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Old Man Winter Cometh


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Yesterday was a beautiful summer day and today it looks and feels like winter outside. It’s cold, cloudy and raining. I'm glad I was out and about running errands etc. most of the day yesterday. It felt really nice to be out.

I want to throw down some weed and feed in the back yard fenced in area again this year. I think it helped last year. Then I need to spray some weeds growing in some dead beds and driveway cracks and carry in the rest of my firewood. It's a one day job IF my back holds out. The gate fell off of my fence so I need to pick that up. Sigh. I really hate that fence...still.

I still have to mow one more time this year because of the downed leaves. I'll get that done the first dry day we have next week. Then I want to hose down the mower to remove the dead grass on the mowing deck and call it a season. I’ll still go out and fire it up every week or two during the winter just to make sure it will start up again next spring. That seemed to work last year. I have a cover for it but I can’t start it up with a cover on and it’s too cold out there to be fiddling with it during the winter. It doesn’t get too dusty in the garage during the winter anyway.

I also need to get the Jeep cleaned out. It needs vacuumed really bad. I bought some new seat covers for the front seats to change out. The old ones lasted around eight years and really protected them. I got a new steering wheel cover too. It is just starting to show some wear and I don't want that to continue. The floor mats are still good but need hosed off. I have some Amorall (sp) to clean the un-upholstered areas. The windshield is so dirty inside it glares back at me. Literally and figuratively. I can do all of that inside the garage. Then a trip to the carwash and it should be nice and clean for the winter.

I’m thinking about taking all of my blankets to the laundry mat and doing them there. It’s faster and I really think it’s cheaper for big items. They have the oversize machines and I could probably do them in one or two loads. I know it’s cheaper to dry them there. And this big beautiful blue powdery soft throw is doing just that…throwing. It sheds so bad. Really bad! No way do I want it in my washer. I’m starting to wonder about that $15.00 I spent on it. Buyer’s remorse? Not yet but close.

Then I need to start winterizing the windows inside the house. I think I’ll put the plastic shrink wrap on them all and bubble wrap on the basement ones again. I like the bubble wrap on the basement ones because it lets light in but adds some privacy when I’m down there doing laundry. Nosey neighbors. I’m thinking about shrink wrapping the front door too. It’s a double door and new but still leaks like a sieve where the two doors meet. Or maybe getting one of those ‘bottom of the door’ strips and sticking it on along the inside of the door where the two meet. It wouldn’t be a real seal but it might help without sealing up the entire door. I don’t know.

I need to put a new door mat, for the step going to and from the garage, on my shopping list too. Most of the nubs have worn off and they look like mouse droppings scattered around. Not a good look.

I like winter and I like snow but this year I'm not emotionally ready for it. I'm kind of dreading it actually. This year has flown by. I can’t believe it’s almost over.

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Yeah, the weather people are saying that the early patterns kind of look like the patterns of that blizzard that hit in 1978 here. I sure hope that they are wrong. :o

 

It was so nice & warm yesterday, and this morning I looked out and I thought we had heavy fog. NOPE! Snow. :shakinghead: We have just a little on the ground, so it's not horrible. Yet.

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Darn...I just went out to pick up a pizza and it's snowing. I had no idea. And it's very windy too. Usually when we have our first snow of the season it's just flurries, but the ground is covered now. Yesterday it was in the 70's.

 

I remember the weather that year very well. We were living in northern Indiana too. Between the regular blizzard and lake effect snow, we got hammered. It took two of us all day to get the car and driveway cleaned out. We didn't have a garage to pull the car in but at least we didn't have to park out on the street. And cold...oh my. DH went out about every two hours to start the car so he could get to work the next day. Turned out the office was closed for the rest of the week. At least he keep the battery from freezing up. I'm not sure why we didn't just bring the battery inside. Suppose we didn't think of it.

 

I remember that was the same winter he was h3ll bent on traveling back home to southern Indiana for Christmas. I really didn't want to go. We didn't even get a quarter of the way to Indianapolis when the state police pulled us over and told us the interstate was closed. He really talked rough to us and escorted us to the nearest exit and made us turn around and go home. He was in the right though. We shouldn't have been out in that weather especially at night with an 8 year old with us. And we were driving a little Datsun 280Z. I tried to tell him....LOL. We were in the car with the heater blasting and wrapped up in blankets and were still freezing. The inside of the windows were all iced up. We got lucky and got behind a snow plow going back home. Needless to say we weren't singing "Jingle All The Way" on that trip.

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Yeah, the Dairy Queen where I worked shut down. Nobody could get out, anyway, but who would want ice cream in that awful weather? :o The next summer I got a better job.

 

We couldn't even move around town very easily. Luckily we still were canning at home and had food to eat. Trucks couldn't get to the stores to deliver.

