One of my outdoor temperature sensors went to 32.5° Friday morning. I didn’t check the other, but they have been nearly the same until afternoon when their locations show a slight difference. The airport reported 39°.
Thursday my truck was fitted with its new Leer canopy. I’m shopping for a large vinyl decal (horses ?) for the tailgate and maybe smaller images for the side windows of the canopy. Alternatively, maybe a nice mountain panorama.
Todd worked on the electric this week. The south side power is back and the front room has ceiling lights. There is outside wiring and lights to do, but the temperature morning and evening is now too cold to make much use of the deck, but next summer it will be a nice place to sit and contemplate the cosmos.
Jesse and Willy finished the siding and framing, and, on Thursday caulked all the edges and abutments of the planks. Friday they covered all the windows and such with plastic. Walter came Saturday morning and sprayed primer and then blue paint. As that dried, he painted all the finishing “smart board” around windows, doors, and corners. All this framing is now bright white, while the siding is a blue-gray.
Interestingly, the new blue seems to be blue-er than that painted last year. If the new blue doesn’t cure to match the old-blue, then there is another 24 feet of wall to paint. The five of us here today noticed this. Walter’s wife came out to visit. She had painted the original, and noticed the difference without getting out of her fancy red Outback.
The other two were Kathy and Francisco from west of the Cascade Crest.
Getting here (for them) was delayed because of Highway 18. Why this wasn’t part of the Interstate System many years ago is a mystery. Use Google Earth, or similar, and search for WA-18. They brought the large gray trailer and we filled it with hay, plus more hay and old straw in the bed of the truck. There were a few other things loaded, and we visited over lunch.
Their return trip was easier, and it is more downhill, being 2,000 feet lower. Snoqualmie Pass is about 1,000 feet higher than here at the house. This side, only three small sections to the Pass are steep. the rest is very gradual.
Back on July 28th I found a dead deer (large, adult, male) in the pasture beside the hay shed. I moved it out of the way, and under trees. Today we walked over and found the remains – a few of the larger bones were there, and a faint lingering aroma. At the time of death, the antlers were still “in velvet”. Today they were nowhere to be seen.
I have filled the trench in the front with small rounded basalt rocks. This is the sump for water coming off the front of the house; or rather half of the house. The other part will drain into the area where the walnut trees are. This draining sort of works now, so I haven’t done anything there this year.
The rocks for the sump have mostly come from a planned flower and plant space just east of the house. There are two fir trees there, and I’ve lowered the base level around them by 18 inches. Dirt is going back in, along with pine kitty litter and other organic material. One landscape project feeds into another.
I expect the outside of the house to be essentially finished early next week. The inside work, likely, will wait for further deterioration of the weather.
I’ve contracted for a sundial that will be placed about 20 feet to the south of the new deck. It will be placed on a nearly white granite stone piller (18 inches square), itself about 3 feet high. In the image here the side-to-side dimension will be about 3 feet, and made of iron. [Disregard the green disk.] More at another time. This type is called an Equatorial Ring Dial. The numbered part is aligned with Earth’s Equator.
From the Naneum Fan
John