PB&J Twisp

The beauty of the snowfall conflicted with our desire to finish the siding on the house and shop, but cold weather descending and our need to get the RV back to Anacortes tore us away too soon from that final task. By 1:30 yesterday we had the winterizing of water lines done on the house and to the RV site, the utility trailer packed with tools and both trailers hooked up and ready to head out. The county inspector finally showed up at 2:00 and signed off our mechanical and insulation sections of our permit; the Final inspection is all that remains. By 2:16 we were on the road via Wenatchee and Hiway 2, as 20 was temporarily closed due to avalanche danger. The snow had continued to fall overnight until it turned to rain around noon. Rain, at times hard accompanied with stiff wind, continued all the way to Anacortes, with the worst part of the drive at nightfall dealing with a continuous barrage of headlights from eastbound traffic over Stevens Pass that all seemed to have high beams on...

 As promised by the forecast, the snow arrived at 3 this afternoon.  We had finished siding the east side of the garage which we didn't get working on until 11AM as it was just too cold, 18 degrees at 6 this morning and it didn't warm up much during the day. OCEC, the electric company, was here to hook up and pressure test the propane fireplace and on-demand hot water tank.  They managed a few things but because the hot water tank wasn't hooked up to water, and the innards of the fireplace hadn't been fully installed, they couldn't do the pressure test. So that will happen next spring, along with finishing siding. In our toasty winter garb, we busied ourselves tidying up the place, collecting things we'll take back with us, and preparing for our departure.  Earlier this morning I sorted the recyclables and collected all the trash, then made a run to the transfer station.  While Bill installed the last two vents in anticipation of the mechanical and insolation in...

 Pass reports are looking grim as is the forecast for subfreezing temps in the next few days.  We had a good day siding the laundry room and garage. Maybe we'll finish the south end of the garage before we pack up and get out of here.  Can't complain about our progress this year.  I had a vision that we would end the year with siding on house, garage and shop. Well, we've achieved that by only half, but that's better than having no siding on at all! The west side of the house and the shop will just have to wait until the spring. Intermittent between nailing and caulking siding, and placing the geckos for the next piece of siding, I fed and monitored the fire we started early this morning to deal with all the leftover scraps of lumber.  It burned until well after 6:30P but was a nice time for us to sit and tend it until it became just glowing embers.  We talked about the progress we made this year and what's to follow next spring, and what would we be doing ...

 A delay in work today was caused by lack of caulking.  Bill went early this morning to the hardware store and the building supply store in Winthrop as well as the hardware store and building supply store in Twisp and none had the caulk we needed.  That meant I went to Omak after calling to make sure the Home Depot had the right stuff.  Bill set up the next stages of ladders while I was gone. Yesterday the propane tank was filled and tomorrow the propane technician we come to pressure the line, meaning we could turn on the fireplace soon and warm up the place. The weather has been comfortable with a long-sleeved shirt on and warms up to mid 60s afternoon.  Hoping the weather holds for another 10 days.  It's been 8 days since we started siding the house so figure it will be at least 10 more days to finish everything.