15 April 2014

Jeffrey Many, sole proprietor of Green Mountain Door, arrived at 8:30 to repair the shed garage door that was damaged last winter when I tried to open it with the door seal frozen to the threshold. Result of that faux pas was a door that only opened 9″ before jamming. Jeff bolted the delaminated door panels back together, then put on new and different top roller brackets, and, just like that, door fixed! Cleaned the accumulated detritus off the wood walkway and saw that, in spite of a particularly deep frost this past winter, the walkway hasn’t moved.  Started raining in earnest, as forecast, just as that job ended.  After lunch, ran errands into Middlebury (diesel fuel for the tractor) and Brandon (Gifford’s Sugarloaf Mint Chip You-Won’t-Believe-It’s-Not-Ice-Cream was calling my name, even though it’s supposed to get down into the 20’s tonight AND snow).  Also stopped into the Brandon Free Library, signed up for a card, and took away 627 pages of Outlander light reading to keep me entertained during non-work hours.  Returned to Fern Lake and, warmly ensconced in dry Dolores comfort, cooked up a large batch of lasagna sauce for forthcoming festivities.

14 April 2014

Just before 5 a.m. left Springfield (aka “The Tropics”, where the temps yesterday were in the low 80’s).  The three hours of missed beauty sleep will be sorely missed by any who see me in the next few days.  Leaving that early, missed the Washington and Baltimore rush hour traffic entirely and was to mid-town Philadelphia in only 2½ hours, a new record.  Thereafter set the cruise control for 5 mph less than usual (due to the load on the truck) and made it to Fern Lake in 8¾ hours (aka “The Tropics”, where it was a breezy 80°F).  There is still ice on the south end of the lake, so, tempting as the waters looked, decided to forego a swim. Twenty minutes after arriving, having just removed the blue tarp from Dolores, heard a loud crash right behind me.  After returning to Earth, found that the dead tree immediately behind the RV had blown over, fortunately not on either me or Dolores.  Dolores must have been sufficiently startled that she started with the first turn of the key.  Lots of signs that mice had visited over the winter but, myth confirmed, not in any of the places where I had put out fabric softener dryer sheets (Spring Scent variety).  Most notably, there was NO nest in the oven… or anywhere else that I’ve yet found.  However, I did swat the first mosquito of the season, which is NOT a good sign!  Spent the rest of the day and evening emptying the truck and stowing all that “stuff” away.  Remembered to call and wish Alex’s voicemail a Happy Birthday!  A semi-cool Beck’s Dark slid down real easy for dinner. 

 

1 March 2014

Drove back to Virginia.  Was making record time until hitting a full hour construction delay just north of Philadelphia.  Very frustrating!!!!  9½ hours door-to-door.

28 February 2014

Sean arrived again at 0800 to continue our house specifications review.  More really fruitful discussions.  After Perry demonstrated (once again) his culinary skills (five-star tuna melt sandwiches for lunch), Sean and I went up to Vergennes to meet with Dennis Senesac, Project Manager at Ryan Plumbing and Heating and a fount of knowledge about all things plumbing and HVAC related.  After lengthy discussion, Dennis recommended (and Sean eventually concurred) that we should stay with a forced hot / cold air HVAC system powered by the geothermal energy recovery system we want to install.  The bad news: such a system may require drilling up to 1,000 vertical feet of wells at mega-bucks per foot.  Maybe we can name one well “Tasi”, another one “Alex”, and the third one “Katy”, then wish the kids a happy inheritance.  Took Lynne and Perry out for dinner and a surfeit of calories at the Waybury Inn in East Middlebury.

27 February 2014

Over to Fern Lake late morning to get some measurements of the woodshed siding trim to add to the house specifications.  Again stopped down to see Marty & Merry, but no signs of life in their house.  Then up to Pete’s RV in South Burlington where, miracle of miracles, the correct generator battery was awaiting collection, thanks to the dedicated efforts of Devra Metevier.  Visited and had lunch with Alverta at her apartment in Shelburne, then headed back to Salisbury for more fattening-up á la chez Pirkkanen.

26 February 2014

Sean LaFlam (owner of Goose Creek Builders, our general contractor) arrived at 0800 to begin going over the details of what we think we want in building our house. A great meeting, with Sean and Perry offering innumerable suggestions about how to make things better. Sean recommended strongly that we consider an in-floor radiant heating system throughout the house vice the forced hot air and air conditioning system that we had been planning. Treated Sean and Perry to lunch at Cattails Restaurant in Brandon.  Lynne & Perry stuffed me to the gills with more delicious victuals that evening.

25 February 2014

Left Springfield at the crack of dawn and was just congratulating myself on making excellent time to Philadelphia (and grooving away to the 70’s on 7) when I suddenly found myself no longer on I-95 but in downtown Philly.  Ooops!  Negotiated the maze of one-way streets thereabouts (all of which seemed to be going the wrong way) and returned to the interstate.  Still made it to the Hannaford in Brandon (needed ice cream, of course!) in 8½ hours, close to record time.  Went from there up to Fern Lake, where I discovered that the garage door to the shed lower level was frozen to the ground. Took a lot longer than I had expected to gain entry… and wrenched my lower back in the process.  Made a few swaps (things no longer needed in Virginia this winter for things that should have been taken to Virginia last fall), stopped down to say hello to the Lapidii (no answer to my knock on their door), then headed for Lynne & Perry’s, where warm accommodations and an elegant repast awaited.