Yeah, it is getting down into the 20-degree range at night, even dipping below that. Yesterday morning I woke up to a few inches of snow and it snowed most of the day. I have been cutting up firewood as I need it but stocked up by cutting quite a bit that is down and needs removed anyway. It is why I left it for later – to use as firewood and clean up at the same time. I have been burning quite a bit of wood the last several days.

Sure makes a lot of ashes, though. I have to scoop them out in the morning while it is still mostly red-hot coals so you gotta act fast and have good gloves or oven mitts ready. I then smooth it out a bit then put in more fresh wood and keep it burning until late. Furnace comes on at night to circulate heat and keep it warm. Next day start all over again.

There is plenty of firewood so I can really save some propane by keeping the fires going – especially when it is this cold and anticipated for more than a week. I might as well keep it warmer while I am doing other things anyway. I can actually get reimbursed for the unused propane when I sell the house so if I DO need to get a delivery I can make money back or use to negotiate things if necessary.

There was around 4″ of snow total. It won’t get too muddy since the ground is so dry from lack of rain the last several months that it will absorb fast.

🔨🪑

There is an antique leather recliner with a slideout footrest in the basement. I remember this chair from when we used to help my grandpa tear out old offices and rooms in old buildings in Kansas City, MO. I was a young kid but still remember being in those cool old buildings doing that and helping. We would always find cool old stuff in those buildings.

I always liked this chair and I had it in my room for a long time. Over the years it was relegated to the basement and it went through a basement flooding a time or two. But, I think I can salvage it – actually, a trip to a furniture restorer is what I will do with it after I sell the house. I have never seen another one like it but they were made 19th century. I saw a restored one went for $1275, but I want to keep it and have a really specific color scheme I want done.

There is also this cool old chair but I do not know if it is repairable or not. Yeah, the rotted bottoms of the legs can be fixed with a splice, but to make it look right means replacing the rotted legs – which is all four – and two of those make up the back. But, it would be finished with the same color scheme as the recliner, and also brass tacks on the upholstery back padding.

I got the second drawer in my desk glued back together but it is going to take a pro refinisher to fix it right. The drawer front was twisted but I dampened the wood and clamped it flat to the workbench to get the twist out. I left it for a week and then put the drawer back together but the twist is trying to come back, screwing up the drawer in the process.

I can use the chair with the desk so I would just have a refinisher redo them all with the same finishes and upholstery. I do have one more old chair but I am not sure what I want to do with that one yet.

🏡

I have moved a few things around in the basement but only carried a few things up to stage in the garage. I don’t want it too cluttered for showings but I will bring a few more things up in the next day or two. When my cousin comes back to get their stuff then they can hopefully help me carry some bigger stuff upstairs and I have a spot to put it all. Then I can get the smaller stuff on my own and bring it up. I am not going to get a storage unit yet but when showings get busier I may start to seriously consider finding a unit. I need a bigger storage unit and those can get spendy so it can wait.

Getting all of the stuff moved out of the house in any fashion certainly has an odd feeling of “finality” about it. I get reminded of things – good and bad – as I look around at stuff or the emptiness. But, again, there is that whole “impersonal” feeling to it. “It’s just another house…but it WAS my parent’s house.”. It is a bit hard to know how to feel about it all sometimes so you just have to power through it best you can and get in a better frame of mind about it.

I find the only way to try is to just look at it from the outside looking in. Keep it impersonal – just like everyone else does who looks at it to poitentially buy it – it is only a house to them and not “So & Sos house”. The stories are in us and not the building…well, except there WAS the time I burned a big hole in the carpet with incense and nearly set the house ablaze…

📱

I found a great new weather app called Dumb Weather. I do not normally call out apps because they do not pay me to do so. This is the same with Dumb Weather – I am not compensated in any way. However I do make exceptions and this app is one of those exceptions.

This app is just what it says – dumb. But, it is dumb in the sense that it is not full of useless statistics and information to sift through like all the other apps. It only has the basics you need, and not even a map.

I believe you get a year for free, and if you want Watch complications or widgets you pay $4.99 for a year. Yep…A YEAR! That is a very reasonable price. It is worth a free test drive to see if it fits your needs. This is really the type of fairly basic weather app I have wanted and it is a reasonable price.

☕️🫖

You know I do love a great coffee, and it is usually a good strong Sumatra or something similar. I do not put anything in my coffee and I am not a fan of acidic coffees – I want the “Guinness of Coffees”. Bold. full-bodied, Deep, rich, low-acid, delicious, satisfying…you know if you know.

The past couple of months I have been taking time out of my oh-so-busy days and stop to enjoy a cup of tea in the early afternoon. It is usually Barry’s Gold, but if it is later in the day or I just want the taste of a great brew, I bust out the rooibos tea and oh man…that is a good cup. I put a little honey in it and it reminds me of old-school sassafrass tea in a way, but still different. It is a very pleasant cup of tea (even though it is not really a “tea”). Sometimes I will even…dare I say…have ANOTHER cup of rooibos after dinner – I am a rascal indeed. I find it is very relaxing and kinda puts me in a different mindset. Like the coffee or tea, it is the little things in life that can be the best.

🛻

I really miss not using my garage for my Avalanche. I just had to scrape snow off of it in the driveway this morning and it was 22° F with a breeze – it was not real warm. I have to say that this really reminds me why I don’t like cold weather anymore. Some of my heart meds affect tolerance to cold and I get cold fast these days. If I am here much longer (or I get it sold) I may need to rethink the garage and use it. I think that I can move enough around to make room for my truck without taking anything back downstairs or back into the house.

In fact, that is what I am going to go do now. Can’t do much else so I need to be productive in some fashion.

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That is about it for today. See you next time.

Shawn