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Sunday, January 9, 2011

2010 Year in Review.... December

Oh the last month in review... amen!  I never thought it would take so much time to do these!  Altho I had almost forgot about some of the things we did around here till I started going thru all the photos.  Since there was not much I could do outside anymore I spent some of my time in December in the basement.  I wrapped majority of the long ducts with insulation.  The main project was to insulate the crawlspace that lies below the kitchen.  I wrapped the air ducts, made sure all the water lines were wrapped, and then put R13 insulation under the floor boards.  Was NOT a fun project but I can tell a difference in how the kitchen floor isn't as cold and the air coming from the furnace is definitely a lot warmer.

Ready for the crawl space

was not an easy job pulling the insulation in & over ducts, plumbing and wiring in those tight areas.

Ducts all nice and insulated....  I think I deserved one of those bottle after that hard work!  =)
The other project in the basement is to finish insulating the ceilings and then cover it with material.  I bought 400+ yrds of muslin to cover up the ceilings.  I just staple it up tight.  Not that my basement will EVER be 'finished' due to very low ceilings, but it will at least be more pleasing to the eye.  Still have a little more rewiring to get done before I can finish insulating the rest of the basement. 
2 strips of the muslin installed... a lot more to go!
Mo kept saying that a fireplace in this house would be awesome - which i totally agree but don't have the funds to afford to have one built with all that has to happen with chimney, etc...  and the vent-free gas ones still scare me from the gas one I had at my old house when I could totally smell gas after it being on a while.  So went online searching for something usable... and found the Duraflame electric fireplace/heater and it was on sale!  I bought one for Mo as part of her Christmas gift and got one for my mom as well since she has said all her life that if she could change one thing about their house it would be to have a fireplace.  She had NO CLUE what was in the big box for Christmas and she loved it.  Just got a thank you card from her the other day saying she couldn't live without it now - and she doesn't even turn the heater part on too often - just watching the flames warms her up.  She is too cute!  Here is a video of Mia and Alexander getting warmed up by the fireplace.  Best part I like is that its small and takes up even less space than the little table we had in the same spot.   Only issue was with it using 1400watts when heater is on full blast - we tripped the 15amp breaker a few times, so I ran a new breaker in the box to that outlet so it was the only thing on the line and wouldn't trip and turn off 1/2 the stuff on in the house. 

It sure got cold quick...  so the fireplace was nice to get the living room toasty to watch tv at night.  But when we did have to go out to take care of the cats & goats..  or get mail we had to layer up.  Here is Mo dressed up to go out to get the mail!
Mid Dec my friend Tripp invited me to go out with her & some friends to a bar that has a mechanical bull - count me in!!  We had a good time and the singer from my old band, Charity and our friend Heidi both met Tripp & I out at the bar too - hadn't seen them in probably a year!
Me & Tripp

Heidi, Charity & I

Me riding the bull
The was time to make sure Christmas cookies... and I will say Mo is a much better decorator than I am...  I'll stick to the baking... she can decorate!  Some of Mo's creations...

*Note - our goats wear collars so these are Piggy, Hammy & Arby cookies.
On the 20th I worked up at our Canton office.  I took the new camera to get some photos to use for marketing purposes as well I had to set up the new wireless network out in the new office building that was put in.  Here is a sampling of the equipment that my company deals with...
Vans with aerial lifts (Van-Tel 29s)

Digger Derrick

Condor unit - I think this one will have you up in the air 100'+
This is a big boy....

Later that night we had our work Christmas party but I had time in between so I went over to visit my best friend Heather to see the new home they JUST moved into.  The kids were having a good time - I just love them to death!  Heather let them jump on her bed and you can tell that there is pure happiness on those faces!! 
Evan & Ava
Later on to the 356th Fighter Group for our Canton office Christmas party.  Had a very nice dinner and we all got our company gifts (lovin the Versalift Hoodie!) The woman next to the guy in the purple shirt is my boss's wife, Courtney, and my boss Keith is then next to her.  They are the BEST!!!


The rest of the month was basically just traveling around for Christmas.  We spent part of it with my parents and celebrated my dad's 70th birthday on Christmas Eve.  Then we went to Mo's family the rest of the weekend.  We had a WONDERFUL Christmas and look forward to spending many many many more together!  Here are some photos from Christmas....
photos after mass... my dad was making us laugh!

My mom figuring out it was a fireplace... she LOVED it!

My dad trying out his new chainsaw safety chaps! 

Mo holding the present my dad gave her - his copy of Dave Brubeck Quartet on vinyl.
Mo loved it & couldn't believe how perfect condition it was still in.
Me being goofy wearing my dad's new safety helmet holding
my tree trimmer present.  My apple trees will be nice and trimmed now!

Mo & her sister holding their twin nieces.

Mo with her brother & sis-in-law and their adorable twins.


at Chucky Cheese with Mo's family.  Playing the family favorite - Slam a Winner.

Mo and her niece from CT

Mo's nephew sitting on Mo's dad's lap. 
and that is about it folks... that was our 2010 in a nut shell!  Lookin forward to all that 2011 holds. 

