A cold, snowy world

The day dawned bright and clear, a pleasant change from the gray light of the blizzard that had blown through the day before, but frost was thick on the inside of the kitchen windows, and the dogs were not eager to go outside -- signs that the temperature was likely below zero.

And, indeed, it was -- 14 below, feels like 34 below, according to the online weather report. She sighed. Spring, and the date for moving into the family's new home, seemed far off.

... Just thought I'd write this little blog post as the opening to a book. Don't worry, you'll find out how it ends soon enough!

Belle had been OK outside for much of the storm yesterday (she prefers to be outside lately, for love of chasing rabbits), but we saw out the window at one point that she was acting a little frantic, trying to find a place to lie down out of the wind. No wonder. Her dog house wasn't pleasant anymore, with all that snow blown into it!


I got a few more pictures ... file these under the "snow as artwork" theme.


It really does have some cold beauty to it, doesn't it?


... For sick kids, these two are in pretty good spirits this morning! Smiling despite their stuffy noses.

Erik's working harder on crawling, now that army crawling has been accomplished. Look out, world!

FEB. 27 UPDATE: Reminder from winter: I'm still here

Just when we were getting used to weather in the 20s or even, sometimes, above freezing, winter gives us a little reminder that it's still February -- we've got at least a month of winter to slog through. At least. It could be mid-April before we see spring in South Dakota.

It's hard to tell exactly how many inches of snow we got, since the wind was blowing as well. There were drifts up to Dave's chest in a number of places in the yard.



Yeah, we're going to have to figure out what to do about that drifting in front of the door of the house. A snow fence, maybe? Planting something there won't do any good for several years.

... Dave worked on clearing snow in the yard with the tractor yesterday afternoon, even though the snow blow around him while he worked, canceling out much of his efforts. He made enough of a dent that he was able to get to work this morning in the pickup, though. (He didn't go to work yesterday, obviously, but since two of his coworkers did make it to the office, he had to take a vacation day. He wasn't very pleased about that.) There will be more snow clearing to do this afternoon.

... We've got two sick kiddies at home now. We took them both to the doctor Wednesday (before the weather hit). Erik has an ear infection, but the up side of that is that as soon as the antibiotics kicked in, he started cheering up. Sofia just has a cold, for now, but with her history of viral-induced asthma, we have her on her nebulizer as a proactive measure.

Speaking of her asthma, I was at a meeting a couple weeks ago when I realized just how prevalent that has become in children. I was one of four moms sitting around a table, and each of us had a child with this diagnosis! One of the other moms says about half the moms she work with say the same. We were all chatting about the same medicines, whether they were doing any good, whether they were causing behavioral problems ... I don't think moms used to bond over this!

I asked Sofia's lung specialist on Wednesday why he thought this is now so common. He said part of it is diagnosis -- people used to call this bronchitis, and some level of wheezing in kids was accepted and not treated. Now there's a good treatment, so it's diagnosed right away. But he also said there's a hypothesis that because of all the good vaccines we have now, our bodies don't learn how to properly respond to viruses -- when one shows up, the body over-reacts, which is what the asthma symptoms are.

Sounds plausible. But I wonder if there's more to it than that -- is there something in our environment that is causing a change as well?

FEB. 22 UPDATE: Get ready, get set -- insulate!

The insulation is nearly all in place in the addition! Dave had a very productive Saturday.

Looking toward the southeast ...

... and toward the northwest.

The insulation says "Thermal and sound control," and it was doing some good already at this stage -- my footfalls didn't echo in the room as they had before. Of course, once we put up drywall, we'll have an echo chamber again! I guess that's one of the reasons people want texture on their walls ... we're still looking into the natural plaster option, which I think will help alleviate the echo-chamber effect as well.


Dave's aiming for the recommended R-value of 49 in the ceiling in the addition, which is accomplished with two layers of insulation -- one R-19 and the other R-30.

... I've been doing some weaving lately! It's a nice stress reliever, really -- watching how the colors blend together as I weave them. I'll post a picture once I've got something off the loom!

FEB. 20 UPDATE: We passed!

Dave says I need to get this blog post up before people start thinking the electrical inspection bombed. Sorry, sorry!

