my Christmas present: a new Grizzly floor mount drill press. I drilled my first hole sidewise in a 2x4.  The drilling was like going through butter.  I need to get some clamps or a table and vice to hold the objects I will be drilling so that the wood doesn't pull out of my grip and do some real damage. Bring on the bee houses.

A neighbor, Ray, came to let us know that Gambol has been dangerously close to his coyote traps.    He has trapped 20 so far this season!  Stay home, Gambol, or suffer very unpleasant consequences. 

Reading: The Killing Room Manning *** Generations of a family meet every 10 years only to have one of their own spend the night in a haunted room and die.  Mystery solved.

It's beginning to look a lot like Christmas...

Rain all day yesterday (and canyons in our road despite the new water bars) and snow today.  Alt 220  closed between Julian and Unionville because of water over the road near the gliderport.

Eggs
             Nov total 157         $  39.25 potential month  income
             Nov daily avg 5.23    $ 815.00 total potential income
             22 month total 3260                    

We raised the air exchanger to 50% because we were getting too much condensation on the windows. Still don't have the furnace on; the wood stove is plenty big enough to heat the house comfortably.

Reading: Crush Jacobson****serial murder in Napa Valley, an FBI profiler on vacation, lots of description of the Valley and wine and lots of action.

As we drove up the hill after Buddy's class, about 8:30 on Thursday, we spotlighted a barred owl in the headlights.  It was on the road, perhaps munching on the rabbit who lived in the culvert area.  The owl stumbled on take off, but didn't invite us to share much more than a silhouette view: a short but breathtaking moment.
As I came over the peak of Julian Pike on my way home on Friday evening I thought for an instant all of Julian was on fire: one leg of a brilliant rainbow lit up the town. That was another stirring moment.
We tried to have dinner at the new Otto's: the wait was 1.5 hrs.  We'll wait a week or two.  Not such a good plan on a home football weekend. We were on our way to the Trans Siberian Orchestra concert at Bryce Jordan Center.  We'd never been in the Center for anything but conventions.  Seats were great but the concert, their Christmas concert, was disappointing.  We left at the first chance.  Christmas carols a la headbanger with some Christian revival just really was more than we could deal with.  The light/laser show was fun, but the rest was uninspiring at best.  What a difference from the music we've heard on the radio and on their website.  I guess they were playing to the under 20 crowd although the audience was mostly older.
A huge female redtail, I think, has screamed over the house, low and slow, several times today.  Looking for chicken dinner perhaps. I saw her mate a bit further out.  They normally stay over the meadow and over the forest down there.  We may have to think about a tarp gazebo for the girls.
No owls tonight but JoePa got his 400th win and we went to the new Gamble Mill Brewpub for a new favorite beer joint and restaurant.   It's a private club still, just like we like it. One TV on the other side of the bar, just like we like it.  Much better night tonight.

Roof work

Colder today with snow flurries instead of rain, so the roofing crew was at work on the front part of the house while our construction crew was busy sheathing the rear half of the roof. The rear roof has only one more course of plywood sheathing at the top to finish it off while all the installed sheathing has the rubber membrane and vapor barrier fabric (blue stuff) in place. A lot of the shingles are now staged on the peak of the roof for installation tomorrow. They used the old HardiePlank pieces as spacers on the fascia. We appreciate using old before buying new.

The first door, our rear entry door, was installed and most of the windows have been foamed between the frame and the panels. The weather is turning colder for the rest of the week--teens to mid-20s, so getting the doors in and windows sealed will help when the crew turns on their electric heater.
We are even more anxious to get the wood stove and the new house geothermal working since we got the Christmas electric bill: over $100. (Global warming, my a$$.) We didn't freeze the kids out this year.
On Sunday evening my computer screen went green and a pop-up warned me that I had better buy a $49 fix right now for the worm that just infected my computer.  Since I noticed 2 spelling errors, Paul jumped on the fishy case quickly and found Internet Security 2010 was a difficult-to-remove trojan horse and malware.  He downloaded the  repair kits for free and we proceeded to disinfect.  It took a while but seems to have worked.  WARNING: don't buy anything from popups unless you know for sure. Once a malware company has a credit card number it is free to charge and spend.
Sunday to Monday we had about 2" rain.  As usual we worried about the driveway.  I have had luck digging small diversion trenches in herringbones to catch some water and push it off the road.  They are only about 2" deep but catch enough water that we had no erosion in the areas served by these herringbones.  However Murch's sand mound has a pool of water behind it that is draining poorly onto our road and caused significant, though drivable, erosion gullies.  That issue is going to be unpleasant to repair.
From the Centre Daily Times,  Jan 26

