Ramblings

Our heat at Oakwood broke this morning and after a 3am freak out (WHAT IN THE FUCK IS THAT MELTING PLASTIC SMELL) in which we all got dressed, told Madeline she needed to be a brave and cooperative child and wear many layers, and made multiple trips to the crawl space, Harris discovered that the breaker/switch/fuse whatever thing that powers our heat pump was literally melted.

The irony that we own three houses, two of which have no heat, and none of which we could stay in was not lost on me. We have high hopes that our HVAC crew will show up by 9am and will fix the heat.

Harris and Madeline are asleep upstairs which leaves me to stay awake downstairs and await their arrival. I've made brownies, cleaned the kitchen, and will probably finish the laundry before they do.

Anyway, I also realized I needed to update the totals section here and on the separate spreadsheet we keep. We had to renew our vacant house insurance policy. Because the housing market is crap (which makes no sense to me) vacant house policies are hard to get and the only one we've found so far is a company in Arizona who will give us 3 month renewals. Great right??? As soon as we start construction we can get a construction policy or something. However, we're waiting for tax credit application approval before starting construction so here's hoping...

Again. Anyway.

We bought a pair of these today on sale at Sears for $15.88. FISKARS!

Being me, on our way home we stopped by Lizzy to try them out. I had to cut several strands of bamboo before I realized that yes, it was cutting that smoothly. We might be looking at fewer hours now.

We've gone back and forth about the best way to get rid of the bamboo. Chainsaw or loppers, and loppers has finally won out. Elena Chainsaw Turner came over to scout the lot today and agreed that the level of trash, bottles, junk, undergrowth, and slope meant that the chainsawing would probably be...not fun. Add to that her theory that as a grass it would gum up the blades often enough that you'd rather just hack it and Harris finally agreed to let me lop it all out.

Our new plan for the yard is to
1. Cut down bamboo, vines, and small shrubs.
2. Haul trash, bamboo, and logs to curb.
3. Dispose (trash/recycle) all of the crap.
4. MOW baby MOW!
5. Find land pin.