Well, we did pass the rough inspection! Not with a perfect score, but a pass is a pass. Some of the things Dave was worried about (not putting outlets in the knee walls, for example) just got a cursory look and a nod, but he will have to fix a couple things he was hoping the inspector would let slide -- he'll have to add a couple outlets in the kitchen, and he'll have to put in two outdoor outlets.

The biggest problem, however, was with work that the professional electrician had done! Apparently there are two wires in a conduit that, according to South Dakota code, should be separate -- even though Dave questioned this, and the electrician couldn't answer what could possibly go wrong because they are in the same conduit. How they are going to fix this is a big question -- Dave suggested that perhaps the way to fix it is to get a different inspector for the final inspection.

So, on to insulation! Dave got started on putting up the insulation in the addition (which will just have traditional insulation) yesterday.

... We've got a bit of winter weather today -- some light snow and wind. I just felt and heard the house creak as a big gust hit us from the north. A person can't hide from the weather out here, even in the house. Dad has added some more insulation to the house through the years, but the windows are nowhere close to tight -- I can feel a breeze through the kitchen window when we've got a good north wind. And the living room gets a draft when the south wind blows. You can tell which way the wind is blowing by where you find us in the house!

FEB. 16 UPDATE: The light at the end of the wiring tunnel

Well, ready or not, here I come -- so says the electrical inspector, anyway. (Though we did set up this appointment ourselves.) After all sorts of figuring and on-the-job learning, the wiring is done (well, Dave's finishing up as I type) and hopefully, by tonight, we can have our "Thank Heaven The Wiring is Finally Finished" party!

... Once that's done, we can move on to our next conundrum: insulation. I think we've decided to do the spray foam insulation on the walls as well, so we'll need to decide on the kind (open cell, which is water permeable and doesn't have any local installers, or closed cell, which is not water permeable and has at least one local installer) and get someone out here to put it in.

The water-permeable question is really a big one: Water in the walls is what makes a house first unhealthy and later unsound -- and it's a bigger problem the more airtight you try to make the house for energy efficiency's sake. So, do you make the walls tight enough that no water can get in, or do you make them in such a way that if water does get in, it can later get out? The passive house expert we talked to seriously advised the second option, as it is possible that the closed-cell foam could fail in spots at some point, inviting water damage there. But that involves finding someone to install it -- the closest installer is in Fargo, I think.

Back to the ol' computer for more research ...

FEB. 9 UPDATE: Little by little

The view toward Frederick, with the water tower in the distance.

Sofia has a new place to play — snow cleared from the yard was pushed into a pile that Sofia has claimed as her castle. A smaller pile nearby has been dubbed "Ogre Hill." An ogre regularly raids the castle (we take turns playing ogre).

The other day Sofia looked up and said, "Mommy, the moon is looking at me!"



Well, the house: Wiring still isn't quite finished, but Dave made good progress on it this weekend, broken rib and all. All the complicated circuits are in place, tested, and working as they should -- save one (the light above the stairs) that has three switches and involves a lot of climbing. The smoke alarms and baseboard heater wiring is still on the to-do list as well.

But Dave is pretty sure he can finish in the next few days, so he's made an appointment for the electrical inspector to come a week from Tuesday. Progress!

... Sofia was supposed to have her dance class this afternoon, but we didn't make it -- I got the car stuck in slushy mud in the yard. (Note to self: Don't back up downhill, no matter how slight the incline might be.) A good push from Dave when he got home got it out, but by then it was too late for dance class. It's been raining (rain! in February!) steadily all day, set to turn to snow tomorrow, we hear.

... Right now there's a massive puddle in front of the granary. We weren't planning on a pool ... we're hoping we're not getting leakage into the insulation Dave put in under the subfloor. We shouldn't be -- the water isn't that high, and Walt did a fine job on the cement work on the lower portions of the north and south walls -- but a person does worry.

... We did have a bit of a flood already inside. The part of the water pipe that was in the addition froze and broke the fitting on the end. Dave noticed a bit of water on the floor, and as he was unwrapping the pipe (he had surrounded it with insulation) he hit the lever and water sprayed all over. I think he got the lever back to the off position -- then he did a little sprinting into the house to get the water shut off. He got everything fixed, but it involved a trip to Ellendale, then a trip to Aberdeen, and a wasted day.