Author: bhayes952

January 8, 2026 – Is An Inspection Necessary?

January 8, 2026 /

We are getting to the point in the process where it is starting to get real. There is an offer on our house and we are already renting the new house. The devil is in all of the details for financing but we need to decide what inspections that we want to have on the house. I personally feel like I am pretty knowledgeable in the process and I am more likely to be more nonchalant about things. This is not to mention that the house is less than ten years old.

In the picture below, you can see our new kitchen. It is both cluttered because we have nothing in the cupboards or drawers and sparse because what you see is what we have. It looks nice and this is the view that you get when you tour the house to decide if you want to proceed. It has stainless appliances, quartz counter tops, contemporary finishes and a nice island.

I want to make it clear that I am not nitpicking anything. I know exactly where the faults are in my house. I know where the exterior paint is spattered on the interior wall because I didn’t realize there was wet paint on the bucket when I roughly set the bucket down and it is hard to reach but can only be seen at a certain angle. I see the door trim that does not reach the floor (not my work). I do my best to try and make it at least good enough and I never intend on leaving things done incorrectly to the point it is detrimental to life or safety.

Because we are renting the house until we can close on the current house, we have spent six nights at the place spread out since early December. This is a highly educational process. I talked about the heating earlier in the week, now let’s look at the kitchen.

In the upper left, the backsplash spans the entire length of the counter. This prevents the range from being pushed all the way to the wall, where it belongs. It is not terribly noticeable nor is it problematic, it is just not how things should be done. Our future plans include installing a larger gas range so we will live with that until such time.

The window trim has a wonky corner. From my brief look at it, I would say that the wood is warped and not nailed well to a solid surface. These are the kind of things that potentially turn out to be devastating. A small cosmetic detail that is hiding a much larger problem. However, this is an exterior wall and I see no problems on the other side.

The tile on the far west side of the the kitchen has a different color grout along with some small gaps. I am not sure what is going on there, but I would be willing to bet that this is a DIY faux pas. Something was changed from what it was originally or it was estimated incorrectly or this was a retrofit application that just wasn’t quite right. This is a cosmetic issue that is barely noticeable unless you are taking pictures like I am doing.

Finally, I took a picture of the drawer slides. I have used many of these in my shop projects. But what I am pointing out is that using this style of slide versus ball bearing slides is an indicator of the quality of the cabinet. I suspect like all decisions, there was an economic component. My mind goes to why would you spend money on the counter tops and have inexpensive cabinets? At this point, it is what it is but it goes to today’s HGTV culture. It looks good from a distance but might not be what it seems.

I want to reiterate that I am not nitpicking but that a person cannot possibly make a value proposition with a 30 minute breeze through. I saw the first picture the first couple of times I was in the house. All of those things I can live with or modify over time if it gets to that point. What I think is the problem is most people cannot look at a drawer slide and determine the value of a kitchen. That speaks to the cost of a house being appropriate or potentially other more devious problems.

The value of an inspector is that in theory, they should be able to go straight to the soft and vulnerable spots. While doing that, other observations are made. But, that is it. It is then up to the uneducated buyer who couldn’t do their own inspection to translate observations into deficiencies to then ask from the seller. This is at least my analysis of why our first deal fell through. The buyer wanted things that were actually wrong from a code standpoint based on observations.

Despite the fact that I am very knowledgeable about things, I do believe that we are going to have a septic inspection. That is something that I cannot see myself and admittedly I am weak on this new technology installed in this house. It is not just a gravity fed tank but it has pumps and other things I have never seen.

End Your Programming Routine: We very well might have a whole home inspection, I need to do some looking first. I am not so arrogant as to believe that I couldn’t learn something from an inspection. I could miss things and this is a whole new area and climate that might have nuances that I am not familiar. But, I am pretty confident that this is an appropriate deal for the price. I am not expecting any real problems to be found.

