Home Ownership, Yay!

Most of the time home ownership is a wonderful thing. Most of the time...

Last night I was sitting on the couch reading a magazine and enjoying time with our new pup Max.  All of a sudden I heard a strange noise; it was water dripping between the main window and the storm window nearest me.  Dripping water is never a good sign.

I got out the ladder and climbed into the attic.  We had several spots where water was dripping down the nails holding the shingles in place.  We had ice dams that formed on the roof.  This did not make me happy as we had cleared off the first several feet of snow nearest the gutters to prevent ice dams from forming.  It didn't help.  The worst drip was over one of the bedrooms (you can see the water spot in the picture).  There was also another drip over the bathroom which didn't irritate me as much as we plan to gut this room shortly.

The problem is that our forced-air heating system runs through the attic and feeds vents that are in the ceilings.  I'm not quite sure why whomever installed it decided on this plan, but I can tell you that it was a bad choice.  Even with the heating ducts insulated, there is too much heat released to the attic.  This causes the snow closest to the shingles to melt and allows the water to collect at the edge where it is easily turned into an ice dam by the cold, night air.  All the subsequent melt runs down to this dam and then backs up under the shingles where it finds it way down the holes from the roofing nails.  Lucky us.

So Ross and I got out the ladder, the snow rake, a shovel, and a hammer and went to town on the ice and snow.  This all started to happen about the time Ross started cooking dinner which subsequently went straight to the refrigerator.  I know that time flies when you are having fun, but I can now attest that it also flies when you are not having fun too.  We finished exhausted at about one in the morning after breaking plenty of ice and having a couple of personal meltdowns ourselves.  I double checked the attic and all the drips had stopped.  We didn't get to bed until close to three (Ross actually finished our dinner which was mighty fine).  Our bodies ache and we are both plum tuckered out.  It was a most eventful first day home for Max.  He actually slept right through all the banging on the roof.   The cats on the other hand were not as thrilled.  I think they believe the admittance of a dog into our midst brought about the wrath of God.  All in all, it was not the way I hoped to spend my Saturday evening.  On the plus side, at least I got to spend it with Ross!

Introducing Max!

The stork brought us a sweet little bundle of joy. He is a Pembroke Welsh Corgi. We named him Max. He is a wonderful addition to our brood of chickens, bees (new ones to arrive in the spring), and felines. Sometimes when you are not expecting it, your heart strings are tugged, and then an addition is added to your family.  Shannon & I both agree, no more inside animals after Max.

The chickens were afraid of him at their introduction. In time they will learn that he will be their watcher.  Corgis are natural herders.

Bootsy & Cloe are still trying to figure out what that little sausage-like thing is. In time they will all have their own rhythm.

We are in the planning stage of the remodel of our bathroom. How exciting! Little Max will be able to help with all the gutting and work. Actually he will probably just get under foot, and be excited with all the stuff going on. As you can see he is plum tuckered.

The house is quiet right now. Phew! Dinner is simple tonight, homemade ravioli with homemade sauce. Off to the kitchen. Have a good evening all!

Take That 2006!

What a day.  We had a Nor'easter that dumped a ton of snow on us overnight and through the morning. The previous single snow record at Bradley International Airport was 21.9 inches set in February 2006. That record was beat today.  The last I had heard there was 22.5 inches of snow, and it was still snowing.  I think it is safe to say that we got between 22 and 24 inches at the house.  I doesn't really seem like a lot when you hear the numbers, but when you're standing in it you know it's a lot.  The picture to the right was taken around 7:00 AM.  You can tell how dense the snowfall was.  I trekked out to the street because I could not tell from the house whether the street had been plowed; visibility was that poor.  The plows were running, but they were not able to keep up with the amount of snow falling.

It took Ross and I about three hours to "clean up" after the storm.  We got out the roof rake and cleared several feet of snow off the edge of the roof to help prevent an ice dam from forming.  I like the look of icicles, but I am not that keen on the possible water damage caused by the ice dam that formed them.  As you can see in the picture to the left the snow drifts were to the top of my legs as I moved around the house.  Next we got out the snow blower and cleared the driveway.  I don't know what we would have done without the snow blower; it is worth every penny we sent on it!  We also had to dig out our cars as the chickens are still in the garage.  Finally we cleared paths to the front and back doors.  All I can say is that I was happy to be done.  Now if I could only get the weather guys to stop talking about the next storm expected this coming Tuesday!

