The Grass is Getting Greener

Is was nice and sunny this last weekend. Still cold, but sunny. We haven't really cleaned up the yard from the wind storms that blew through a couple of months ago and now that the grass is a little taller on the lawn (we've been hesitant to walk on the lawn so far), we decided to pick up the pine boughs. We also raked up all the pine cones, too. The lawn looks so much better.

On Monday of last week, we picked up the plants that we are going to use for the hedge. We got 48 one gallon Lonicera nitida. It's also called box honeysuckle and is considered the poor man's boxwood. It grows fast (which nice for us) and is pretty cold tolerant. We'll be planting them about 30 inches apart.

We also have some interesting news about the house on the front lot. The sale sign and yard-arm are missing. So is the lock box for the keys on the front door. It does not appear that anyone has bought it, though. It's possible that the builder guy is going to move into it. We think it's more likely, however, that he is just pulling it off the market for 30 days so he can lower the price and relist it as a new listing. We are definitely curious about what's going on.

So Cold... So Cold... *shiver*

No progress on the house since the last post. It's been really chilly, though. Lots of snow and sub-freezing temperatures. In fact, we've learned a few things about what happens in a house when the temperature dips below 32 degrees and stays there.

First, our cold water line to the washing machine froze. That might have been okay, but the hot water line started spewing rusty water a month ago so we haven't been using it. No washing clothes for us for a few days! We put a heater in the utility room and aimed it at the wall where the cold water pipe is, but it still wouldn't thaw.

We kept trying every day and a few days later the water started flowing! Yay! We started a load of laundry right away. But that's not the end of the story. When the washer started draining, the drain line filled up and the water came squirting up all over the utility room. After shutting off the washer and using the Wall Street Journal to soak up all the water, we turned the washer back on again. The drain line filled up and we turned the washer off. The drain line drained a little and we repeated the process. The drain line feeds a drain field on the north side of the house. We think the drain field is kind of shallow (we ran into a piece of it during the electrical trench dig). The drain field must have been frozen. Eventually, the drain started flowing and we got our laundry done.

Note: There are not very many laundromats around here. We looked. Finally found one, but the washer had started working again by that time.

On to the the second bit of learning. Refrigerators don't seem to work well when it is colder outside the refrigerator than it is inside the refrigerator. We noticed that the stuff in the freezer was thawing out. Apparently the thermostat was not triggering the refrigerator to turn on. We adjusted the temperature dial in the refrigerator and it started up. But the new setting froze the veggies. So we turned it back down and start eating the freezer stuff. In fact, we've been eating things that require very little kitchen prep since it is so cold in the kitchen, for example: microwaved cans of soup, tater-tots, pizza (ordered and picked up), and instant oatmeal. We also stopped doing dishes and are almost out of everything.

During this cold spell, we installed new, thicker plastic on all the doorways. It makes a big difference. There's lots of condensation on the plastic in the mornings or when we cook. It's kind of gross to brush up against the plastic when we go through a doorway. Bleah.

On a brighter note, things are warming up now. It's in the mid 30's and low 40's. We're wearing fewer layers and even exclaiming how warm it is to one another. Summer's going to be unbearable.

Fishing for Nightlife

We're renting a live trap right now for the raccoon. We've set it up near the front door/porch where we think the 'coon is getting in under our house. On Thursday night last week, put some Friskies brand canned cat food (it was on sale) in the trap and waited.

Just as we were falling asleep (in our warm bed), my spouse heard the trap shut. I didn't hear it and we decided to wait until morning to check the trap. The next morning, we peeked out our front door and sure enough the trap was shut. We couldn't see what was in the trap since we'd wrapped a tarp around the trap to keep the 'coon from playing with the cat food trough the bars. The trap sure was quiet though. We carefully pulled the tarp back and were greeted with the soft watery gaze of a big gray kitty! The kitty looked so happy to see us. Its eyes seemed to say, "Oh, hello! I was cruizin' last night and had this wonderful dinner, but I couldn't get home! I was so sad. I'm so late. I want to go home. Will you help me get out. I'll wait patiently here while you decide."

Well, we laughed and kind of felt bad. We opened the trap and after a second or two, the big gray striped kitty bounded out and loped across the lawn to a hole in the fence. The kitty did not look back. It didn't run away like a feral animal would, though. More like a guilty house cat. We hope its owner is happy to get it back. We trapped a cat, but it was well fed and it stayed dry (due to the tarp).

We've set up the trap again but haven't caught anything more. Maybe the raccoon is too smart for us or it's somewhere else (like next door). We'll see.

Creature of the Night

So we've survived the holidays. We got over our sicknesses, bad weather, long drives to visit family, and are home to tackle the new year. We even made a bit of progress this past weekend, making more supports for the roof in preparation for blowing out the other exterior wall. We'll get another three-day weekend in a bit, so we might do the demo and framing then.

At any rate, we think we have a new neighbor. One with a mask, stripes, and nocturnal habits. I suspect it's what dug up and ate my Easter lilies last year. I know it's what sends things banging and clanging in our carport- we ran outside and caught it in the act. All that's fine, but now there's a possibility it's moved in. Strange noises were coming from underneath the house last night. Squirrels will play on our roof on occasion, but not under our house, and not at night. That leaves only our nightly visitor, Mr. or Ms. Raccoon.

We don't know how it's getting in. The only place we can think of is under the porch, where it's possible there's a space big enough to crawl into. Although I can't imagine why it'd want to be under there. It's colder and more damp than other places. Oh well. We're going to rent a live trap and see if we can relocate the little bugger long enough to find the hole and patch it. We'll see how successful we are.