kareina

Woke thinking of the Create an attic bedroom project. The plan has been to make the bed area a reading nook, with bookshelves on three sides, and drawers under that open to the room. I had thought of a trap door to get to the under bed area behind the drawers, but now I realise that I want instead slightly sloped padded walls below the bottom bookshelves that serve as backrest, and have a hinge, so we can get to storage under the bed.

In other news, I got a note from Heather letting me know that my story isn’t one she will be publishing and wishing me luck finding it a home. This didn’t particularly surprise me, as I knew she had received far more stories than she can buy for this year’s collection, and my story reads more like a blog post than a story. (I have lots of practice writing blog posts, and none writing stories with plots, dialogue and character development.)

I had a zoom call with my sisters at 06:00, and managed to get up early enough to do a quick pilates session before the call. After the call I went back to bed for an hour and a half extra sleep.

We got up on time to catch the opening ceremonies of Drachenwald Kingdom Uni, and also watched the class on period maps, navigation, etc., which was extremely well done.

But then we put the computer down and went into town to get more wet room spackel, the linolium for the floor in the attic loo, and glue to install it.

While we were out we stopped by the second hand store, where we found a cheap Dawn Light and a few glasses and a tea mug that he thought worth bringing home. We also stopped by the Dollar Store store to get more cat treats.

After we were home I lost a game of Qwirkle, did some sewing, and finished the spackeling in the attic loo, followed by washing a load of laundry, as the clothes I had worn in the attic were dusty and full of sawdust.

That took long enough that I got most of the final seam on Keldor copper trim tunic done. Then I did you yoga, and now I wonder how it is 22:22 already, and thinking I should get some sleep.

kareina

I had intended to head the office today, as the monthly, obligatory, Work Place Meeting is scheduled for 09:00. However, at 05:30 my hips are aching enough that I decided that instead of the walk to the bus stop in time for the 06:20 bus from Lövånger to Umeå I should do a Pilates session to make them feel better and just work from home. Of course,the fact that the cat was pinning me to the bed when I made that decision is only a coincidence.

cat

Even though Keldor stayed home today with a sore ankel, and Charlotte was also here, working from home went well. I spent much of the day in “preparation” for Monday’s meeting, where I will learn how to use Shape Shifter to map data to our database has now come to more than half done with what will be a much more useful user manual than the AI wrote for my colleague.

While I worked the contractor made good progress on the future closet next to the new loo in the attic:

closet

unicornduke

I knew this cold was coming, so I spent the last few days cranking out some firewood. Thursday, I split all of the log that I cut up, just dropping it onto the ground. This is split as small as I can make it to help it dry out and burn fast and hot. The basswood is very nice to split, the centers of the log, I could push it an inch into the wedge and it would pop the whole thing, so I could stick a section on and split four logs out of it in about 20 seconds. Very good. Then I went and did another dump trailer load of wood for the burner. I didn't really need it yet, but I had the time and also the storage space for it next to the burner. Plus I knew I'd go through a lot of wood with this weather and I'll be busy next week.

Friday, I played musical equipment. The winch was on the M which is our biggest and beefiest tractor. The dump trailer was hooked up to the E. I had to take the winch off the M, unhook the trailer, put the winch on the E, put the forks on the M and also rescue the winch cable from the logs my dad skidded because the PTO pull button on the M was frozen and he couldn't pull the cable back in. I dropped the winch in place, put the forks on, lifted the logs so I could pull the cable out, then hooked the E up and got everything put away.

Then I used the forks to get wood storage and stack the split wood. My dad built a bunch of U shaped things out of three pallets to hold wood, so I fetched those from the heifer shed which was irritating because of the things stacked in front of them. I did discover that the deer had broken into and fully emptied a bag of cover crop seed that had gotten left out there. Rude. I moved the rest of the seed back to where they shouldn't be able to get to them. Hopefully. I filled two of the holders with wood. In the picture, you can see one of the two rows of logs that fit in the holder.

Two big logs laying in the snow. The wood holder is next to them filled with wood.

Two big logs laying in the snow. The wood holder is next to them filled with wood.

Then I started cutting those logs. Only got most of one done before it got dark and the wind started picking up.

It was 9F when I woke up this morning at 5:30am, by 8am it had dropped to 1F and it's come back up to 5F but we've had some intense wind so far. I can't run the indoor stove with these kinds of winds (the chimney isn't tall enough for our roofline, so the wind will blow down the chimney and smoke the inside of the house. we are on the hunt for the right size chimney pipe to pop on top to help with that), so I loaded the outdoor burner up but it isn't quite keeping up. It's currently 61F in the kitchen, which on the east side of the house, so I'd say the living room is probably 58F. I am wearing layers and blankets. It's not the burner's fault, there's only one loop in the whole house in the downstairs, so there's only so much it can do. I just added a couple of logs to the burner when I went out a few minutes ago. To be fair, we run around 63, 64F in the kitchen normally, so we aren't much below normal. ETA: the wind dropped off right around dark, so I've started the stove back up!

