Category: House

The food chain in action

“There is a mouse-width trough through my loaf of bread. I think our cats are defective.” -me, 2008-10-07 It now appears that we have a pair of mousers. Last weekend, Kim discovered that Norman caught a mouse in the back yard. I don’t find the video disturbing–if I hadn’t known it was a real mouse, … Continue reading The food chain in action

The Disappearing Cat

As I’m always happy to say, I live in a house that celebrated its hundred year birthday this year. As such, there are some weird architecture bits. You may have also heard me mention Norman, the kitty who routinely hangs from windows, sits on the OUTSIDE of the windowsills, and whatnot. These two points intersect … Continue reading The Disappearing Cat

Working in the trenches

I just showered while wearing clothing. It was not delightful and invigorating. It was squitchy and gross. I guess I should explain that I was caked from head to foot in mud from digging trenches and forming mounds in the front yard. The ground is hard and clay-like and the grass is like thick carpet, … Continue reading Working in the trenches

Brian the builder

Two weekends ago: set up clothes line… just in time for Sunday’s rain! Last week: set up a cat quarantine/acclimation gate between the kitchen and the rest of the house. I am hoping to write up an instructable on it some time soon. This most recent weekend: set up a Pallet Compost Bin (pictured below, … Continue reading Brian the builder

In which I start to ponder the effectiveness of homeowners insurance

“What’s that smell? Is something on fire? It smells like something is burning. It kind of smells electrical. Is the teakettle on? Did it boil dry? Is it inside, or out the window?” It turned out to be the heater kicking in for the first time in months, and the subsequent burning off of dust … Continue reading In which I start to ponder the effectiveness of homeowners insurance

Photos, Themes, & Cool Cats

Based on feedback, both online and off, I think I am going to go with a Flickr Pro account for my photo hosting. The Aperture integration is beautiful and the functionality is great. I’ll miss being able to pull up stats and the ability to mess with people who hot-link pictures from MySpace. I’m waiting … Continue reading Photos, Themes, & Cool Cats

Jacuzzi is a go! I repeat, jacuzzi is a go!

This is a sweet picture! Well, it would be sweet if it wasn’t a cameraphone. And if it wasn’t just a test run with cold water. It is the first end-to-end, fully-functional test of the jacuzzi tub. I had to reconfigure the switch panel to make it work. It had two “normal” switches, side by … Continue reading Jacuzzi is a go! I repeat, jacuzzi is a go!

Another childish “ballcock” post

This was me, getting ready to have fun this afternoon: All the house’s wiring is accessible from the basement… except the stuff I needed to get to inspect today, which is in a crawl-space under the kitchen… with what appears to be asbestos wrapping pipes and ducts above… and bug powder on the ground below… … Continue reading Another childish “ballcock” post

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