A Welcome 2011

Cluck, cluck (chicken for Happy New Year)

It's been a while since we last posted so let us wish you a belated Merry Christmas and Happy New Year.  It is a welcome 2011 given all our loss in 2010.  I should mention that we officially lost our colony of bees.  The repeated bear attacks left the colony small in number.  They froze during the last cold snap of 2010.  An unfortunate ending to a year filled with unfortunate endings.

We travelled home to our families for Christmas.  It was a whirlwind trip moving from one family home to another.  I wish we could have spent more time with each.  It is such a joy to see everyone.  On the day after Christmas Ross' mother got married.  It was a nice ceremony.  Ross' dad also let us know that he would be proposing to his girlfriend on New Year's Eve.  We wish both much happiness.

We ended up visiting an emergency vet with Cloe while visiting my mother's.  She had an impacted anal gland that caused what looked like a boil on her poor, little butt.  They sent us home with some antibiotics. Her spot has been healing well.

On the day after Christmas the East Coast got a whopper of a storm.  Due to the blizzard winds I can't say exactly how much snow fell.  There was practically no snow on the roof, but the drift in front of the garage door was at least a third its height.  I was dreading getting home knowing that the first thing I was to do was shovel a path to the house.  Our neighbor Mike gave us the wonderful Christmas present of clearing our driveway and a path to the door.  All that and he watched the chickens for us too!

We had our family Christmas the morning after we got back and then spent the rest of the week doing something we rarely do; we vegged on the couch.  It was nice to relax.  We also talked about our plans for the new year.  Given that we already had to buy another package of bees we decided to add a second hive to our menagerie.  We added the bird baths Ross' mom gave us to our flower gardens (I had to dig holes in the snow for them).  I also used my Christmas money to purchase an electric control panel for our electric fence (Thanks Rick and Sito).  Speaking of Christmas gifts, Ross's (and my) sister-in-law Teri had me for the family gift exchange.  She remembered the story about me running outside in the morning to put the beehive back together after the second bear attack.  It was mentioned that I was in my nightshirt and boots and all I was missing was a stocking cap.  Well thanks to Teri I now have the stocking cap.  I really do enjoy it.

2010 was a hard year for us, but we still do realize how blessed we are.  Blessed to have each other, our critters both here and gone, and our families and friends.  We are looking forward to a happy, healthy, and prosperous new year, and we wish the same to all of you.

Tis the Season

It's been a chilly weekend.  I'm laying on the floor in front of a fire typing on the laptop with Cloe laying in her bed at my feet.  Bootsy is all sleepy eyed on the couch laying on an afghan Ross' mom made.  As I look up and out our front plate glass window I can see a light snow falling as illuminated by the glow of our Christmas lights.  Carols are playing in the background.  I smell a mixture of fresh pine from our Christmas tree and Ross' nut roll baking in the kitchen.  It is a picture perfect moment.

It has been a Christmas weekend.  We got the decorations down from the attic and started decorating.  During Thanksgiving weekend I had placed some illuminated orb decorations on the pine tree in our front yard (I had put the same ornaments on a tree at work last year and loved it so much I duplicated the look here).  On Friday I started to put lights on the eaves of the house.  I did the same last year with LED lights but was never satisfied with the look because the lights were too crisp and cool.  I wanted something more warm so I went with traditional bulbs this year.  I love how they look.  Now all we need is a coating of snow to stick to finish the look!

I wasn't able to finish the lights Friday night.  I didn't think Ross would be keen on me climbing on the roof in the dark so I held off.  It was a good stay at home project for Saturday which turned out to be beneficial as Ross woke up with a major migraine at 5:30 in the morning.  He was out of commission for the entire morning and only got back half his steam during the afternoon.  That gave me time to finish the lights and do some odd jobs.  We spent the evening doing all the miscellaneous decorating except the tree.  I was hoping to go get our tree at some point Saturday, but with Ross' headache it wasn't meant to be.

Ross awoke today feeling fine so our tree hunt was on.  We had a light breakfast and then got ready to go.  We headed to Angevine farm in Warren which is a hunt and cut your own tree place.  We walked through field after field looking at trees.  Each field a bit more downhill from the last.  We headed back uphill through some other fields till we made it back to the beginning.  We saw a couple of contenders, but found the tree we would take just yards away from where we started (go figure).  We got the tree home and spent the afternoon decorating it.  I love having the house decorated for Christmas.  It just makes a house feel even more like a home.  Now all we have to do is get the presents that go under the tree.  Does anyone know where I can get some coal? (just kidding!)