The "holidays"... yeesh.

I'm done promising to follow any kind of regular posting schedule. Unfortunately, since this blog is just a sort of "hobby" for me, there are times when I just can't get enough time in to adhere to a schedule. Such has been the case for the last few weeks, owing to all the extra commitments that seem to be required at this time of year.

I laugh at myself a little for making these promises in the first place. I know that "real life" will always intervene in my good intentions, yet never has that knowledge stopped me from making promises to post regularly - until now. I do have a number of new posts in the works which I'm hoping to have ready in the new year, but in the meantime...

It's the time of year for building lebkuchen passivhauser.

Into Giants - Patrick Watson

Fabricating ventilation duct supports.

Despite all the extra workload imposed by the month of December, I have still managed to get out and "putter" around the house here and there. One of my projects has been to install some ventilation ducts that pass through an exterior wall. Because of the thickness of the wall, and because there is no exterior plywood sheathing, some type of support was needed at the exterior end of the ducts.

Waiting for the glue to dry in a stack of vent supports. Jessica just loves this time of year, when I start bringing all my projects into the house.



This particular support has a 4 1/4" hole for the dryer exhaust vent. The support is 1/2" plywood with 2x2 flanges attached at each side. 2 layers of 1 1/2" rigid foam insulation are glued on to make the total thickness 3 1/2". Once the glue has totally dried I'll take it outside, extend that hole through the foam and install the support between the studs opposite another hole in the rim board (more on this later).

A "white Christmas" after all.

Normally by this time of year, our weather has settled into consistently cold, below freezing temperatures. Instead, unseasonably warm intervals have caused the melting of whatever snow we managed to accumulate, to the point that it was beginning to look like it would be a "brown Christmas". Some unexpected snow on the 20th looks like its going to stick around however, so it appears I may not have to worry about whether or not my septic field is at risk of freezing.

Some last minute snow whitened everything up - although I'd like it better if it were much deeper.

Out with the old...

The engine in my trusty old Ford F150 finally died. Unfortunately the body is shot (I was barely able to get the driver's side door shut in the end) so I won't bother attempting to breathe new life into this truck. Instead, I'll part-out what I can then haul the rest to the scrap yard - a few more items for the "to do" list.

Happy trails "Big Red".