I did get dog blankets and towels and covered some of the windows and doors that are problematic. We should make it through tonight with enough ambient warmth (-4F plus wind predicted) and it will be less windy tomorrow, so I'll start the stove back up even with some wind. We never get the predicted wind speeds because of the mountains, so 30mph winds predicted tomorrow will be ~20 and that's good enough for me. We have 48mph predicted today and we've only gotten 33mph. It is extremely cold outside, I'm running between buildings when I have to go out because it's so cold. I'll need to fully bundle for the next burner load up tonight.

One of my heated blankets has bit the dust, the one that I keep downstairs. It has made a funny smell the last few times I've used it and I found an area where the heating wire seemed twisted up, so I picked open a seam and the wire is normally white, but in that section it was red and coiled up very tightly. Seems bad. So I'm just using it as a regular blanket now and I've emailed the company I bought it from.

I feel like maybe I should try and do some computer work but the cold is making me sleepy, so I've been spinning and working on my loom and watching olympics, mostly hockey. Some of the big air skateboarding which is just a bonkers sport. I feel like we've gone too far. It's too much. Humans shouldn't go that high or spin or land like that.

conuly

What witchcraft is this?

****************

( Read more... )

conuly

The wave yearns at the cliff foot: its pale arms
Reach upward and relapse, like down-dropped hands;
The baffled tides slip backward evermore,
And a long sighing murmurs round the sands . . .

My heart is as the wave that lifts and falls:
Tall is the cliff—oh! tall as that dim star
That crowns its summit hidden in a cloud—
Tall as the dark and holy heavens are.

The sad strange wreckage of full many ships
Burdens the bitter waters’ ebb and flow:
Gold diadems, like slowly falling flames,
Lighten the restless emerald gulfs below;

And withered blossoms float, and silken webs,
And pallid faces framed in wide-spread hair,
And bubble-globes that seethe with peacock hues,
And jewelled hands, half-open, cold and fair.

Sea creatures move beneath: their swift sleek touch
Begets sweet madness and unworthy fire—
Scaled women—triton-things, whose dark seal eyes
Are hot and bloodshot with a man’s desire.

Their strange arms clasp: the sea-pulse in their veins
Beats like the surf of the immortal sea—
Strong, glad and soulless: elemental joys
Bathe with green flame the sinking soul of me.

Downward and down—to passionate purple looms,
Athrill with thought-free, blurred, insatiate life,
Where the slow-throbbing sea-flow sways like weed
Dim figures blended in an amorous strife—

I am enclasped, I sink; but the wave lifts,
With all its freight of treasure and of death,
In sullen foamless yearning towards the height
Where the star burns above the vapour-wreath;

And a deep sob goes up, and all the caves
Are filled with mourning and a sorrow-sound.
The green fire fades: I rise: I see the star—
Gone are the triton arms that clipped me round.

Hope beats like some lost bird against the cliff—
The granite cliff above the burdened wave,
Whose fleeting riches are more desolate
Than gems dust-mingled in a nameless grave . . .

When all the wordless thirsts of Time are slaked,
And all Earth’s yearning hungers sweetly fed,
And the Sea’s grief is stilled, and the Wind’s cry,
And Day and Night clasp on one glowing bed—

Oh! in that hour shall clay and flame be blent—
Love find its perfect lover, breast on breast—
When dream and dreamer at the last are one,
And joy is folded in the arms of jest.

****

conuly

That's a pretty good show, although she ruined it by guessing all the plot twists.

( Teensy spoiler for second season )

*******************************

( Read more... )

anais_pf posting in

thefridayfive

These questions were suggested by

that_one_girl.

1. What did you want to be when you were a kid?

2. What is your proudest accomplishment so far?

3. What is your dream job?

4. Where do you see yourself in 10 years?

5. What does it take to make you happy?

Copy and paste to your own journal, then reply to this post with a link to your answers. If your journal is private or friends-only, you can post your full answers in the comments below.

If you'd like to suggest questions for a future Friday Five, then do so on DreamWidth or LiveJournal. Old sets that were used have been deleted, so we encourage you to suggest some more!

**Remember that we rely on you, our members, to help keep the community going. Also, please remember to play nice. We are all here to answer the questions and have fun each week. We repost the questions exactly as the original posters submitted them and request that all questions be checked for spelling and grammatical errors before they're submitted. Comments re: the spelling and grammatical nature of the questions are not necessary. Honestly, any hostile, rude, petty, or unnecessary comments need not be posted, either.**

redbird

A few days ago, I ordered a pair of snow sneakers that I thought would probably be too big, because the places I looked online were sold out of everything in my size.

