The weather has been wonderful. Here’s a picture of Canyon Lake at sunset yesterday, taken from the dam.
Gotta love gadgets
Life without gadgets is simply less fun. Today my brother Karel surprised me with a new gadget; Tempest. It’s a state of the art weather station. Wireless and solar powered. As Ozuye faces north north-east, most of the possible locations for mounting are shady. So I used a pole to make it stick out above the tree line;
Next time I’m over I may mount it to the home to make it catch sun all the time, but for now this works.
This station of course comes with an app. Here’s a screenshot of the data it collects;
It also includes notifications, so I can get a warning when there’s a storm or cold front coming. But that won’t be this year, as the weather will remain nice.
I do think the pole is asking for something like a flag, but this is a pretty flexible pole and when it does storm, the wind usually comes from that direction, so I’m not sure the pole would hold. Next time I might get an official flag pole and raise the US flag when I’m there ðŸ¤
Bubbly View
So today I had a proper test of the hot tub and I have to say, it’s comfy!
I stayed in for at least an hour, and the temperature stayed at 97F (36 C) which is very doable.
It’s all about choices
Now I could have gone for the easy option, and after clearing what will be the upstairs bathroom, simply put all the stuff that was in there back in in a more organized manor.
But instead of lifting those stone tiles for the zillionth time, I decided that if I put the tiles in with mortar, I would not have lift them ever again. So that’s what I did and the grouts were just finished.
I also put in what I had in terms of insulation and drywall, so next time I will only need 1 board.
On the right hand side will be a shower, and on the log walls I will place a hanging toilet. A small sink will go on the wall on the left.
Merry Christmas!
I just could not resist ðŸ¤
Eternal Tulips
Two and a half years ago, I brought these fresh Tulips from Holland. They are not plastic, but “embalmed” with something magical. The stem is reinforced with a steel wire ( I noticed that when I tried to cut them )
They look as good as then and did not get any water. So if you’re ever at Schiphol AirPort and want to take some really long lasting flowers, get these. Paulette has had them a year (or maybe even two) longer and they survived a move and still look as they were just cut.
Hot Tub almost ready for use
The Hot Tub is in place and I’m filling it with some water, to make sure it stays there. I made an extra outdoor outlet for the tub and for now used the hot water faucet that was already in place on the other side of the house. I will get an extra piece of PEC tube and run a cold water line to the west side, so that it’s easier to refill the tub with cold water.
As you can see, the deck leaves space to have chairs around the tub, and you’d still be able to easily walk around it.
Hot Tub Deck Stained
The Hot Tub deck is now stained in Federal Blue. I remember that color from childhood as I was playing with those 1:72 toy soldiers; In the civil war, the south had uniforms in this color.
Deck boards in
It’s always surprising how many screws go into a project. The Hot Tub Deck took almost 300 screws, just for the top boards.
The sisal ropes are also in place.
Each post has its own solar cap light;
The wood (pressure treated pine) is still greenish,but today I bought a gallon of Federal Blue stain, to make it the same color as the rest of the deck.
I will do that tomorrow, after which the deck will be ready to get the Hot Tub installed.
As I was in Wimberley anyway, I did my groceries and checked out the PCR test facility. They have a 24 to 48 hour free test, so if I time it right, I can use that to fly back to Amsterdam. The result is emailed, so if I schedule my test 48 hrs before departure, I should be good. Luckily the 24hr rule only applies to flights into the US.
I will always be an engineer
Problems that can be solved through technical solutions have always been my favorite. In this case the problem was that due to my high ceiling (almost 3 stories) and the natural tendency of hot air wanting to rise, heating downstairs to 68F (20C) meant having to set the temp to 75F (24C) making it 79F (26C) at the ceiling.
The solution I came up with (with a little help from Arnoud) was forcing hot air collected at the ceiling down to the floor.
The ceiling fan does that too, but creates a draft when you set it high, which makes it feel even more cold.
The end result looks like this;
In between logs 1 and 2 there now is ventilation channel with a ventilation system that is controlled by the black switch with 8 speed indicator. That switch drives this in duct fan;
Which is located in the technical room. It pumps air down from the ceiling, where I made this air inlet;
The duct is going through the (unfinished) upstairs bathroom;
Which easily connects to the technical room in a straight a line as possible. All ducts are be completely out of sight.
So when it’s cold, the guests can choose the amount of redistribution of hot air from upstairs to downstairs.
I’d like to test it, but for the next week there won’t be a cold front and temperatures will not drop below 15C (59F).