My truck is here!!! Yippeeee!

Only took FOUR WEEKS from Sacramento to Long Island. And then it was at the depot in King's Park, I needed to return the rental car to JFK and it absolutely had to be back there by very early Saturday morning because they wouldn't extend the rental on that type of car any longer--and all this had to be worked around my work schedule, my daughter's work schedule, and the limited opening hours of the car depot.

How the heck was it all going to get done???

Then ping, the little light bulb went on. My truck was at the depot--and the depot was just a towing company who contracted with the vehicle shippers. So I called them and asked if they could deliver: they could, at a price, but not until Friday or later. So I said I'd pay them double if they could deliver straight-away on Thursday. "I'll phone you back in an hour," he said. 120 minutes later my truck was sitting in the driveway :-)

Also called Hertz and asked how much extra they'd charge me to drop rental off at the local office rather than all the way back at JFK. Had to speak to manager Bill at JFK. He worked it--and authorised me to return it to Middle Island agent, just 12 miles away from home, at no extra charge. So we returned it early Friday.... and now we're all set! No more rentals!

Waterfall!

Here it is: the pond is only half-full so far, no plants or anything yet, but the framework is there. Here's the waterfall--it has lights, too, for the evening. The second picture--evidence that at least one fish survived the raccoon attack (there are quite a few survivors, all small--but they will grow).

We have a waterfall :-)

Pictures tomorrow when it's light :-)

I should have known

The signs were all there: a small trail through the long lawn grass (before it was cut); something using the walkway to the deck as its toilet (I was looking for a Big Bird, how dumb can I be); something trying to get into the underside of the upper deck of the house during the night... of course we have raccoons. And of course they will feast on goldfish if they are within reach.

Once the big pond is full again, the fish will be safe because the walls are vertical and the water is so deep.

If there is any good come out of this, it has pointed me in the right direction in eliminating the Thing That Goes Bump In The Night.

I feel very very sad.

(But not the only one: phillips.blogs.com/goc/2004/11/raccoon_wars.html)

No more pregnant goldfish :-(

I just went down to the pond to turn the hose on to start filling it up again, and found a scene of carnage. Something has killed the fish: they were strewn, headless, across the deck and left floating in the small pond's water. I have been looking out for big birds--egrets and herons, who live close by--but there has been no sign of them.

I think it must have been in the night. Something strong that caught the fish and was able to lift them out of the small pond and then jump about three feet up onto the deck. All it ate was the heads.

Maybe raccoons... I don't know but I am very sad right now.

:-(

Weekend work

Wanting to do too many things at once--but I'm waiting on all the contractors for the stairs, so am doing what I can elsewhere. This weekend: tried various floor treatments for the downstairs appartment kitchen and bedrooms. I really wanted to remove all the tiles and paint the concrete, but it took an hour to scrape off one of the vinyl? tiles in the bedroom, at which point I decided that my time is more valuable--scrubbed and cleaned the floor, tested concrete primer and paint on four of the tiles (OK, I know it's for concrete but sometimes you have to try something to prove yourself wrong--it didn't work, after 24 hours the paint still hadn't properly dried, and by Sunday morning it was dry but scraped off when I touched a fingernail to it)... so I went to buy a load of peel-and-stick vinyl tiles. They are not a permanent or ideal solution, but right now the money has to be spent on more critical projects, and this will be a good, clean fix for a while. The concrete paint will work on the downstairs kitchen floor--it had different tiles which, while sticky, were not as permanent an installation as those throughout the rest of the lower floor.

Also primed the inside of the hall closet :-)

The pond

This is how the pond was before we found Peter and asked him to help us.

And here he is part-way through draining the pond:

There were far more fish in the pond than we suspected--hiding in the dark dank water. It's amazing that they have survived. They will soon have a nice clean and clear home to live in. I just have to keep an eye out for Big Bird today as the fish are in the small holding pond until the work is finished and the pond refilled. Also have to keep watching Muffin as she is watching the fish...

Pregnant fish?????

I didn't know that koi got pregnant!!!! I thought they laid eggs!!!! We have one koi that has a belly like a chicken's egg!!!!

(It's really full of eggs--but she does look pregnant!)

Greening

Living so close to the wetlands (close? rather, "in the wetlands"), I want to be as concious of what we're adding and taking-away from nature as possible. Bought a new push mower--the type that you really push, i.e., human-powered--and used it today. It works now that the grass has been cut to a reasonable level. Grass longer than five inches needs a power mower or string trimmer. I have a batter-powered string trimmer which works fine but which needs recharging at about 1/8 acre. So... mowing the lawn from now on will not use any electricity or gas/petrol. As long as I mow every few days!

