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Hello ! We made it to March, which means we are a lot closer to Spring; Hooray! As expected, February brought us more snow and bitterly cold temperatures. During the week from Feb 16 – 20, we received a dusting or up to an inch of new snow overnight – every night. Finally, the last week of this month, we got weather to enjoy; sunny days and much warmer temperatures.

As for progress on the house and shop; very little got done, all because of current politics. The dizzying number of Executive orders, Musk and Doge, Canada, Mexico (the gulf & country), the EU and finally Ukraine – all combined to try and wear me out. We are living a moment in history that will be studied for many generations after us, and it will be embarrassing for the USA. As a way to cope; I have started another blog, akin to a personal diary. I’m posting significant events and internet links to news sources. It’s still a work in progress, as I try to get caught up. Will provide a link when I’m ready to share it with you.

I did actually get a couple things sorted out this month, and both projects have been annoying as hell for a long time. First up: the hydronic boiler shutting down due to the same fault code generated on a random and persistent basis/frequency. Since installation, we could go up to 4 days without a shutdown, then have the boiler shut down once or up to 4 times in one day, followed by a couple trouble-free days, then 2 or 3 shutdowns the following day. Once the shutdown was discovered (flashing light on the boiler control panel) pushing one button would reset the machine. The problem: if the boiler shutdown at 11pm while we are asleep, it wasn’t discovered until after getting up in the morning. The result was losing a couple degrees of concrete temperature and room air temperatures down 2-3 degrees. THAT equates to the boiler running nonstop until getting the slabs (and room temperatures) back up to the set point on the thermostats. REALLY frustrating… Lucas and I have called the OEM and they gave us ideas and replaced a part under warranty but nothing worked. Lucas called the product support group at Utica boilers – again – to tell them our frustrations. They shared a special procedure for problem-child boilers. Lucas stopped by a few days after the phone call. As I read the procedural instructions, Lucas was pushing and holding down buttons on the control panel. We essentially did a complete reset of all the boiler’s operational settings. That was February 18th. I am pleased to report we have experienced a total of zero fault codes for 2 weeks ! Check that off the list.

The second problem deals with our desire to watch TV using an OTA (over the air) antenna. We had success in OKC and Wichita w/OTA performance. We have high-speed fiber internet to stream anything the internet has to offer, but don’t want to pay for a streaming subscription to get local networks. I have been on the roof more than a few times adjusting the antenna and checking coax terminations. Super frustrating because we never knew from day to day, if we would get solid performance or a heavily pixelated picture. I kept track of good or bad performance and the weather. Several weeks of data gathering and couldn’t find any correlation. Found an OTA dedicated Reddit community and posted a question about my performance issues. Received several good ideas. One opinion was that my OTA antenna was not highly rated. For context, it’s the same make and model antenna we had in Wichita and it worked great, so I simply ordered another one from Amazon. Turns out – the Wichita location was easier to get away with a cheaper antenna, due to Kansas’s flat landscape and the broadcast towers were closer to home. Network broadcast towers in Indiana are significantly further away from our residence, and we have heavily wooded hills between us and Indianapolis. What to do ? Get out the wallet, and go big ! We are now using the Televes DAT BOX hi-res uhf & vhf long range amplified antenna. First antenna – $50. The Telves unit – $180. The old saying is still true: you get what you pay for. We now enjoy superb OTA performance, every night. Check another problem off the list. lol

Finally, I promised a full writeup on the Armoire I am re-purposing into a liquor cabinet. Current status ? Still working on it. It didn’t get it done. A combination of reaction to the current political situation and it’s prototype work, which means everything is new and nothing fits or works like it did in my head. It means making parts that become a pattern for the way I REALLY intended to make it. I like the challenge. I’m probably 75-80 percent done, so look for a writeup NEXT month.

The picture for this post is Millie and Layla. Layla is an Akita and the most challenging canine we have ever owned. She is everything we learned about the breed before we got her, and we grown to appreciate the things about an Akita that test our patience. What we didn’t know – until after we got her – all Akitas have a semi-annual hair shedding event known as a blowout. She sheds an alarmingly and crazy amount of hair over several weeks. The picture shows where she has already lost hair and where she has not.

