January 27, 2018 Finally some snow to talk about

For most of the month of January, Emigrant Gap has had little snow on the ground.  The end of the month  brought us over 2 feet in one storm.  It is nice to be back to a "winter wonderland" again.  You would think we would take advantage of all that white stuff and go skiing.  But instead, we decided to finally put the insulation back in the ceiling above Katie's and our bedrooms.  It was removed some time ago to add ceiling lights and since it was blown in type and quite filthy, we threw it away with the thought that we would soon replace it with R19 batts.  2 years later and we finally laid the newer bats in place!

The attic is a wonderous place.  The ceilings are high and pitched and the room is basically the size of the entire cabin with very, very sloped sides.  We have managed to put in a type of flooring (mostly partial sheets of plywood) in almost 1/2 of the space.  We keep hoping that as we remove the old blown in  insulation, that we will find some old treasures (like an old bottle or diary or just about anything old).  But all we have found so far is chipmunk acorn stashes and mouse turds.  Alas.

This weekend, Jim had some roof work to do, so I finally replaced the last ugly downstairs bathroom vanity light.  When the previous owners remodeled the lower floor, they put in off center "Hollywood" lighting in each bathroom.  Replacing the lights, usually turns into a big cut in the drywall to add support between the 2/4s and moving the light box (J box) to the correct, centered location above the mirror, then patching the drywall and painting.  A lot of work for something aesthetic.  But well worth it when the job is complete.

And we have finally converted to LED and CFL light bulbs in all the light fixtures.  We hope to save about 75% on our energy bills (of course, we still have the portable heaters that jack the winter PG&E bills up).

No word yet about the school.  It remains closed and boarded up.  We hope to get an estimate on moving the portable 10 feet (part of it sits on the school grounds) this spring.

For the rest of January and early February, the weather is going to be quite warm.  So bye bye snow and we hope for a few more storms before the season is over.