2010 Year in Review.... November

We started off with getting chickens for our birthdays..lol.   They were supposed to be 3 hens.  The guy said if any crow to just bring back and he'll replace it...   I got the nesting box built that day and we went that evening to get the chickens...  they were funny to watch and we got attached but the next morning we had a crower!



So Mo caught the crower and I took him back to get another... well ended up that all 3 (even the new one) was a rooster!  Go figure!  So I caught them all - which was no easy task!  Took them back to the guy and just said thanks but no thanks...  We are waiting for spring 2011 chicks from a hatchery where we can buy female chicks.  Plus will be fun to get day old chicks when they are all fuzzy and cute.  If we start holding them as chicks I heard the chickens will be able to be pet and picked up without much problem as they get older.

 Nov 2nd we had a frost and I just love in the mornings when the sunshine has melted away almost all the frost except where a tree has shaded the grass.

Trying to winterize the back porch (aka laundry room) a little more I purchased a new exhaust vent and inside heat exchanger.  The old vent was metal and if it was windy you could here it banging open & shut in the house...  the new one works with a cover lifting up from the force of hot air - then when dryer shuts off the lid lowers and closes the vent completely.  Its made a huge difference as well as no noise!  The heat exchanger I tweaked a little with not having it completely open or way too much moist air goes into the room.  I put a small blue ball of the sticky stuff you use to put up posters...  and used that to make just a small opening to let some warm air into the back room but not enough to make the room so moist that it gets moldy.  The screen comes off to clean - but the screen included doesn't trap fine lint... so my solution was place a used fabric sheet behind the screen.  Works great!
Old vent - measuring to make sure new one would fit.
heat exchanger - note: can only be used with elec dryers.

New exhaust vent.


We grow sugar pumpkins in the garden and I picked some and pureed it for make my 1st ever pumpkin pie with fresh pumpkin!  turned out great too!  I did this one early November just to make sure the recipe would be tasty enough for Thanksgiving.

My parents came up for Thanksgiving and they brought yet another truck load of wood!  YAY!  We had a very nice dinner... turkey for me & my parents, tofurky for Mo.  =)

We got our little Charlie Brown Christmas tree all decorated for the holidays.  This was the 1st Christmas we spent living together.
Then on the 30th the products I ordered for my technology bonus for work were delivered!  And nothing was safe from me and the camera from that day forward!!  =)

2010 Year in Review.... October

Fixing the pantry was on the top of the list for October.  Every time is would rain HARD we would get water coming in the pantry where the cat litter boxes are - so they would have to be moved to the kitchen (which I hated...)  I found this product that basically creates a sealed baseboard for the water to stay behind.  I had to remove all the floor paint around the perimeter for the installation. 
Removing the paint.

installed..
Of course after I got this done we didn't have any really BAD storms for over a month... it was driving me nuts cause I wanted to test it!  But its been working - no water in the pantry since then.  So nice to not have to worry about the litter boxes and rugs getting wet anymore.

October was FULL of tomatoes!!  I made lots of pasta sauce and salsa.  Did a lot of canning, even had to go buy a lot more jars this year.
Typical look of our counters for weeks during harvest time.
I would can and clear it off only for Mo to go out and pick buckets full again.

Yummy yummy salsa!

Mid October was spent with some great friends to celebrate Loretta's 50th b-day.  She came up from FL for the weekend.  It was so great to see her and spend the evening with friends I don't get to see very often.
The gift of Princess Shanequa

I bought Loretta some gag gifts... one being jumbo playing cards...
which were used to play euchre later!  =)
I got to upgrade my landscaping tools in a big way this year...  I bought a new zero turn mower.  Now after having it I wish I would have done it YEARS ago!  Between the 12" larger deck and the increased speed as well and not having to make big wide turns... what a time savings!  Then I turned the old mower into my winter snow plow.  I removed the deck, added the plow as well as a deck on the back to place weights.  I found later tho when I added the tire chains that the chains would catch on the mounting hardware for back deck so it was later removed.  I did take the back tires off and take to town to get filled with beet juice of all things..  its actually a real product that farmers use to weight the tractor tires to get better pulling.  Its called Rim Guard - its ok if it gets spilled into the fields and actually heavier than other liquid tire ballasts used. Between both back tires it added 100+ pounds to the mower.


Later that month my parents came for a visit and my dad brought us a whole truck load full of wood for camp fires!  They had trees torn down during the tornado that went thru the golf course the previous month in Wayne county. You could see the truck lift up as we unloaded...  I'm sure the shocks were saying "oh thank you!!"
Everything is growing so well and green...  it was nice time of year to sit back and just look at Nature's beauty and all the hard work we put in around the house that year.











Ended the month with the plan to get some hens.  We were dog sitting for a neighbor and Mo went with me and she loved watching their hens just walk around the yard and decided she wanted some too.  I started to work on building a hen nesting box...  and that will all lead into the 1st of November...  =)