It’s Groundhog Day ! If you read last month’s summary, I was terribly slow producing the monthly summary I know you can’t wait to enjoy. Lame excuse: I was distracted by splitting firewood and keeping the wood stove stoked. lol lame for sure.

Good news to report. Finally got a replacement switchable relay installed on January 15th. The radiant heat system is back up and running ! We have thankfully put the heat pump and wood stove into dormant status. We enjoy a fire in the wood stove as much, or more than the average person, but – it’s constant work to keep a fire going all day and night. That’s all I have to complain about…

When temperatures were really cold (negative temps overnight, and single digits during the day; the concrete slab in the shop got down to 39 degrees. Shop air temperature was down to 40 degrees. Started to have some concern about the run of tubing closest to the exterior walls possibly getting down a temperature that could cause the water in the tubing to freeze. I rigged up a 120-volt jumper wire with a plug on one end to plug into the nearby receptacle, and the load and neutral wires exposed at the other end. The idea was to start and run the circulator pumps for the heat zones that had a tubing loop by the exterior walls of my shop and Carole’s studio. Fortunately, the relay arrived before I attempted that strategy.

No that both building are back to normal; operating temperature, I am back in the shop working on a couple projects. Susan has commissioned me to modify an armoire into a wine and liquor cabinet. I picked up the cabinet over the holidays. No heat in the shop made for a delayed start. I’ve come up with a good design and have purchased the materials. I should have it done by the end of February. Will have a complete writeup for next month’s summary.

lol. Holy shit – it’s January 8th ! I’m a lazy sob. My lame excuse: the radiant heat system for the house and shop is NMC (not mission capable) which is a military aviation acronym for; broken. won’t start or run. not functional. It happened on December 22nd. Almost 3 weeks ago. I already said it was a lame excuse…

Back to Dec 22nd. I noticed the great room was a couple degrees cooler than the set point on the slab heat thermostat. The thermostat display indicated it was calling for heat, but the boiler was not answering the phone. Went to the mechanical room. On the panel for the switchable relay (small box with lots of low voltage wires and 120v wires) I should have observed a red light illuminated for zone 3; the heating zone for the great room. No red light illuminated, and the boiler was dormant. Went to the other 4 thermostats and raised the set points. All five thermostats indicated they made the call for hot water. Back to the mechanical room and confirmed: zero red lights illuminated for all five zones. I shut everything down and went to the brief (4 procedural steps) troubleshooting tree. Quickly completed step 4, and a fault tree dead end. My USAF maintainer friends would know the next step. Replace the MEC ! lol Called the 800 number for Azel, the manufacturer – no answer. Easy search produced their website. Clicked on “contact us”. Keystroked the story above and waited patiently.

When we constructed this place, I had the foresight to include a heat pump to the fully ducted air conditioning system designed for the house. We also have a free-standing wood stove in the great room. Both serve as a backup/reserve heat source if the slab radiant heat should ever become NMC. I activated the thermostat for the heat pump and it quickly brought the house up to the comfortable set point. Azel product support sent an mail the following day, requesting one additional troubleshooting step, not found in the instruction manual. Quickly accomplished that, reported the result via email reply, and got a reply almost immediately, asking for a copy of my purchase receipt. The switchable relay has a 3 year warranty. We purchased it 2 years ago as a line item with the entire heating system kit. Another reply followed, telling me a replacement relay had been shipped and included tracking information. I did not expect to see it until after Christmas and possibly not until after the new year. It arrived on Dec. 30th.

Swapped it out on January 2nd. No joy – same symptoms. Still NMC. While waiting for the relay to ship from Canada, I spoke to Lucas to tell him a new relay was on the way. Lucas is the HVAC guy who installed the entire radiant system above the concrete slab to include the boiler, various valves, copper tubing manifolds, etc. He let me know he was leaving town on a planned vacation to Key West, departing Dec. 29th, back home on January 5th. Currently waiting patiently on his list of people to see and things to do.

The only other news for December; I cut and split firewood from a large Ash tree that fell during construction. My brief effort, didn’t produce nearly enough firewood for the winter. Was hoping we wouldn’t need much firewood until the end of January.