They arrived today, I tried them on after dinner, and they seem to fit. Adrian helped me adjust the fastening so the left shoe isn't too tight around my calf. They fasten with velcro rather than shoelaces, which may be an advantage: the laces on my shoes tend to loosen as I walk, so I have to stop and retie them moderately often. (Flat laces are a bit better than round ones, double-knotting makes no difference, and please don't try trouble-shooting this in comments.)

Apparently I take a men's size 8 extra-wide in LLBean boots, which may be useful: more shoes come in a men's size 8 than size 7, and the selection of wide shoes is larger in men's sizes/styles than in women's.

kareina

We stayed up too late last night, oops. We hadn’t meant to, but the time between our group training on zoom at 21:00, and 23:00, when we finally went to sleep just zipped by. This make it a little tough to wake up this morning, but I managed, and got some tidying up done around the house while chatting with Keldor as he drove to work.

Then I sat down to the computer and resolved to actually make some progress learning the new tool “SEAD Shape Shifter” that my colleague has built for mapping datasets to our database structure. I have tried doing this off an on since he unveiled it just before I went to Uppsala last week, and haven’t made much progress. Today, after trying again, I decided that what I really need to do is just sit down with the guy who made it and have me walk through it step by step, till I understand how one uses it. So I sent him a calendar request for Monday morning early, and he replied with “how about Monday afternoon instead?” Yes, that works fine for me too.

Then I thought “I should prepare for the meeting”, and sat down and took notes about every window in the tool, filling in tables for each with the names of every box, if it is a drop down menu, free form entry, or what, if it is drop-down menu what each of the options are, plus a blank column into which I will be able to write down notes as to what everything is and how we use it.

After several days of no ability to focus on work and getting easily distracted, I suddenly had a project that I could fall into—my “quick little preparation” for Monday’s meeting felt like it took perhaps 15 minutes to work my way through everything, but a couple of hours elapsed. I like it when I can focus like that and accomplish stuff. Bonus when it is work stuff, and I am getting paid to do it.

While I worked Simon returned and resumed in the attic on the Create extra bathrooms project. Now the bathroom walls are pretty much done and ready for us to spackel and paint, and the wall for the back of the closet next to the loo (which will create a warm space over where the water incoming and drainage pipes slope through the floor to where they head down through the hall closet to the basement) has been well started. Tomorrow Simon will insulate the closet wall, cover it with gips. On Monday he will go buy the parts for the sliding door, and will mount it on Monday.

Then, as soon as we get the room painted and the floor installed the plumbers can return and install the sink and toilet and get them working. The easy part of the project, where I throw money at it and it just happens, is winding to a close, and soon we need to find the energy to do our part. Or, once I get the bill for the part I am hiring, I can decide if I can afford to have the contractor do more than I have already ordered.

kareina

Having gone to bed early, I woke for the early stages of the dawn light, and decided to get up for a quick pilates session, as my hips were aching a little. Then I returned to bed and curled up with Keldor, who decided that today is a day where sleeping in is more important than getting to work on time, so I got a 35 minute nap before waking again.

While I worked, the contractor was busy in the attic, putting in insulation, and starting the walls. Getting this far before lunch:

And this far after lunch:

walls

This evening I was busy. Keldor has a gift in progress that needs runes, so I spent a little time browsing the Rune Database to see how certain words are used on rune stones, using the search function for a single letter in the relevant word, then using shift-F7 to check the results for the words I wanted. Because those results are shown in several languages, including Old Norse, Swedish, and English, I could search for either English or Swedish spellings, and then see how the the word was spelled on the stone. Then, for some of them, we can cross-reference för the rune stone number on Runkartan, where they have transcribed the runes themselves, using the Futhark rune font. and see which runes were used. Once I did all that, I took a photo of the object into CorelDraw, added a curve where I wanted the runes to sit, then used the “fit text to curve” option to make the runes follow the path, and then sent him the photo of the result, to use as an example when he does the actual carving.

Since Charlotte wasn’t feeling well last weekend and didn’t get to come up for the bardic, she opted to come up this weekend instead, so we have company again, and so I should put down the computer and get ready for training tonight.

kareina

Didn’t want to get up this morning. Did anyway. Got to the bus on time. Worked. Meeting. Another meeting on the bus home. Read for a while (Keldor took a long bath). Shower with my sweet boyfriend. Yoga. Heading to bed early, because I can.

kareina

Made a new batch of Muesli before work, the first since finding those bags of freeze dried raspberries and strawberries that I bought (forgot where). They are a lovely addition!

I began my work day with good energy, and started accomplishing things straight away, but after about an hour became super sleepy, so I took a short nap, and tried working again, soft of managed a few things, and was still so sleepy I gave up and went back to bed, setting an alarm for 20 minutes. Then Keldor called after I had been asleep for 10, so after that call I tried getting up and working, but never really accomplished much with the day.