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I was working in a men's clothing store. Worse job ever but my next door neighbor owned it and couldn't get anyone else. The place I worked for (3D) closed down so I said 'okay'. About three years later the men's clothing store closed. I was the kiss of death to retail.

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I was sitting here making all of my outside pre-winter plans and unbeknownst to me it was already snowing like crazy out there. It has snowed off and on all day and it didn't get above freezing. The snow has covered the grass and cement by about a 1/2 inch. Not a lot but you sure can't do yard work when it's covered under snow. It's supposed to do some sort of precipitation everyday for the next two weeks with highs around 40. I might not get the weed and feed spread out or the yard mowed one last time. I think that 76 degree day Friday gave me a false sense of security that I had plenty of time yet.

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We are not ready for winter either. We got our dump truck load of logs but still have to cut, split and stack them in the shed. The wind was awful last night. My friend was just telling me that it blew one of their windows out. She said it must have been cracked before and they didn't realize it. It was cold (high of 37) and windy today. DD1 and DSIL were here for the weekend.Both DDs and I were out with headlamps last night picking greens for DD1 because we knew it would be cold today and they might not survive. We got about half of them ready for the freezer today before they left. She had 14 almost-quarts so should get about that many more.She just bagged up what she thought the two of them would eat for a meal.

 

Anyway back to winter readiness....I have a long list of before winter to-dos. With highs in the 50s this week, I hope I can get a bunch checked off the list.

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We've had low 30's for night time temps for 3 days but forecast says it's to warm up. Didn't get done what we wanted done today...spent the afternoon with a police officer. Somebody put a knife in two of our travel trailer tires. We think it's the knotheads across the street but can't prove it. You can't repair side punctions so it's new tires this spring. MrWE2 had to crawl under and jack up each axle so he could put support jacks under each one, get the weight off the tires and he'll have to take the tires off. Grrrrr :-( Did get more of the clear bubble wrap put on the homestead apartment upstairs livingroom windows and then shrink wrap over that. We've got most the bedroom done but will finish that probably in the next couple of days. Bought eight totes at Menards, they had them on sale for $3.99. We'll vacuum seal our summer clothes and store them in the totes. Mr is going to build us a "shellf" that wil allow us to place the totes on them, sort of like a drawer. We'll label the end so we know what's in each tote. Much better than trying to store clothes in dressers etc.

Edited by The WE2's
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WE2 I know the pain on slashed tires. One night some teen hooligans hit 17 vehicles just walking up the sidewalk. I had just put brand new tires on my little truck! I was just visiting friends that night! 3 out of four tires! I couldn't afford to just go get more new tires either!

I am sorry that happened.

 

That snow storm that spun out of the Rockies just officially put down a few smatterings of flurries. The storms main edge was less than 30 miles from me as it went through. It did get cold though, but it's warmed up a tad.

Still sitting here with main faucet drains not functioning at all. Getting work done by contractor's around here is an abominable task I must say.

My whole opinion I will keep to myself on the matter, suffice to say, I am not at all pleased. I just hope it is all fixed soon.

 

It's a wee bit cold outside, but not too bad this night past at least.

I am sorry you can't get more done outside , Jeepers!

Can you put that weed n feed out in early spring?

 

I just looked up how to build a lightweight ( foam based shallow boat) 'mouseboat'.) It only weighs 16 pounds, cut the foam, glue pieces with some light wood edges to reinforce top edges, a small skegg ( whatever you call it, bottom center aft for steering, kayak paddle as its technically a kayak, only 8 feet long and you glue down a solid cotton bedsheet and paint it and can make stowage areas, its' unsinkable, but low cut so you don't use them in high seas, lol, weather, not that I would, but it would be perfect and is light enough to tow on bike trailer or pop in pickup bed if I get a truck for someone as beat up as my muscles are these days or will easily go on car roof.

 

They are very inexpensive and with care can last a long time. You can make them out of luan plywood if you want but this is a very light version this way and perfect for taking out on the local small lake to do fishing off shore. You can rig a small square sail too, but would have to assure yourself the fixtures for it are solid. I was thinking of plywood top on front of boat for that purpose anyway. Short aluminum pipe , hollow and small sail, its always windy in NE it seems so a sail would blow me back to where I camped , heck the wind would just drift me back, lol.... it's a good project to do with youths or for yourself if you want a winter project. Reinforce the area where you sit, to be able to stand and fish with extra foam layer and three coats varnish over the paint job.... DIY on Instructables and mouseboats on Facebook.