January 7, 2026 – So Much Change, It Hasn’t Sunk In

January 7, 2026 /

Believe or not, my life has changed significantly this week from last week. In fact, it is so significant and so new, I haven’t really internalized it. No, I am not talking about moving to the beach again. That is certainly adds a dimension but that has not materially happened yet. I am talking about being an honest to goodness empty nester.

It is well known that we sent my youngest son off to college in September. My oldest son remained at home. In October, when we started talking about moving, I posed the situation to my older son. Stay in the area or move with use. Either way, it was more than likely that things were going to change drastically.

He has a full time job and is attending community college. We are moving about an hour to the west and while not ideal, we know people that commute for work purposes from the coast to the capitol city. Staying with us was possible but it would be much better to find some place closer to school and work. Still the option was his.

My son developed a plan to move in with our niece who was moving from the ADU to somewhere locally. Her decision was driven by work as well as having a child in grade school. That seemed like a good fit for both of them. But, the funny thing is that I felt like this was a step that was potentially too far, too fast for my son.

They got a ‘move-in special’. Get all the paperwork completed before the first of December and get two months free rent. My niece took until mid-December to get everything moved but my son kept coming home every night. It fact, it wasn’t until the weekend after Christmas that he finally got everything moved. That came after a lot of very strong prodding from Mom to finish what was started.

I don’t think he liked it but to his credit, he moved most of it without me having to help. That is to say that there was a whole bunch of stuff still left in the garage that was going with his car which is at another location then his apartment. But again, he took initiative the next weekend and moved half of that stuff. I speculate that once he mentally accepted the fact that he was moving, he finally got in gear.

Right now, we are only ten minutes apart. I have already gone over to do networking work because it is a skill I have that he does not. I would say that we have seen him half of the nights since he moved for dinner, but I don’t plan on it. If we have stuff to share, no problem. We have had several invites specifically for dinner. Remember that this was still the holiday period.

For the last four weeks, my younger son has been home for Christmas break. He took a load of his stuff to college and I already packed most of his room. But the fact that he was home for Thanksgiving which was only two weeks between Christmas break made it seem like things were pretty normal. Even while my older son was moving out, I still had loads of dishes each day because he hasn’t quite got the idea of clean-up after use.

I haven’t completely counted my chickens yet. I mean, he is in college with strong talk of a Spring Break trip and internship over the summer. However, those have yet to finalize. For all I know, this is his last long term stint at home but I haven’t quite conceded yet. We just have to assume that nothing is set in stone until it is but that he might have a few more trips home in the next couple of years. Due to his independent streak, I have my doubts that there will be many more extended trips home.

We dropped him off at the airport in the early morning of Sunday, January 4. When we got home the house was quiet and I mean really quiet. No more smashing down the stairs or un-expected blender noises at midnight. I went upstairs and boxed up his remining items as it is a better bet that we will move than it is he is coming home in the near future.

It hit me like a linebacker, this is it. This is the moment that this property went from a high of seven last spring to two. No longer is there two people living in the backyard apartment that I have to watch and make sure the driveway is clear. I don’t have to plan for a main meal for four with a vegetarian variation or will anyone even eat at home. I know that when I lock the door for the night, I don’t have to check it three or four times a night before I go to bed. I don’t have to sleep with one eye open that somebody is leaving at two in the morning or wonder if should go to sleep at my normal bedtime. After years of gradual change, it is so abrupt. It is jarring, almost disturbing.

Once I finished his room, I went down to the basement again. I started looking at the stacks of empty, quart canning jars. I don’t need those things. Between my wife and I, pints are the most appropriate size. I still have 15 quarts of applesauce that I made from my tree, am I really going to eat all of that? Not without deliberate action.

My wife went to Costco last Saturday with my older son so he could get his first shopping trip in. We haven’t gotten out of there without a $600 tab since I was not working and doing all the cooking and shopping. I don’t know the financial bill but two packages of paper products, two flats of drinks and one miscellaneous box was shocking. I am used to spending hours unloading, rotating and facing the pantry items once she got home.

