So... What are YOU doing? - Part 5

[tango]

Went and met a friend for coffee. We were with them much longer than expected so ended up going out for lunch too (which was nice). Then my wife did the grocery shopping and dropped me off at a different friend's place while she did it.

Now we're home and I need to get back to my insulation work. Since it's gotten cold lately I checked a few patches of wall and found I still have some nasty drafts so I'm going to get busy with the mortar and fiberglass to block up as many as I can.

Once we're into January I'm going to ask a friend for a ride to the hardware store to get a pile of insulation panels. He has a big trailer so he can haul them for me. This week isn't good for him, so it can wait. Then I get to slice up the panels and jam them into place, and hopefully my heating bills will start to drop significantly from there. At that point I'll focus on one upright strip at a time - pulling down the remainder of the wall, filling any gaps in the brickwork, cutting a piece of insulation panel to size, and fitting it.

There are a few patches I can't do until it gets warmer, because I need to drain the heating circuit so I can take the radiators out and work behind them. I won't be doing that in this cold weather...

 

[NewCreation435]

Tomorrow is my last day at my current job and starting the new job on Tuesday. I will be finishing up last minute paper work and then turning my work computer and phone in.

 

[tango]

Another session of Fun With Fiberglass this evening. I found a few places that were unexpectedly cold on the wall so hauled a bit more fiberglass out of the attic to see to things. Got a load of it into place, blocked a bunch of drafts, then realised there was still a patch that was far colder than I would expect. I needed to get on the ladder to see it, and found a quarter-inch gap between the top of the window frame and the interior face of the wall. Perhaps unsurprisingly the thermal camera clocked the temperature at that point to be in the 20s, so another wad of fiberglass got rolled into action. I need to cut up a couple of concrete blocks so I can properly block the space, cement it into place, and seal it properly. That may need to wait until it's a little warmer...

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

Tomorrow is my last day at my current job and starting the new job on Tuesday. I will be finishing up last minute paper work and then turning my work computer and phone in.

Prayers and best wishes for the next step

 

[Lamb]

Trying to wake up on a cold morning. My bed was so toasty I didn't want to leave.

 

[tango]

Quick drive to get a couple of bottles for New Years Eve. Then a stop at the hardware store to get some builders' foam to fill the gaps between my window frames and brickwork.

After last night's efforts (I took a couple of batts 9" thick, 15" wide and 8 feet long, and used most of both of them stuffing it into cracks and gaps) the thermal image from the outside as of this morning was hugely improved. Still a few spots to work on but even with the lower range of my camera set to 20 degrees most of the wall was still black. When I set the range down to 15 degrees a few small patches of color appeared. One is right by the radiator so that's to be expected until I can insulate the space. Most of the areas that were problematic before are fixed now. The rooms I've been working in already feel warmer, before you could walk in there and feel a draft but now you can't unless the wind blows hard.

Now I just need to replace fiberglass with a more permanent solution.

 

[psalms 91]

I still have my three year old bottle of bourbon, will have one maybe two drinks and be done for another year lol.

 

[tango]

More fun with mortar and fiberglass, took out a couple of strips of fiberglass and put in a more permanent mortar fix. Took out a couple of defunct sockets so I could stuff the spaces with fiberglass and stop another nasty draft. Then made a start on cleaning up some of the mess that has accumulated. Much of it is dust, but it's hard to suck through my separator because I keep losing suction. I really need to get together with my friend who has a big router table and make a better quality lid for my heavy duty garbage can, but he's really busy right now.

In the end I realised there were enough chunks of plaster in the debris that it would be easier to manually gather up most of it, and filled another two bags with it all. Now I've got 16 bags waiting to go to the landfill, each of which is probably about 30lb. I think when that is gone it will nudge my total to a little over a ton of mostly plaster.