In the evening we had our first Reengarda styrelsemöte (meeting of the shire officers) for the year, during which we made the formal decision of which of us are authorised to access the bank account, so we can turn in that paperwork to the bank. While we were waiting for meeting time we played a game of Qwirkle on the living room carpet in front of the computer, and I got a truly impressive amount of Qwirkles, giving me a 57 point victory. If I thought the new location made a difference, I would want to play sitting on the carpet more often!

After that meeting it was time for our zoom training meeting, and then I took a shower and went straight to sleep, as I was still tired.

kareina

Despite having stayed up late last night for the bardic, I still managed to get up early enough to say goodbye to Daniel and Cinder, who left at 07:00. I had thought to go back to sleep after that, but before I accomplished that goal Albreda had gotten up, and we got to talking, and then it was time to wake Keldor to get ready to head into town for crafts afternoon, where we celebrated Viriya’s birthday and had a pleasant afternoon chatting with folk and working on projects.

Then we stopped by the store to stock up on a few things we’d run out of with house guests this weekend and dropped Albreda off at the airport before coming home for a quiet evening, but with a very full heart after such a nice weekend with house guests and bardic visitors.

Having learned yesterday how to play his Bunne bygelgitarr, Keldor this evening asked google for a list of songs that can be played with that few chords, and chose Bad Moon Rising as the first one to try, and it went quite well. I hope that he continues to work with this instrument, and that I play mine more often!

unicornduke

I am getting ahead on it finally. Finally!

Sunday, I baked which turned out very well. More pita bread, oatmeal chocolate chip cookies, granola, yogurt and blueberry muffins (bars? It's the blueberry muffin recipe but in a square pan because I can't be bothered to clean a muffin tin or silicon molds and I hate the paper). Delicious all around. I realized I was missing some key flours for two other recipes I planned to do, so I put them off.

I worked Monday instead because it was better weather for sure, plowed the wood splitting area and some other small preparation tasks. Then that afternoon, my dad and I went up on the back hill and he cut down two basswood trees in a hedgerow. According to a website on the internet (who has never been wrong ever), basswood is a hot fast burner, which is perfect for maple syrup. He limbed them while I went down the hill to do more prep work and brought one down before dark. I greased, added oil to the wood splitter and fueled the bobcat, then ran it down the road to the pile of logs there. Nothing more hilarious than driving a skidsteer on the road that has a top speed of about 2mph. No that's not a typo. It's a solid easy walking speed. Takes forever to get anywhere.

Tuesday morning I had a doctors appointment for a pap smear, less said about that, the better. I won't need to get another until 2031 thank fucking god. (hey fucked up thing is that anyone on medicare can't be seen at a planned parenthood in PA starting in two weeks even if we pay out of pocket except for some STD screening. what the fuck) Since I was up in the city, I stopped by Wegmans for sweet rice flour and millet flour since they have more esoteric stuff and also picked up some other misc things that are harder to get. I also stopped by Michaels to do one last search for yarn to match my aunt's blanket and found one very close color and one kinda close color. My order from Bulk Foods also came in that day, a restock on sorghum flour and tapioca starch. I'm going through quite a bit of those right now since I'm baking so much. Right now it's my best bet for larger quantities, I haven't figured out a buying co-op in this area yet although I'd love to. I'm getting low on gluten free oats, usually I have a 25lb bag on hand and it's almost out.

Tuesday afternoon I hooked up the wood splitter properly and got to splitting. This was outdoor burner wood, oak logs that are decently green but we can put some real crap green wood through the burner and it does fine. I split a dump trailer full which is 8ft wide by 12ft long by 4ft high. It's really nice, I can just pop the end of the splitter over top of the trailer and most of the logs fall right into the trailer. This will last 1.5 to 2 weeks which is great.

This morning, I dropped two dead trees down in the woods for indoor stove wood. It made me pretty nervous to drop a tree myself, especially dead ones but they were small and I was careful. Probably too careful as I used a wedge and that made the whole thing go over in the wedge's direction really easily rather than the hinge. But! The tree didn't hit me or anything else and it was fine. (what wasn't fine is that I realized several hours later that both of my parents weren't on the farm, so I was doing dangerous things all by myself with no one around. great! very safe!) I cut that all up plus half of another log that has been sitting in the woods for who knows how long. But it was still in decent condition. After lunch, I went back down and split it all, then grabbed the dump trailer and loaded it up. I did run the tractor out of fuel (oops) but it made me remember that the dash dials don't actually work on it. I was able to bleed it pretty easily, the hardest part of the whole process was walking up to the house to fetch my truck to bring fuel back down. Safety toes are great on boots, but walking in the snow in them is so slow.

That's probably two weeks of indoor stove wood, currently dumped in a pile but I loaded about half of it into the tote already and I'll do the rest in the next day or two. I'll hopefully go work on the rest of that big log and get a bunch more, plus some other trees I know are down in the woods in the next week or so.

