Art on the Wall

The Fuzz and His Sweetie have collected a bit of art over the years.  No Van Goghs or anything like that of course.  But there are not a lot of places to display all these treasures out here in the woods in the trailer.  One solution is to swap off every now and again.  But even this requires a place to swap off to.

So His Sweetie recently requested that The Fuzz put up one of those little shelves where one could set a piece, and easily change it when desired.

So, taking a mental inventory of his small wood stash, The Fuzz headed out to the shop.

Earlier in the woodcutting season, The Fuzz had experimented with cutting some small boards out of a piece of cherry firewood.  They had been just laying around the shop (like so many other things).  But this looked like the time to put them to use.

Here's a look at the finished product.

Why only 2 off center mounting screws?

That was the only wall stud in the area.

But it should be plenty strong enough to hold a painting...

Like this one.

Not Dead Yet

No, The Fuzz has not fallen off the face of the earth, died, or anything.
He has been up to a few things, here in the Woods and over at the Old Place.
And of course there is always the Laziness Factor to consider.
There has been a long term project over at the Old Place.
This one involves electricity.

The existing wiring was in pretty bad shape.  It had been done back in the days (BC*) in an absurd manner.  And The Fuzz's hurried and improvised "up grades" over the years were admittedly "Micky Mouse".  And besides all this, the insulation had become brittle.  It was not to be trusted.

The Fuzz basically eliminated all of the original wiring.  But of course it had to be replaced by something.

Some of the improvements were in the kitchen.  The way things were, one had to go into an adjoining room to turn on the ceiling light & fan.  But since that wiring was no longer being used, The Fuzz was able to install a wall mounted switch in the actual kitchen.

Since the cookstove had been moved out to the trailer, any cooking** has had to be done on a hot plate or toaster oven.

 (The Fuzz does often use the wood heater as well, but only in cold weather.)  

These appliances were being plugged into one poor overloaded outlet mounted on the wall.
The Fuzz ripped out this jury rig and ran some new wires through the wall.  You can see where the old boxes had been mounted.
Here is a look at the new arrangements.  These are now on separate circuits, which should help with the Countertop Cooking.
There are still a few more things he wants to do over there.  But at least the main issues have been addressed.

Maybe we can get that Lazy Fuzz off his butt and be able to do a bit better with keeping up with this blog before he gets reported as a missing person.



*before code

** Part of The Fuzz and His sweetie's plan for Post Retirement Sanity involves them alternating one night a week spent at the Old Place.  This gives them a bit of personal time, and may help avoid Mutual Madness.

Ice Is Not Nice

The Fuzz has been spending a few days over at the Old Place.
He had finally gotten around to one of those projects that had been on hold for a while.
There'll be more on this in the future.
But for now, here's a teaser.   ☛

He had been living "Old School" for this time.  It may be recalled that using the "facilities" back there, involves a walk "down the hill".  This can be an adventure in itself this time of year- like on a 9℉ morning!

So after a few days of this, Our Spoiled Fuzz was glad to get back to The Woods, and all those luxuries.

Of course these particular facilities at the trailer are located as far as possible from the wood heater.

While The Fuzz was toughing it out at the Old Place, His Sweetie was holding it down back in The Woods.  She has a definite preference for the other bathroom, the one closer to the heater.  So the back potty hadn't had much use.
This means that it hadn't been flushed, which also means that the water had not been run for a while.

When The Fuzz got home he eventually felt the call of nature.  He did notice a skim of ice there in the bowl, but thought little of it, since there is no effort made to heat that room.  But when he flushed, he discovered that the tank would not refill.
Well, after a good bit of work with a hair drier, and His Sweetie pouring warm water into the tank, the pipe finally thawed out.
But it was obvious that the problem was under the floor.
The only thing for it was to crawl up under the trailer and investigate the situation.

And here's what he found.

For some reason, the insulation had been pulled back, exposing the pipe.  Perhaps it had been a previous repair?
But, with the weather into single digits, this would have to be addressed.
Since they were going into town that afternoon, they made a stop at the Home Improvement Store on the way home.

There, The Fuzz grabbed a small packet of insulation to make the repairs.
The actual repair was "a piece of cake", as they say.  He just crawled in there and stuffed a bit of the insulation up around the exposed plumbing...

... and ...

... sealed it all back up with his trusty Gorilla Tape!

So now, as long as the thing does get the occasional flush, there should be no more problems.

Super Soaker

Well, it's been raining for several days now out here in the woods.

When The Fuzz and His Sweetie moved out here this place was just trees.

The trees had to be cleared just to make room to drive in and for a place to put the trailer.

And so the yard is the sort of place that soaks up rain like a sponge.

This is not the sort of thing that is appreciated at all by the Kitties.

And at times this could be a bit of a problem for moving vehicles.

But that situation has been taken care of for now.

But this morning it is just one of those...

Saturation Situations.