A quiet day at the lake.

A quiet day at Damariscotta Lake.







Not sure if the ice is safe yet.

On the topic of ice:

That about sums it up.

Meanwhile back at the Ranch

Greetings from Northern New England, the part of the country that is supposedly in the 'deep freeze'. I just can't understand the hype surrounding the weather these days. What were you expecting in the middle of Winter at 45 degrees north latitude? Beach weather? Its like Winter is back to the old days of walking to school ten miles up hill both ways. Put on a scarf and quit yer whining!


But seriously, the sensationalism of weather reporting reflects two facets of modern life: everything has to be extreme to attract advertisers AND everyone cares about the weather so much because hardly anyone spends any significant amount of time outside. That said, I was outside yesterday at the Land of Goshen (also know as the Wagner Estate)

We've had a bit of new snow recently, about a foot over the weekend. Its time to get out the snowshoes, because without them you're up past your knees in snow.

Looking northwest along Ben Brook

Now looking south along Ben Brook.

Southeast into the woods.


Wags, the younger.

Back north towards the Egypt Road.

As promised, here is a quick numerical run down of all things vehicular:

2004 Dodge Ram 2500 SLT (weighing in around 6800lbs with me an my tools)
Since June 2009 acquisition:

9703 miles driven

$8319.33 All in cost of operation (I know! a $3500 down payment really adds to upfront cost)

$0.60/mile of payments + down payment

$0.86/mile All-in cost (Fuel, Ins, payments, maintenance)
or
$40.58 per day of ownership whether I drive it or not.

12.34 mpg overall ( about 8mpg when plowing )

$786.51 total fuel cost
or
$0.215 per mile

Service performed: 1 oil change in the driveway in six months and its due for one now.

Conclusions: a 3/4 ton truck gets terrible fuel economy no matter how you slice it. I knew that going into it. The overall cost of operation will decrease as the miles driven increases versus the payments + downpayment, but maintenance will likely increase as the truck takes on more miles (its in the shop right now....). Looking back, maybe I should have bought a $5000 used truck and had no payments, but maybe would have had more maintenance issues, like getting stranded. Its all about trade-offs with vehicles, there really is no-winning, just throwing more money into an ever widening, never-satiated black hole......I digress.

Better news ahead:

2001 Mercedes-Benz E-320 4matic wagon:
Since June 2008 acquisition:

36,645 total miles

$14,574.29 All-in cost of operation

$0.40/mile all in cost
or
$25.22 per day of ownership

$0.12/mile fuel
$0.28/mile other costs (payments, maint, insurance)

$4721.60 total fuel cost

at

24.66 mpg overall (not bad for a 4000lb vehicle with 123000 miles on it)

Service Performed since acquisition: left tie rod replaced, front ball joints replaced, alignment performed, front and rear brakes (pads and rotors) replaced, spark plugs replaced, tires replaced (new tires constantly leak due to corrosion from road salt/calcium chloride), several marker and headlight bulbs replaced, wiper blades replaced (front still doesn't work very well), exterior temp sensor non-functional and non-essential, four full-synthetic oil changes, and it needs the electronic throttle looked at soon.

Conclusions: the car gets expected fuel economy, rides pretty much like a luxury car should (like a tank!). Parts and repairs are relatively expensive, but compared to the miles we put on are pretty reasonable. Overall cost of operation is less than the federal mileage rate ($0.55/mile) and less than half of the Dodge. Payments are low ($221/month compared with Dodge @ $350/month). BUT, the rugged driving conditions are starting to take their toll. In Maine, its always a race against the rust.

I got a little spooked by the rust and leaky tires just after Christmas and went to a couple car dealerships to see what I could get into for a similar payment. The answer is: not much. The only thing we really liked was the 2009 Dodge Nitro and its payments would have been $430 month! Other vehicles we test drove:

2008 Ford Escape: plasticky garbage
2008 Chrysler Pacifica: rides like minivan, drives like a minivan, why not get a minivan for $5000 less? Also I expected more out of a 4.0liter engine. Lame.
2007 Subaru Legacy sedan: ok, but too small and plasticky

And I've got a 2005 Dodge Intrepid loaner vehicle from the dealership and it is a piece of junk, but its a loaner......

After all that, we really decided that the Benz 'is what it is' and that is better than 90% of the other cars out there.

In other news, my work schedule has slowed considerably. A regular mid-winter slump. A run down to work on Cape Cod is not out of the question as early as next week....

a new coat

A new coat of snow that is. The rain turned to ice and then snow and this morning nice white layer over everything. I snapped a few shots while I stepped out briefly this morning.

Northish.

Southish.

Tonite, winds gusting to 40mph, lows around zero. Stay tuned, they're predicting a New Year's storm of 'historical significance'. Someone on the radio said something about 48 inches of snow in the mountains. We're talking about the right state here, Maine, not northern California, right? No I heard them right. I just hope we can make it Boston and back for New Year's Eve.

Next post, the Vehicular year in Review, a must read for the numerically inclined.

The Occasional Moose

Sometimes you're driving down a lonely dirt road in central Maine in the Winter and you spy a moose. Even more rare is that you're going slow enough and happen to have the camera in the truck, so you take a few terrible photos of said moose. This happened to me last week.




