More Progress

I spent the day crawling around in the attic prying up the floor boards so I could chace down the wires coming out of the kitchen ceiling light fixture. My God! That fixture was the O'Hare of the electrical world in the old portion of the Bolt Hole. Every single circuit seems to have run through that one fixture. Somewhere between 18 and 20 outlets and lights were on that one wire going down to the board in the basement. On a 25 AMP breaker. Water and ice got to the light switch in the wood shed and shorted things out. Wires melted but the plastic tape and wire nuts kept it under control--or so the electrician told Mark when he took a look at the mess. He's also the one that said the canvas coated aluminum wire had to go ASAP. As I've said before, it's a miracle the place hasn't burned down.

I succeeded in finding the paths all the wires took and even located the junction box in the kids' bedroom where the old aluminum, canvas covered wire met with the new 12-2 grounded wire. (I only had to tear out three tongue and groove siding boards over the door to do so. Won't look as pretty when they go back up, but--hey!--this is the Good Enuff Construction project!)

I was disappointed on the other end of the house. The wire that takes power to the upstairs bedroom runs up and out of sight between the ceiling rafters. To find that junction box will require some cutting into the sheetrock--and a lot of luck.

When Mark got back from work, I showed him what I had found and we started talking about how to rewire the bathroom, storage room, (both of which also came off the kitchen light!), kitchen, and the kids bedroom. Oh, yeah and the woodshed and front porch, too. Four short little circuits will do the job and I should be able to do it all on Friday before I head back to the Aerie.

The upstairs bedroom will be another kettle of fish. I'm going to put a mark on the ceiling where I think the junction box is located and leave the task of breaking into the sheetrock for Mark to try this weekend. With lots of luck, the box will be pretty close to the place I indicate and only a small hole will be needed. Once that box is located, the rest is a piece of cake. One wire dropped down to the basement where the circuit breakers are located. There's an empty slot waiting for that wire.

What have I learned so far?

• Well, rough sawn lumber is hardly dimensional--and after years of freezing and thawing weather may not be straight either.
• That same lumber along with the very dry tongue and groove pine, bead board, barn board siding, etc. is very, very brittle and can give you lots of splinters really, really fast if you're not careful and bang the back of your hand against it when the pry bar slips.
• Pink insulation really itches and not having running water to wash the little pits away is annoying. (Okay. I didn't learn that today, but certainly had it reenforced.)
• Mice and bats definitely leave a messy collection between the attic floor boards. (Of course, the left over concrete chips and dust from when I removed the chimney last spring didn't make it any cleaner.)
• "Measure twice, cut once," may be the motto of the constructor, but "I wonder what will happen if I hit/pull on this." works fine for the destructor--and can be just as much fun.
• Wires someone else installed never go where you think they should.
• The canvas coating on the old wires (circa 1930s-40s electrification project?) gets very brittle with age.

That's about it for today. I'd include pictures but it only looks like a can of worms or a plate of spaghetti anyway.

Some Progress--not much, but some

So, Mark and I spent about three hours last evening 1- testing every circuit in the breaker box to see what it turns on/off 2- tracing the remaining old canvas covered (aluminum!) wire to see if there's some magical place where we can hook into the new wire already in place in the upstairs bedroom and kids bedroom thereby saving us (but mainly me) from having to cut through sheetrock ceilings.

We made several discoveries which all lead to the same question: Why hasn't this place burned down before this?

The one canvas covered wire still originating in the basement apparently fed power to a gazillion outlets and lights in the kitchen, front porch, woodshed, utility/storage room kids bedroom, and upstairs bedroom. Why it didn't get overloaded ages ago--before dripping water and ice shorted out the switch in the woodshed--probably has to do with the way electricity was used. Seldom were there more than two or three of those lights/outlets ever in use at the same time.

We traced the path of that single wire up the side of the basement steps, up the side of the steps leading to the upstairs bedroom and into the attic crawl space. There, things got funky.