End Your Programming Routine: If you would have asked me in September if I was happy for some space from my kids, I would have said absolutely accepting natural progression. There was a lot of attitude and entitlement that I shipped off as well. But, I saw a lot of growth at the end of December from both of my boys. It was so much more pleasant than it has been in recent years. They actually made a point to spend family time rather than arguing about it. For a moment, it almost makes me nostalgic to go back to the way things were last week. For now, I am going to try and figure out what new normal is.

January 6, 2026 – The Oregon Coast is a Heating Climate

January 6, 2026 /

This is one of those gems that gets found when you rent before you buy. As an aspiring coastal dweller, I know that it rarely gets above the mid-seventies in the summer. There are often times that when it is near 100 in the valley where I currently live, it can be in the 60s and sometimes even raining at the coast. I have no qualms about what the cooling capacity is needed for comfort at the coast and I would have expected that the heating question is solved in spades.

After we made our offer and toured a second time, I discovered that our new house really has inadequate heat. The picture above is one of two units in the living space on the main floor. The problem that I have observed is that it takes up to 24 hours to get the living space comfortable and that is because a lot of the heat goes up the stairs (mind you, this is with all of the doors closed).

It has been almost thirty years since I have lived in a unit with electrical resistance heating. They are pretty common in rental units, I put them in my own ADU. In fact, I used a double sized unit in the living area of my 650 square foot space. You can see why I am skeptical that two of these will be enough for 1200 square feet.

It will make a difference when we are living there and not trying to heat a space from 45 to 70 in a couple of hours for a quick overnighter. Our New Years stay was our first multiple night stay and we installed one of those weather stations to try and get a handle on how long it actually takes. I would say a good day to get comfortable.

I won’t say that we cannot live with it, because we can and we will. As long as things keep up, it will be alright. The worst case scenario is I have propane, kerosene and space heaters if needed. My wife won’t like it and those will mess with the Feng Sui of the home but we won’t have to be cold. Adding mass such as furniture will make a difference in the operational duration of the heaters. I have observed that they pretty much run from the time they are turned on until we shut off the lights to leave in an overnight stay in an empty house.

Let’s not get too rash until we move in and see how it goes. While the climate is always cool, fortunately it is rarely severely cold. It will occasionally snow and by that I mean once every couple of years. Temperatures below freezing is a couple of times per year but not extended days on end. I am looking at my temperature while I am writing this and it is 32 degrees here and 40 degrees at the lake.

Electrical resistance heating is cheap to install but very expensive to operate. Hence why it is seen so often in rental units. The landlord never has to reap the consequences of the installation decision. That doesn’t mean that it doesn’t work. I do think it is ideal in small spaces particularly interior ones. Those would be things like bathrooms, laundry rooms and occasional bedrooms. I don’t love them for bedrooms because of the potential fire hazards and they are a poor substitute for a furnace. They just don’t have the power to heat things quickly and have to run a long time, think spinning dollar signs as they operate.

Think about it this way, two of those heaters can be put on one standard 20 amp 110v circuit (yes, there are lots of different models this is one example). That is 2000 watts of of electrical consumption. Our heat pump is on a 60 amp 220 volt circuit. Whether it uses all that power or not it has a potential to consume 13,200 watts of power. Doing that math, that is 13 individual resistance heaters. The unit cost of those heaters are currently $167 each meaning the overall materials cost is roughly $2,200 whereas a full size heat pump furnace is at least $10.000, not counting duct work.

I don’t have time to go into all of the technical details today however heat pumps pull heat out of the air and into a carrier fluid over a coil to be blown throughout the house. Only when the outside temperature is cold (less than 35) does a resistance coil kick in to add supplemental heat. This is why operating a heat pump is significantly more efficient than electrical resistance heating because you are mostly using electricity for a fluid pump and two fans.

