4 January 2014

Chree and I returned to Virginia in mostly light traffic.  Temperature finally got above zero when we left Vermont, got above freezing when we were in New Jersey, and was a balmy 40 degrees when we got home.

3 January 2014

Snowed 6 inches overnight and the temperature dropped to minus 8.  Kinda brisk!  Chree and I went into Middlebury to interview John Tenny, owner of Mill Bridge Construction.  Then we went over to look at a house in town that his company was just finishing renovating after a catastrophic fire.  From there we shivered our way down to Fern Lake for the obligatory tour, then went back to Lynne & Perry’s for lunch and heat.  Jed Malcolm, owner of Salamander Construction, arrived promptly at 1 o’clock for his interview.  For some reason Chree elected to remain at Lynne & Perry’s when Jed and I went down to Fern Lake for his tour. Upon return to Pomainville Drive, Perry and I had a great time sliding, made all the sweeter by Lynne driving to the bottom ahead of us each time to block any cars from coming up while we were totally out of control on the way down… and then giving us a lift back to the top for the next run.  We were well chilled (and one of us was covered in snow from crashing) after only six trips.  In the evening Chree and I took Lynne and Perry out for a delicious dinner at Café Provence in Brandon.  On the way back to their place the truck thermometer registered minus 16.

2 January 2014

Chree and I interviewed Sean LaFlam, owner of Goose Creek Builders, at his house in Salisbury, then took him over to Fern Lake for a tour of the Taj Mahal and building site.  That done, we drove up to Middlebury to interview Jarad Moats, President of Structural Energy Corporation (another builder), then went back to Fern Lake with him for a tour.  After lunch at Lynne & Perry’s, we drove down the hill to their next-door neighbor’s house, where we interviewed Bob Hillman of Hillman Construction.  Went over to Fern Lake with Bob for yet another tour.  Returned to Lynne & Perry’s late afternoon to thaw out (the temperature hovered around 0°F all day), then went back to Fern Lake with them to have a wonderful dinner at Marty & Merry’s.  By this time the Tacoma was pretty much on auto-pilot.  Good thing, too, as the snow was starting to really come down.

1 January 2014

After a festive New Year’s Eve at the retirement apartments in Guilford, CT where Fran & Frank now live, Chree and I drove up to Lynne & Perry’s via a brief visit with Alverta in Shelburne.  Started snowing as we entered Vermont… an omen of some sort.

25 November 2013

Made the long trek back to Virginia for the winter, made even longer by having to return north 45 miles to Pete’s RV (dropping off the dead Storm King battery and the three overlarge replacements that have been sent to me over the past four months), then stopping at Alverta’s to install a cane carrying tube on her walker. Traffic light to moderate from there to Springfield, so made the whole trip in 12½ hours.

24 November 2013

Five inches of fresh snow overnight.  Plow truck went up and down the road early, sanding as it went, but still leaving very dicey driving conditions to be negotiated with a light pickup and heavy tractor on a big trailer.  Surprisingly, made it the five miles down the hills (in 4WD low range and 2^nd gear for the worst parts) to the paved road with no problems.  As always, drove to Fern Lake via Burlington (going around, vice over, the Green Mountains with the Kubota in tow).  Stopped en route at Pete’s RV to pick up another replacement battery for the Storm King portable generator… this one (#3) guaranteed to fit.  When I arrived at Fern Lake the tractor, trailer, and truck were all nice and white… completely coated with road salt.  Absolutely couldn’t put the Kubota and trailer to bed for the winter in that condition, so, in spite of the temperature only being in the mid-20’s, washed them off with a hose.  Got at least some of the salt off before the ice coating got too thick.  Feeling in my fingers should come back any day now.  Perry came over shortly after the ice sculptures were complete.  We used the backhoe chained to Perry’s Chinese finger (look it up on Wikipedia if you don’t know what that is) in an attempt to pull back out of the ground the ½″ PVC pipe that Alex and I had buried in July (but that now won’t be needed to convey water down to the disapproved waterfront sauna building).  Retrieved some of the pipe, finding that the strain had broken one of the couplings at the 30 feet point.  Perry then helped me tarp Dolores… no mean feat in the strong, gusty winds that were present.  Tucked the Kubota into the shed garage (which was nice and warm, being mostly underground) for her long winter’s nap, having put nearly 100 hours on her Hobbs meter this year.  Found that, once again, the Storm King replacement battery was too big. So much for “guarantees”.  A fabulous repast and very comfortable overnight stay at Hotel Pirkkanen. 

2 - 23 November 2013

Continued logging in Calais.  Sent another 3 truckloads of saw logs and 56 tons of pulp logs off to the mills.