Tweaking

This site has become interesting to hackers of late, so I am tweaking the security settings. If you notice any new and annoying “features” please let me know in the comments, they are not intentional.

Here it is, well into November already!

Attila continues to bring produce in from the garden. There is little to process now though, the quantities are small. Every day there are a few ground cherries harvested for breakfast. Daily the lettuce for our green salad is harvested, shocking for mid-November. There are still celery leaves to dehydrate, cooler ripened tomatoes to process into sauce, and kohlrabi to harvest ad prepare for the freezer. One last strawberry was harvested yesterday, it will be ripened with the tomatoes in the cooler. There are quite a few beets yet to be harvested, tonight’s dinner will feature beets!

Attila has tackled painting the basement floor in increments. It has to be done this way because it is full to the rafters with our belongings. To clear a patch of concrete for cleaning and painting a lot of things have to be moved. Three coats of paint later, when perfectly dry, everything has to be moved back. Then the next patch is tackled. Today the patch being tackled is against the exterior wall. After the paint dries a sealant will be applied along the joint between the floor and the wall.

Our house was built, we think, in the early 1960s, when the area was a rural municipality, and building codes were not what they are today. It is soundly built with, we surmise, used parts from builder renovations, and leftover materials from builder construction jobs. The parts are all of good quality, but are not originally designed and created for this house. The last 16 years have led to many unwelcome discoveries as we have upgraded the structural aspects of the building! For 11 of those years we have lived in the building while upgrading, making it a lot more complicated.

We haven’t gotten to the point yet where we are tackling aesthetic rather than structural improvements. Still the “big house” furniture crammed into a little space, inadequate storage, curtains meant for windows of different shapes and sizes than the windows they now cover. One set of curtains was purchased in 1979. The only floors that have been tackled are the bathroom, the landing at the top of the basement stairs, and a temporary application of tiles in the kitchen. The rest of the floors are the original, quite worn after more than 60 years of exposure to walking feet.

The high radon levels are adding a lot of extra structural remediation to the top of our list. Painting the basement floor, and sealing the joint where where the floor meets the exterior walls, won’t reduce the radon level, but it will facilitate the efficacy of other remedial efforts.

Right now the basement windows are wide open to provide ventilation, since the sealant produces horrible fumes for the first few hours after it is applied.

A bright note is that Mom is doing really well! She has transferred to the hospital down the street from her apartment to complete her recovery. It is so wonderful that my sisters both live only a few miles from the hospital and her apartment!! Due to the proximity they can be very supportive. Mom’s children are her biggest fans.

Worldly

Weather

8°C
Date: 11:00 AM EST Wednesday 11 November 2026
Condition: Mostly Cloudy
Pressure: 101.5 kPa
Tendency: Falling
Temperature: 7.6°C
Dew point: 3.9°C
Humidity: 77%
Wind: ENE 4 km/h
Visibility: 24 km

Quote

“Tears may be dried up, but the heart – never.”
Marguerite de Valois
1553 – 1615