This was a particularly young gangly moose (not unlike myself) just hangin around looking for things too eat. My truck scared it just enough to make it amble away with a moose-like gait. The other guys I'm working with said they saw the moose again a few days later in the same area.

We're getting a small respite from the bitter cold of last week. For a few days it was right around zero during the day and very windy. Not good days to be working outside, but outside we worked anyway. I've learned an important lesson, that if the torso stays warm so do the hands and feet.

Three more days of work, then Christmas weekend, four days of glorious celebrating, sleeping and eating.

Another thing.

Another thing is that I love Fedex tracking. Love it. When I buy a tool online I can see exactly where it is and when it will get here.........perfect for the obsessive online tool purchaser.

The different thing I get to do today is demolish moldy sheetrock and install new. 20 inches of Blown-in fiberglass insulation = FUN for days of itching.

One thing.

One thing that I like about my vocation (house carpenter), is that I do something different just about every day, or at least every week.

Today I hung new wooden gutters with wrought iron brackets on a 150+ year old house. Yesterday I stripped old clapboards and did some roof framing. Tomorrow I'll watch the snow fall (5-8 inches followed by 1/4 inch of rain), plow some of it, and give an estimate on removing a leaky skylight. Always something different to do; always something new to learn.

We're headed toward the blue-print drafting stage of the house planning. More decisions to make.

And, tomorrow is my birthday.....I've passed all the childhood milestones into the obscurity of 'adulthood'.

First Snow

Well its not technically the first snow for us here on the Country Estate, but its the first snow to stick. Amidst all the busy-ness I had time to take stroll in the woods on the land on the Egypt Road this afternoon after church:

View looking Southish along Egypt Road towards Ben Brook

A spot near the northwest corner of the property.

a stream about 300' in from the road near the northeasterly property line

Wags, himself walking amongst the trees.

Largish rocks.

Can you see the photographer's shadow?

Well, I've been all alone here at the Country Estate (boo hoo :( whilst KT is in Dallas for a conference relating to home visiting and parenting education. It was a consolation to know that it was cold there too. No sunny warm vacation for her!

Closed!

Ah yes, the perfect convergence of cash, attorneys, real estate agents, signatures and paperwork. A property closing. My dad has closed on a 27-28 acre parcel right here in Alna Maine. On the banks of Ben Brook and the Streaming Stream. As its steward, I am now soliciting the greater public for names for the new estate. What is an estate without a name?

What would Churchill have been without Chartwell? Bilbo Baggins without Bag-End? Elrond without Rivendell? Andrew Jackson without the Hermitage? Jefferson without Monticello? Washington without Mount Vernon?

and Wagner without .........?

The land has undulating terrain with exposed granite in some spots. Trees include Eastern White Pine, Eastern Hemlock, White Oak, Red Oak, Silver Maple, Sugar Maple, Red Maple, Apple, Cherry, Birch and many others. There are several small and medium streams and a big babbling brook. We'll be building in the Spring a 24x36 two story colonial and later on, a good size barn.

looking good

Here are few shots of the job looking good:

Stain-glass window in custom casing. I went to the trouble of getting brass screws to install it, so they could take it out to clean it, and they asked me to counter sink them and fill the holes with putty!

Long skinny bedroom with vaulted V-match ceiling, pine trim, and goofy track lighting and sconces.

We created this loft for them over the closet and the hallway.

-Boarded two sides of a timberframe today. I like to keep my connection to timberframing alive, even if I'm doing mostly restoration and remodeling these days.

-We'll be headed down to Connecticut for the Thanksgiving weekend. Hopefully my dad and I will close on the land by Wednesday and we can get serious about house planning/clearing/building.

-The weather continues to be perfect New England Autumn style.

News from the Country Estate November 13, 2009

Hihowahya,

-the days are still warmish (low 50's) but the nights are almost all in freezing territory.

-the aforementioned land which my father had made an offer on is now under contract. I am acting as his eyes and ears here in maine. checking on things like soil conditions and driveway permits. Closing will occur before thanksgiving. Yes, we are excited.

-I finally got the snow plow out of storage, only to have no snowplowing accounts lined up. I've got a couple of leads, but no signed contracts.

-A slightly used Stihl 066 chainsaw with a 24" bar (and a 36") is now in my possession-in anticipation of having to clear land for our house.

-I have been doing carpentry work for a company called Sustainable Structures for the last month and a half. We're just wrapping up a remodeling job on Westport Island, a few pics from the job:

Living room with vintage* maple flooring, insulation and drywall.

*this maple flooring was milled from hundred year old logs pulled up from the bottom of Moosehead Lake. I hear they used to do this in Wisconsin, but banned it because it stirred up too many toxins which had settled to the bottom of the lakes.

This Anderson 400 series 36" circular window will house a custom-mounted stained glass window which the home-owners provided.

This bedroom used to have a dropped ceiling below the transom window at right. We raised the ceiling and installed pine V-match to follow the roof pitch and created a loft space above the closet and hallway. We also added dense-pack cellulose and foamboard insulation as well as new trim, flooring, windows and drywall.

Today we laid the vintage* birch flooring in the bedroom. The birch seemed to be of much higher quality than the maple. It will really "pop" after it is sanded and oiled.

-We'll wrap this job up by Wednesday next week and jump onto another project on Thursday.