The long weekend
Feb. 18th, 2008 08:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altivoA weekend that seemed like it was a week long, and not very nice for the most part. At least today we didn't have to shovel snow. But the temperature is now way below normal for February, and everything is frozen like iron. The ground water is alive and running, so the sump pump under the house is triggering every few minutes. That's normal starting about now and through May or so. But it just dumps the water on the ground outside, where it immediately freezes. We have to watch to make sure the ice at the outlet doesn't overwhelm the exit pipe or the pressure will back up and shut the system down. Then the crawl space under the house will flood. Not fun.
Because that has happened once or twice, Gary got a moisture detector and put it down there under our bedroom. If the water rises to where it rests on a bed of gravel, it starts piping out a distress signal. (Literally, "S O S" in morse code, though rather sloppily.) That's supposed to warn us to check on the sump pump, etc.
Well, last night right after we went to bed it started peeping. I could hear the sump pump running regularly and was sure it was just condensation or something, but Gary insisted on crawling down there to check. Fortunately there's a trap door in our closet floor, so it isn't necessary to go outdoors. He found no standing water, but the gravel was damp. Condensation, I said. He moved the alarm and it stopped. A couple of hours later it started again, and he insisted again on going down to check. Still nothing wrong. He shifted the alarm again and it stopped. Neither of us was well rested today.
All the walkways and canals we had left in the snow were smoothed by running water yesterday, and then froze solid. You could move between buildings here on ice skates. In fact, that would be better than trying to walk it. But at least the barn doors still open and close. The boys seem to have an instinct for it, and they are funny to watch as they move about with tiny little baby steps.
I did finish that book review as I'd intended. And we counted birds on three days for the "Great Backyard Bird Count." Nothing extraordinary, except that I saw a sharp shinned hawk on Saturday. About 16 species each day.
Warping instructions for the weaving workshop on double weave in May arrived in Saturday's mail. The instructor wants the loom threaded with 5/2 perle cotton, of which I have none on hand, so I need to order some. Two contrasting colors, she says. So I've been looking at yarn catalogs wondering what the difference is between "deep turquoise" and "dark turquoise" or just what color "safari" and "Tahiti" actually are. Perle cotton comes in a huge array of colors, and it's like dreaming up names for all the crayons in one of those big boxes. The designers get a bit too imaginative.
Back to work tomorrow, and daytime wind chills for the next couple of days are supposed to be in the -25 to -35 F. range. That's about -32 to -37 for you Celsians. Did you know that the two scales agree on one temperature? -40 is the same in both. It's the temperature at which mercury becomes a solid, oddly enough.
Because that has happened once or twice, Gary got a moisture detector and put it down there under our bedroom. If the water rises to where it rests on a bed of gravel, it starts piping out a distress signal. (Literally, "S O S" in morse code, though rather sloppily.) That's supposed to warn us to check on the sump pump, etc.
Well, last night right after we went to bed it started peeping. I could hear the sump pump running regularly and was sure it was just condensation or something, but Gary insisted on crawling down there to check. Fortunately there's a trap door in our closet floor, so it isn't necessary to go outdoors. He found no standing water, but the gravel was damp. Condensation, I said. He moved the alarm and it stopped. A couple of hours later it started again, and he insisted again on going down to check. Still nothing wrong. He shifted the alarm again and it stopped. Neither of us was well rested today.
All the walkways and canals we had left in the snow were smoothed by running water yesterday, and then froze solid. You could move between buildings here on ice skates. In fact, that would be better than trying to walk it. But at least the barn doors still open and close. The boys seem to have an instinct for it, and they are funny to watch as they move about with tiny little baby steps.
I did finish that book review as I'd intended. And we counted birds on three days for the "Great Backyard Bird Count." Nothing extraordinary, except that I saw a sharp shinned hawk on Saturday. About 16 species each day.
Warping instructions for the weaving workshop on double weave in May arrived in Saturday's mail. The instructor wants the loom threaded with 5/2 perle cotton, of which I have none on hand, so I need to order some. Two contrasting colors, she says. So I've been looking at yarn catalogs wondering what the difference is between "deep turquoise" and "dark turquoise" or just what color "safari" and "Tahiti" actually are. Perle cotton comes in a huge array of colors, and it's like dreaming up names for all the crayons in one of those big boxes. The designers get a bit too imaginative.
Back to work tomorrow, and daytime wind chills for the next couple of days are supposed to be in the -25 to -35 F. range. That's about -32 to -37 for you Celsians. Did you know that the two scales agree on one temperature? -40 is the same in both. It's the temperature at which mercury becomes a solid, oddly enough.
