Goodbye Acrtic, Ice, Greenhouse, Snow Prep, Kraken, Balsa, Duo - Tuesday

I got the boys to school in the morning then worked around the house on cleaning and organizing more, the never ending process. Mid day I headed down to the tunnel and creek to see the ice after another night of sub-freezing temps. When I got to it the water had managed to return back to the creek bed below. When we first came down the water was running atop the ice but it managed to cut the channel through it and return to the normal flow.

Quite the thick ice over the pool, up to a foot or more thick in places.

I took my action cam with and used the selfie stick to get it down under the ice by the falls.

Then panned it around the cavity which showed more opening than I had expected there to be.

The tunnel has a thick mass of ice all the way through it which is a first in my memory. The ice is well over a foot high on the tunnel wall.

I stopped in to check on the greenhouse finally and was not surprised to find that the temperature had fallen to 14F for the lowest, BUT that was with it -17F outside, so a 30 degree difference the heaters made.

I neglected to get the soil temp but when I lifted the row cover I found the row on the right was frozen but the soil around the heat tape was still thawed which includes the middle row. So the soil heater kinda worked!!! I will get pics of the soil today and check the temps.

In preparation for the snow storm that is kinda sorta happening now I went around the farm and got things covered or put under covers. The fire pit got its lid to keep the snow from filling it in so I can grill easier on the weekend.

Then I added oil to the snowblower, gassed it up, removed the air filter that was a frozen block of blech and was reducing the air flow too much. I tested it with it out and wow does the motor run better. I will have to get a new one at some point but I am not that worried since there is no dirt and dust to worry about. I still have the pre-filter in which will block the snow from entering the carb.

I picked the boys up from school and R right away said he had asked the neighbor boy, who is in his class with him, if he could go play on the creek ice after school. The boys got their snacks shoveled in their faces then were quickly bundled up and down on the ice.

After a while M came out to play. This is the first time they have played together due to the past issues between our properties. Given that R and M are in the same class it is probably time for things to mellow out and see if we can let bygones be. J came running up and asked if they could go in the house and brought the mom's phone number up. I told them it would be fine and once @stryeyz got home she texted with her, easier having the mother's talking which likely will smooth things over faster.

I test flew my balsa plane and found I had it balanced all wrong. I slid the wing back all the way and mounted the battery in front. As soon as I did it flew perfectly level and the tiny motor has enough power to pull the plane along. The vertical stabilizer busted so I decided to pull the parts off and install them on the lacquered plane.

This is all it takes, a motor, tiny switch, and battery.

I cut the slot for the motor out of the balsa which allowed the motor to fit perfectly.

I used hot glue to mount the battery plug, the switch, and the motor. I'm hoping it's not too heavy now but with a fully charged battery I think it will do okay.

I'm anxious to fly this from a hill or something to see if I can get some serious distance with it or if the winds will toss it around too much.

The Kraken played the Rangers and got absolutely destroyed. It's the end of their 2 week road trip and they are all stupid tired at this point so it didn't surprise me to watch the first two periods, I couldn't keep watching the third. They lost 5-2 and were missing a number of their better players.

Our winter storm warning is in effect and last night the storm front was out over the basin at 8pm. This morning we have only an inch of snow from it despite the forecast being for up to 3 by morning. They say we are to get 4 to 8 inches today but it better start soon if it plans on reaching that depth, the doppler is looking rather thin right now.

I have managed to make 444 days in a row on Duolingo for Spanish. The words are sticking in my craw and slowly, SO VERY SLOWLY, I am learning.

We have only an inch of snow so far and the boys have a normal school day today. I will be watching the snow fall and trying to decide when best to snow blow. They say up to 14" from this storm but I am figuring it will be maybe half that at the rate it is going now. I have more cleaning in the house to do, I'll check the soil temp in the greenhouse now that the ambient temp is near 30F, this evening R has his first wrestling practice and I'll need dinner ready before.

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