 

The guy also built a teardrop trailer, but I looked up a plywood trailer teardrop (but rectangular in shape for veterans) who are homeless and you can build those on a 4 x 8 trailer, looked up the trailer kit at harborfreight, which there is one 90 miles from me.... it would be fine for storing stuff in too or hauling boxes, can be towed by a car with a hitch too, which is why it was built small.... the trailer plans are on Instructables , I think its called Vetsmart .... I am going to build one of those if I can remain here a while. Then I just need to save for a used pickup truck or small SUV. Adding a sun, rain awning over cooking area ( roll out when setting up trailer works)... I will have to design that when the time comes.....

 

 

I am keeping busy. Right now with this bad plumbing situation that M didn't even begin to realize the status of in the months we planned on me moving here, a full years worth at least, and now winter is coming.... and crawl spaces suck and I have no strength to do this pipe replacement and I hate dark claustrophobic crawl spaces !

 

I have time to sort out stuff and a very large city trash can I can dump things into each week ... yep, clutter clearing will go on this winter.

 

This cold weather finally starting to hit has me motivated to work on some wool blend knee socks , Clover Colors is a neat combination of darker colors in Kroy sock yarn and just getting started.... on a new pair .... be handy when the cold comes in harder. Besides it keeps me busy. Also working on reading what I wrote in first book part of the time.

 

I would love to live in this good sized house and have my garden but you can't do that when the drains dont' work , not too well anyway, these days. If it gets resolved, that would be great. If not, I have to do other options eventually. Only the bathroom sink and toilet drains work at this point. I cannot even do proper cleaning with nothing else draining properly. Makes it impossible.

 

 

So, fixing that over the encroaching cold weeks ahead.... hmmmmm.

 

Yes, it does make one look at other alternatives. Rockhounding pursuits come to mind and so do fishing in the mountains and rivers.

Edited by sassenach
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Weather is being crazy the end of this fall. We had a 45 degree temperature change from Fri-Sat. I talked to my ex-cousin-in-law yesterday and he said in the Baltimore area they had a 50 degree drop within a day. Ex-cousin-in-law? My cousin's widower. :D

I'm still hoping I can get that weed and feed down. If it just dries up enough to be able to walk on the grass I can get it spread out. I just do the scatter method so I don't have to take any machinery back there. Good idea about doing it in the spring. I should probably do it then too.

Sass, can you take the P-trap thing off of the drain pipe under your kitchen sink and put a bucket under it so you can use it a little bit until they get it fixed? Figures it would happen with winter coming on. I don't like crawl spaces even a little bit. I'm not comfortable in places where I can't stand up and turn around. I hope they get the lead out and get it fixed soon! :hug3:

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"S" happens...... :sigh:

 

DH still not feeling well. I'm back to just normally not feeling great. If the snow keeps up and it's reallly :groooansmileyf: going to proceed on to winter....we need to put the cable-"chains" on the van so it will climb the driveway HILL.

 

MtRider ..... :behindsofa: ...can I just hide till spring?

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It rained this morning with a bit of thunder in the distance.

Still overcast and wind is damp snow quality today , or this afternoon. Mebbe flurries tonight?

The guys are here, working on plumbing , I might have a draining tub and kitchen sink again, but replacing piping and traps had to be done and hoping the lines will be able to be cleared further.... last thing to do is installing washer and dryer........... it would be so nice to get all these ducks in a row!

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puppyinwindowsnow.gif

We had rain turning to ice and then snow on the 17th. on Friday it snowed all day and by the morning of the 19th we had close to 18 inches of snow. It was not fun trying to get the deer fed in the back yard as the snow was over my boots. My nephew came out Saturday morning and plowed us out. :) It was something as he had bought a new plow last year and used it only 2 or 3 times as we didn't get much snow. Right now we have more snow than we have had in the past 2 or 3 years altogether.

We got a little more rain snow mix on Tuesday but didn't get much at all.

 

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That's amazing Snowmom. Your username really fits you!

 

I wonder if that will happen to us here this winter because we hardly had any snow last year too. If I remember correctly we were having an El Nino summer this year too. "They said it was supposed to be a rough winter this year. Katie bar the door!

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Driveway plowing friend arrived late yesterday but the sun is melting the ICE today. DH put our pellet stove ashes [collect in a 5 gal METAL bucket] on the worse ice ....the dark color will having it melting fast.

 

MtRider ..... :sigh: ...it has begun...

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Such shameless vandalism. And expensive too. Sorry that happened to you guys We2! :hug3:

 

MrWE2 took off early this morning to Menards. Why bump shoulders on the Friday after Thanksgiving? They have game camera's on sale and we'll be putting two of thm up on the garage at the homestead, filiming the whole area where the RV sits as well as the front doors of the garage and the driveway :-) Police suggested that we do that and to make sure we bought high capacity cards for them so they'd store a LOT of info.

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