Got Paint

Still in process - the rain has put a damper on finishing the trim. Maybe this weekend.?.

Sadie Mae - a.k.a. Wiggles

Our friends & neighbors Tom and Susan are moving back to So. Cal. and are forced to leave behind Sadie (but they are taking Harley!) - a 5 month old Golden Retriever.  This is bitter sweet for us & Coop Dog, as she is a total sweetie, but our hearts really go out to Tom & Susan who are forced to give her up.

She is pretty mellow - way more than Coop Dog at this age.  She is a fast learner, and has only had one accident in the house - which was our fault for not watching her closely.

She does have a mean streak though.  She plays a little dirty too.  When Coop walks a way, she takes his ankles out.

Coop still is the best.

But, dang she is cute.

And the best part is they are the same color, so the piles of hair will all blend together!

Whole House Fan

We are lucky to live here in the shadow of the hills that separate the Tualatin & Yamhill Valleys, so while the days are hot, evenings cool quite a bit and there is always a nice breeze.  Being in the house a year now, we have a good idea of how hot it gets & how it cools at night - and of course keeping in mind we are entering a global cooling trend.  Knowing that a heat pump is not only expensive to install and operate - we sought out alternatives and came to the conclusion that a Whole House Fan should meet our needs 90+ percent of the summer.

Whole house fans have come a long way from the days of a louvered box fan in the ceiling...  Read all about it here:  http://www.airscapefans.com/products/whf17

Part of the benefit of the WHF is venting the air out of the attic - removing the thermal blanket above the living space. As such, we had to install more attic venting to ensure the operational efficiency of the fan.

Gable vents in two sides of the house. Cutting from inside the attic on a hot day sucked.

Vent installed.  Once caulked & the house is painted (stay tuned for updates), they will disappear.

I don't like heights.  Good practice for painting the house I guess...

Due to the 18" of insulation and the positions of the trusses, I had to build "ducting" to raise the fan.  I insulated the outside and ran foam egg crating on the inside to limit the reverberation. 

We cut a hole in the ceiling above the entry way/hallway to the front bedroom, and installed the fan in the ceiling joists. 

Notice another critter in the house???  Stay tuned.  They of course had to be in the middle of all the action.

Fan installed in the attic, sans insulation & clean-up.

We only had the opportunity to run this on Sunday night, so I am not sure of the ultimate outcome.  I do have high hopes, and know that regardless it will be much quieter than neighbor Ben's heat pump!

Oh, and regardless of operation I will say the company was great to work with - from technical advice to getting the WHF the day after I ordered it.  They even included a UPS pre-paid box to return the packing foam so that they can re-use it.  

Additionally, to those tree hugging liberals out there who claim to be environmentally conscious - ditch the A/C and go for a WHF.  One of the "greenest" ways of cooling your house, this thing draws 140 watts - less than turning on the lights in ONE of my bedrooms...

January Hike on the Coast

It's hard to believe that just 3 weeks ago we were buried under snow as you can see in the pics below.  Well, thank God for global warming so that we could get out to the coast for a hike.  No clouds, rain or wind.  Just sun and t-shirts!

Think Mr. Cooper enjoyed himself?

A victim of a recent wind storm.

Many forget that we live near a temperate rain forest.

Global Whating?

As you can see, the snow is still coming down.  The question now is, will it ever end???

We dug ourselves out last night - and then we got another 6-8".  So, we dug ourselves out again today at lunch so we can run out and stock up on food for X-mas before the Wednesday storm hits (rain, freezing rain or snow - not sure what it will be yet).

Ice Pics

Here are a couple of ice pics from this morning.

Berries on the Ash tree in our front yard.

A maple leaf left on the bonsai-turned yard tree

Coop Dog lost a wheel.

It's gonna be a White Christmas

So those that are familiar with what is going on in the NW this past week, you know we have had some cold weather.  We were predicted to be down in the low teens with a wind chill predicted to be about 0F.  So, I made the choice to move most of my trees into the garage until the super cold weather passed - I don't do anything if it gets down to about 30F, but lower than that I like to make sure they are on the ground and bundled together.  Not sure if it helps, but I do it with success.  Below 20F, I like to cover them.  We hit about 9F with the windchill this last week, so I am glad I moved about half into the garage.

So, I didn't quite get the final two monkey posts finished before it started snowing last weekend.  We ended up with about 5" of snow.  Again, the NW corner of the yard, sans trees.

The week was off and on snow and rain, and we ended the week with about 2-3" of snow still on the ground.  It seems we are in a cold pocket along the foothills (our driveway is at about 210 feet above sea level) between a couple of valleys - so 1/2 mile away all the snow melted and we kept a good bit.

Coop Dog loves the snow.  He has been getting 4 walks a day...

Yesterday the snow came back.  A lot.  All day...

We finished the day at an X-mas party around the corner.  Upon coming home the snow was finishing up and the freezing rain starting.  We ended the day with about 10" snow and about 1" of freezing rain (ice) on top of the dry, fluffy powder.

Again, the NW corner of the yard.  Check out the snow on the seating and fire pit!

The bad news is we should have this snow through next weekend - so my trees will be in the garage for another week.  

The good news is that it is going to be a White Christmas - very rare for Portland!