An absolutely gorgeous day today. It’s already mid-fifties at noon and there’s talk of sixty. Which makes it a great day for light-hearted off-grid hijinks, like…
Neighbors D&L have this incredibly high-tech wood stove. I have never figured out the philosophy behind this, seriously – it burns wood pellets, which are cheap and manufactured locally, but it requires electricity for the internal fans, two of them, and also for the computer controls that run the air inlets, outlet, and pellet feed. It has never worked right, and L has made taming it the center of her life’s ambition. Over the weekend it dumped a whole bunch of excess pellets into the burn chamber and choked out the fire, so she grabbed the canister vacuum she keeps solely for cleaning the stove’s interior – without checking to see whether the pellets had really stopped burning. Having learned that the vacuum had ingested a mass of glowing-red pellets, D grabbed it, ran outside, and emptied it into the first receptacle he saw…which was a plastic tub.
I figured why throw it away? I’ve been looking for tubs and buckets I can drill holes in for gardening, and this one came pre-drilled. So I fished it out of J&H’s dumpster and brought it home.
The first time I got a mouse that ate the peanut butter out of the Jeep’s underhood rat trap and then killed itself in the mouse trap right next to it, I thought that would be the end of that. It has now happened three nights in a row. I’ve only killed one rat under the hood, but four mice.
Apparently I can stop hoping my War on Rodents has an endgame.
Speaking of D&L’s high-tech infrastructure, L came into her palatial kitchen one morning last week to hear a faint hissing. She started running around looking for the gas leak, but it turned out to be water. They paid serious bucks for a couple of professionally-installed tankless water heaters, one of which was mounted on an interior kitchen wall. They’ve only been there two years, but the extremely hard well water had corroded a hole in a galvanized fitting and spent a whole night spraying water on the wall. The kitchen and pantry were flooded, but that wasn’t the problem. The problem was the adobe covering they spent two whole seasons putting on their walls, which turns out to be very much not waterproof. A sizable swath of adobe was eaten away, exposing the earthbags underneath. Could have been worse, could have been an exterior wall – those are strawbale. They’d never have gotten rid of the moisture and mold. Watching their problems, I’ve about decided that’s not the great building method it was sold as being. Great insulation and thermal mass, but nobody ever mentioned all those downsides like mold and the fact that thermal mass works both ways so you can’t afford to let your house get cold in winter or hot in summer.
I managed to rack up my back Saturday, helping Landlady haul a bunch of useless and very heavy stuff out of her barn. Didn’t seem bad at all Saturday but it was worse yesterday and damn near crippling today. I got my shit-shoveling done, and am planning to carefully kick back for the rest of the day. Several months ago somebody sent me a heat wrap for a sore back, and I’m planning to try it out right now.
Oh, I have an ocean of sympathy for your back pain. My bad back is the major source of pain and problems, and has been for a long time.. sigh Just don’t leave the heat on more than 30 minutes at a time. You will likely have rebound pain and muscle spasms if you don’t turn it off for at least half an hour in between heat sessions.
I fell asleep on a heating pad once and woke up a few hours later in the worst pain of my life. I won’t have a heating pad in the bed with me now under any circumstances, though the new ones automatically shut off after 30 minutes.
Sympathies on your back issue. I’m sure you have a zillion unbidden suggestions from your readers for relief. Here’s yet another: Any chance you can get an agreeable doctor to prescribe a muscle relaxant for, dog-forbid, any future episode? Methocarbamol and naproxen can be a pretty good combo with the downside of needing to avoid booze for the duration of treatment. YMMV Good luck.
NO ENDLESS WAR! NO ENDLESS WAR! NO ENDLESS WAR!
We need an exit strategy! The poor denizens of rodentia are the true victims! Occupy something or other! No endless war!
“the extremely hard well water had corroded a hole in a galvanized fitting”
We’ve had that happen twice on our well pump. The fitting on the top of the pump that hooks to the pipe was a galvanized fitting and had to be replaced with a brass one. PITA to pull the 200′ of pipe to replace a fitting. /first time we just assumed the pump had expired and ordered a new one before pulling it and discovering the problem. Just dropped the new pump with no thought to it happening again, and several years later had the same problem. Nasty stuff that hard water.
When you finally reduce the mouse population, perhaps then the peanut butter will stay in the rat trap long enough to actually start nailing the rats.