Heat pumps are not the only technology choice. The advantage of heat pumps over furnaces is that they offer cooling in the warmer months with the same technology. In our case, an all electric home, it seems like an obvious choice without having to connect gas or find a place to put a wood/pellet stove. To further subdivide the category, a mini-split is a certain type of heat pump that doesn’t use ducts (think hotel room). They also tend to be at least half the cost of a traditional heat pump without the footprint or infrastructure.

End Your Programming Routine: In our future, I actually see two things, one is propane and the other is a mini-split. I will talk about the reasons why in some future post. I know that electricity is going to be expensive but so is retrofitting this house and we are tapping pretty hard on reserves to do all of the inspection items like replacing the sewer line and new porch railings. All told, we are about $15,000 in repairs to date and we haven’t sold the house yet. Wait and see is not just practical, it is also necessary.

January 5, 2026 – Is Goal a Dirty Word?

January 5, 2026 /

We are in that time of year where a lot of people are thinking about ways to become a different person. You might call it a resolution or just a goal but despite the fact that our culture highly regards goals, I tend to think that they are not all they are cracked up to be. Goals have their place but what are they going to do for you and your future? Today I talk about the traps of goals and how to incorporate them into becoming the real person you want to be.

January 2, 2026 – Mere Christianity, Book Four: Chapters 1-6

January 2, 2026 /

Read along: http://www.ntslibrary.com/PDF%20Books/Mere%20Christianity%20-%20Lewis.pdf

I think I am on the wagon again. Maybe it is just that the holidays have actually provided a little bit of downtime and so I have been able to find a little time to read. That being said, I only have twelve more chapters to go. I am going to do my darndest to see this book through, in successive weeks. This week makes six out of twelve, so only one more week to go.

So far, I admire Lewis’ attempt to do something that has seemingly been impossible over 2000 years of history. That would be make a logical argument for the existence of God. Although I am already a believer, I cannot say that this book would have done it for me, yet. This section might tip the scales one way or the other. What I can say is that theology from an Anglican point of view probably won’t get it done.

Before I get ahead of myself, I want to throw a super quick summary of this week. Once again, this is a chapter per bullet Point.

  • Introduction to Lewis’ take on theology
  • The terms Bios – earthly life and Zoe – spiritual life
  • Lewis chooses the idea of predestination over free will
  • An introduction to the trinity – father, son and holy ghost
  • Jesus is of God, man is from god.
  • Salvation takes work. This is on purpose given that god could have created a perfect species, like Jesus.

I grew up going to church in a moderate, protestant denomination. In contrast, the Anglican church is a highly nuanced slice off of Catholism. This means that there are some relatively significant differences in Theology between the Christian belief poles of Catholics and Protestants. I would say now I lean toward more evangelical Protestantism which is probably even more different. One of those beliefs is in the trinity: Father, Son and Holy Ghost. Conservative sects treat each one of the trinity as individual units whereas the contemporary Protestants consider them one and the same.

I would say that is not worth going to battle over. But it is illustrative of something that is so fundamental in one interpretive of Christianity. For that reason, it is going to be difficult for a non-Anglican to take theology from an Anglican.

My family on my mom’s side is French. My grandfather was the son of two French immigrants. That makes me one quarter if you are doing the math. But the point being is that he was a dyed in the wool Catholic, church every Sunday no matter where you at. He even refused communion for almost forty years because of his divorce. I took a church official in Europe to re-instate him.

My mom has explained that the family felt that attending church was punitive growing up. It didn’t mean that she didn’t believe, it meant that she wanted to go about it in a different way. For that reason, she got caught up in the early 1970s crusader movement of the likes of Billy Graham. That is when she moved from Catholism to Protestantism. It never struck my Grandfather well as leaving the one and true religion. In fact, when I introduced my girlfriend as of Mexican descendance, he was over joyed that we might come back into the fold. He kept giving me Catholic publications to read and get educated. Sadly for him, her family also switched to Protestantism in the same time frame.

