More Winterizing

The first part of October was winter-like; the second part was lovely… if you like rain. We had the wettest month in history – a week and a half ago – and the rain kept coming.

This past weekend was dry and sunny and lovely and I was finally able to get a little work done in the yard. I mulched the front yard on Saturday and most of the back yard on Sunday. Even with as wet as it had been, the leaves were dry enough to mulch pretty well.

Laundry One of the issues of a wet October has been drying my laundry. It has been difficult, but I have managed so far (doing several loads on those days when it is dry enough to line-dry clothes). For those of you across the globe who have never had a dryer, this is probably pretty common. It has been a little difficult for me. I spent my entire life with the luxury of a dryer at my immediate disposal, and making due without it has been a good lesson.

Insulating I have been doing a bunch of reading on how others have decreased their carbon foot print while investing just a small amount of money. Here are a few new ones on me that make sense:

1. If you have single-pane windows, use a spray bottle to create moisture on the window and place bubble wrap over the window to create an additional barrier. This will let light in, however, it does distort the view (and there are a few windows where I find this a real plus). You can put it up, and pull it down if company comes over – whereas the plastic that one normally puts over the windows is pretty much there for the entire winter (and I’m not a fan of the way it looks if entertaining). I had some bubble wrap sitting around and have used it on a few windows so far. I have also seen rolls of it at the dollar stores.
2. Door extenders. I have a storm door that is shorter than the door frame (it was this way when I bought it) and every year I stuff a towel in that area during the winter and step over it every time I use the door. I found a two piece door extender that expands front to back to different widths of doors, and was extra wide. I cut it to size, but was unable to get the screws (provided) to go into the metal storm door. I covered the inside piece of the this hard plastic extender – the part that goes against the door – with liquid nails, attached it to the door and let the door sit open for a day. I now have a very tight seal with that door, and I don’t have the bright white outside piece (that didn’t provide any insulating factor) up against my newly painted dark green door. It works very well. I love liquid nails!
3. Caulking the floor. I live on a slab (no basement) and in my sunroom I have noticed that there is a slight gap between the floor and one of the walls. I took some silicone caulk and caulked over it. I recently tore out baseboard heaters that hadn’t worked since I bought the house 10 years ago, and did not see these gaps until the baseboards were pulled. Who knows how long those gaps had been there to let in insects (ants especially appeared from no where) and cold air. No more.
4. Something as simple as finding all the heating vents and making sure they are not covered by some piece of furniture, sounds like a “duh” – but I found two vents that had been covered up almost since the day I moved in over a decade ago.

Planning for Winter – Body, Mind and House

Here in St. Louis, Missouri the temperature had become unseasonable cold with temps in the 40’s already (and lots of rain!), and my house temp is hovering around 56. Today I almost considered turning on the furnace, but since the winter temp level I have set for myself is 52 degrees, I held off and put on another layer of clothes.

We had a very mild summer, and it almost felt like spring from April through, well, two weeks ago went when we went directly into an early winter. This takes a little getting used to.

My body had rejected the whole notion so far. I have been laid up with a knee that just went out on me while rolling over in bed one night. No injury, no trauma, nothing even in the last year I can think of. I don’t think my ailment really has anything to do with the weather (although when one gets to a certain age I think it is required that one complain about the weather and ailing joints) – but it does put me in a different mood and made it most difficult to do even the most simple of tasks – like bringing in my house plants – most of which are still outside. I’m working on bringing in some of the smaller ones and getting rid of the debris and (hopefully) bugs in the kitchen sink since the rain doesn’t look like it is going to stop anytime soon (and I’m not real excited about getting sick by doing all of this in 45 degree rain). Frost looks to be in the forecast this weekend. I’ll try and get my next door neighbor to bring in the three larger potted trees, since there is no way I could lift them with this bum knee.

This past year I feel like I have prepared for the winter slightly better than in the past:

• some friends and I insulated my office.
• I caulked around my outside doors.
• I discovered two heating vents that had been covered by bookshelves – one in my office and one in the sun room that have been covered for probably 10 years. (How stupid!) They have both been cleared.
• Tomorrow I will stop at one of those big box hardware stores and buy a storm door extender (I’m sure it has a much more technical name) to cover the 1/2″ gap under my storm door. In the past I have stuffed a towel or a draft dodger in that area to stop the air flow. I’m hoping this will do the trick without me needing to trip over something every time I go through that door.

I’m trying to get everything ready for the eventuality of winter – and hopefully when the first frost hits I will be ready for it.

Insulating My Office

On Saturday a few friends of mine came over and helped me to insulate my office. It is the room in which I spend the majority of my time and it is also the coldest room in the house.

My office has two outside walls. During the summer, all the trees in my back yard shade the hot sun from the office, however, the dense trees also block the sun (even without foliage) from my office windows during the cold winter.

I have not had a chance to replace the single-pane cottage windows (individual lites), but that was only part of the cold problem. What I discovered a few months ago when I finally decided to pull one of the pieces of 1950’s good wood paneling down was that there was no insulation between the cinder blocks and the paneling.