I'm going to buy a clothes line. Maybe one of the whirlybird/umbrella types that we had in England. When I first arrived in the USA, no one but no one used a line for drying clothes. Everything went in the dryer. In California, with long very-hot summers, you put your wet clothes into a dryer to dry. I'm not denying that towels that have been tumbled dry are softer than when dried outside. But I should at least have the option to choose, and right now I have an electric dryer and no washing line and no clothes pegs. Will fix that this week.

The pond cleaning is in progress! A very muddy young gentleman is right now at the bottom of the drained pond. The fish have been rescued and are swimming in a small temporary pool. Will post pictures tomorrow.

Electrics

Anyone see that advert where the guy is testing a light switch and the garage door is opening and closing on some poor dear's car, several houses down the road? I think I'm living there.

Two days ago, the oil company guy came and serviced our oil boiler which is outside, under the deck in a little boiler house. I asked him to show me how to control the water temperature, and he did. He also left the light on in the boiler room, which we noticed that night. After it stopped raining yesterday, I went down to the boiler room, switched off the light and immediately shut and locked the door which had blown open.

We had hot water this morning, a little less hot than usual but I thought it was because we'd reduced the water temperature.

Then at midday I ran some hot water in the kitchen sink--except it wasn't "hot", it was "lukewarm" at best. Checked both taps/faucets to make sure I wasn't running the cold water. Wasn't that. Went down to the boiler room. Everything was quiet. Turned the water temperature up a little. Nothing happened. Turned it up a little more. Still nothing.

Thought, darn, I have to call the oil company already on the service plan. I'm glad I took out the contract.

Noticed that the light was still on. Thought I'd switched it off the day before. Maybe I'd just switched it on automatically when I opened the door.

I switched the light off again.

And the boiler came to life immediately...

The light is still on. It's probably the fourth switch from the right in the living room that switches it off. That's one of the twenty that I haven't found a purpose for yet.

What's going on with the floor? (Moving the stairs)

We have progress on the move-the-staircase project. One of the contractors bidding on the project came back today with his boss, armed with electric screwdriver, hammer and pry bar (crowbar). They lifted up the boards that were hiding the hole in the floor where the stairs used to be, so that we could see, once and for all, what needs to be done to put the stairs back in their rightful place--in the front entry hall.


This is the floor as it is today. A big plank of thick plywood which is higher than the surrounding badly-worn parquet tiles.

See the light switch and the grease mark on the wall? These are the keys to understanding where the stairs used to be. The light switches were at the top of the stairs--you can even switch on the kitchen light from here. And the grease mark is from mucky hands rubbing against the wall as they went down the stairs.

Under the plywood--the hole. The supports are not right--they are not extended and bolted onto the main joists--hence the need for the support pole downstairs. The structure that we'll put in place when the current stairs are removed will be done properly, not like this!

Here's a really cool bird identification website: Rightbird--the online guide to identifying the right bird in your yard. It helps you to identify birds by shape, habitat, colour etc., and it has recordings of each bird's song too.

Pest control...

... and if your ant bait isn't working, and you have no bug spray in the house, then Awesome Cleaner works just as well ;-) Costs a dollar at the Dollar Tree and works better than any other cleaning product. Makes ants nice and shiny and rather dead.

Monday birds

The big birds are easiest to identify: the egret, the Canada geese, the gannets and various gulls. And the brightly-coloured birds too: there's the red-winged blackbirds that perch on the reeds, and a set of amazingly red cardinals that are fiercly protective of "their" trees (and which have been chasing Mystery Blue Bird around the garden since daybreak). There are swallows, and an owl (heard but not seen), and one mute swan. And the northern mockingbird that makes me reach for my phone...

The mystery birds: the one that sounds like a mini fog-horn in the marshes (must be a heron or bittern); the one that's building a nest under my bedroom; the one that did a huge poop on the deck walkway (that might well have been the gannet though we haven't seen him in action), and Mystery Blue Bird. Mystery Blue Bird is larger than the cardinals but smaller than a Californian bluejay (though he looks like a bluejay with more eyeliner). He has a two-note song and bobs up-and-down with each note. I don't know why the cardinals dislike him so much but they absolutly do not want him in their trees. (I'm guessing that he's a Long Island Bluejay and that he wants to steal their eggs.)