This is no slight at Catholism. I have a ton of respect for what the church continues to do for society, I just don’t quite go along with all of their beliefs. I would also be remissed to say that this is an organization that is made of people and has done a ton of bad things as well. That doesn’t take away from the potential to do good by acknowledging bad and working to be better. That is true Christianity.

All those words above are to say the it is difficult to take theology from only one perspective, especially one that I am already not totally jiggy with. Again, I should reiterate that Anglican is not Catholic, but it is so darn close. But heck, I should be giving Lewis props for attempting something so high brow.

There is more to this week than disagreeing over theology. I found some of his arguments very intriguing. Specifically over the word beget. God beget Jesus, meaning Jesus was of God. Whereas man is from god. This is why we are imperfect. If we were of God, then sin would not be an issue. The challenge to live a godly life is the test for immortality and it is not easy.

End Your Programming Routine: Some day, we will all know the answer to all of this. Rather than throwing the baby out with the bath water, I think it is best if I just read on and form my complete opinion after I have gotten the whole context. That is the fair thing to do. I had never considered that God could have just made a world of him and then none of this would be a discussion. I wonder why? I think we will find Lewis’ answer this week.

December 31, 2025 – Save This For Later

December 31, 2025 /

I won’t lie, I am a little snooty about my beef. My whole life I have primarily known the source of my beef. When given the choice from the butcher, I would cut up the rib roast or prime rib into ribeye steaks. I am generally not a fan of prime rib because I don’t find it to be cooked particularly well. That being said, when you have a $165 piece of beef, you want to honor the results, regardless of the source.

This was our Christmas prime rib. I calculated 12 people and so I figured that a six plus pound roast was adequate. However, when I looked at it at the store, it didn’t seem nearly large enough, especially considering shrinkage from cooking. We ended up eat about 2/3 of this nearly 13 pound roast so I would gauge one pound per person rather than half a pound. Ideally, I would have sliced it much thinner than I did with a knife. That more than likely would have made it go farther but I was in a time crunch so slices ranged from a quarter to half inch.

This particular roast was bone in. This means that some of that weight was also the bones. I actually didn’t realize that until I was cutting for serving. It came out fine but it was a surprise when I started getting ready for serving. Actually, it came out more than fine. The day after Christmas, I trimmed the bones and made beef stock for Au Jus for our French dip sandwiches. From the rib trimmings, I chopped those up with some potatoes and made a breakfast hash. We gave our newly moved out son a pile of meat to eat on and I still have some leftover meat for dinner.

The hardest thing about prime rib is cooking it properly. You certainly don’t want it over cooked and you definitely want it done by dinner time. No matter what recipe you choose, it is essential to have a probe thermometer. I use the same technique that I use with a turkey. Take it out early and cover first with foil and then with towels. This allows the meat to continue to cook and rest.

In my roast, I turned the oven on at 500 degrees. I put the roast in for twenty minutes and then the temp went down to 325 until the center measured 125. A rough estimate for the timing is about 15 minutes per pound. That made my overall oven time about three hours. I took it out about an hour and a half before dinner and covered it. About an hour later, the thermometer read 145 degrees. I wasn’t paying total attention at that point as I was busy with other things.

If you ask me, it was probably a little over cooked. Portions around the bones and in the middle were still pink. All things considered, it was about perfect given the variables although maybe I would take it out at 120 next time. One of the key steps that almost every recipe gets wrong is the initial rest. Most of them give very silly instructions such as let the roast sit on the counter for thirty minutes to come up to room temperature. I have news, a 12 pound roast will not come up to temperature in thirty minutes after being in the refrigerator. My picture is after sitting on the counter for four hours and it is still 39. If I really loved my family, I would have gotten the roast out about 3AM instead of 6AM to give more time to come up to temperature.

