Dec 28 - one of those days

I didn't realize until the evening that I hadn't posted the blog that I'd written in the morning.  I'm not sure at this point whether I hit "publish" and then didn't check to see if it finished or just forgot.  I'm betting the latter.

 

The main activity of the day, for me, was plumbing.  I went into town early and picked up the 1" ID braided hose at HHBC  (Home Hardware Building Center).  It was quiet, naturally, and I chatted for a bit with Steve and Scott (Jason, correct me if I'm wrong but I think that the owner's name is Scott ... for some reason I have a hard time remembering his name).  I also picked up minnows at Gohm's and some food odds-n-sods at Buchanan's.  This time I perused the shelves to see what they had.

 

I picked up a couple of boxes of Warfarin at HHBC as well as Septobac (septic tank treatment).  Scott was telling me that he can't order Warfarin after the end of January and can't have it on the shelf after June 30.  So, buy it while you can !  The new mouse poisons, because I was looking at them at Home Depot, say that the animal must feed on it EXCLUSIVELY for three days.  Pardon me ?  The only way that the animal can feed on anything exclusively is if I have it in a cage !  I use this stuff sometimes in the barn and garage, in particular, because they can get pretty infested. 

 

Back home, I got to finishing the plumbing of the water softener.  That took more time than expected, naturally, everything does but especially plumbing.  All I had to do was run thee pieces of hose times two from the waiting connections at the valves that I'd put in place the day before to the softener. Across the back of the room, 57 inches, along the side of the room, 7 feet, down to the softener 15-22 inches.  Elbows, of course and lots of clamps, plumbing hanger straps and screws completed the picture.  It just takes time.

 

I was then able to turn on the cold water feed valve to get water to the softener and let it do a recharge cycle.  In the meantime I left the out-valve closed so that the house water was still bypassing the softener.  That completed, I turned on the faucet in the darkroom and opened the out-valve and closed the bypass valve.  We now had sort-of soft water.  I say sort-of because there was only a tiny bit of salt in the tank for this process.  I then pressed the button so that it would do a proper recharge at 2am and filled up the salt container.

 

Next up, Jeffrey and I walked down the lake to Jim and Bonnie's to clear their way into the house as well as the gravel walk around the house from back door to side door.  We also cleared a path to the woodshed because they won't be home long without needing to get wood.  With the snow being sticky, I expected that by today it might be very hard to chop out.  The day hovered around +1-2C all day but this morning it's down around -5C. 

 

By then it was running close to 4pm.  Emma and I went out and made snow-people -- two snowmen or, a snowman and snowwoman.  Abby ran around, dug in the snow, rolled around, played tug-of-war with my gloves ... just full of energy.  It's great to see.

 

Oh yes, earlier in the day I'd brought in two more pike.  They sure are biting. I also lost a couple of minnows over the course of the day.  Flag's up ... minnow gone, that sort of thing.

 

We had peameal, roasted brussels sprouts and rice for dinner.  David, Kim and Megan arrived just before 8pm and they dug in too; Sandy had made enough for everyone.  We are now up to nine + Abby.  Weather permitting we'll be at thirteen + Abby & Mya later today.

 

I'll be heading into Mass this morning.  Yes, it's Sunday.  It's hard to keep track of the days with so much going on and already going to Mass during the week. 

 

Onward !