Between 7 a.m. Sunday and 7 a.m. Monday, 1.73 inches of rain fell in State College, breaking the 1938 record for the date by six-tenths of an inch, said Bill Syrett, manager of the Joel N. Myers Weather Center at Penn State.
The 24-hour period was the second wettest January day on record, behind Jan. 20, 1996, when 1.78 inches of rain fell, Syrett said.
The unseasonable warmth — temperatures in State College topped 50 degrees Monday morning — made that possible, Syrett said.
“You need a combination of warm air, moisture-laden air and proper atmospheric setup” to get this much rain, he said.
The rain tapered off and finally ended early Monday afternoon. By the time the storm ended, two observers reported that about 2 inches of rain had fallen from 1:40 p.m. Sunday to 12:40 p.m. Monday. Centre County and the surrounding region spent most of Monday under a National Weather Service flood warning.

Read more: http://www.centredaily.com/news/local/story/1751632.html#ixzz0dlb8UEkU

24 feet at the Barony

Our 6th Christmas here was as wonderful as the rest of them.  Lady Ariel, her Count, The Western Prince and her Loyal Pooch made the very long drive from Chicago. They left a half a day earlier than planned to get ahead of 10" snow and blizzard conditions. The pregnant Lady Terra, her Count and Prince Cheeks ...
We rented North Run Cottage for the 2 legged visitors.  It's a lovely home just our side of Black Moshannon Park, about 9 minutes from The Barony.  Besides the outdoor hot tub (which no one used) and the TVs on each floor (which they did use), the kitchen was fully stocked as was the fire wood.  The beds were flat and the showers were hot.  What more could the Ladies ask for?
Christmas Day is Prince Cheek's 900th day and The Western Prince's 200th day.  I love it when numbers work out like that. It does something for my dyscalculia.

All wrapped up for Christmas

The Crew took the weather forcast seriously and since they won't be here for 4 days, they wrapped the house with the green stuff.  It and the extra tarping on the roof should keep most of the weather outside.  The house is now has only the front living room windows open, but that view will be beautiful.

Topping off party

Part of the topping off is feeding the crew so we invited friends, family and neighbors to see the timbers and help.  Shawn and Katrina and Jerry, Kathleen, Zack and Esra represented The Crew.  The weather gods were with us: 40 degrees and a blue sky, clear and a million as they say in the Air Force. We could imagine lying in bed with the blue sky as our ceiling and the view from the great room windows was spectacular. We had prepared the garage as a party room including The Crew's jet engine propane heater, but managed to squeeze everyone upstairs.  It helped that people came in stages.  Parking is a bit of a problem since the snow stopped meadow or side-of-the-drive parking.  All in all for a short notice 2-weeks-before-Christmas party, we did OK.
The Admiral von ueber Baron remarked on the tight joints in our work of art.  Everyone commented on the walnut live edge post in the kitchen.  Aunt Jan enjoyed a walk in the woods with Gambol, and he appreciated being the lead dog showing off his woods.

BTW: Go Navy, beat Army! (and they did 17-3)  Also, no more blaze orange for a while; today was the last day of deer rifle season.  Paul's license went unused.  Even Ron and Darlene said they saw very few deer in our meadow or in theirs.

House Plans so far

The right side has the bedrooms and looks into the aspen forest. Outside access to manland will be from this side.
This is now the front. There are doors on each side of the big glass windows which will allow us to bring in firewood. The 2 lower windows are in the master bedroom and the 3 lowers are in the dining room. The 1 upper is in the loft and the 2 uppers are in the guest room. We may have a low Trex deck here and an English welcome garden moving our guests to the front door in the breezeway.
This is the back of the first floor including the master suite, part of the kitchen and entry to breezeway and garage. This will be the front door, with a small sitting area or perhaps an informal foyer.
The left elevation, the breezeway and the carriage house will surround the welcome garden, perhaps a flagstone walkway and native PA flowers to the front door.
What is labeled "front" is really the back and looks out into the piney forest. We planted over 500 daffodils out there this fall to get a head start. The 3 towering windows are over the stairs.
We are getting closer. Plenty of space for babies next Christmas.

Snow and ice

We've had another storm, rain all day yesterday and snow today. The temps hovered around freezing so we don't have much accumulation but the tinkling of ice on the trees as the breeze blows through is a disconcerting concert of the forest. Yesterday through this morning we had 1.30" water. The ground isn't totally frozen after last week's 40 degree days so we haven't gotten damaging runoff.
Freddy was waiting for his treat on his stump this afternoon. He chewed up his BOSS while the Baron watched, then they moved to another tree stump for a second helping, just in case the bear wasn't fully hibernated yet and wanted his/her share. Neither Freddy nor the Baron is as willing to banter in the cold as they were earlier this fall. They get down to the business of food quickly now.

