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Tuesday, October 18, 2016

Air gaps and winter prep



This year, for the first time in quite a few years, my lovely wife and I plan on staying in NH for most of the winter. More effort is going into winter prep than travel prep. The house is more weather tight than it's been in years -and I'm not done yet.

My daughter and her husband did extensive house renovations. One of the things they no longer needed was one of their outside doors. It was in excellent shape and much better than my old door to the deck. Thanks to my daughter's door gift my house is noticeably warmer. Today I just cut up the old wooden door for firewood. The only insulation that door had was the reflectix I stapled on it. That wasn't the most attractive fix but it's what I had at the time.

I'm a big fan of expansion foam in a can. It's great for sealing pesky air gaps. While it's pretty messy stuff to work with, that doesn't matter much in my unfinished basement. There's one more section behind my battery bank yet to do as it's hard to reach. My solution will be to duck tape a spray can to a long pole and pull the trigger with a piece of paracord. Sure beats moving a half ton of batteries.

Oil heat is common in New England. The price of oil is lower than it's been in a long time. It's nice to have a furnace to back up my wood heat. That way if I happen to sleep in, the furnace keeps the house from getting too cold. Sure beats waking up to a 39 degree house and then spending the rest of the day getting it up to temperature. We also couldn't leave the house for a few days without getting someone to stoke the stove.

One thing I don't like about winter is that I tend to gain weight. Too much staying inside when the weather is bad. However, a good friend gave me a kit that turns my pedal bike into an exercise bike. Yes, I'm actually using it. I've used stationary bikes in the past and can stick with it.

I should have more firewood cut up, but that will happen. My one hope is that winter passes as fast as this past summer did.

-Sixbears

15 comments:

  1. Time is compressing these days. It seems each season is shorter than the last.

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    1. I feel like my hat's going to blow off when I just sitting still.

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  2. Time doesn't go by so slowly anymore.

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    1. Funny how when you are young and have all your years ahead of you, time crawls. As you age, and your days are fewer, the pace picks up. Hardly seems fair. I really should take better care of myself as there so much going on I'd hate to miss the fun.

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  3. It is still August, right? Why am I seeing all these pumpkins around?

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    1. I know, right? Must have blinked and missed summer.

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  4. I've found, that my body, like a fire, does not get bigger, unless you overstoke it.
    Seems the older I get, the less I like to eat....Guess that is good because i see very few overweight centurions around. Most are skinny folks.

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    1. I think I threw gasoline on the fire.

      On the plus side, got a clean bill of health from the Dr. this summer. Helps to be active.

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  5. At my age I get up, turn around, and sit back down and three days go by. Wow!! I didn't know I was moving that slow. . .

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  6. I have energy one minute, then I'm ready to nap it off the next. The seasons used to pass so slowly. I'm extremely shocked when I hear people complaining about the heat in summer, followed by complaining about the cold in winter. It's as if they don't remember the same thing happened last year. I had my Indiana house insulated, air tight, and a new roof and energy efficient furnace, thinking I'd die where I had been born. SURPRISE! Husband moved us to Florida and I did NOT make back ANY of the money I'd put into reinventing the old homestead.

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    1. All summer I made a point not to complain about the heat, knowing I'd miss it when it was gone.

      The newer parts of the house are well insulated. The unfinished half basement was built when the place was a seasonal cottage.

      It's recently occurred to my father=in-law that he's build a nice house that none of his kids are going to want. He did all that work for a future unknown stranger.

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    2. Sad. It's what happened to my dad. He wanted me to have refuge in a sturdy home built by his hands. I kept it for him until in my late 60s, when I left.

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