Remember I had the plow taken off the truck on Tuesday? Well…. This is what I woke to on Friday morning. Not plowable here, but elsewhere got up to 8” in the surrounding area. And it’s all my fault….
Friday was to be a day of chaos. I had 6 people coming to do various things that day: sheetrock, wallpaper, wash windows, move the pasture coop, shopping…..
Tom came to get the pasture coop out of the front pasture. He took this one. This was about 10:30 and it was still snowing in the rain. It kept that up until early afternoon.
The carpenter was first to arrive at 7AM. He was going to wallpaper and I helped him do the first sheet, until my helper friend and my helper arrived at 8AM. My helper was to sheetrock the back porch. The carpenter stopped wallpapering long enough to get him started. I got my helper friend busy doing shopping so that was one less body in the house.
My window washing person arrived at 8:30 and we started washing the double hung windows in the living room. Things went great until we got to the big one on the right side. This brand new window’s spring broke inside when it was taken out. Then it broke again in another place when we went to put it back in. It’s in but will need extensive repair.
Tom and my intern arrived about 10:15 and Tom set about getting the coop ready to move. It takes a lot of people to get the coop all the way to the barn as the driveway is so narrow.
All 4 tires were flat, so he first had to find the air tank, fill it, and pump up the tires. One was beyond repair and will have to be replaced. He got his heavy duty dolly and used it to steer in the front. Fortunately the bad tire was in the front and the dolly helped with that problem.
He thought the ground in the front pasture would be soggy but it was fine until just before the driveway. So he took the carpenter, my intern, and my helper and they set off to get the coop to the barn in the rainy snow. My window lady and I kept washing windows. By this time we had finished the ones in the living room and were doing the big ones in the old office.
They got the coop to the barn and everyone resumed their previous jobs. My intern helped the carpenter with the wallpaper until he left for the day. My window lady only comes for 4 hours a day, so we just kept washing windows to the end. We broke our previous record! We washed 6 of the biggest windows and 5 of the smaller ones. The most we’d done before was 3 big ones and 5 small ones in one go.
My helper friend had returned at 10:45 with the shopping and put it all away then left at 11AM. Tom left once he’d gotten everything put away, I’m not sure when as I was upstairs washing windows. My window lady left at 12:30 and the carpenter left at 1PM.
I had thought I’d do the one last window in the bedroom, but I was too tired. I thought I might do some seed starting with my intern, but I was too tired. I thought I’d start putting the living room back together, and I did manage that.
Tom had returned at 2:15 to take my intern to her riding lesson and then returned to try to get some of his work done in the now warm living room, as I had gotten both stoves going. He left to pick her up at 3:30.
After an early supper I lay down on the couch to read and woke at 8PM. I’d not done the cats at the barn or gotten photos of the coop and back porch. I got the stoves going and went to bed.
Having the storm windows off makes a big difference in how warm the house is. The temps for Friday night were to be 30’s and the house was much colder than usual. Falling asleep and not pulling the shades in a timely manner didn’t help. The shades make a 5° difference.
Saturday my window lady returns at 8:30 but it’s to be cold and cloudy, but not as cold as Sunday morning will be. So the plan is to wash the windows requiring 1 outside person and 1 inside person, mostly all awning windows. There are 8 of them. If we finish all those, then we will resume with the windows that can be washed from inside.
I will keep the stoves going so it will be warm when she gets inside. I also have to clear space under each window so they can be done.
She comes back on Sunday and it will be all inside windows. It’s to be 40’s and cloudy, so lots more stove burning…
The snow definitely caught us by surprise too! Glad we didn’t start our garden lol hopefully no lasting damage to your stuff!
How do you keep everyone in sync is beyond me... Then again, having so many people coming to help regularly must be great! We rarely have any help for anything, like I remember distinctly the two times in 2019 someone came to help with something for a couple if hours.
It's taken months of practice! It's been happening since my husband went into the hospital last October. But it is wonderful to see so much get done in a short period.
Yeesh, a late snow?
How many stoves does it take to heat your home? How much wood do you burn in a winter? Our freeze this winter is still on my mind, and they've got a couple options for wood stoves at the local farm store... 🤔 I might try and Jew them down a bit this summer when snow is far from anyone's minds.
Currently, this winter we had 2: a regular wood stove to heat the old part of the house, and a new masonry heater for the addition. I have no idea what it will take to heat this house as this winter was a mess in many areas. Ask me after next winter...
The old side could take up to 6-8 cords depending on how cold it got for how long. We used 2 regular wood stoves, one in the main part and 1 in the cellar if it got below 0F. It was comparatively mild this winter and we only used the upstairs stove.