water heater move - part 1

jambaloney here!

first thing's first - scifi - i promised you a fishing trip so this one is for you! you will probably have to give the trout to pioneer preppy and sandy, but hey, you get to go fishing, right?

nice morning for it.....

really nice morning for fishing !!!

we are going to where the trout are going to go pre-spawning, just around that bend...

here is fat healthy female..

and a male - note the colours - in a month they will be intensified 10 fold! i can't keep trout past sept 01 so this was one of the last days (aug 17th)

total catch - 3 YUM! stephen, your turn is next, i went a couple more times before the month was out!!

and we are back - gorgeous morning - we went to the river to swim!!!

hey stephen - you asked -  the water heater... here it is in a closet upstairs taking up a PILE of valuable floor space.. seriously - this needs to be moved so we can complete the reno of the 600 sq ft mansion!!!

it is going in the basement - first step, build a base - luckily i have the EXACT dimensions in a piece of scrap from someone's trash - 2 ' x 2 '...

i have a LOT of junk wood to fill in the gaps ..

all free  of course..

i only used the nails on the left - they are ALL 2nd hand nails so the base cost exactly 0.00 dollars ;-))

where to put the base/water heater... mom, this one is for you!! i STILL have w. shakespeare!!!

ever since i can remember, we always had this cutout from an old tea crate and i have always loved it - i can remember this back 40 years - it is alive and kicking on the left.. on the right, some copy of a scottish stag that would be a great towel/hat rack keeps the extension cord off the floor - yo use what you can eh??

i trust that these talismans will make part 2 go well ;-))

seriously, i have had that thing 40 years !!!

it has been a while since i installed the jackposts - the feet are concrete that are a little wide so i need to "shrink" them - you can see how.. the pipe on the left goes to the new outside front hose that i installed 2 months ago.. it is on the ground due to some ^*^)^*$*#$*%^$*&%(!! É...  er and yes, it is loose for now...

on the other side - same thing...

the base is going here and the hose has to pass underneath.. closer to the wall..

leveling is always important...

this is a plumbing AND electrical job - so all the components are laid out and ready to go - i will fill you in on the details during the installation post - getting ready is 1/2 the battle!!!

oh yeah - here is some "existing plumbing"..

your guess is as good as mine...

valves that...uh..?? ...stuff ... and things...

whatever - lets enjoy the sunset...

and a double rainbow over vandura!!!

yes a double!!!

cheers all more to come on moving a water heater!!! scifi - i hope you enjoyed the fishing!

time flies!

wow! has it been a week since we posted? yep, i think so. it's been a pretty busy week, filled with some mundane daily things, and also some not so mundane things.  i won't bore you with all of the details but we had a town day this week - that always entails a full day in town. then after a town day, you have to re-stock and re-invoice your pantries and preps, process any produce (i like to put mushrooms in paper bags, other produce like romaine lettuce, which i cannot get to grow for the life of me, i like to put in containers and such). so there's 2 busy days right there and that's not counting normal chores or jobs.

this week was also blueberry-picking week at our friend D's blueberry farm. it was an awful week with too much dew in the morning for them to get out at the crack of dawn, or it would rain in the middle of the morning or it would rain in the afternoon. you can't pick the berries if they are wet. jambaloney went out 3 half days to help while i stayed home and took care of chores, watering the gardens, drying seeds, etc. we were both planning on going yesterday and today - but yesterday it rained all day! today is the last day that the cooling trucks will pick up the berries so we both went this morning to help our friend. his whole family gets involved for the week. let me just tell you - blueberry picking is backbreaking, shoulder breaking and wrist breaking! it's also hard on the hips and knees! but our friends have been doing this for years so are kind of used to it - i almost died! we fill bins to 20lbs and i did 4 of them between 9:30 and noon. jambaloney did 10 but that's only because we started late. he usually can get 12-13 a morning. he did 32 bins overall in his 4 mornings out! our friends were happy that we helped and it was nice to be out there with them all. our next dance is on the 14th and none of us can wait for it since our last dance was cancelled!

tomorrow we are having our friend E's son and girlfriend come over to ------- wait for it -------- GET POOP! 2 whole truckbeds of horse poop for our garden! H and J are really great young people and they know that our garden could really use the poop! H and jambaloney will go with the 2 trucks to J's Dad's farm and load up the trucks. i will make steak and chicken fajitas with all the fixins for supper, and we'll hang out and chat - it will be nice.

wednesday we'll spend the day making cabbage rolls for my friend G - he specifically requested them the last time they visited. we'll go to our friend G and C's house with the cabbage rolls and have a nice evening together. i just hope they like the cabbage rolls - i don't make mine like most, so fingers crossed on that.

thursday we plan to move the water heater from our one and only tiny closet in the house to the basement - expect a post from jambaloney about that once he finishes it.

and then friday or saturday we have to find the time to squeeze in at least a few hours to go and help G finish the siding on his house.

so last week was mundane and not so-mundane and it looks like this week will be the same.

wanna see something cool?