Here's some help with identification (and with knowing what birds to look out for): http://www.libirding.com/Identification.html

The creeping vine

This vine is creeping all over the walkway to the deck. A neighbour told me he thought it was poisonous... I had thought that it was Virginia Creeper or something similiar and benign... I have someone coming to help tidy up the back yard on Tuesday, and didn't want them to come out in some horrible brown blister rash, so I took a sample to the local garden center (in a ziplock bag just in case) for identification. After fearlessly taking the leaf out of the bag, squashing it in his hands and looking it it closely, the garden-center guy declared "Virginia Creeper" and muttered something about people thinking everything is poisonous and that this creeper is actually a nice decorative plant. Once the deck is rebuilt, I will allow the creeper to decorate it. And will keep a look out for the real poison plants.

One thing we do have to look out for in the garden (and everywhere here) is TICKS. Ticks are nasty little creatures the size and shape of a sesame seed with legs. They jump onto warm-blooded creatures and start to eat. Blood. Have treated the pets with Frontline, which magically kills the darn things though still have to check them daily. There's no Frontline for humans, however, so we have to look for them carefully--they can carry Lyme's disease, which needs to be treated with antibiotics.

Ask Karli about her opinion of ticks... ;-)

Sunday, a week after the boxes arrived

We're starting to see some progress. Most of the upstairs boxes are now unpacked: the rugs unrolled and some picture on walls (they hide the drywall that will be fixed once everything else is done). (Note I say "upstairs" boxes--haven't started on the pile downstairs yet, but that is mostly garden equipment and tools.)

Fire Island Fire

To be truthful, it's Smith Point, not Fire Island, that we can see from here. But over to the right, it's Fire Island.

We were preparing to drive to the ocean yesterday evening to take the dog for a run: grey skies and clouds scudding. There was a big black cloud being blown to shreds across Fire Island. Looked really stormy. Then we saw the flames at the base of it. Then we realised it was a fire, not another cloud. Thick black smoke. Oily.

Arriving at Smith Point, at the area of the beach where you can take dogs, we found the Mastic Beach fire truck with a fireman standing on its roof, looking towards the site of the fire. "It's a car", he said. (There's an RV park at the point--maybe it belonged to one of the campers?)

The beach was deserted apart from a couple with a wire-haired Jack Russell that ran about 1/4 mile to corner Fury, who was still on her leash. She was not impressed and I ended up on my knees in the sand trying to keep hold of her. After the JR's owners scooped up their feisty little dog, we went for a long walk along the shore, looking at the empty horseshoe crab shells and wondering where their owners were.

Suffolk County, Smith Point

Wednesday is cool :-)

Today is cooler, with a stiff breeze. The marshes have taken on a grey cast, not bright green like they are when the sun is bright. Grebes, geese, egrets all busy. Something huge just flew by, creamy-yellow, looked like a gannet.

I love water-bird names. Gannets. Boobies. Terns. Bitterns. Coots.

View from my office :-)

After the weekend

The furniture is all here. Some of the boxes are unpacked. If I said it was half-finished, I'd be optimistic--but we are getting there. I swear that yesterday, every time I unpacked one box, another two appeared. Like cutting the head off the hydra.

After rumouring that they would deliver Saturday evening. or then Sunday morning, the guys and truck finally arrived just before lunchtime on Sunday. Then it took all afternoon to unload, because they had to make two trips to the U-Haul place where they'd left the 18-wheeler. The streets here wouldn't cope with a big-rig--they had enough trouble with the U-haul box truck! Most of the boxes and furniture had to come upstairs, as that's the main part of the house. The ironing board however I wanted to be downstairs. I never use the darn thing. Don't know why I packed it. But the kind movers kept being helpful and bringing it upstairs. I think it went up and down about six times.

They did a good job--so far only found one glass broken and one picture frame and one vase. Nothing major. Considering it's all been from Sacramento to storage in Los Angeles and then cross-country to Long Island, it's not bad.