Indoor wood. Very left hand part of the photo you can see the pile of outdoor burner wood since the burner is just left of where this picture shows. There's an overhang there to keep the wood out of the weather.

A pile of small split logs sitting in front of a tote half filled with more logs.

A pile of small split logs sitting in front of a tote half filled with more logs.

To finish off the day, I cut up the basswood tree that my dad brought down the hill. I'll split that tomorrow, nice and small. I've got an audiobook due in three days, so I plan to listen to that. Then probably do another load of outdoor burner wood with the skidsteer in the afternoon and dump that next to the burner. Then I can split it into a heap to help it dry.

Basswood log cut up

A log laying in the snow, it's probably 50 feet long. The background of the photo is snow and trees at sunset.

A log laying in the snow, it's probably 50 feet long. The background of the photo is snow and trees at sunset.

It has been such nice weather these last two days, 28F but incredibly sunny. There has been a little bit of wind that brings the feels like down to 20F but it's really warm compared to the last two weeks. I've been removing layers as I work! It's going to be cold again this weekend, so I'm trying to push through and get as much done as I can.

redbird

After a lot of time on chats and multiple phone calls, the last person I spoke to said that Dr. Awad is in-network, so I don't need the insurer's "continuity of care" paperwork.

This started with me being told that she was out of network, and that I would need a "continuity of care" form to keep seeing her. The first person I talked to, in chat, said I needed that form, and offered me one to download. When I looked at it, the form he'd sent me said it was for four specific states, not including Massachusetts, and that mental health required a different form anyway. He also told me that I need a referral for psychiatry, and don't need a referral for behavioral health, and didn't understand why I was confused.

I tried again, and got someone who agreed that I needed a special form, and gave me a phone number. I stopped there, showered and dressed, and went out to pick up prescriptions and buy ice cream. That at least worked smoothly.

I came home and called the behavioral health team, which asked a few questions, and told me to call a different number. The person I spoke to this time said that she would need a bunch of information, and I should have the provider call them. I then asked if the doctor's NPI number would help. Yes, it would: according to that, she's in-network for me, because she takes Medicare. I hope that's true, but am not confident of that, or anything related to this.

Separately from that, I have asked Dr. Bershel's office for referrals, including to Dr. Awad, which is why I'd already looked up her NPI number.

Current Mood: tired and frustrated

kareina

Since we had been late last night with our quest for Northern Lights, I hadn’t had much sleep when I got up at 06:00. Even so, I had enough energy to accomplish everything I wanted to do before the party:

Bake cookies
Bake Garlic Bread
Make a pot of chili
Clean the kitchen (with help) after both my cooking, and Keldor’s cooking (he’d made sil and potatis, as Mary had never tasted pickled herring, and was curious enough to try it)
Cut out and work on fitting for Daniel’s cloak.
Helped with rolling and pinning the hems on Cinder’s black tabard
Moved my computer desk out of the living room and arranged my computer recliner chair and rocking chair to better create a circle like space in the room.
moved my hammer dulcimer and bas moraharpa to the living room
tuned the dulcimer and started tuning the moraharpa.

At this point Mickel Räf arrived, and when he learned I was tuning the moraharpa he offered to help, which assistance I cheerfully accepted. Then he tried playing it, and did a good enough job that I had no problem recognising the tune he played, though he commented that it would take time and practice to be able to play it smoothly Then Albreda tried it, and also got recognisable tunes straight away.

Then Keldor showed off his musical instrument collection, and Mickel showed him how one plays his Bunne bygelgitarr, the odd square four-stringed guitar with a movable lever to get the three chords that it will play (A, D and G).

Soon thereafter Gerdis arrived and she and Mickel took out their violins, which they played off and on all evening, sometimes just playing music, sometimes playing along with something the rest of us were singing. Once I even played my dulcimer (Ridom) and they played along.

spelm�n

Albreda borrowed a violin briefly, and then picked up some crocheting, while Daniel worked on his chain mail art, Cinder and I did sewing, and Keldor worked on armour.

The evening was a delightful mix of music, song, and conversation, and even a little dancing. Even our neighbours, Rizza and Sture dropped by for a while, and seemed to enjoy it, and expressed interest in joining Reengarda. I love having company, and having company that sings and or plays music is even better! 100% recommend, will do again.

kareina

Took a walk during lunch with Cinder up to the store, returned home and tried to resume work, but then Albreda sent a note saying which bus she’d taken, and it was pretty much time to walk up to the bus stop, so I shut down the computer, put on coat, hood, and boots, and went out the door. A couple of blocks later my arms explained that I would have been smart to have put on the same wool sweater under my coat that I had worn the first time, as it is, in fact, cold out.

But -23 ⁰ C isn’t too cold for a wool coat over a cotton flanell shirt for only the 15 minutes walk to the bus stop, so I continued on, but I waited for the bus inside the house. Neither did we walk home, as Keldor was only a couple of minutes after the bus.