I've not yet pulled up all the floorboards in that crawl space, and so I've not been able to tell for sure where it goes but.... We did expose the box to which the kitchen ceiling light was attached. It has four (4!) wires running to/from it not counting the wall switch I ran over the surface of the ceiling/wall. What those four wires do has yet to be determined.

A single wire (canvas covered) runs up the wall of the crawl space from some as yet undetermined locale and into the ceiling of the bedroom. There's a small roof structure that I can cut away inside the attic and I'm hoping that will expose a junction box where the canvas wire joins the new and improved 12-2 wire that runs to all the outlets and lights in the bedroom. There are only two of each but if that canvas wire disappears into the pink insulation finding that junction box could be a royal pain.

The light on the front porch which we thought was being supplied by a wire running within the ceiling of the porch (a relatively easy fix once we breach the knee wall between the attic space and the space over the porch) is actually supplied through the switch in the kitchen. That switch, in turn, gets power from a wire that runs UP inside the wall which is nothing more than three planks covered on the outside by solid foam insulation and cedar shingles. The wire goes UP in the middle of the three planks in a hole just barely large enough for it's passage. There is no slack or movement when it is tugged so it may even be stapled to the plans somewhere along the way. I'll know more when I get into the attic and pull up some more floorboards but it looks like the porch light supply may be one of those four (4!) wires that comes out of the kitchen fixture.

We've yet to figure out where the power comes from for the kids bedroom (two lights--three if you count the one in the closet--and four outlets. It may be coming in from the attic and shooting to either the wall switch or the wall light. I pulled them yesterday and thought they had nothing but new wire, but I'm going to look again after I get into the attic.

There you have it. Still need to find the sources of power and the junction boxes that control it for the two bedrooms. Locating those junction boxes would save heaps of time and effort. I'd be able to run a new power source directly to the box, cut out the canvas wire, and be good to go in no time with a new circuit or two. Everything else we/I can rewire in different paths to join existing circuits that currently are blessedly enjoying very low demand. I mean two fluorescent lights on one circuit?

Here we go again!

Packed by bag and headed north to the Bolt Hole this morning. Lovely drive and this time I remembered to stop along the way and get out for a stretch (and lunch). No snow to be seen until I left Utica and headed up the hill. There the remains of winter linger with a foot or so of hard crusty snow on the ground. The sun which had been out disappeared as I approached the Bolt Hole to e replaced by thickening clouds that the forecasters say will drop a spritz of snow and rain before they give way to clear skies overnight. Tomorrow is supposed to be sunny with temperatures nearing 50 degrees.

My first task was to put a cap on the chimney pipe so I was happy to see that Mark had left the roof ladder in place and I only had to get the ladder to reach the porch roof so I could make my way up to the chimney. easy enough job to do that and get the (too) small chimney skirt and cap in place. I may still have to replace the through the roof insulated section of the chimney pipe, but it will suffice for now and that job can wait until summer. I built a fire in the stove and the current arrangement draws well and heats the living area just fine.

I pulled the elements from the hot water heater thinking one of them must be broken since the hot water wasn't very hot last fall, but they were intact if somewhat rust coated. Not surprising since there's some iron in the water every spring. I did turn the thermostat up 10-20 degrees in hopes that that will give me the hot water I want to wash dishes and shower.

I checked the pump and water is flowing despite the cold temperatures so I could have running water if I wanted it. I don't. That would require I go through the process of draining everything when I leave and the hose for doing that is currently buried beneath a mound of ice out back. (Not to self: Next year, after draining and pumping the water out of the basement, coil the bloody hose next to the house instead of leaving it stretched across the lawn.)

Then it was time to start looking at the electrical wires and try to figure out where the canvas covered wires actually run. I could trace a few of them, but there are still some unknowns. Hopefully there won't be a need to cut through the sheetrocked ceiling of the upstairs bedroom to find out where the old wires run. I explored a few outlets and fixtures in the kids bedroom and found they had new wire running to and from them so the problem becomes where do they run from? There's one canvas wire runing to the light in the old woodshed and new plastic wire runs from that to--somewhere. I've traced it to one outlet and the light over the stove. There's acanvas wire that runs in to the attic above the kitchen and seems to supply a passle of different things once it goes through the ceiling light. There are four (4!) canvas coated wires running into and out of that single fixture. One may run to the woodshed, one may run to the porch light but the other two are a mystery. This could take some trial and error to get straightened out.

