Yardwork Season Opener

Spring has officially arrived.

 Do you know how I know?  Today is the first day this year that I got to mow the entire lawn.

Yes, every week from here until November-ish, I will be out mowing my back yard instead of doing fun things like geocaching, or clipping my toe nails, or... pretty much anything else.

Ok, fine, lawn mowing isn't the worst thing in the world (that would be watching someone clip their toe nails), but it does mean I got to walk every inch of my back yard. It is 2.56 miles of walking to mow my lawn so at least I got a hike (of every decreasing concentric circles) in.

After the lawn mowing I put some more dirt into my raised vegetable beds in preparation for the seedlings in a few weeks, which are currently just starting to sprout in a little tray in my living room window.

To commemorate the start of yardwork season, I'll leave you with some photos of the day.  Starting with Zeke helping daddy mow.

Abigail getting in on some of the action.

Zekey helping Daddy rake in some of the new dirt.

 Not surprisingly, Zeke loves to play in the dirt.

Treefall

Last week our area received a lot of rain and some strong winds.  As a result we had a 60ft pine tree fall in our back yard, taking out my back chain-link fence, and filling it with that nice fallen murdered pine tree scent.

Today we had our landscapers come out and remove the dead tree.  While they were here we also got them to drop a mostly-dead poplar that was uncomfortably close to the house.

The poplar was so rotten that when it hit the ground it shattered. Luckily for you fine folks, I took a video:


As you can see it didn't quite fall exactly where expected, but it did make a most satisfying thud when it hit the ground.

Here are some more photos, starting with a before shot, and then the aftermath of a shattered tree. It is a good thing we fell it when we did. It was just a matter of time before it fell, and likely on top of my bedroom (between you and me, I frown on poplar trees sharing the bed with me and my wife).

 This explains all the bees we had this summer. I never could find that nest...

Replacing The Beast with The New Hotness

The Beast:  Made in the 50's "upgraded" in the 70s. Died in
2010.

Last night we had our furnace and A/C replaced.
About a week ago I noticed that it was getting cold in the house, so I decided to fire up The Beast and see how it survived the summer.  I got air movement, but none of it warm.  So off to Google Maps I go to find a local furnace repair guy

The first repair guy I called mentioned that it was a bad control board, and the parts are almost impossible to get, so I'll probably need a new furnace.  The second guy, from 72 Degrees of Hickory, was more thorough, and gave the furnace a better looking over.  It turns out The Beast had a few issues:

• It was converted from oil to natural gas.  They did this for a few months back in the day, but stopped when they started exploding. Conclusion:  The Beast is a death trap.
• The venting for The Beast is perfectly valid for an oil furnace, but no where near appropriate for a natural gas furnace. Conclusion: Death trap.
• The heat exchanger had a crack in it, which may be pushing carbon monoxide directly into the air. Conclusion: Death Trap.

So I decided that it was perhaps time to replace The Beast with something a little more civilized.  The repair man gave us a quote on a new furnace, which took a couple hours to spec out and explain all of the details. I also got  another quote from another company, but they were way over priced, so I went with 72 Degrees.

The New Hotness being worked on by her installers.

Yesterday their installers came to remove the furnace and A/C, and replace it with a much nicer hybrid unit.  It took them 11 hours to do the job, 3 of that included fighting with the old wires running to the old thermostat.  They did a very thorough job, and their work ethic and customer service was spectacular.  This is definitely a crew of furnace installers who enjoy what they do.  Despite starting their day at 6AM and not leaving our house until 10:30PM, they never stopped cracking jokes.  It was fun to see.  Reminded me of HWOps.

So now I have a new hybrid furnace/heat pump with a new A/C unit.  I tested it out last night, and it worked well.  Best part:  New touch screen thermostat in my hallway.  Geek toys FTW!

So if you are ever wondering to yourself "I wonder if dem Canadian fellers are warm enough over there in that house of theres" (being in the south, that is valid english), the answer is "yep!"  We're rockin the heat with our brand new furnace, lovingly named The New Hotness.