Tree Day at Cumberland Village

Above All Trees was here at the village on Monday, January 20. They took out a few trees and trimmed up a bunch. Here are a few pictures I took that day.

Last Words

"They couldn't hit an elephant at this dist...." Last words of Gen. John Sedgwick at Spotsylvania (1864)

The plaque reads:

• Maj. Gen. John Sedgwick, commander of the Sixth Corps, was one of the most popular senior officers in the Army of the Potomac. On the morning of May 9, 1864, Sedgwick arrived here to direct some minor redeployment of his troops. Ignoring warnings from his chief-of-staff, Sedgwick stalked about admonishing his men to cease worrying about the occasional fire of Confederate sharpshooters concealed in the woodline far to your front. "I am ashamed of you dodging that way, " scoffed Sedgwick. "They couldn't hit an elephant at this distance." Shortly thereafter, a bullet slammed into the general's face, killing him almost instantly.

• The shot that killed John Sedgwick, the highest-ranking Northern officer to die on a Civil War battlefield, came from a Whitworth rifle at a distance of more than 500 yards. The identity of the marksman who fired the fatal shot remains a mystery, although at least five Confederate soldiers later claimed responsibility.

For more, see:
http://www.civilwarbattlefields.us/spotsylvania/sedgwick.html

Genuine Diffee Doodle Reprint

Today, I received in the mail my genuine Diffee Doodle Reprint. I signed up for The Diffeeville Dispatch, the newsletter of Matt Diffee, an artist and writer who grew up in Texas and moved to New York.  His cartoons have been published in The New Yorker among other publications. I was one of the early subscribers to the newsletter, and the draw was that I would get a free hand drawn doodle. I am still waiting on mine. Evidently, even though I thought I got in on the ground floor, I was way down the line. He is up to 443 according to today's Facebook page. I think I am in the 600s. Anyway, he's got some funny stuff. You should check him out.

Tree Clean Up

November 6, 2014

All Above Trees came and cut down the Bradford pear tree. It took them about an hour and a half to get it down and fed through the chipper. They did a pretty good job.

Downed Tree

On November 1 we had the big snow that was gone by the afternoon. Over night we had winds up to 50 mph and awoke to our Bradford pear tree having lost a large branch.

These trees are notorious for having their limbs/branches stripped by wind and ice. This one evidently has a history of this.

It took out the fence when it fell. The fence was in ill repair anyhow. I had tacked the barbed wire up on deteriorating posts mostly for show. I had planned to replace the posts that were rotting in the ground, but SWMBO discouraged me from that, and now I am glad.

Cabbage

We put out three cabbages for decorative effect. They are doing quite well.

Water Leak Event

Saturday, I was going to investigate a job I had in mind. I wanted to rework the connection for the water line for the refrigerator. The access was rather "rigged" and was located in a closet behind a panel. When I cleared out the closet I noticed wetness. When I took the panel off, there was a drip at one of the fittings, and a split in one of the lines. It was spewing out water. I got a towel and covered the spew and went to shut off the supply line. Next, I called a plumber. I called the guy that did our water heater. He came out and replaced the bad parts. This polybutylene is about 35 years old and is starting to fail throughout the neighborhood. So, I made an appointment with him to come back Thursday and replace all the polybutylene in the house.

Here is the finished job. The new material is what is called PEX.  PEX tubing is made from crosslinked HDPE (high density polyethylene) polymer. It has been used in Europe since 1970 and was introduced to the US in 1980s. It has several advantages over metal pipe (copper, iron, lead) or rigid plastic pipe (PVC, CPVC, ABS) systems. It is flexible, resistant to scale and chlorine, doesn't corrode or develop pinholes, is faster to install than metal or rigid plastic, and has fewer connections and fittings.

Now we are working with insurance and Servicemaster to abate the water/mold problems.

Wednesday, September 10
The adjuster (Foremost, a division of Farmers) and Servicemaster came today. Servicemaster has removed all damaged materials and contained the area. They have put in air scrubbers and a dehumidifier. These all need to run for 3-5 days. Then we will be able to rebuild. Looks like we will be getting a new floor for the kitchen/laundry room area, too.

removing damaged wall board

refrigerator relocated to in front of stove

microwave relocated to sink counter

The cabinets were sealed with tape and the room
was sealed off to create a negative pressure area.

A little moisture in the corner of the study. Closet
sealed off to create a negative pressure area.

Heater, air blower, dehumidifiers in closet.

Drying time 3-5 days.

After drying.

This is the left wall in the closet. The old plumbing has been

 removed, and they installed a new line for the ice maker.

This is the door wall. I removed all the drywall and put in new.

That is the back side of the ice maker box.

New dry wall.

September 23 Update:
Today the installers arrived to install our new kitchen floor. I had moved out the washer, dryer, stove, and refrigerator the night before. We decided to put it on the existing floor. They mixed up a special mix and spread it over the floor to fill in any indentations and make it smooth.

The are bringing in the flooring and laying it out

on one end of the kitchen.

They make sure that it fits this half of the kitchen.

They rolled it back and applied adhesive and let it dry.

They did it again for the back half.

The floor is done, I installed base, and moved

all the appliances back in.

Marcia did an excellent job picking out the flooring.

The installers did an excellent job installing.

It took them about 3 hours. I did an excellent

job installing the base.

September 27 Update:

I finished the closet. I painted the walls and the 

ceiling. Made a new shelf and hanger. I used left

over vynl for the floor, put down new shoe mold

and a transition.

October 4 Update:

We put all the stuff back in the closet thus

reclaiming our office room. It is nice to have

everything back to normal.

Just inside the closet is where I keep my ready tools. Tools

I can get to without having to go outside or get into my tool

box.