I think what I need to do is create a custom lid for my garbage can that has an pipe in for the suction tube, a pipe out, and a mount so one of my larger shop vacs can just sit on top of it and never have to move. Then a baffle underneath will mean any time I need to lift the lid to check how full it is or to empty it I can just set it down on the ground because the bottom will be flat. And I can construct a custom tube from the lid to the shop vac, which will mean I can use the wider shop vac tube in my other shop vac elsewhere. That will also be handy, because the shop vac I plan to use for this has a hugely long power cable.

 

[Andrew]

Couldn't sleep last night, want to take a nap but there is just too much going on. Plus people are stopping by, meh zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz..... (im pretending)

Sent from my LGLS755 using Tapatalk

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

Grinding some dried Cayenne pepper. My coffee grinder was promoted
It doesn't have a 'pulse' setting, though, so it'll take some practice with time. The pepper is a bit fine, but I already have some coarse ground pepper.

 

[Lamb]

Grinding some dried Cayenne pepper. My coffee grinder was promoted
It doesn't have a 'pulse' setting, though, so it'll take some practice with time. The pepper is a bit fine, but I already have some coarse ground pepper.

What will you cook with the cayenne pepper?

 

[tango]

Grinding some dried Cayenne pepper. My coffee grinder was promoted
It doesn't have a 'pulse' setting, though, so it'll take some practice with time. The pepper is a bit fine, but I already have some coarse ground pepper.

Cayenne pepper is fun. I grew them myself for a couple of years, until I realised I was harvesting way more than I was using and didn't know anybody who wanted the surplus.

Cayenne pepper can be good in a cup of coffee or hot chocolate. Gives it a bit of a kick

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

Hot chocolate would be good. I've had pepper infused chocolate before and that was quite good.
I'd gotten the peppers from a co-worker a couple of months ago and they'd just been sitting. I did a steak and mushroom dish last night and tried a bit of it. I'll have to be a bit more liberal with it since I got it too fine. It's be good for chili or stews.
I'd like to try some different dried herbs, maybe an Italian blend and try my own pasta sauce. I'm always watching shows like Master Chef and hell's Kitchen thinking "I wish I could at least cook something for myself that's not generic and processed"

 

[tango]

Hot chocolate would be good. I've had pepper infused chocolate before and that was quite good.
I'd gotten the peppers from a co-worker a couple of months ago and they'd just been sitting. I did a steak and mushroom dish last night and tried a bit of it. I'll have to be a bit more liberal with it since I got it too fine. It's be good for chili or stews.
I'd like to try some different dried herbs, maybe an Italian blend and try my own pasta sauce. I'm always watching shows like Master Chef and hell's Kitchen thinking "I wish I could at least cook something for myself that's not generic and processed"

If what you've got is a fine powder, try getting a really good quality dark chocolate (wafers would be best), then melt it down and mix in some cayenne pepper. Then pour it into sheets, molds, whatever you prefer, to set. Now you've got your own hot pepper infused chocolate. A friend of mine does something like this using bhut jolokia peppers.

 

[tango]

Lazy afternoon. Went to a memorial service this morning, then came back and have barely moved from my recliner since. I think I slept for a couple of hours this afternoon. Not a good night for me last night, not sure why but was disturbed a lot.

 

[tango]

After an afternoon that was almost entirely unproductive I decided to have another quick scan for drafts, and found a couple more. So there followed a time of hammering, chiseling out mortar, and putting some fresh mortar in place.

 

[NewCreation435]

I've been running errands all day. I took my wife's care in to get oil change and inspection and the guy told me I need two new tires on it, so that was unexpected.

 

[ImaginaryDay2]

My car windows were under about a half inch of ice, so that was fun getting all that off. Had to shovel a 'runway' to get out, which is convenient because all I need to do is back into my spot in the road when I get home. Let the sun melt the rest!

 

[Lamb]

Just made french toast for breakfast. I love using my homemade vanilla and will be asking the family soon if they've used any that I gave to them for Christmas! It gives such a wonderful flavor to everything.

 

[psalms 91]

Sounds good how do you make it