My house is a brick ranch built in the early 1950’s. And, maybe they didn’t think much about insulation back then – but I could often feel the wind come through the nail holes in the paneling. I KNEW that didn’t make sense.

Back to the project.

The crown molding and baseboards came off and the paneling came down.

Old termite damage was discovered – structural problems for holding the window in place, so a new 2×4 was placed in as a support, and two additional pieces of 1×6 were liquid nailed to the cinder block and supported by the footers which were still in good shape. (This is when I am very glad I only live two exits from one of those big box home improvement stores).

And this is what this looks like now. Of course, you can’t see the new brace boards and I still need to put on a new sill and do some finishing work — but the new 2×4 that was put in fits like a glove. We dated and signed this new piece of wood (it is something we just do from time-to-time when working on home projects).

1″ insulation sheets were cut to “sort of” fit – it is hard to fit when one opening may be 13 1/2″ wide at the top; 12″ wide at the mid point and 11 3/4″ wide at the bottom. And… none of them were the same size.

A foam expanding insulation was used to fill the large gaps between the ceiling and the wall covered by the crown molding. The foam expanding insulation was also used around outlets and at the bottom of the wall.

This foam insulation from a can was also used to put some much needed insulation into the window frame itself. I discovered there was all of an eight of an inch between me and the elements around the window. This is not the case anymore.

Next a black plastic moisture barrier was placed over the insulation, and the paneling was reinstalled.

It took the four of us almost nine hours to finish this job. Because of the insulation and plastic, the back counter top which fit like a glove before, now wouldn’t fit at all. I’ll have to get my hands on a belt sander and shave the counter top down so it fits.

The 1″ insulation only has an “R” value of 5 – but 5 is better than nothing! The moisture barrier will hopefully help with some of the moisture problems I seem to be having in this particular room, as well.

This job cost be right just under $100 for materials – all of which (except for the plastic) qualify for the tax credit in the US.

A Cool New Day on the Line

Yes, like many parts of the US, the weather has gotten cooler here in St. Louis, MO. It dropped into the 40’s last night and the cool weather looks like it will continue.

The last few days the wind has been whipping and gum balls and black walnut pods have been falling from the sky like hail. I try and stay out of the way.

I love this time of year.

The humidity is low, and yesterday I got two loads of laundry washed and out on the line. It is early and I have another load in the wash ready to go out as soon as there is enough light to see. It has been several weeks since the humidity has been low enough to dry clothes on the line in one day.

I worry about how I will dry my clothes indoors once the weather has gotten too cold to do it outside. When my dryer died earlier this year I made a conscious decision not to buy another. Folks around the world on these blogs told me they have always done without, so I’m trusting that I will be able to as well. I talk the green talk, and walking the green walk is always easier in the summer. Now comes the time of truth. Will I be able to handle a winter without a clothes dryer?

A Dog, a Card Game and a Dedication

This morning on my way to church – early as usual – I saw this large dog running down the middle of a busy street – actually chasing cars right ahead of me. I was concerned that cars would not be able to stop with the wet road (it was raining), and this dog would be hit. So, I turned on my hazards and called the dog. It jumped into my backseat. I drove to the next major intersection and sat. For the next 45 minutes I waited for either the police or animal control (one or the other was promised) to come and take this very wet dog out of my car and help find its owners – no one arrived. Finally, I drove back to the area I picked up the dog and drove up and down the side streets hoping to find someone looking for this lovely long-haired dog. It was a sweet dog, who I’m guessing, has eaten White Castle hamburgers before, because when I drove into the White Castle parking lot to turn around, this dog was looking over my shoulder drooling onto my arm. I finally found this dog’s collar (no tags) and a chain in a McDonald’s parking lot a few blocks from when I found her. It had obviously been dragged through wet grass.

Finally, I had to tie this dog to a fence in the nearest residential area to the McDonald’s to get to church on time. I did go back a few hours later and the dog was gone. I can only hope that its owners found her and took her home.

So, smelling a lot like a wet dog myself by the time I got to church, I enjoyed the special peace and justice service. When it was over, a friend of mine and I got a bite to eat, went to an art opening, then sat in The Bread Company for three hours playing canasta. By the time we finished the tie-breaker round (I won that game by just 30 points), we arrived just in time to be late going into church again.

Our church had a new pipe organ custom built and tonight was the dedicatory service. The place was packed and it was a lovely service.

So, I’m home after a very long day. Tired, but happy to have my own dog peacefully sleeping with her head on my lap.

Peace, Justice and One Thousand Cranes

This past Sunday was the first Sunday in our four-week Peace and Justice series at Trinity Episcopal Church in St. Louis. Since cranes have become a peace symbol, after the story of a small girl named Sadako in Japan spread throughout the world, a friend of mine started our church community folding origami cranes several months ago as Sadako Sasaki did so many years ago. But would we reach 1,000? What does 1,000 cranes look like?

Like this:

Personally, I am only responsible for folding, or partially folding, 25 cranes (my three vacation buddies and I did some of these on our vacation and we did a bit of an assembly line – each completing a part).