Well… that didn’t work very well. Since it’s January 8th: I’ll report we got a foot of snow on Jan 5th, with bitterly cold temperatures until the end of this week. We are burning wood like crazy, because the heat pump can’t keep up with the extreme cold temps outside. I dug the truck out of the snow yesterday and will purchase firewood later today.

No worries here.

I’m finally keystroking this overdue monthly missive, sitting in a comfortable chair, watching the fire in the wood stove and the birds at the feeders on the deck, while sipping on hot coffee, jazzed up w/Baileys Irish Cream. It could be worse….

Winter is here. dammit. Our weather was typical Fall in Indiana (30’s / 50’s) until the last week of the month. Colder temperatures moved in November 21st with overnight temps in the teens and 20’s, and high temps in the 30’s. It’s supposed to remain like this for another 7-10 days. Fired up the boiler on the 21st to begin radiant heating the concrete in both buildings.

Earlier this month, I got Joe to bring his tractor to our place, so he could move and spread the small pile of crushed stone that was pictured in the October summary. Now we have an easier entry and exit from our property. A big improvement for sure.

With the shop full of the treasure/junk from the storage unit, I am impeded from getting anything done. I have decided to construct a lawn equipment shed – now. (maybe THAT’s why it’s suddenly super cold-lol) Recall the first paragraph of the post regarding current weather conditions. Nope, not doing outdoor construction when the high temp is in the 20’s. Call me worthless and weak, I don’t care. I’m in a holding pattern until we can get to the 40’s during the day. Shed design is complete along with a materials list. The shed will be 12′ by 20′, pretty much a copy of the shed I constructed at the Pin Oak Ct. home in Wichita.

The site next door has been cleaned up for the most part. The only major task remaining is to demolish the mobile home, but that won’t happen until Spring 2025. Had to pay 350 bucks for the roll off dumpster I filled with the demolished RV camper and received 395 dollars for the van at the local scrap yard. Will get that pile of crushed stone spread ASAP so we can begin using the new property entrance.

We had a plan to vote early, so decided to celebrate a little by having breakfast in Nashville, then on to the polling place. Nashville IN is a popular tourist stop year round, but is crazy in the Fall because of the hills and thick forests. People arrive in droves to shop in the village and drive around the county admiring the Fall foliage. The 10 minute wait for a table at the diner was longer than the line to vote. By the time we finished our meal, the line outside went around the corner. There were 3 voters ahead of us at the polling place.

Looking back, it took us about 15 months to construct this haven. After basic unpacking, I declared myself wasted and spent; void of any energy to get the project 100% completed. That was about 15 months ago. It wasn’t like I stopped doing anything productive, I simply dialed way back, to how much of my day was spent relaxing versus working projects. I’m pleased to report that I’ve got the spark again. After we closed on the trashed, eyesore property next door, I couldn’t stand to look at the mess any longer. With that completed, I have started working in the shop to get shelves up so we can get our stuff from the storage unit, off the floor and put away, allowing us to pull cars inside the shop ahead of winter. Don’t worry – I got used to relaxing and will continue that habit, I’m just making an adjustment to get a little more done each day. Unless I get an offer from a friend to goof off, of course….

More of the same. Retirement is under rated. Still sleeping in, followed by coffee and reading the internet until noon. A quick lunch, then applying myself to whatever project suits my mood for the afternoon. With Summer gone and Fall underway, I am concentrating on outdoor projects. Most of my efforts have been spent cleaning up the adjacent property. I started a small burn pile and kept slowly feeding it material for 2 days. While we have built and enjoyed gigantic brush pile burns when we lived in Kansas, we had to go with a small burn strategy here. Simply could not allow the fire to get out of control for several reasons. The fuel was mostly dead tree limbs, junk wood furniture, old fence boards and other scrap lumber. Cheap thrills to see everything gone and reduced to an ash pile a couple inches high. Over several days, I loaded junk quality chain link fence sections, a metal shed that had been crushed after a large tree fell on it, some appliances, and lots of scrap metal. Ending up being 2300 pounds of metal junk that put 200 bucks in my pocket from the local scrap yard.

