At last! At last it is the last day of March. March is my least favourite month of the year. This year it was colder than usual, and there was a lot of freezing rain and snow. It seemed much longer than it has in other years. I think, I hope, that the last of the snow bank in the front yard will melt away today.
Yesterday, because the extreme cold seems to have left for the season, Attila setup the first rain water tank. It isn’t warm today, 4C early this morning, and it has since dropped to 3C. Not warm for humans, but certainly warm enough to keep a rain tank full of water from freezing. We are expecting a week or so of rainy weather, perfect for harvesting rain water for the gardening season. Last night we collected about 750 litres of rain water. Attila will setup the second rain tank today, which will store the overflow from the first tank. When both tanks are full we will have 2000 litres of water for the garden. This does not last long during a drought, our tanks went dry last summer. I am thinking of pushing for a third tank in the future.
I’ve been measuring the radon levels in the house. They readings are very high, far too high, on the main floor, so probably much higher in the basement. When I measured radon levels ten years ago the level was below the suggested threshold. No more.
I’ve read that adding new windows, and insulation can increase radon levels, we have done both, and the levels have skyrocketed. Apparently there is funding available to low income people to mitigate this, but one must have three months of measurements, taken with an approved device, or by a mitigation company, to qualify. I purchased an approved device, thus we are aware of the shocking levels, three months is a long time to wait for possible funding for mitigation.
It was warm outside yesterday so I opened up a window in the living room. Within hours the radon levels decreased to an acceptable level. With the windows closed overnight, the levels became unacceptable again.
The window is open again today, but at 3C it cools the house down. The radon level is falling as a result, the house cools as the radiation exits through the open window. I wonder if the readings with the windows open will disqualify us from funding for mitigation. I’ve made the decision that getting the level down is more important than the funding, the window stays open. The radon level has fallen below the danger point in the last few hours.
Ginger was fascinated with the open window, his nose was twitching with all the heady, unusual aromas wafting into his personal domain.
I wish that radon mitigation was required in the building codes!!! Of course this little house of ours was built long before the current building codes came into being. We have discovered some interesting construction choices, and even more interesting renovation decisions made by previous owners.
Enough about the radon adventure, for now, it is an ongoing project.
My Cream of Tomato Soup Base is a great success, particularly when I add a teaspoon of white miso to each serving. It had me thinking. I bought a 227 gm package of fresh Canadian mushrooms. Then I altered my Cream of Tomato Soup Base to create a new recipe for Cream of Mushroom Soup Base. It made for a very nice lunch today, without adding any white miso. Tomorrow one teaspoon of miso will be added, taste testing can be a lot of fun. These soup bases contain no added sodium, cholesterol, saturated fats, sugars, or preservatives.
Every evening Attila and I wind down before retiring, sitting together at the table to work on the current jigsaw puzzle. As my eyesight deteriorates I can only make out image details that are close to me. So I rummaged through the drawer and found the magnifying glass. This makes working on the puzzle a lot less frustrating. I am the Sherlock Holmes of jigsaws.
The puzzle board was purchased from Amazon, a very handy addition to our puzzling. We can rotate the puzzle easily, and shove the board and the puzzle under the couch when we need more room in the living space.
The puzzle trays, there are two, one each, were purchased at the dollar store, and were very inexpensive.
The puzzles are mostly charity shop finds. We don’t care if a few pieces are missing. When that happens I circle the area where the piece belongs on the box image, so when we do the puzzle again, we won’t be looking for that piece.
This puzzle came with the edge pieces separated and stored in a sealed bag. We don’t do that, part of the fun is finding the edge pieces.
Worldly
Weather
3°C
Date: 10:00 AM EDT Tuesday 31 March 2026
Condition: Light Rain
Pressure: 101.3 kPa
Tendency: Rising
Temperature: 2.6°C
Dew point: 1.2°C
Humidity: 91%
Wind: NNE 22 km/h
Visibility: 24 km
Quote
“We should take care not to make the intellect our god; it has, of course, powerful muscles, but no personality.”
Albert Einstein
1879 – 1955
OMG I don’t think I ever heard about Radon. I read up on it and it’s naturally occurring, no way of detecting it, short of measuring it with the device you have.Living in high buildings doesn’t help either. It’s almost like nature’s revenge after the bad way we’ve treated the planet! Thanks for sharing, Maggie. I hope you can still do the mitigation. I don;t think they should penalize you for opening the window. If the radon levels go up and down, you’re showing the impact of fresh air.
Sandy, I’ve only known about Radon in homes since we moved here 15 years ago. I tested the house then, levels were safe, but as we sealed up the house against the cold and the heat, the radon levels rose to unacceptable levels, and I didn’t know that would happen. We also sealed up pretty tight to keep out the mice. Nothing in the original test material mentioned that improvements to your home would change the readings. So here we are.
I did not know that living in a high building does not help!
Through all of human history this has not been a huge problem because most homes were leaky affairs, so the air moved through them constantly, clearing the radon. That has changed.
We will be doing mitigation, if we don’t quality for funding due to the readings with the windows open, we will save and have it done.
This morning the levels went up as I was sitting here at the computer. Then I started to sneeze. I have sneezing sessions from time to time, no idea why, but maybe they are related to the fluctuating radon levels. I have opened the windows now, hopefully the levels will begin to fall soon.
I purchased this device to measure, recommended by the government here, not all brands are effective.
SAF Aranet Radon Detector
https://www.amazon.ca/dp/B0DK3CRP79?ref_=pe_123916410_1039242100_t_fed_asin_title
As you can see this is not a small investment, but hiring someone to do the measurements is not a small investment either!