Everyone left for home on Thanksgiving Monday and I remained at the cottage by myself. I have most of the week off from work and will stay for a few days. On Monday afternoon it was actually reasonably nice. We woke up to a skiff of snow in the morning, but by afternoon it got partly sunny and the temperature rose up to around +9C. I worked on a few chores, mostly cutting up some lumber to build a base for the appliances. All of the neighbors and almost everyone in the subdivision went home on Monday as well so by evening it was extremely quiet.
It got quite cold on Monday night and on Tuesday morning, just before the sun came up, my thermometer was showing a temperature of -7C. It was very overcast and gloomy through the day and by noon it was still only -2C. That's about the time it started to snow and there was a little accumulation. Mostly I just had a lazy day, puttering on some chores inside.
I assembled the base for the laundry appliances and have it ready to set everything up. Can't lift the appliances onto it by myself, so that will have to wait for a bit. I also cut up a bunch of lumber to build a movable stairway, that will hopefully make it easier to get up and down into the basement. Still have to put that together, and hopefully it works out as planned. I also got the third shelf put together and ready to install. Might get to more chores on Tuesday evening after dinner.
The snow never really let up all day long. It was very light, and there was very little accumulation, but its really starting to feel like winter. The temperature never broke the freezing point all day.
When I awoke on Wednesday it was to about 1-1/2 inches of fresh snow. It was not quite as cold as the night before, but was still only about -4C as the sun came up. The skies cleared partly and by mid afternoon the temperature peaked at about +5. In the open the snow mostly disappeared, though it did remain in shady spots.
I had my septic tank pumped out and a load of water delivered. The last time I did this was in May, so the 2000 gallons of water lasted us for five months. We'll probably use a little less over the winter as there are no seedlings to water, no ATV's to wash, and we may not be out quite as often. I managed to get a whole bunch of small projects finished. I put up the third shelf, in between the railing braces that I installed a couple of days ago. I also built that movable stairway for downstairs. I'm not quite sure why I have been so stupid and struggled with that awkward ladder for these past few years. The stairway is so much easier. The laundry base is now also complete. I installed the circuit breaker into my electrical panel so that we can use the washer and dryer as soon as I get the plumbing looked after. I also secured the fir slab that is our breakfast nook. And, I got impatient and lifted the appliances onto the base by myself. I feel a sense of accomplishment at getting so many of these little projects finally looked after.
The only couple of things that I have not yet got to are staking out the building site on our lot next door, and splitting some more firewood. Mostly the poor weather has prevented this. Perhaps I will get to some of it before I leave. Those were not major priorities as we can not start clearing and building until next spring, and we have plenty of firewood already split for the winter.
Took a different route back to the city and came upon an interesting old house. All the more so because there was a cat sitting in the window.
No comments:
Post a Comment