I ended the month, by demolishing the camper trailer that Bryant placed against our shared property line 8 years ago. That eyesore is only a feet from the highway, and we had to look at it whenever we were making a trip to/from Bloomington. The task went significantly easier than expected. Armed with a reciprocating saw, crowbar and sledge hammer, I began by cutting the roof from side to side, about 2 feet apart, and in between the 2 by 2 pine ceiling/roof joists. After making those cuts, made a long cut along the top of each side, front to back so each 2 foot section of roof fell to the camper floor. Moved the roof pieces to the roll off dumpster and started working on the walls. The project thus far, has consumed eleven hours of labor over the course of 3 days. The only thing left is the OSB floor you can see in the picture. Once that is loaded into the dumpster, I will take the steel frame to the scrap yard.

The plan is to make a new entrance to the property where the camper sits now. Currently, we drive a couple hundred feet past the camper and huge tree stump, negotiating a very tight hairpin turn off the highway and onto our driveway. This month’s picture with the demolished camper also shows the original entrance to our property before we purchased it – see the wood wagon wheel, which was believed to be the north property line. We demanded a formal survey before making an offer on the place 10 years ago. Everybody (ESPECIALLY the seller) was shocked to learn where the north property line is actually located. This will make getting in and out of our place much easier. If we are leaving to go east toward Nashville, we will continue using the other (current) driveway.

Woo hoo ! It’s September 2nd. Happy Labor Day !

A number of events happened in August.

We closed on the adjacent property. We now own our SECOND pre-owned single wide mobile home. The good news: we have no intention of living in this one. Bought our first pre-owned single wide mobile home, when we purchased 35 acres of land in south central Kansas, in 1998. But that’s another story… (it’s a good one. lol)

I have started cleaning up the monumental mess that Bryant left behind. Several people have stopped when I’ve been picking up trash, to ask what was happening to the property. All of them expressed their appreciation that the property is getting the attention it needs and correcting the blight this scenic highway does not deserve. Hope to report significant progress for the September summary.

I have moved out of the storage unit we have rented since relocating to Indiana in 2020. Mostly vintage BMW parts, lawn equipment, and a large accumulation of – other stuff. The storage unit is in Helmsburg, which is approx. 3 miles from our rural estate. It was very handy for valuable construction materials during the home & shop build. Saves us $130 a month. Now I need to construct a lawn equipment shed, so I can park cars in the shop again.

Finally, we hosted a birthday party for dad to celebrate his 93rd birthday. He is still mentally sharp and quick witted. Is able to get around with a cane and weather permitting, is taking a daily walk in Blue Ridge. Hope we repeat this annual event for several more years.

The picture for this post, is the aerial view of the acre parcel we now own, our original parcel with the house and shop is south, or just below the bottom of the 2 acre parcel shown.

holy shit – it’s August 10th ! I have really missed the deadline for this post. I have a list of lame excuses, but will spare you by not including them in this update.

If nothing else, July has been a month of anniversaries. July 18th – our 43rd wedding anniversary. July 19th – our first anniversary living here at 6619 St Rt 45. The weekend of July 26th-28th – my 50th high school reunion.

It’s no secret, that I was completely spent and exhausted after we moved in to our retirement home last July. There has some activity over the past 12 months, but not a lot progress when actual work on projects typically spanned from noon until four. Troubling for me, was realizing, that I was falling into a likeable routine of laziness. When we celebrated the 1 year moving anniversary, told myself it is time to get off my ass, and get some shit done. Not as easy as it sounds, and probably because I’m 68 years old, and doing nothing felt pretty good. I’m determined to get up and complete what I started in April 2022.

Some good news: we put in an offer for the slum property to the north, and our offer was accepted ! We close on the purchase and will own it on August 16th. Have already begun picking up trash and making separate piles of garbage, recycling steel and aluminum. Mowed the place for the first time in several years. Cutting up downed trees and figuring out the best way to demolish the camper trailer. It’s been good therapy as well, doing mindless physical work.

I’m going to end this post here, and work harder to be punctual for the August summary.