This step is critical to having a good outcome. A nearly freezing hunk of meat is going to cook more unevenly considering how much mass there is to cook. I will also make your cook time shorter, the longer it warms on the counter. If I could let it get up to 50-55 degrees, I would.

Cooking a prime rib is not hard, it just requires planning and attention. Back calculate eating time plus an hour rest, divide the weight by four and add that to your start time. The rest time also acts as a little buffer time if more cooking is required, but I would err on the side of starting earlier and giving more rest time if you are unsure. Just like it wont come up to room temperature in thirty minutes, it won’t come out of the oven to room temperature in thirty minutes.

End Your Programming Routine: Some people like horseradish or mustard or au jus. To me, the meat was the star here and plus I forgot get horseradish and all the stores were closed by the time we realized it. That is Ok because the results were fantastic anyway. Other than the price, you shouldn’t be intimidated to make prime rib. Paying attention will yield better results than any restaurant can achieve.

December 30, 2025 – 100 Years

December 30, 2025 /

I should have got to this a few weeks ago. It would have been closer to my Grandmother’s birthday. With all of the holidays and me being behind with everything, I just found the time. Normally, I wouldn’t publish a photo without permission, but I think that my grandmother would not mind. I suspect that if I ever made it that far, there wouldn’t be much for me to be worried about either.

I wasn’t born yesterday. In fact, I have fifty years of experience on me. While getting to 100 is something that most of us will never achieve, I kind of see it as bittersweet. My grandparents were married for a little over fifty years and then my Grandfather died suddenly in 1994. If you are doing that math, that is over thirty years of being a widow. For a short while, my Grandma had a friend who was a lifelong neighbor and also a widower. Unfortunately for her, he was in his mid 90s himself and died a few years ago.

Probably the saddest turn of events was that my Grandma was a twin. Approximately ten years ago, her sister and life long best friend developed dementia. While they lived at the same facility, the disease took her sister much earlier figuratively and then literally. I know it was hard for her, but this is not a sad sack story. It is just a realization that life can have unforeseen difficulties when you do something that very few people ever do.

I think one of the funnest stories about my Grandma is that my great grandfather did not like like my grandfather when they were dating because he drove too fast. But, she got the last laugh when they eloped in high school. Imagine that! My Grandfather was drafted for World War II and she followed him to basic training where she finished high school. Just in case it wasn’t clear, they eventually got over the fast driving.

After my grandfather’s service he had a burning desire to be a farmer. That was not the most lucrative career. After living in a tent and a converted chicken coop, my grandmother laid down the law when my dad was school age. They purchased their first house and had some stability with my grandfather starting to work a local specialty metals mill. When my dad got college age, both he and Grandma went to the local community college, graduating at the same time. She went to work as a medical assistant where she eventually worked with her sister until she retired.

One of the greatest songs ever is “100 Years” by Five For Fighting. I have written enough and have a long enough track record, I see it in my work. I keep thinking about someday I am going to do this or that and then before I realize it, life has just flown by. Before I started writing on AltF4, I was journaling about once a week. I have been doing that for probably fifteen years.

When I read my original writings, I still have the same delimas and I have the same unfulfilled desires. Even the lyrics of the song ring true. We we are young, we want to be older, then we are concerned with our career and future. Before we know it, we are caught up in work and family until all of the sudden, we are in our twilight. I know that I am definitely into the same pattern, where I am so busy trying to get ahead that i am missing the present.

We actually had two parties for my Grandma. The first one was family only and the second one was pretty open. It is a good sign when a couple hundred people come to to your birthday party. I have been to a lot of social events and it isn’t that often that you get that many people to an old person’s event. That says a lot to the lot about the kind of life that she leads.

End Your Programming Routine: It’s kind of hard to get dedicated time at someone’s special day. It is always like that at birthdays and weddings. But, I recently I spent an hour on the couch reminiscing about her party certain life events that I had never heard about this previously. It was a good conversation and I didn’t want to leave her in the room alone when everyone went to another room. It was a good time and I wish many more but I realize that there probably won’t be too many more. Not only do I need to take my own advice about my own life but I need to make sure that I take advantage of this relationship while I still can.

