Bolt Hole Report, October 7, 2010

It's been a couple of very wet days here at the Bolt Hole. Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday we had rain, rain, rain! But the night time temperatures did warm up a bit. Never got below the low 40s since the rain came from the south.

Today started much the same way as the previous three days: overcast and rainy. But the sun did finally make an appearance around noon and remained for most of the afternoon hours. Of course, that sun needed help in making its appearance. There was lots of wind pushing the rain away and that has continued through into the darkness of night.

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I mostly lolled around the living room of the Bolt Hole the first three days of the week planning my attack on the electrical wiring in the basement. Today, I got enough courage to actually get to work. Having (nearly) all the material on hand, I strapped on my miners lamp and attacked the old system with gusto. I removed nearly all the old canvas covered, ungrounded wire that ran in the basement. There's still quite a bit of the stuff running through the old portion of the first floor living quarters but that would require dismantling walls, ceilings and floors to replace. Ain't gonna do that just yet. I ran some brand new 12-2 grounded wire to replace the old stuff. Set up two new circuits from those that were already pretty confused. I had to split one circuit in half since I thought there were too many lights/outlets on it. And I also put in a couple of new junction boxes so as to bring one lonesome light into the fold of another rather small circuit. (Why in the world was there just one (1) basement light on a 25 amp circuit all by it's lonesome?)

I only had three moments of uncertainty. One was when I accidentally brushed a ground wire across a live circuit and got a loud POP! and a puff of smoke as I tripped a breaker. Scared the bejeesus out of me! Another time I got a wild tingly feeling in my finger when I brushed that against a bare wire. Believe me when I say I have the utmost respect for electricians working around life current!

The third moment of uncertainty was when, having--I thought--wired the basement lights up correctly, I flipped the circuit breaker on only to have it go all snap, crackle and pop on me and flip off immediately. Four or five times, as I tried to remember how to wire a distant switch to the closer light. After trying a few different permutations (and replacing a GD burned out light bulb!) I finally got it to work. That the problem with doing things only on rare occasions; you forget how to do them. That and all my Time Life home repair books are at the Aerie.

Well, I survived. And it's been a few hours since I flipped the circuit breakers on and the place hasn't burned down--yet, so I must have done a decent job. Once more the Good Enough Construction Company has triumphed!

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The rain and the wind of the last two weeks has knocked most of the leaves off the trees. all that's left are those that haven't changed yet or that are in the process of changing. Lots of bare trees on the way down the hill to the hardware and grocery stores. It's been a weird and fast fall.

The weekend is supposed to be sunny and a bit warmer with highs into the 60s. Quite a change from the 50 degree days earlier this week. Might be time to get outside and do some more fair weather chores.

I'll have to get up on the woodshed roof and tar the living daylights out of the seam where it meets the the cabin roof. Too much rain water getting through the ever opening gap and that's part of the problem with the back walls of the woodshed that I mentioned the other day. Water leads to rot. Replacing that shed is starting to look like a 2011 summer project. It's a miracle it's stood up this long with the heavy snow/ice load it gets.

Once the roof is taken care of, I'll be able to use the wheelbarrow to haul the firewood inside to cure.

Then there's the winterizing of the travel trailer.

Did I mention that it is bow hunting season? HA!