Life is good. I’m still having more fun than I deserve, or maybe; having all of the fun a person possibly can. I’m living in the movie Groundhog Day, except in blog terms; groundhog month. June was very similar to May… and April. Made progress on a number of projects that I’ve been picking away the past couple months. I am never bored. I maintain a near term list of things to do, and get up each morning to review the list to figure out what I will work on. If it’s a high priority-must-do; it gets done. I strive to prevent chores & projects from making the urgent list.

This month’s image shows the deceased neighbor’s property. There is a derelict single wide mobile home that Bryant actually lived in. Stepping inside, it looks as though the mobile home was turned upside down and shaken, then returned to it’s current resting place. There is a small metal shed, partially crushed by a dead tree that fell during a severe storm last year. After the tree fell on the shed, tree limbs were blocking one lane of highway 45, so I cut and removed the limbs back to the edge of the pavement. There is an old GMC van that has seen better days, and a travel trailer in worse condition than the mobile home. Also scattered randomly all over the 2 acre parcel, is trash, and a lot of it. Extremely overgrown and grass hasn’t been cut in years. That’s the bad news. The good news – when we finally own the property, and have removed the travel trailer (hidden by the small tree at the property line), we will make that our primary driveway entry to our property. Currently, the driveway to enter our property is 300 feet further east on State Road 45 past the mailbox, and is an extremely tight hairpin turn off the highway onto the driveway. Currently waiting on our appraiser to provide his analysis, to help us determine a fair cash price. I have been working to come up with the cost to get rid of all the very large, large and small trash, which will be reflected in the offer amount. We have no intention to put a replacement trailer on the property and be landlords. The only idea thus far, is to provide a place to park a large RV or travel trailer, and rent the space like a campground, with space for one. Water, electric and septic are all on site.

May was similar to the previous couple of months, which is another way of saying; I goofed around on indoor & outdoor projects around the house and shop, mowing dad’s grass and other to do projects at his place. Worked on a couple of my automobiles, and helped old friends with their construction projects. To be certain, I did all of that while making sure I didn’t encroach into the AM hours I have reserved to sleep in, drink coffee and read all of the news and visit my favorite web sites.

The biggest outdoor improvement was getting a number of shrubs and trees planted, and getting a lawn started. A portion of the property that fronts highway 45 lacks any sort of privacy when cars and trucks drive by. Most of the 220 feet of frontage is shrubs and small trees. For the open area, I went with holly bushes and an arborvitae tree which I planted at the property boundary with our neighbor to the north.

The construction phase in 2022 and last year, created a large area around all 4 sides of both buildings that was exposed subsoil and weeds. Our excavator came by at the end of April to spread topsoil everywhere it was needed. We planted 200 pounds of grass seed and covered it with straw. By the second week of May, grass shoots could be seen coming out of the straw cover. By Memorial Day, the straw was no longer visible and I mowed all of the newly planted areas for the first time. We’ve been really fortunate with timely rain so I’ve only had to water the new grass a couple times.

An annual tradition in May is old friends arriving “back home again in Indiana” to attend the Indy 500. My motivation to attend the Greatest Spectacle in Racing has waned over the past several years, but such is not the case for a number of people we have known for more than 50 years. We hosted a reunion/luncheon for them and our Bloomington-based friends. A good time was had by all. Alex and Lacey made the trip over Memorial Day, and it was great to see both of them. Alex was able to hack a way around the local TV blackout of the race. Unfortunately, Travis, Lynn and the boys had to cancel their plans to be here.

The last bit of news involves the 2 acre parcel adjacent to our north property line. It has a dilapidated mobile home, lots & lots of trash and a couple abandoned vehicles. The owner (Bryant) was an electrician and a drug dealer. In August 2022 we learned he had been found unresponsive in his car behind a local McDonalds at 3AM. EMS was unable to revive him. I learned this when I met his mother, who had traveled from Maryland to see what was going on at her son’s residence. I started sending her text messages in the Fall, telling her I wanted to purchase the property after Bryant’s estate was settled. She always responded promptly telling how long, slow and frustrating the probate court system is, especially when Bryant didn’t have a will, but did have a demanding ex-wife. She sent me a text for the first time last Friday, telling me everything was signed and settled. I replied, confirming I still want to purchase the place and am now working to determine a fair price to offer her. I hope to have more on this story next month.