The sermon itself was just incredible. It talks about the story of Sadako Sasaki and of peace and justice. Listen to it here (with music prelude).

If you are in the St. Louis area and get a chance to stop by and see this in person, it truly is an incredible sight!

My Labor (-intense) Day Weekend

In addition to helping a friend with a sewing project on Friday (I cut and pin – I don’t sew), and painting and helping to power wash at my church on Saturday morning, I did a little bit of yard work this weekend

A friend had a tree-trimming truck load of wood chips dropped on her driveway last week, and after she moved all that she could use she discovered she still had plenty to share. Not being one to turn down anything free, and needing a huge amount of mulch for my yard (and who doesn’t this time of year) – I started hauling – in the sun and in the rain.

Now… like many gardeners who own cars and not the coveted mulch/compost hauling truck, I stuffed my car with containers to be loaded and unloaded and loaded and unloaded… with these wood chips. I have two 20″x28″x16″ containers. One in my trunk and one in my back seat. In addition, I used two metal trash cans. From Friday through Labor Day I made six trips to collect wood chips. By the time I finished my last trip back and unloaded all but one of the large containers (it’s still in my trunk) I was sore and tired and collapsed onto a chaise in my sun room and stayed there until it was time for bed. Picking up and moving a container full of wood chips can really strain muscles.

Anyway, my front garden is cleaned up (except for three tomato plants) and mulched for the winter.

My new garden in back is mulched.

I pulled weeds, and dug up day lilies and hauled wood chips to my “beach” area – an area where I can view my (any day now) pond. In addition, I hauled large rocks to the “beach” area. I think it really looks nice (but you may need to have known what it looked like before to truly appreciate it now.)

I also added wood chips to the area I recently cleared under a pine tree. I love the look of freshly chopped wood.

I still have wood chips in my car to unload and a few more trips to make to pick up more chips. But, I feel like I really labored this Labor day!

I wish I’d had a camera…

#1: I was sitting in my sun room a few days ago, when a hawk landed just outside the room on the table pushed up against the sun room wall… I was no more than eight feet from this incredible bird – and I admit I have never been that close to a hawk before. Incredible!

#2: My dog, Maggie, was hanging over the back of the love seat to watch the front yard and street (back paws on the seat cushions, body laying over the back cushion, and front paws hanging over the top of the love seat). I have a garden out there and a humming bird was wandering by. The humming bird came right up to the window to stare at Maggie – and Maggie put her nose to the glass to get close to the humming bird. It was one of the cutest things I’ve seen in a while.

HOW TO… Brighten a Front Stoop

My front stoop was nothing exciting. A place just outside my kitchen door that held a chair a bench and a bunch of junk. It wasn’t terrible – but the stoop did have two different colors of paint – mostly peeling – blotching up the bare concrete. And… the door was black. Nothing on my house is black but this door and the door into the foyer (but that’s another story – and another project.)

First thing I did was to purchase spray paint suitable for metal. Cost of under $5. I covered the window and the surrounding brick and started painting.

I used paper for the window that had drawings and a diagram on the back from when a friend and I made a riser to go around a baptismal font with an octagonal base. On the sides I used a cut up shower curtain – purchased at the dollar store and used twice before as a drop cloth for painting projects.

While the door was drying, I went about working on the windows on either side of the door. Thankfully I had this paint on hand, so I didn’t have any additional cost here- just a little bit of effort to touch up. I also used some green caulking I had on hand to caulk around the door and windows.

Next I went about working on the floor. As I said, it had several blotches of paint on it.

I took a metal scrub brush that had a scraper on it and got the majority of the paint off.

Then I began to paint. Yes, I know I am supposed to etch and prime first – but I know that if I had to do all of that I just wouldn’t do it at all. Besides, I didn’t want to have to go out and buy anything for this project. I used what was left (about a quarter of a gallon) of concrete paint left from a project I did 10 years ago. I know it would go, because I asked my “color guru friends” what color to use with brick and hunter green (which is what was once in my sun room) – and this is the color that was selected.

I still need to put out a few accent pieces (I think I will use purple) in a chair cushion, a large flower pot for the plant on the bottom left (that is very root bound), a rug with purple in it (or I’ll paint a rug with a purple design), and I’ll make an art piece or two to hand on the wall. But, with all that still not done, I’m pleased with what I have at the moment.

Since I had most of the materials used, my cost was just under $5 for the spray paint.

Read anything good lately?

Part 1: I just finished reading “Middlesex” (Jeffrey Eugenides) a 2003 Pulitzer Prize winner for fiction. I have had this on my shelf for almost five years and just never got around to reading it. This book was wonderful! I enjoyed every minute of reading time I could squeeze out of my day. I won’t attempt a book review – well, because that sounds like too much work, and I’m sure if you google this book you could find hundreds to view.

Part 2: I am in need of a few book ideas. Is there a great book out there (fiction) that you just loved? Please leave a comment with the name and author (if you have it).

Thanks.