cellini's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Crawlspace is Scary Cold weather will be here soon, so I decided that I couldn't put off duct system inspection and repairs any longer. I knew that there were holes in the duct work in the crawlspace. I just didn't know how bad they were. My crawlspace is a place of horror. A ridiculously claustrophobic space laced with cobwebs and littered with ancient debris. Bones varying from what I hope is a deer's femur to tiny articulated joints from some sort of small mammal. Snake skins. 80 year old tin pots (why are they there?) Literally, it's like something out of Indiana Jones. I had to crawl in there on my stomach to get back into the far reaches and inspect old air ducts. With a semi-automatic Ruger strapped to my hip (in case of rats or copperheads) and a roll of duct tape in one hand, I slowly made my way through the nightmare maze. Ida waited just outside the entrance, offering moral support. The first couple of spots were easy to fix. A bit of duct tape. A minute or 2 each. Then I found the big motherfucker. Underneath the bathroom, there is about a 3 and a half foot long section of duct work that was long ago replaced using a section of insulated fiberglass duct. It looked like a rat had chewed through the bottom of it to get access within. I've shot a bunch of rats in the house since we first moved in, generally within a few days of their arrival (we can hear them in the walls, in the attic and under the house right away). Basically there is a hole of about 8 inches by 6 inches that has been venting massive amounts of hot air into the enture crawlspace for the last 2 winters, costing me a small fortune. It's way too big to fix with duct tape. I need to replace that entire section of duct. Hopefully there is a flexible product I can install easily enough, because several awkward turns are involved and I'd have to have to fabricate that out of rigid steel or aluminum. Also, the bottom of the dryer vent hose was making contact with the damp ground and the bottom of the thin PVC rotted out. So I have to replace that as well. I can see through the hole that the thing is basically lined with trapped lint, which is a fire hazard. So in a way this is a good thing, because otherwise I'd not have known about the condition of the interior of that hose. I was positively filthy when I emerged from the crawlspace. An awful, awful place that crawlspace is. I have to go to the hardware store after work to get materials to fix this shit. Over the weekend I made a new thing. A vice to hold rifles in place while I'm cleaning or fixing them. Such a thing would cost $80 or so to buy. I made one with about 2 hours of actual work (not counting the interruptions in the workshop while I was playing with the kids). I'm especially pleased with the clamping system for the rear of the stock. There is a padded wooden plate that moves back and forth on a pair of metal guide rods made out of a cut-down curtain rod. An 8 inch bolt goes through the plate and extends through a fixed block on the other side of the rifle's stock, where a wing nut tightens against the other side and locks the thing in place. It's a simple and effective piece of machinary. I also spent a lot of time playing with both kids. That's what most of my time is spent on outside of work and sleep. Playing with the kids. Ida and I started painting her stool yesterday. The one we built together a few months ago. We did the whole thing in a base coat of black and then later this week we're spray-painting the top blue. 11:16 a.m. - 2008-09-22 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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