Sunday, January 03, 2010

In The New Year

I did not mean to disappear like that but things got kinda busy here over the New Year holiday. An old friend called and wanted to visit, so I cooked the traditional veggies and he brought the pork chops, which we grilled. He insisted on helping me around the house and although I hate to say, 'yeah, come work for me!', I was grateful for the second pair of hands and friendly company. Especially since he knows how to get a contrary Bobcat cranked when the battery in it has gone bad. We discovered that the battery had cracked and most of the water ran out. Not good. So, we borrowed the battery out of Oliver and ran the Bobcat off that. Yeah Allen, if you are reading, I'm going to put it back just as soon as I can get Tommy to bring me a new battery!
I insulated the new duct work I ran from the wood stove to the living room. Let me tell you, that makes a huge difference, so if you haven't done yours you might want to look into that. Just saying. Anyway, Grendal discovered the hole in the floor that releases hot air and now it's a challenge to keep her big butt off the thing so the room gets warmed.
More work continued on the window. I know this looks like a mess and ...well, it is. If you build a window using came instead of copper foil, you have to grout the joints where the glass fits into the channels. This makes the window weather proof and more structurally sound. The grout is a thick, black, oily goo that you just have to scrub into the joints with your hands.
Then you sprinkle the window with whiting and scrub again with a stiff brush. This helps absorb the oil and cleans up the excess grout. It also polishes the lead and zinc came and makes the whole window look finished.
With the Bobcat running, we went over to a neighbors pasture where they had a very large hickory tree fall on their fence. They had told me if I could get the tree off I could have the wood. He sawed it up for me and together we rolled the chunks down the hill and into the bucket of the Bobcat. The tree was so large we could only get about 4 sections of the trunk into the bucket at one time but we could then lift them right up and roll them out into the bed of my truck. I was grateful that he also split a good bit of wood but I will have to get out there and split some more this week as they are predicting a very cold week ahead and even more snow!!

As far as the 12 Days of Christmas, there are not really any traditions or such for the past couple of days but I do have one for tomorrow and of course, Tuesday, which is Epiphany. Although, according to the way some people count it, Epiphany is not until the 6th. At any rate, we are going to say it's Tuesday.

8 comments:

Pablo said...

I hadn't realized how large that window was going to be!

Richard said...

Wow...that's a big window. Do you add a second piece of glass to more insulation when mounting in the frame?

Tossing Pebbles in the Stream said...

You crafts people tire me out just reading about it.

I hope you enjoy your wood splitting. I happen to enjoy it, sort to the "Zen of Woodsplitting". I have access to a woodsplitter but prefer my maul and my skillful if not powerful blows.

They tell me it is good for a woman's bustline. Does little for mine. I had a girlfriend who spend a Winter once splitting a lot of my wood and she claimed it worked for her. Could this be an additional incentive?

Woody said...

Love the smell of burning hickory.

R.Powers said...

Dang that plate looks good.

So ... what is whiting?

MamaHen said...

Hey Pablo! yeah, i guess i haven't shown anything to scale so you could tell how large it was going to be.

Hey Richard! yes, there is another piece of glass already installed on the exterior. I put a 1/2" spacer in and then installed this window and sealed the whole thing up with silicone.

Hey Philip! well, I've often heard that I have a nice rack (from men who have seen) and I've split wood all my life so....maybe!
I do enjoy splitting wood actually but with this pile I might would go for a mechanical splitter if I had one, if nothing but to save time right now.

Hey Woody! yeah, it does smell nice.

Hey FC! it was good!
Now, either you are testing me or I am surprised you wouldn't know what whiting is. Of course, most people would know it by it's more common name of calcium carbonate or chalk and I'm sure you do. I also know that most blackboard chalk these days is actually made from gypsum rather than natural chalk.
Whiting is a term mostly used by clay people and the chemical is used extensively in glazes as a flux etc., so that is why I just happen to have plenty of it.

Island Rider said...

Windows looking good. Will we get a pic when it is hung? We had something similar for New Year's. Ham instead of pork chops, but many of the same vegetables. Can't shush grandma's voice in my head that it will bring good luck! What might happen if I didn't eat it?

MamaHen said...

Hey IR! thanks! yeah, I'm going to post a pic soon of the window installed.