'My Girl' and I went to the Cities on Thursday - Friday to see David Sedaris at the State Theatre. Great show although shorter than I'd expected. He has it well timed: about 90 minutes, to the tick of the watch. I'd been hoping for an hour, then intermission, then another hour or so. It was a bit too short for the money My Girl paid for the tickets, I thought (I took care of getting us down there & the overnight stay at a friend's).
The ex (I'll start referring to Tom that way for those of you new readers who might not know who he is) stayed overnight here and took care of the critters. I'd warned him that the house would be CHILL-EE since I haven't yet fired up the wood boiler. When I returned, he mentioned that I might think about doing that . . . asap . . . since it's not so much a matter of the house being chilly . . . but of the pipes potentially freezing! Duh . . . hadn't thought of that! Good point! I know the house hasn't gotten THAT cold, but the hose to the poultry yard WAS frozen the other morning. So, that's what's on the docket today: doing all that's necessary to get 'er up 'n' goin'. And, what does that entail, exactly?
Well, it's like this: I need to . . .
- Check the water level in the top reservoir (holds 400 gallons).
- Finish emptying out the huge amount of ashes inside (I've been working on this as time allows, but there's still a lot to remove) and scrape down the interior walls of ash & creosote.
- Check the level of all 72 receptacles in the 24 batteries and top them off. That will take a couple of hours and it's an ugly job. Just time-consuming and stretching into uncomfortable positions. All while wearing face protection from the battery acid. And holding a high-beam flashlight to see down into the compartments. And, while I'm there, I should check the efficiency level of each battery. I'll try to do a show-and-tell pictorial of that later.
- Check the oil & air filter in the LP generator (which is running much more now that the clouds of late autumn and early and mid-winter are upon us). The generator kicks in, automatically (when the system is running properly) when there's not enough power being generated by the solar panels.
- Check the level of the buried, 1000-gallon LP tank. (Must get that filled before winter. But, at upwards of $2/gallon - more like $2.83/gallon - that's no easy [financial] feat.)
- Start a rip-roarin' fire in the Central Boiler.
- Once the above is up to temperature (183 degrees, F, is ideal), start the pumps that circulate the water in the hoses that go through the 400-gallon reservoir and into the in-floor heating tubes (and upstairs hot water baseboards).
- Change the hot water heater in the house to its winter status of hot water reservoir, remembering to change all the water and gas lines to their proper & respective positions.
Okay, I need to get off my rusty-duster and get on with it! I need to split wood, too, and fill both wood boxes in the house . . . and clean out both vehicles of their accumulated STUFF . . . and properly park them from their current pulled-into-the-yard-and-stopped state . . . and change the low-beam headlight bulb in the truck (remember that warning ticket from several days ago?) . . . AND I need to get the dishes done, and I'd like to get some housecleaning done. And some bread made. (Okay, you can laugh hysterically now. We all know I AIN'T gonna get all that done!)