We have reports of a pine siskin irruption but since they look so much like winter green goldfinches we haven't noticed them yet.
The girls don't spend much time outside these days. They don't like the wind ruffling their feathers, and are very uncomfortable without leaves to give them cover. Four seemed to have bonded; they huddle together on their roost, but the 5th is usually in one of the nest boxes when I check on them after work. I lift her onto the roost. Someday she may learn the socially appropriate bedding-down site. The 3 golf balls in the nest boxes aren't inducing egg laying activity; sometimes one or more is on the floor in the evening. They aren't eating much; not even the warm oatmeal and yogurt in the morning is as interesting now. I don't know if they are still discombobulated by the loss of Red and the rest of their flock or if the weather and lack of daylight concerns them. We only have another 3 minutes to lose in daylight before we start gaining again. Sunrise today was 0727 and sunset was 1644 (9:17 light today); December 21 sunrise is 0733 and sunset is 1647 (9:14 light). Then it gets cold.
This full moon is the (moonrise 1634, moonset 0736) biggest full moon of 2008, as much as 14% wider and 30% brighter than lesser moons we've seen earlier this year. An astronomer would say this is a "perigee Moon" because it occurs at perigee, the side of the Moon's elliptical orbit closest to Earth. Space Weather
We saw Michael who had the 1/8" drawings for us. They look good; we just had a few questions and changes to make. He had some information from the timberframing companies but none was very useful. Next up: a site visit to plan the houses' connection. He'll meet with Calvin Pierce, the geothermal man, and with Dave The Builder to see what they think so far. He says that we should be in the house next Christmas with plenty of room to spare. Wahoo!

Bugs and Bird Spa

The war against lady bugs has begun for the season. Today was warm after the last 2 frosty nights and the house was covered, inside and out, with them. The Baron sucked up 100 in the living room and when I turned on the lamp by my computer several plummet down to the heat. A small wad is tucked into the corner of the wall and beam. We'll try not to let that grow to the fist-size it was our first Christmas here. The war is on.

As the colors change across our valley, deer are bulking up for hunting season. At least a dozen were in the meadow when I went down this morning. I could easily have hit one near Waddle as she stood in the foggy dark, on the damp and leaf-covered road, at a curve in the road; not a good safety combination. Five or 6 were chowing down on the azaleas in front of the house at (our) dinner tonight.

Now that we have opened up the vegetable garden by pulling out the peppers and tomatoes, the turkeys have discovered the Barony Bird Spa. They cooed and chortled as they splashed compost and dirt all around their bath. Some indentations are 4" deep where they dug in. See Red watching, perhaps protecting his girls from the big boys and girls or perhaps wondering what would happen if he got naked with them.


Look carefully for the snood, the red worm-like protrusion, above this turkey's beak. (above)

What a beautiful beard on this big boy. I've named him Thanksgiving Dinner.

Michael

We renewed our business dealing with Michael-The-Architect today. We spent time being updated on his dog (doberman) then got down to business discussing Phase 2. The Baron took basic drawings and our list. We'll see what he comes up with. He suggested Timber Peg as a possible framing company.
I feel better knowing we have an advocate on the job. We discussed a basement versus the breezeway for mechanicals; Michael said a walkout might work to aleviate my "old knee" access concerns. We talked about Tukilivi and the weight of a masonry/soapstone furnace. Michael offered that we might not use the whole house generator but it's easier to build it in than to wish we had. He also agreed with the water storage tanks. He gave us several options on bathroom floor heating, too.
Could we be in a new house by Christmas '08? Perhaps.

Christmas Day 2007

Christmas Bird Count
It seems that the early bird isn't the proper animal to get the worm or maybe worm isn't the proper food. Squirrels are earlier than birds. Blue jays and cardinals don't come out until about 10:00.
Redtail (1)
Cardinal (1)
Bluejay (1)
junco
chicadee
Tree Sparrow (2) This is a new identification although it may not be a new bird for the Barony.
Gold finches
Titmouse
nuthatch
mourning dove (4)
redbellied WP
hairy WP

and 6 squirrels.

We had a bluebird and 12 robins yesterday. I wonder if they'll be back today.
Cold and cloudy, slight breeze. Snow is all ice now; the house plateau and trailhead are skating rinks.

Mean Temperature 28 °F
Max Temperature 32 °F / 63 °F (1982)
Min Temperature 23 °F / -11 °F (1983)
Heating Degree Days 38
Dew Point 23 °F
Average Humidity 93
Maximum Humidity 100
Minimum Humidity 80
Precipitation 0.00 in
Sea Level Pressure 30.20 in
Wind Speed 0 mph / 0 km/h (NNE)
Max Wind Speed 7 mph / 11 km/h