We then spent some time hanging out with Albreda and Cinder. A bit later my friend from work, with partner, dropped by briefly to drop off a synthesizer he his hoping to trade to Keldor for a woodworking axe. As luck would have it, the style of blade he is looking for is the same as the copy of an adze from the Mästermyr chest Keldor has lying in the desk drawer full of blades awaiting handels, so if he decides to accept the trade it won’t take much additional time.

Alas, they couldn’t stay as they were on their way to a family gathering in Skellefteå, but hopefully they will come again another time.

As they were leaving Daniel arrived. He had planned to take the train down from Kiruna, but it was -43⁰ C there, and that is so cold the train was cancelled, so he drove down instead.

So the evening was spent in good company, everyone doing crafts.

Albreda was the first to go to sleep, fairly early, due to an early start to the day, and but set an alarm for midnight, to see if the predictions for decent Northern Lights viewing between then and 04:00 were accurate.

An hour or three later Cinder said goodnight, and as midnight approached the rest of us were getting ready for bed, and I decided to go do a scouting mission, and bundled up for the walk down to the nature reserve to see if they were out. They weren’t but it was a really beautiful with a largish moon shining so brightly that the trees cast sharp shadows onto the snow. I went straight back in and around then Mary was just waking up from her nap as her alarm reminded her to check for Northern Lights.

So we went out for a lovely moonlight stroll in the -23 weather. It was so bright out, we could even take a selfie!

selfie

kareina

Niklas returned and started putting in the drainage pipes to the attic. He replaced the old metal vertical pipe to the attic with a plastic pipe, and added a split that runs off towards the new loo. In order to accomplish this he needed to drill holes in the floor jousts, each a little lower than the next (counting from the end by the loo), so that there is enough of a slope in the line that flushing the toilet will actually send the water etc. moving that direction. Then he added another split, to a decreasing sized drain for the sink.

While he worked, Gustav, the electrician also came over and started running the wires. I thought the plan was to run them in the same sub-closet enclosure as the pipes, so when we discussed drilling down through the floor of the closet to run the new wires directly to the fuse box, I expected the hole to come out into the laundry room. This is also what we expected, and we used the laser measuring tool to determine how far from the outer wall it would be. Answer, around the middle of where the old door between the bedroom and laundry room sits the one that we intend to board up, so, yah, I am good with that.

Neither of us paid attention to the fact that the wall on the edge of the stairs is a little off set with respect to the wall between the laundry room and the downstairs bedroom. If I had, I wouldn’t have thought it mattered, since I expected the wires to go down the closet side wall, which is perpendicular to the offset wall I just described.

However, rather than running those wires in the closed off bit of the closet, he opted to run them down the center back of the closet itself, so, assuming we put back the existing very tightly fitting shelves, we will need to cut a divot into the back edge of the shelf to accommodate them.

It turns out that the wall offset in the cellar is pretty much exactly the width of the wall, and that the wall between the upstairs bedroom and bathroom is not offset. This meant that when he drilled down right next to the west side of the hole on the main floor, it punched through right next to the east side of the wall in the cellar bedroom. Oops.

He came and called me, and I decided that was fine, the wires could go from there over to the fuse box in the cellar, and he resumed work.

By the time his work day was done he had run wires to where the light switch in the new loo will be, and an outlet right next to that switch, another outlet below them facing to the outside of that wall into the main room. Another wire over to above the sink for the light there, and also to the outside of that wall for an outlet into the half of the attic that will remain cold storage. He also left a long coil of wire ready to run the other direction to do outlets in the bedroom itself.

As they were finishing up their work, the first of our house guests for the weekend, Cinder, arrived, so I quit work early to catch up with her. After they left I cleaned away all the concrete dust and chunks out of the guest room and moved her stuff down stairs to empty the entry area before the housekeeper arrived.

While the housekeepers were working their magic Cinder decided she was sleepy, and went downstairs to rest, so I returned to the computer to wrap up my work day.

Keldor ran some errands after work, including checking the second hand store, where he found a bathroom mirror with a lamp above and a shelf under for only 69 sek, so he got it. Then he also went to another store and bought a new towel hook, a toilet bowl brush, and one of those free standing toilet paper holders that hold a stack of spare rolls on the upright post, and have a folding horizontal top for the active roll.

When he got home we looked at the day’s renovation accomplishments and discussed the options we had discussed with the plumber for ensuring that the water lines to the upstairs loo don’t freeze, and agreed on building the insulated wall on the outside of where those come into the attic.

