NEK Weekend

After a short workweek due to the two storms, Ryan and I took off Friday to head up to my parents’ cabin in Vermont’s Northeast Kingdom.  It was so great to get up there.  We usually go every New Years and spend three or four days snowshoeing, but this year we stayed home to work on the house (booo).  This weekend was a little different (and so much more fun!) because it wasn’t just the two of us and Tela, my parents and my brother Eric and his family were also all up.  The boys went sliding and Eric, T, Ryan, and I got a chance to get out into the woods and visit “our” Sugar Shack we always hike out to.

Also of note – Nick, our six year-old nephew may just be a budding young architect.  Ever since Ryan gave Nick some old elevations to color on, it’s kind of their thing.  Nick usually draws plans for Ryan to bring to the workmen; this time I asked him if he could give us some ideas for the house, too.  He spec’ed out some windows and doors and also designed a doghouse for Tela.  Here’s some of his original designs.

I got in on the action, too.

Nick and younger brother Andrei (age four) are also very in to music these days.  Besides KISS, they also are big Elvis fans.  Here they are rocking out.  

We had time for a Scrabble game, before heading down to Parker Pie for dinner.

Tela took advantage of this unsupervised time to eat a six-pack of homemade donuts.

Bad dog.

Woke up to eight inches of fresh snow Sunday morning. 

After digging out, we headed home to see how Ipswich did with the latest storm.  Luckily, no more snow from this storm and instead rain and warmer temps which have melted the ice dam quite a lot.  Before heading out Friday, Ryan was up again on the roof clearing it off and on advice from my museum’s facilities manager, cut some channels through the ice dam for it to drain.  Seems to have worked.  Don’t worry, cold air is coming back tomorrow, along with five or so more inches in the next few days.

Blogging Live: Storm Coverage

Obviously, I’ve been watching too much local news as I track the latest and the greatest storms coming to Cape Ann, as well as my mounting snow days from work.  Not that I’m complaining too much about those.

Well, here we are in storm two of two.  Yesterday’s brought in another 8 inches or so.  I was sent home from work around noon.  A kind coworker who lives in Newburyport gave me a ride home.  Turns out, I think, we came home in the worst of it.  Near white out conditions on 1A, not a plow to be seen, and very slow going.  When Ryan came home around 4:00 the roads were in much better shape.  Yesterday I was on official strike from shoveling and advocated very hard for us to call the neighbor’s son, but Ryan insisted on shoveling on his own.  Two hours later, the driveway and roof was clear.

Tela was awfully confused when Ryan was up on the lower roof, which you can see out to from our bedroom.

Clearing the roof before storm two was especially important because this bad boy is packing a double punch with snow and sleet, which is of course heavier than that fluffy stuff.  It’s just not a good idea to have all the weight sitting on your (nearly) flat roof. 

The constant roof shoveling has also been our feeble attempt at avoiding an ice dam disaster. An ice dam is a ridge of ice that forms at the edge of a roof and prevents melting snow from draining off the roof. The water that backs up behind the dam can leak and cause damage to walls, ceilings, insulation, and other areas. Basically, an ice dam is the stuff of nightmares.

Unfortunately, we already have the damn dam. 

We’ve received a couple suggestions for melting it before the thaw.  They include: a panty hose full of rock salt along all gutters (really to be done before the snow, so we’ll tuck this away for next year), drilling channels at regular intervals through the dam and then lining the back side of it with rock salt – the channels act as drains for dam to melt slowly, and hooking a hose up to the hot water feed of the clothes washer and melting the dam.  Any other suggestions are appreciated!

How apropos

Yay: Free Kegerator Nay: More Snow

Some brewery friends dropped this off for us over the weekend:

Which, with weather like this coming our way, might be more useful if it was already in operation:

I informed Ryan that though at this stage in the reno, we could still theoretically install it in the kitchen, it will stay out in the barn.  He (reluctantly) agreed.

Snow, snow, snow

I was looking over my post from this past weekend and thinking to myself “what on earth did we do with ourselves all day Saturday,” only to realize that in addition to running some much-needed errands and visiting the RMc project, we spent a good two hours in the morning digging out – yet again – from a Nor’easter that came in the day before. That included Ryan getting up on the lower roof to clear that off, too.

Well, a good thing we made some room and Ryan cleared the roof, because this morning we were at it again. 12 inches fell overnight in Ipswich. I wish I’d been keeping track, but by my best estimation, we’ve had about 5 feet of snow so far in winter 2010-2011. We’ve had three big storms, two with 18 inches a piece and this one with a solid 12 inches, add in a couple six-inch storms and this has been QUITE the first winter for us new homeowners. 

I’ve drove Ryan to brink with my repeated requests to check the boiler vent now that we’re on natural gas and I am to the brink with all this shoveling. The problem with a wee house on a wee lot with a wee, narrow drive is after 5 feet or so of snow… where the heck do you put it?

Hiring someone to plow wouldn't work, they'd block the barn in with the snow. Our DIY budget means we can't call on the neighbor's kid after each snow, and you know if we were to buy a snow blower, next year it won’t snow at all...  

Please let the record reflect I am responsible for 35% of this shoveling. Maybe even 40%.

So here's our solution. The pile on the left started off as a small mound and has grown into our very own mountain. Please also note our creative use of the raised flower beds on the right (our gas grill is also somewhere under there). We've reached the point where we're basically playing Jenga with snow.

And yes, the fallen tree is still hanging out in the backyard. Friends and family with chainsaws, please consider this your open invitation to stop by for a visit and to pick up some free firewood for next winter... just needs time to cure! Might want to bring a shovel, too.

While picturesque, these gnarly icicles have taken on a life of their own and are doing their best to tear down the gutter that runs along the mudroom. It needs to come down anyway, so like the tree, we are letting Mother Nature have her way. We hope have either electric baseboard or radiator heat in the mudroom by next winter. This will keep the space warmer, including the roof above, and hopefully mitigate the icicles a bit in future winters.

I love New England, I love New England, I love New England…