December 29, 2025 – AltF4’s 2025 Year In Review

December 29, 2025 /

Today I go through my work in 2025 and sum up the highlights for the year. I analyze the general theme of the month/quarter/year as well as highlight my favorites of the year. When I look back at previous years, I realize that this has typically been a post and not a podcast. Oh well, I already planned it this way. See you in 2026.

December 24, 2025 – Good Times

December 24, 2025 /

Tomorrow is Christmas. For kids and some, it is a good time. I don’t particularly like it and I sort grit my teeth to get through it. There will be no AltF4.co tomorrow, but I wanted to leave on a high note. I am recapping a little bit of some of the finds I stumbled upon while I was on my hunting trip. This was in my plans for October but got buried under all the things that I didn’t get to. When I look at these pictures, I have a good feeling and so I thought that I would share.

Starting with the upper left, I had some kind of giant bird fly into a nearby tree. I think it was a Peregrine falcon but I am not 100% certain which is why I took the picture in the first place. Strange things sometimes happen in the woods, I have had owls fly around as if they are protecting something that I never saw. Sometimes there are occurrences that I have never experienced just by proximity to new or unusual circumstances. It was odd to have a giant bird land so close to a tree that I was next too.

To the right of that picture is a clear sign of predator activity. It was getting late in the week and the weather had finally changed from Indian summer to wet and freezing in the morning. I was walking a clear area and I stumbled upon some rib bones that were still bright red. If I had to guess, this was a remnant from a hunter’s recent butcher job that got carried away by a coyote. It was the only bones in the immediate vicinity but not the only bones in the area. It reminds us that this is a wild area with real, wild activity, even if it is not seen.

The picture on the farthest left is another thing I ran across in the woods. It is hard to say how old that can actually is. But I will say this, I have never seen a can like that before. This tells me that it was probably in the 1950-60 range. My guess is that this is a remnant from the original timber cutting of the area. Not only that, but I have never eaten canned potatoes. It makes me wonder what life was like back then. Is the person that left the can still alive? What were they actually doing in the woods? I see a lot of trash in the woods, but something vintage has a nice pedigree to it.

The last picture is some kind of plot marker. I spent some time looking at the sign because it was fascinating. First, it was made with super tight growth ring timber, likely ponderosa pine. It had both embossed and painted information on it. I don’t know if the marker was embossed first and then painted or repurposed by the painting. The sign was clearly hand painted and had some kind of cartographic information on it. Finally, it was nailed to the tree. Once again, I would guess that this hails from the 1950-60s.

Last week, I showed a picture of me standing in front of a defunct fire tower. That tower was build in the mid-1990s and taken out of service in 2023 because it was deemed unsafe. It looked pretty good to me but if I had to speculate, I would guess that the galvanized hardware had started to corrode. It is too bad because fire watch today is predominantly done by satellite, airplane and cameras.

There are still a few active fire towers in Oregon. It used to be that people like teachers would camp out during the summer months to keep an eye out for smoke, likely after lightning storms during the summer months. These things would dot the forests from line of sight to line of sight and were crucial on getting the jump on fire response. Some of them are available to stay overnight as a sort of weekend getaway. I helped myself to use of the vault toilet. It was very clean and private and it sure beats digging a hole. It also helped that the best cell phone reception in the area was at the tower. I actually conducted some business up there.

End Your Programing Routine: A hunting trip is a lot more than shooting an animal to me. It’s a good thing too because I haven’t shot any animal in ten years. It was camaraderie that doesn’t exist in the in-between years. It is the treasures that are found, some of which I documented. It is the wonder and mystery of man kind and nature. This is why I look forward to a hunting trip every couple of years. Merry Christmas everyone.

