Jonas delivered the first baluster section with the walnut balusters and the curved copper tubing running through the balusters. Wow! The copper has been lacquered so it will stay shiny.  Walnut, copper and maple hand railing with the hemlock posts and pine floor: it can't get any better than that. He and Bill will continue assembling the rest of the baluster sections as they have all the parts and pieces cut and ready to be put together. He also put on the initial finish coat on the maple treads for all the stairs. He set up outside but the winds yesterday were blowing hard and dusty, so he moved his paint shop down to the shed which provided shelter from the wind and dust. We could have had a problem last night because we left the shed door open and it rained; luckily the storm was very short and had no wind.

Doug, John, and Cody have most of the master bedroom flooring installed. They put down cardboard to protect the flooring in the great room.  I stood in the hall between the master bed and bath when the windows  were open: we may not need a fan in there.  What a difference the west (or down hill) windows make in ventilation.
Adrian has extended the HVAC ducting down in the basement. James and Nick continued to hang dry wall, finishing on the main floor and moving into the breezeway. After the breezeway they will work on the basement.  They say they'll have the scraps for Freecycling this weekend.
Kohl's delivered some of the exterior siding and it is stacked in front of the house. Chris painted the soffit pieces since it's the only HardiePlank that didn't come with factory paint. It might have been closer if stacked along the side the house, but we need access there for the geothermal well driller's rig which arrived today. I thought it was supposed to be the size of a Hummer: not exactly but they promise they can get around back.

Eastern tent caterpillars are chewing on the cherry trees and ticks are evading the chickens. And, I picked some garlic mustard on our walk yesterday as I was hacking fallen branches and roses along the trail.

Dear Aunt Pricilla,

From the Baron (just slightly modified):

Dear Aunt Pricilla

We continue to have a roller coaster ride as far as the weather out here in Pennsylvania goes. A week ago we had two days in a row with lows in the single digits. This morning the low was 54 degrees. We missed the recent East Coast snowstorm last weekend and only got a couple of flakes in the air--no accumulation. With this weekend's heat wave our snow has completely melted. Some of our daffodils are starting to poke up through the mulch and I have been trying to cover them up with more mulch to delay their efforts to break out and grow. If I can delay them another week, or so, that should be enough to protect them from any cold outbreaks that sneak up on us.

The warmer weather has brought a rather unpleasant aftereffect--ticks. After going without any ticks since we started visiting Pennsylvania, I have been plagued by 4 in the past 2 weeks. Poor Gambol has accumulated his share of them too, which is not a surprise with him going through the forest and meadow with his nose on the ground. For Gambol we got a standard flea and tick collar and just got a prescription filled for the anti-tick medicine you apply direction to the skin of a dog. This is a 30 day treatment, so we'll be giving this medication to him once a month until winter returns and the cold kills off the ticks. I guess I will have to start applying insecticide whenever I go out, especially on my jeans, shoes, and hat.

We had a bit of excitement at the Barony last week. On Wednesday morning The Baroness was just starting to take a shower when the power in the house dipped (like a brownout) and the shower head produced a burst of gray-black water. The shower water turned cold, so I went downstairs to check on our tankless electric water heater. The electric circuits were fine, no circuit breakers had tripped, but the water heater was leaking slightly and the leak apparently had just started when The Baroness experienced the brownout. My first assumption was that the well had run dry and the pump had surged when it sucked in some mud at the bottom of the well. That, of course, is a nightmare scenario for a home owner: clogged faucets and equipment, like the water heater and even the washing machine, and having the well drilled deeper or treated to increase the water flow--all of which can be quite expensive. We called out the well people and they drained our water pressure tank in the house and it ran as clear as could be. They suggested that the electric water heater had some built up calcium in the lines and a small part of that calcification had broken off, causing the buildup of pressure in the water lines and the water heater (and causing the temporary power surge and the resultant leak). So as a last resort, The Baroness called our builder and asked him for help as she was not enjoying taking cold showers. He responded that day and came out to check the system. He fixed the small leak in the system but couldn't really do much for the heater itself, so he called in his brother, a plumber. The plumber came out and did a quick check, confirming that the systems was not working. He asked his brother where he got the heater (a local plumbing supply store in State College), so they went off to see what the manufacturer (Bosch) would do for the 10 year warranty on the heater. After a couple of days of calls back and forth Bosch agreed the system needed replacement and shipped a new unit by Fed Ex. The new heater arrived on Friday morning and the plumber came out that afternoon and hooked it up and everything worked again. So we were without hot water for 9 days. The Baroness appealed to a hotel in the industrial park where she works to let her use their fitness center for a morning shower. Otherwise the Demmert family was taking wash cloth baths with water heated on the stove. I should add that we will be getting a water softener system installed shortly to take care of that calcium problem. Interestingly enough, our well water is incredibly soft--only 4 grains of hardness. The problem is that the massive amount of heat the water heater applies causes any minerals in solution to precipitate out and that results in the scale buildup in the pipes.

Gambol is maturing every day and although he does not come immediately when called, we have been experimenting in letting him off leash at the end of our walks. For 3 out of 4 times he came running when called for his hot dog treat. On the 4th day he decided he didn't need a treat and took off for 30 minutes on his own. We will graduate from beginner puppy class tonight, but have already enrolled him in a follow-on training class starting next Thursday evening. One trick we have been working on is hiding a treat in another room and telling Gambol to find it. We started out with that trick by just throwing a treat on the floor and saying, "find it." Of course he saw it fall and went right for it. Now, because he didn't see it fall, he has to air scent to find it. He sounds like a pulsing vacuum cleaner as he goes about tracking the treat's scent. It is amazing to watch and he really seems to have fun locating the treat with his nose.

So with the start of Daylight Savings Time and a hot shower to boot, we hope that Aunt Priscilla is on the mend from her recent surgery. Get well soon, St Patrick's Day is just around the corner!