Home Improvement

January brought changes to the homestead -- some more subtle than others.
Early this month, the wet snow and ice storm took out the tree in the front yard. It came down with a crack at about 7 a.m., falling just short of the house.
"I was going to hang the hummingbird feeder on that tree," Michelle said.
Our neighbor Bob was nice enough to come over the next morning with a couple of bowsaws and a chainsaw, and we made short work of things. Later I bought some nippers to cut the branches into smaller segments, and they'll eventually go for a ride to the town compost heap, now that we have the truck running again.
The heavy wet snow also made me think about the trees that provide such a lush, shady spot for our house .. the same trees that now hung over the house weighed down with snow, looking like cotton ready for harvest.
Add to to-do list: have trees cut down.
That same storm kept the electricity off for about, oh, 12 hours. Now I know conditions made things difficult for our friendly neighborhood electric utility, but half the neighborhood had power about two hours before we did. Turns out the neighborhood is on two separate portions of the grid.
And for what we pay CL&P per month, well... let's just say they have infrastructure issues.
Needing to stay warm when it got cold and dark, we used the fireplace for the first time.
So you're from the Berkshires and you think you know what you're doing, eh, Mr. Frontiersman? Mr. I Grew Up In The Woods?
For about half an hour, the only thing I was able to get burning was newspaper.
Finally, the logs the former owners left behind for us caught, and we had a nice, cozy fire.
Either the fire was too big or I didn't have enough of an updraft going, because for more than a week afterwards, the living room smelled of smoke. This is charming on a cold day when a fire is roaring away, keeping people warm and drying out gloves and boots. This is annoying a week later when you're tired of living in a barbecue pit.
So yes, we're so much smarter and more advanced than our forebears in the 19th century. Who lived without electricity and knew how to set a fire.

A Little Sumpthin' Sumpthin'
If the house wasn't freezing, on fire or in imminent danger of being crushed by overloaded trees, it was going to float away. Another strong rainstorm came along and filled the sumphole with water, requiring us to go downstairs every half hour to manually set off the sump pump that couldn't suck enough.
When another forecast of one-to-two inches of rain came along I decided I'd had enough. Called a plumber and had them come over look at the thing. Figured it would take a few hundred bucks and a few small repairs to get things where they needed to be.
Ha!
We needed a new sump pump, an entirely new hole, and oh yes, electrical work. Becuase all this time the old pump was plugged into an ungrounded outlet. Yes, that was me, manually operating a sump pump sitting in a pit full of water plugged into an ungrounded outlet. I was begging for a 120-volt quick pick-me-up and didn't even know it. Swell.
So Chuck the plumber came in with his jackhammer and brand new sump pump and one and a quarter inch PVC pipe and got to carving up the basement floor.
It was not a few small repairs and it was not a few hundred bucks. You could say I put my money in a hole in the ground.
But that afternoon when it poured as forecasted, that pump kicked on every five minutes and did its business in about 5-10 seconds. The peace of mind was entirely worth it. Because flooding the basement again was not an option.
Now if I can just figure out how we'll run the sump pump when the power goes out...