teehee! that's my first cayenne pepper - oh the peppers are just loving that greenhouse! i have never grown a cayenne pepper in my life but all of my cayenne plants are filled with peppers colouring. we saved the seeds from this little guy - must have gotten about 60 seeds! jambaloney loves hot and spicy things - me not so much! but i intend to dehydrate some of these to make cayenne powder, chili flakes and pickle some. jambaloney took a tiny bite out of this guy, seemed ok and then started coughing and choking! i tried an even tinier piece and at first it didn't seem so bad but then - blammo - near blew my head off! these are definitely hot peppers!

anyway, i've been doing a lot of research on garlic because my garlic has been doing some really delightful things! i'll get a post up about it in a day or so! hope you all have a good week!

wanna see an amazing sunset? here ya go. my friend, JUGM, did a post about red skies at night and how they affect sailors...read the comment section of her post. her and i have a nice banter about sailors everywhere and our auntie's visiting...bahahahahah! sorry to the men who read here and don't want anything to do with that!



here's The Man, looking all hot, getting ready to go to our friend P's birthday party in our sister community of Fourchu last week. ladies - avert your eyes - he's MINE!!!

and here's me. yes, i've been called smurfette, short, tiny...and most recently my friend SciFiChick called me vertically-challenged. in fact, i think her exact words were "girl, i knew you were vertically-challenged but NOT THAT vertically-challenged!". i love her. but yes, i have a hit out on her.

here's some yummy bulgogi with rice, homegrown green beans sauteed in butter and some kimchi. nothing like it after a long day's work.

kids - can anyone help me identify these bushes? are they elderberry? we have been looking at pics on the internet and they seem to be elderberry but not sure.

if they are - can you say elderberry wine? elderberry tincture? elderberry tea??? oh kids, i know that you can!!!

i hate to sound smug....PioneerP, mmpaints and Sci - eat your heart out with envy. this was yesterday's harvest.

bahahahahahah! oh i know that it's sad but hey - at least it's something! until the end of august when our harvest will really come in. look what we made with our sad little harvest:\

and here's some more harvest - we are eating local food and our own harvest 3 meals a day. not too shabby!

we eat a lot of steak around here. it's local and delicious. the stir fry is all our own veg as are the tomatoes!

here's some quinoa tabouleh for dinner - yum!

more harvest. this is the time of year when we eat our own fresh, home-grown food daily and it feels wonderful!

local AND cheap sausages - they are sooo spicey and tasty!

and yummy potatoes pulled out of the ground, sliced and fried in butter! they are deelish! we are in for a super harvest of potatoes this year, which is a good thing, because we eat a LOT of potatoes. think of Bubba in the movie Forrest Gump - "fried shrimp, boiled shrimp, shrimp on the barbie....". well that's us except with potatoes "fried potatoes, smashed potatoes, potatoes on the barbie, baked potatoes, potatoes au gratin, scalloped potatoes, twice-baked potatoes..." - we loooove potatoes!!! bahahahahaha! i hope that you all had a nice weekend.

aug fishing and more greenhouse nonesense!

 jambaloney here!

 after a pile of work days - i did some fishing the other morning - it was a nice sunrise...

pioneer preppy and sandy have been here before, but this trip is for sandy's husband Bulldog Man ;-))

 and bright out - gonna be a hot day!

 but at 6:30 it isn't so bad yet ;-)

out on the water - we are headed to  the brooks that feed the river this morning. it is getting late in the summer and some trout start the trip to the spawning grounds way early. we are not allowed to keep fish after aug 31. not too many days left!

 today we go up the north framboise river a bit, it's more like a big stream, but fresh cold oxygenated water all year. brook trout need running water to spawn.

which this is!

here is a nice 11 inch trout! it is probably a sea run - the colors are purplish... they are silver initially but they seem to change.. i COULD be wrong and these are all different strains... time will tell.

we caught two - the smaller trout definitely stays in fresh water all year - it's makings are more brown and orange - pretty cool eh?

the big one is super red inside - probably from eating small shrimp. it was yummy!!! the skin splits when they go into the pan this fresh, nothing we can do - best fish ever.

 how about some work??? after a summer hiatus, i am back to working on the greenhouse and getting it ready for fall - i scraped, caulked and painted these windows last week - now they need scraping..

all ready to go at the back - they are gray because my good friend w tipped me off to buying mis-tinted paint. i got a gallon of gray primer for $10.00 and a gallon of gray paint for $10.00 ... that's 20.00 for what would cost 75! they are going at the back so no foul anyway!!!

i did a quick and dirty with plastic and strapping in early june to finish it for the summer...

off it comes and up goes the osb framing at the bottom...

and now the 1x4 framing goes up... 1x4s span a stud leaving a 1 inch lip on each side - good enough!

next i put the windows in place (notice the tape on the windows with the number and placement - saves time trying to figure out who goes where!!) i anchor each on the inside with a 3" screw to keep them in place....

before i go around and screw them in from the outside... several 1 1/2" deck srews pull the window into the frame nice and tight

and here is the finished product  - the windows look less ghetto to be sure!!!

not a deep sunset, but he clouds are magnificent!

hope you are all having a good late summer - cheers all!