I now have an office with a desk, a home phone, somewhere to sleep and to eat. The kitchen is empty of boxes but there's a lot to be put away still. The living room is a total mess. It's not helped by having to keep a large part of the floor empty of furniture so that the contractors can see what they are bidding on for moving the staircase. And that is another one of the jobs where they come in, take a look at it, then put on a puzzled expression and scratch their heads and then go away to "think about it".... watch this space for more news :-)

Friday, warm and foggy

Sun was bright at daybreak, but mist and fog rolled in from the water, and left us covered all day. The moving guy phoned to say they are on their way, will probably be Sunday when they deliver the furniture. Took most of the day off work--and then spent it trying to get cash or postal/money orders to pay the movers (they don't take other forms of payment for the delivery final payment). Found out that while you can buy postal orders from any Post Office with your ATM card, the amount you can buy is limited to the daily spending limit on your card. So if you've been shopping in past twenty-four hours, it reduces the amount of postal order you can buy. I bought what I could but was going to have to go back at two minutes before closing time tomorrow--twenty-four hours later--to buy the remainder. Can't withdraw enough cash from ATM machine because daily limit doesn't allow it... then had a brainwave. Took my United credit card to a Chase bank in next town, and they fixed everything. Now I can bail out my furniture... though knowing how many boxes I packed, I'm tempted not to. Am enjoying life without clutter. But a real bed would be nice. And a desk to work at. And a book or two... OK, bring on the boxes...

There is a skip (dumpster to Americans) in the front yard now, I rented it for a week: spent several happy hours this evening demolishing stuff in the garage. The bettle-eaten panelling: GONE. The empty cabinet next to washer: GONE. The big white melamine cupboard? GONE. And the carpet from inside the hall closet: GONE. The garage looks much bigger and brighter, and the floor is surprisingly clean and dry (that makes me happy).

Waiting for bids on the move-the-staircase job. Two contractors have seen the job so far: a third will come and see tomorrow. And a staircase-maker will be here Monday (he'll work in tandem with the first guy). Interesting to hear everyone's different opinions on how the house was originally designed. And on some of the DIY that the house has suffered.

I promise to look after you, house. You deserve some caring. Just keep us warm and dry.

First morning in new home!

Woke up to sunrise and the sound of birds. Nothing else. Just birds.

Blue sky. Six geese sitting in line on the bay.

Six a.m. and I noticed one neighbour standing in his backyard. And another neighbour sitting on their porch. (They are my only visible neighbours.) So I took my coffee and went and sat on my deck and watched the water and the trees and the plants and the birds. And it was beautiful.

Shopping list for today:

- a dehumidifier for downstairs--the damp walls may only be condensation (something that doesn't happen in Sacramento)
- a skip to put the nasty carpet in that we tore out yesterday (which probably fixed 95% of the damp smell)

A couple of pictures: the view, and the house

We have the keys!!! :-)

Closing on a house sale in New York State is unlike anything I've seen during two house purchases and sales in California. Everyone--buyer, buyer's attorney, buyer's attorney's assistant, title person/notary, seller's attorney (and sellers if they haven't given their attorney power of attorney), buyer's realtor and seller's realtor, all sit around a big table and throw sheets of paper at each other for signatures. It looked like chaos, but it was organized in that none of the papers were lost, and I was only asked to sign one document twice (other than the required duplicates). Then everyone sat around waiting for about an hour until everything had been checked, approved, and checks issued--and I was given the keys to the house :-)

We went to the house (after a visit to KFC due to closing-induced starvation)... and found some unexpected dampness in the downstairs walls. Hadn't noticed this on previous visits, nor on the final walkthrough on Monday, when it was pouring with rain. So my priorities for remodeling work have shifted again--find the cause of the damp and fix it. It is possible that it is due to the lack of gutters on the house, but TBD. Contractor coming to investigate this evening.

The sellers kindly left me a set of new windows/sliding doors (need to replace the sliders to the deck) and other material that will help with the restoration work... it's going to be a long job, but the location and views are incredible, and will be well worth it. And it will be interesting to see what's in the garden as the flowers start to bloom... parts of Long Island are covered with blooming rhododendrons right now, there are sweet-smelling roses in my new garden, and I bought a new lawnmower yesterday.

We're going to spend most of today cleaning and mowing. And ripping up that dark-green carpet that seems to have been installed in all houses older than ten years. Don't know when the furniture arrives, it's still on its way from California.

Soundtrack for Hauppauge

John Martyn--May You Never
John Martyn--Angeline
David Gray--Babylon
Marillion--Made Again
Marillion--Somewhere Else
Celine Dion--Pour que tu m'aimes encore

Long Island

Arrived on Long Island early Saturday morning. Dog travelled in the baggage hold, cat in the cabin. Staying in hotel... waiting to close on our new home this afternoon. Went for final walkthrough yesterday, the first time I've seen the house empty, the first time I've seen it with green trees and plants growing, flowering, not frozen-in by winter. The marshes are green and full of life. Sounds of wind on water and geese. There had been a huge rainstorm, the roads were major puddles, we may need an amphibious vehicle...