What was that tub sitting on when the embers were put in it? Snow? Wouldn’t get that ‘wormhole’ effect if it was sitting on flat ground – unless I misjudge how hot those embers were…
Unfortunately, mice and rats reproduce much faster than Joel can trap them. One of nature’s cruel little jokes. sigh
For years I embraced the delightful fantasy of maximum thermal mass – thick poured concrete walls with exterior insulation, concrete floors, etc. Then I had the opportunity to visit a “typical English castle” with 3 foot-thick stone walls, which then led to looking at some adobe construction in the SW, which then led to lots of calculator time regarding BTU absorption, storage, release rates and thermal inertia. Thermal mass will, indeed, work, but not as originally suspected. It dampens brief swings quite well, but applying sufficient BTUs to correct those swings when necessary makes it a non-starter. Given modern technology, which, fortunately, we have, there are better choices which provide more comfort at lower cost. Concrete does, however, afford higher resistance to projectile penetration than plywood, so there is that.
RE: your neighbor’s misfortune, I have no clue as to attachment method given the underlying structure, but I’d think something like blueboard, or better yet, concrete board, in those locations where the possibility of potential plumbing misfortune exists might be suitable.
PNO, I’m mystified by that myself. I understand this happened after the snow melted, and have speculated as to what caused the plastic to do that. I’ll have to remember to ask. Probably I misheard and it was while the snow was deep.
Back when the mud was being applied I commented that the outside and inside of straw bale homes aren’t plastered with plain mud – you use multiple coats of lime plaster which makes a hard surface that is moisture resistant and you can in addition wax that surface. Your comment was to the effect that they wanted a totally natural home and would not use lime plaster. Adobe was and is a highly satisfactory building material, but its origins are from a time when no one had interior water in pipes and outsides were maintained on a daily or weekly basis unless the builders were burning lime rock to add to the mud plaster. Even with the porch roof you helped build, history shows that given enough time the storm will come that will overcome the protection of the roof and remove the mud covering the straw bales, and I hope then the owners will re-cover the bales with lime plaster. Or cement board siding…lol Alternative building methods usually do eventually fail when mis-applied, at which time the method is blamed rather than the builder. I’ve had a different experience than tNosmo with adobe in the SW. If that’s all you have to build with or can afford, it really can provide enough thermal mass to minimize temperature swings if the structure is sited and constructed carefully (infiltration is a heat loss disaster) and within the limits of the material.
Joel, good job!!, Yesss!!!! keep that dead rodent mojo going!!! There is no endgame with rodents. Here are some numbers for you: their litters can be up to 14 at a time and the gestation period is about 3 weeks. They reach sexual maturity about a month after being born. They can and often do mate constantly although spring is probably the favorite time, so a female mouse can have a litter about once every 5 to 6 weeks, maybe more often. Maximum control during winter should result in a decreased rodent population in spring. (It could be worse. Voles breed about as frequently but reach sexual maturity while still in the nest, so they will mate with nest mates and the females come out of the nest about ready to give birth.) Your rodents have been happily eating and breeding and reproducing at maximum potential for years, so you likely have a rodent reservoir that will keep your traps snapping for decades. You probably need to set many more traps. If the previous pelt use suggestions don’t appeal, how about a use and toss series of rodent pelt mud rugs? Maybe glue the pelts to a backing so the mud rugs go together quickly. Or a lovely warm Davy Crockett type double pelt hat, with rodents hanging down the back like a coon tail. Photos are optional but would be very much appreciated. PS any time you need peanut butter or traps, just post a request.
Messed up my back some time ago. Tried one of the wraps consisting of a cloth belt and air-activated heating pads to insert herein. Last about 8 hours and really do help, augmented by Ibuprofen. Wear the belt over at least a T-shirt, not directly against your skin.
They are kinda pricey, but back pain can be seriously problematic. Good luck.
Electric heating pads do work, but must be used sparingly as mentioned above. I’d imagine they might be a bad drain on your electrical system, as well. I used one while sitting in my comfy chair, never in bed, and don’t go to sleep while using. Did work on the pain, though, even though I only used low setting.
I used that air-activated heating pad yesterday afternoon and it was a great relief. I didn’t really think it would help. I’m going to a Walmart tomorrow and hope to get a couple more.