This means we can build closets into the wall in that area, which will give much needed storage without losing space in the room itself, so a win all the way around.

kareina

One would think that today would be a smart day to sleep in, since the plane didn’t land last night till 22:45, which meant that it was just before midnight before we were home, the cats had had treats, the litter box emptied, and a quick shower taken so I could get to bed (yay pre-flight airport yoga, which meant I could go nearly straight to bed) just before midnight. But no, I hopped up with Keldor just after 05:00, and while we talked during his drive to work I managed to:

Clean away all of the things at the back of the “walk in closet” in the bedroom (created by putting the paperback bookshelves about a meter in front of the built in closets along one way) so that I could move the litter box there (after taping some butcher paper to the walls)
moved the litter box to the prepared place, and cleaned all of the litter that had collected around it back into the box.
emptied the cupboard above the litter box, moving the cleaning supplies to the space in the kitchen under the microwave and food dehydrator, the towels into the cupboard with the sheets, and the miscellaneous other things to the craft supplies room. So that cupboard is ready for the plumbers to drill holes through the one side of it to run plumbing through
cleaned up the garage enough to make room for more stuff
Moved most things in the laundry room to the garage
took the various bits of scrap wood left over from the building of the framework for the walls in the attic, and cutting away the old floor for Create extra bathrooms to the cellar, where some of it will be re-used in other projects, and others will be burned in the furnace on days Keldor wants extra hot water for a bath.

I got that all done on time to have breakfast before the plumbers arrived. It turns out that they had expected that Simon would have put the holes through the floor and into the cellar for the pipes to the attic, but clearly Simon didn’t know that, so Marcus will call him to arrange that and discuss details, while Niklas started on work in the cellar. He is cutting away the existing plumbing in the laundry room completely, and getting it set up to move the water for the washing machine over to the other side of the room, where it will live, and install both a toilet and sink where the washer stands now.

Of course, this means I can’t flush the toilet or run water down the sink till he’s done. I have extra drinking and cooking water in the fridge and filled a couple of buckets for washing with, and put a bucket in the sink to catch washing water. A small inconvenience for what will be a huge improvement! I am really looking forward to having another toilet and a sink in the basement. Just think—one will be able to wash one’s hands after doing messy things in the workshop, without having to come up stairs!

Soon after I wrote that much, Niklas came up and said that Markus had spoken to Simon, who hadn’t thought about preparing the closet for the plumbing pasing through when he did his cost estimate. Niklas wondered if opening that up was something that Keldor and I could do today? If so he could do the downstairs today, and come back tomorrow to get the pipes to the attic taken care of.

I called Keldor, and found out that in addition to being tired from staying up way too late picking me up from the airport last night, he was also having a n especially difficult day at work. He started the day with a job in the platinum extraction room at Boliden’s ore processing plant, a place that is very warm. The whole day was spent in various locations at that instalation, working in temperatures ranging from 25⁰ to 30⁰ C, while wearing full protective gear, so he spent the whole day dripping sweat while doing extremely physical instalation jobs.

As soon as I heard that I understood how his day was going, I knew that if we were going to open up acess to the existing pipes in that closet (currently the part of the plumping system that opens out on the roof’s vent stack to ensure that the drainage works), it would have to be me, who does the job.

So I made the quick decision to prioritize the house over work (an easy decision given that I was too tired to be at full brain capacity for data mapping, and taking shelves out of the closet and opening the wall sounded more fun just then).

It took all day. This house was built by a professional who built it as his own house, and when he did that enclosed area to protect that pipe in the corner of the closet he didn’t intend for anyone to ever open it up again.

If I had been prepared to destroy the building materials in the process, it would have been easier. However, when the plumbing in the attic is installed, we still want that closet to function as a closet, so I wanted the shelves intact, which meant not only hammering (with the big wooden hammer) from the underside to get their nails holding them to the small shelf support edge boards, it was also necessary to remove those shelf supports to get the very perfectly fit shelves to rotate enough to losen so I could remove them. The shelf with a metal rod closet bar under it was only possible to remove after Nikals bent the rod for me to extract it.

Ok, the bottom shelf, which Keldor and I had installed when we converted that closet to an open bottom area for the litter box, and an upper enclosed cupboard for cleaning supplies on the bottom and towels and other things on the upper shelves, was easy to removed, as we had installed that one into the existing closet space, so the shelf was just enough smaller than the space to make it possible to rotate into place and then sit on wider shelf supports than used for the upper shelves, which were installed before the front part of the closet frame and door were installed.

(Keep in mind that the back corner of the closet, where the pipe enclosure is, takes only ¾ of the space, so the shelves all have a small L shaped projection to one corner, that makes rotation for removal challenging.)

Once I managed to get all the shelves I started removing masonite layer from the pipe enclosure, with no care to preserve that bit, I accepted that I was destroying it, I don’t know about new masonite, but the 70 year old stuff crumbles when you pry on it, and the finising nails holding it in place have heads so small the can’t be extracted without lifting the masonite itself (and, since it was painted, the nail location wasn’t even visible till I started prying).