December 23, 2025 – When It Rains, It Pours

December 23, 2025 /

When it comes to winter storms, certainly the ones that have snow and ice are the ones that get the most attention. These are the ones that snarl traffic on the ground and the airport, they freeze pipes and generally make life miserable. While it might snow here a time or two a year, there have definitely been years without snow. We also get another type of storm that rides the jet stream in from Hawaii. This is our second ‘atmospheric river’ this month.

When we moved into this house twenty-one years ago, it was in the beginning of January. We lived a whole year without seeing any kind of water in the basement and the previous owners only owned the house for nine months. It was never disclosed that the basement got wet. More than likely because they didn’t know. The second January, I walked down the stairs and then stepped in water up to my ankle. The house inspector mentioned where a good spot to put a sump pump but it had gone in one ear and then out the other. After the mess was cleaned up, it was time to start planning.

I can’t believe that I have never written about this before, but I haven’t. Since I have installed the sump pump, I have not stepped up to my ankles in water. It has made a huge difference but it doesn’t stop it all. If it is wet enough, water will weep through the concrete block foundation and it will start coming through the expansion joints in the floor. Believe it or not, most of the water runs down the outside sidewalk, down the basement stairs and then under the door.

If we were going to stay here forever, I would put a drain at the bottom of the basement stairs to prevent much of this. The reason that I have not is that it would really require rebuilding the entire stairs in concrete. It is probably somthing that I should have done but life have been busy. Let’s call it a long term plan.

I have a submersible pump that will go to the worst areas like the one pictured. When the water gets high, it can take up to ten minutes to pump dry. Additionally, when the water is that high, one pumping is not enough. The sequence goes fill, pump, fill, pump until the ground drains, which can take days. For this most recent storm, there was only one day that I had to pump. By then, the rain event had already passed so I knew that I was in the clear.

The good news is that this is not every time it rains. It happens under two conditions: an atmospheric river or when a heavy snow event starts to melt. The bad news about the second one is that when it snows, it tends to freeze. This makes the pump deadhead against a pipe full of ice. I have had to come up with emergency procedures to pump out with a hose into the yard rather than down the driveway and into the storm sewer system. The other bad news with that is that the water tends to run back into the basement by way of under the door. But it is better than waiting for the pipe to thaw.

Last year, there was a forecasted atmospheric river. I got everything ready by getting stuff off the ground, staging pumps and hoses and all that prerequisite work. The rain came and went and the basement did not flood, not one drop. Consider that dodging a bullet because I would much rather roll up a dry hose than spend time fighting the rising tide. It was the only time I had to go into action last year. So, you see it is not every year.

This is one of those things that is part of the rhythm of life. The first time it happened, it was probably a week of trying things and constant vigilance. At this point, I just make sure anything that can get wet is off the floor and stage pumps and hoses. Since I have been working in my office, there has not been a time where I haven’t found a minute to step away an pump for sixty seconds and I don’t worry about it.

We got three inches of rain in a 24hr period of time. When I look at the local rivers, they are not the highest I have ever seen. I would concur that this was not the wettest my basement has ever been. In 2016, we had record setting rainfall, I did take the day off to keep up with things that year. But, then again, there was river water on Highway 99W. That was the first and only time I have ever seen that. That time, I did take a day off of work so that I could deal with the water.

Snow and ice do a pretty good job of messing up the roads temporarily. This is not that but when the rain causes a landslide that wipes out a half mile of road, this can be a whole lot more costly than snow. There are at least three different road closures for damaged highways that the foundation has been washed away. The label is ‘indefinite closure’. An atmospheric river is nothing to sneeze at.

End Your Programming Routine: I love my basement. It is an extremely valuable space for me and completely worth the effort. But, I will be honest, I will not miss this exercise. It changes plans and sometimes wakes me up in the middle of the night. We were going to spend two nights at the beach but I told my wife that I needed to stay and monitor the situation. Fortunately, it wasn’t too bad and we are waiting for the next event. Hopefully, this is it for the year and forever for me.