My last posting was on our anniversary (12/30) and we did manage to make it over the icy roads to the Gardner Ale House. We almost changed our plans when we had a "snow squall" in the mid-afternoon. I'd never heard of a "snow squall". It was a 10-15 minute storm and it was like the sky said "I have another 1/2 inch for you ... WHOOMP!". Nobody bothered to shovel a mere 1/2 inch so, of course, it all became ice.
We spent New Years Eve with some of our friends just up the road. No snow was predicted but, as we were walking home, it started up and dropped 4-6 inches.
Snow must be very hard to predict. We get flurries almost daily when the forecast says clear. We've had several good, unforecasted snows. Several large, forecasted snows have never materialized. Last night, the report was clear when our phones suddenly informed us that we were in the midst of 110 minutes of very heavy snow - we never saw a flake.
Yesterday was Niko and Maya's last day of break. Briar called late in the afternoon to ask if the kids and Gus could come over to ice skate at our town rink. I ran up the street and reported back that we'd need to clear the snow from the ice before they could skate. They came over anyway.
That snow on the ice was frozen solid. To make matters worse, someone had cleared a couple of patches and just moved the snow around, making frozen piles. The kids skated while we attempted to smooth out the ice. It was just about impossible and they ended up doing what I would call off road ice skating. Lots of falls. Surprisingly, they announced to Briar and Gus on their way home that they had had their most fun ice skating experience ever. Go figure.
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| That's me back in the corner with the blue shovel. Our house is visible just over the shovels. The guy with the red shovel was from Parks and Rec. He had a sharpened steel edge on his shovel which helped us to make a bit of progress |
Finally, we've hired someone to plaster the upstairs room. We wanted to have smooth walls and textured ceilings like the rest of the house but I, apparently, used the wrong materials green board and paper tape when I should have used blue board) and there's a high likelihood that the smooth plaster would slump off the walls. The smooth plaster goes on wet and stays wet while it gets reworked up to 6 times. It soaks through and slips off. The texture plaster has an undercoat that dries quickly followed by a quick drying texture coat. We're going to need to go with texture all the way around.
He started today and, so far, has covered everything up and applied a pink (looks orange on the green board) sealer to everything. He'll be back at 7am to start plastering.
-JC-
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