Wapiti with an Arrow: First Christmas in Cocolalla

I was excited going into the Christmas holiday this year. We had made the decision not to travel and to have our first Christmas in our new home. That plus a day and a half off (totaling 4.5 days off) would be a very welcome break!

Christmas morning arrived and we took it very slow...which was fine with me because my gut was plagued by shooting pains, here there everywhere. I hadn't mentioned it before but I had taken something the night before to "aid in relief" and I think that just did NOT sit well with me. Consequently, I had those pains for most of the day...which basically ruined my plan to pig out with a ham dinner. We eventually made the ham but just snacked on it. We opened gifts...for the first time it was just the two of us, which I have to say was quite a shock to our "systems" as it harbored the continual feeling of something being wrong. It was, in all honesty, a little lackluster. We got very nice things from people and then felt guilty that we didn't do MORE for them. So we commiserated, took the dog on a walk, and I think I figured something out about the guilt. It really is more fun to watch people open gifts that you got for them (or better yet, made for them) than to receive them. That was Christmas day.

Friday got me to looking into cleaning clothes dryers. Ours has been taking a long time to dry clothes and, what we think, to be the main culprit in our high energy bills. The internet can be a truly wonderful thing as I learned a lot. The fact that it wasn't drying fast was more likely do to an airflow issue rather than an element going bad and my first look in to where the heat enters the drum showed a LOT of lint build-up. (Did you know those things need periodic cleanings? Like taking it apart to do just that? I didn't...and it didn't look like the folks before us knew it either.) So there I was, behind this machine with my headlamp on, a vacuum hose, and a garbage bag...taking the back off and proceeding to disassemble the whole thing. It was a mess! I filled a total of about one grocery bag with lint that was covering things and generally just stuck everywhere. That done, I put it all back together (successfully!) and am now hoping I see a difference in our energy bill. Then we headed to town.

This is what I could see from the inside

This is the bottom of the blower shoot...(the thing that basically feeds the lint screen)

We ran some errands and headed home around 4:30. One of Sarah's friends texted her and told her there was a bad wreck on the highway home...but that was at 2:30 and we didn't think much of it. Well, we got stuck in a huge traffic jam as they were still clearing the accident site and I sweated as I watched my battery gauge slowly go down. By the time we got home the headlights were having a helluva time keeping the road illuminated and progressively getting dimmer. (Now, this is a brand new battery....this SHOULDN'T be happening.) Once home I broke out the tools and looked at my battery connections....hoping this was just a bad connection and the movement of the truck was shaking the wire so it didn't have as good of contact with the terminal. I noticed a lot of corrosion on the positive cable connection so I cleaned that off and believed I had solved the problem. I jumped in and took off down the road, determined to charge the battery back up. Unfortunately, after a mile or so the lights began to dim QUICKLY. I rapidly turned around and headed back as they continued to get weaker...then my dashboard lights went out, then the radio went black...uh oh. The truck was bucking and snorting but I was able to coax her to within 10 yards of our driveway before she gave out completely. My plan had been to coast into the neighbor's big driveway (to make towing easier if it came to that.) So I went over there and he offered to help me push it in there...but when I got in it the lights came on and she turned over! Hurriedly I got it to where he indicated and learned that the alternator went completely out. (Turns out he has been building cars since he was about 12...good guy to know!!) Luckily he said, "it's an easy fix, come over in the morning and I'll help you take this one out so you can go to town and get a new one...then I'll help you put it in." Awesome awesome awesome! (Oh, by the way, I also learned that new batteries...less than a year old...can regenerate themselves...which I never thought about before and never even knew was possible.)

Saturday morning had me messing with that. I learned a lot and was able to successfully replace the alternator with not too much more than a teacher there to instruct me. Like most things, it's more about confidence than the extent of knowledge that makes the most difference. I was most worried about the belt and getting that back on than anything and I told him, his simple reply was, "why?" Turns out the only answer was "lack of confidence" but I kept that to myself.

It started snowing gently in the morning and just got heavier and heavier towards the evening.

That done around midday, I went down the hill to the house...almost getting stuck on the wet snow that was falling...which turned to instant ice once compacted....BUT I made it back up the hill to where I stopped. And made a mistake. I pushed the parking brake!!! Quickly realizing my error, I popped it and headed down the road to make sure I hadn't frozen it up...which I had, on one side. Son of a BITCH! Come...ON! I want ONE day to relax! I headed home and proceeded to crawl around under the back tires...the snow clinging to the truck slowly melting and dripping off (because of the heat from the exhaust pipe) and soaking me. I needed help so I recruited Sarah to come up and press the brake and release it (with me underneath) so I could observe what things "should" look like. Then came a hammer. Then the brake pedal got REALLY stuck. Out of frustration I pushed it to the floor and pulled the release again and BINGO! (I think the heat from the exhaust slowly melted the ice that must be in the wire's sheath. It still worries me though, ever get like that? Your mind telling you, "I don't think the rpms were that high before, but I can't remember because I never paid attention."

Then we watched the snow fall into the night. In the morning there was nine new inches of heavy snow. Time to figure out the snow clearing. We have a roof that's been damaged in the past by letting compacted snow sit for too long...so our first order of business was shoveling off the roof! With the two of us, that only took an hour...but then we probably spent another hour on the deck / porch getting the compacted snow that came from the roof, off. Following that was probably over another hour learning how to use the big ass snowblower I bought last summer and clearing the driveway. (But honestly, that was kinda fun. The thing can chew through snow like no one's business AND toss it up to 50 feet!) All this followed by a quick trip to the dump and we were done.