Mark showed up after work this evening and he and I will spend some time tonight trying to make heads or tails out of the wiring. Once we have an idea of where things run, I can try to pull new 12-2 wire tomorrow.

**SIGH**

"Oh bother," said Eeyore.

The temperature just after midnight was a balmy 48 degrees and it was raining--hard. By 7 AM it had dropped to 30 and the rain had switched over to that nasty white stuff. Not to worry, however, they say it won't amount to any significant accumulations despite the half inch on the deck by 10 AM. Probably surprised the robins who were enjoying the wide open grass and forest floor in their hunt for insects and worms.

Should switch back to rain and then peter off later this afternoon. Should.

Meanwhile, someone--either a bear or a raccoon--knocked the standing tray feeder over during the night and toppled the tray on the deck rail as well. I'm taking my time in going out to upright those feeders and hang the ones I took in at sun down. I'm trying to convince the horde of redpolls to get on their way north. Hasn't affected them this morning as they glean the collected seed hulls on the ground for a few intact seeds. They've been mining the tailings, so to speak. The squirrels have been helping out by digging deep into the mounds of seed hulls the runoff water has piled up. The squirrels are the heavy lifters in this operation.

Nice!

Feeling better already. I guess early to bed and late to rise has some benefits when it comes to caring for a sore back. That and some serious pain killers I had left over from injuring my knee a year and half ago. Still potent.

******

Very warm day today. Started out rainy with some T-storms, then we had some sunshine during the mid afternoon, followed by more heavy rain at sunset. In between we had temperatures rise to the upper 50s. The result is that all but the largest mounds of snow are gone, GONE, GONE!

That temperature thing will not carry through to tomorrow as the rain and T-storms are from a cold front s-l-o-w-l-y moving through. Even so, the temperatures will be in the mid to upper 40s tomorrow. Could spring finally arriving?

I Shouldn't Have Done That!

Last week's long one-day drive between the Aerie and Bolt Hole (220 miles up and 220 miles back), gave me an achy back. Then, today, I decided--foolishly--to shovel some of the heaped up snow that contained gravel from the driveway back onto the driveway where it would melt and return the stones to their proper place and make clearing them from the garden an easier task. I must have twisted at the waist in an improper manner for I have surely irritated the nerves there. Now instead of an "oh, my" ache I've got a "G*D DAMN!" pain.

Not good.

Time for a hot shower some pills and an early night where I can lay flat on my back for hours. With luck, I'll feel better in a few days. Without it, it may take a week or two.

Hopefully it will be good enough that I can go north to the Bolt Hole again later this week (after the predicted rain is over--say Wednesday or so) to work on the stovepipe and electricity.

On the plus side, the morning was bright and sunny and warm. Although the sun disappeared around 2 PM, the warmth remained. We got close to 50 degrees today and a good deal of the snow is now history. With more days of similar temperatures and 1.5 inches of rain in the forecast, we should be snow free in a day or two. There's virtually no snow down in the lower elevations. Only on the north facing slopes or dense pine woods are you able to find any snow. (We face the northwest so we get plenty of the afternoon sun except on the east side of the house.)

More Snow at the Aerie

We got 2-3 inches yesterday (March 31) but most of that melted as the temperature rose to the upper 30s during the day. This morning (April 1) we had a little less than an inch of heavy, wet new snow on the ground and there's more falling now as I type. We might get another inch or two out of this. Still, that's better than the areas between Albany, NY and Augusta, ME will be doing. I've seen reports of from 12 to 18 inches of snow expected just west of I-95.

And the Bolt Hole is just on the west side of the big storm, too, and may see only a few inches of new snow.

Tiresome. That's what it is. Tiresome.