Electric Power

I used to think Idaho Power was disappointingly unreliable.  Appalachian Power is no better, even in pretty good weather.  Third power outage since we arrived.  There is a reason our neighbor has a generator. 

I considered solar to backup a battery.  If we had outages that lasted for days on end, this might make sense. I am looking into just battery backup: systems that use a big battery to provide power for essential circuits (A/C, refrigerator, microwave oven). Electric range has huge surge demands. Other essentials such as BiPAP can use a smaller backup for that particular device. There is little need for the PCs: much of what they do requires Internet and without power, the whole Internet is down unless I switch to Starlink.

UPDATE: emailed bills went somewhere mysterious; automatic checking withdrawal takes 2-3 months to start so this was power turned off for non-payment.  Literally within seconds of entering the last digit of my Discover card number,  power came on.

First Hurricane

Admittedly, we are only on the edge of a rapidly weakening category 1 hurricane. Still, pretty heavy rain and winds.

Rain stopped and Sun came out. Then rain started. Did the eye pass over. I think it is too far east of us for that.

Upgrading Your Water Gods Does Not Help

We replaced the corded pool cleaning robot named Poseidon that Lillie chased around the pool while chewing on its cord with a cordless version that being newer and more sophisticated is the Roman god of the sea: Neptune. Same dumb behavior.

Pool

New liner in place.

Shop Coming Together

There were some cabinets in the wall that I had not bothered to open. When I did, they were ugly dirty. So I cleaned them out (spider webs, dead spiders, spider egg sacks). A number of items that so not regularly get used (a fine sander for example) will go in there getting space on the workbenches for power tools.  All the hand tools are now on pegboards. There is still some organizing needed.  

I have out together two of the Losmandy mounts and put the 5" refractor on one of them. The box collection that looked like a student film project version of the last scene in Raiders of the Lost Ark is largely gone 

Neighbors....

Tell me a bear got into their trash a couple nights ago. I hope they cannot scale a 6 foot fence for a swim. The bear I mean.

My Shop

Is currently a low-budget version of the warehouse at the end of Raiders of the Lost Ark: lots of boxes in need of opening. Machine tools, hand tools, a collection of fasteners to make most hardware stores feel inadequate, telescopes, mounts, telescope accessories, amateur telescope making parts.

I suspect the previous owners never used it except as storage for the solar pool cover.  I bug bombed it a couple days go. That there are no fresh spiderweb tells me that no one survived and no one got in. Spiders are amazingly fast at rebuilding here. My daughter removes them in room corners one day and finds replacements in  couple of days.

I have vacuumed up the webs, spider eggs sacs, sawdust, and dirt. I started wiping all the interior window frames this evening with Simple Green. Once this is done, I will wipe all horizontal surfaces; move boxes out of the way and mop the floor with Simple Green.

Things Very Southern

You knock down spiderweb one day. The next day, they are back.

Wolfettes Beserk

 The wolfettes went mad, barking. I looked out the front window and there was a majestic doe on the front lawn. Lillie was saying, "Please let me out! You won't need to feed me for a week!"

Why Was Our Dog So Desperate to Get in Front Yard?

Rhonda saw a buck in velvet as she descended the driveway and Lillie is definitely more wolfette than Canis familiaris.

Home Warranty, Air Conditioning

At our Caldwell house, we had purchased a home warranty plan from American Home Shield. We were not impressed. When the dishwasher failed, it was not a crisis so several days for them to get a technician out was okay. The replacement went okay.

The second incident disappointed us muchly. The well pump failed and we could not seem to impress upon the Third World support team that this was a serious matter. For all we knew, they may have assumed we could just go to the village well. (Okay, I am being sarcastic; more likely, what they pay third parties to take a look left them with few vendors.) 

After several days of flushing toilets with irrigation canal water and using bottled water for drinking, cooking and washing dishes, they agreed to let us hire our own well company. We had already made the appointment. Then we discovered that well pumps were limited to $1500. That will get you a very dedicated illegal with a long straw.

It was only $5000 to replace the well pump. The technician from Burgess Pump & Well (who I can highly recommend), explained that it was too small a pump for the motor, which they ran at too high a voltage to overcome this. While it let them come in below responsible well drillers, it meant less than three years of life. American Home Shield sent us a $1400 check ($1500-deductible).

For this house we picked the well-rated First American Home Warranty. The HVAC technician found frost at the compressor, which usually indicates a Freon leak in the system. As this unfreezes, the system starts working again. This explains why it started working again many hours later. 

She also explained the repair process. First American has them check for a Freon leak. If that solves it, great. Only afterwards will they look at replacing the compressor. She indicated previous owners may have suffered this same problem and an HVAC tech told them the compressor needed replacing. They would, of course, have not spent that much money.

The New House

Subtropical climate means too hot to spend much time outside. My son-in-law describes it as only tolerable on a body of water or with a cold drink in your hand or preferably both. I added with a cold drink in a body of water.

The plus side is quiet it is. Cicadas and tree frogs are the only noise at night. 

Forest Primeval

Copperhead in Shop

Exterminator Time

When We First Moved to Northern California

We stayed in a hotel in San Rafael. The clouds around the hills were magical. This area is similar.

Downtown Kingsport

Went Swimming At Our Daughter's House

We Have Arrived

Kentucky is Much Like Tennessee

Green forests and lots of open land. If developers find out, 1000 home subdivisions will sprout.

When Your State Government Puts Up These Signs

Two road signs in Missouri:

When raining, road is wet

When raining, turn on wipers, turn on lights