Once the masonite was out of the way it revealed a solid tongue in grove board construction under layer, with the length of the boards running from floor to ceiling. The boards, having been sealed under the painted masonite since the house was built in 1956, still look fresh and new and yellow, so I knew that I wanted to preserve them at full length, if possible.

I rather suspected that Keldor would vote for using them in some other project(s), and do a different solution to that closet corner, so I started by prying the edge board enough to losen the nails enough to remove them. However, that wasn’t enough to take it out, as the top of that board was surrounded by a thin layer of the masonite on the celing of the closet, and the base went into the floor of the closet, which is 5 cm higher that the floor of the room.

I tried using the chisel to shave away the ceiling masonite, and got enough cleared away thatI could tilt the board out, but the base wouldn’t pull out from under the closet floor. Eventually, I consulted with the plumber. We decided that it may be nailed to something under there, and it isn’t worth taking apart the front of the closet to lift the floor to get those boards loose.

Instead, the plumber used his oscillating tool to cut all of the boards off at 20 cm height, which made it possible to remove the boards and expose the pipe ready for him to change it out tomorrow.

By then the plumber was ready to head home, his workday done.

kareina

My morning flight to Uppsala was scheduled to depart at 06:00, so we needed to be on the road by 04:45 at the absolute latest. Therefore I set the dawn light for 04:10, and a backup alarm for 04:15 (everything was already packed).

I woke before the dawn light even started, so I did a quick 15 minutes pilates session before getting ready, and we were still out the door by 04:33.

I didn’t try to work on the flight as the person seated next to me had broad shoulders and wore a coat with padded arms, so spilled well into my side of the seat, so typing on a computer, or even sewing, would have been cramped and uncomfortable so I took a nap instead.

I landade at Arlanda airport around 1 hour before my colleagues who flew out of Umeå, so after finding a toilet I then looked up their gate and waked to the other end of the terminal to meet them. By the time I had come so far there wasn’t much time to wait before they had landed.

They are staying for other meetings, so both had checked baggage, so we went to baggage claim, and Phil’s bag came out straight away, but Ershad’s didn’t. So we went to the “my bag didn’t arrive” counter and they started to look for it in their system. When it looked like it might be a while Ershad suggested that we head to catch our train, while he waited for the bag.

So we did, but luck smiled on Ershad, and he caught up with us, with his luggage, just before the train arrived.

We stopped at a cafe on the way to uni for second breakfast. I don’t normally like sandwiches, but they had one that looked interesting, an avocado and artichoke cream on a fruit bread base. So I asked what was in the artichoke cream besides artichoke, so she let me read the label on the jar. No vinegar. Yes, I will try that. I really enjoyed it. I love artichoke. I love avocado. I like bread with cranberries in it. Combining them with a dusting of sesame seeds and chilli turns out to be good, too.

avocado sandwhich

After we had eaten we walked over to the uni, where first we met with some of our Swedigarch colleagues to discuss a workshop we want to do this spring, and discussed potential dates. Assuming that the people not present today who need to participate in the workshop agree to the date, then it looks like I will need to be in Göteborg Tuesday after Double Wars, in which case I would go there straight from the event and fly home after.

Then we joined even more colleges for lunch, which was good company. The cafeteria food was cafeteria food. Their only vegetarian option was stir fried noodles with a hint of vegetables for colour, and not much flavour beyond salt and oil. Being hungry, I ate it anyway.

After lunch we met with the people who provided one of the data sets that we will ingest into our database, which was a productive meeting with lots of useful information, and a lovely fika with cardamon bread and blueberry bread. Yum!

After that meeting ended at 16:00 my colleagues went on to the castle for another meeting, and I met Hjalmar and Sofie. I was hungry, and desperate for vegetables after two high starch meals on a row, so we went for Ethiopian food, and sat and talked and worked on sewing projects till it was time for me to head to the train station and return to the airport.

They say that one needs 1.5 hours at Arlanda to get through security and to the gate. When taking the last flight of the day on a Tuesday the lines are nonexistent, so I had time to clean up my meeting notes a bit and do some yoga before it was time to board.

I also impulse bought Keldor a little gift. He likes liquorice, so when I saw a shop selling nothing but liquorice I looked in. He also likes foods containing tar. So I asked if they had anything containing both. They did, three different types to choose from, so I picked one at random. I hope he likes it. Note: I don’t like liquorice. I don’t like tar. He’s on his own with this candy, no matter if he likes it or not.

errands and more

the cats are happy we are home today

Chily chilly

How is the effective temperature going to be even LOWER at noon than it is now!?

The Dreamer by Dulcie Deamer

Watched A Man on the Inside with Jenn

The Friday Five for 6 February 2026

snow sneakers

more progress

the new room is getting walls

another sleepy day

a sleepy day

Reengardas hantverkträff

actual progress on wood splitting

insurance company annoyance

Bardic!

visitors!

two contractors today

a busy morning

a long day

Profile

February 2026

Most Popular Tags

Page Summary

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags