Grass Fire

A little excitement for our Valentine's Day week -- a grass fire swept over the property yesterday when a neighbor's rubbish fire got out of control. Disclaimer up front -- Nothing was harmed (other than grass) during this incident. We weren't actually at the site when it happened, but here's what we have pieced together: Our oh-so-intelligent neighbors to the south were burning some trash, and perhaps didn't attend the fire quite as closely as they should have. A light breeze is almost always blowing on the ridge even when the rest of the state is quite still, so a spark must have been blown over into the tall grass of the vacant property between us. Our weather for the last week has been cold but dry, so the dead grass caught readily. The fire swept through the vacant lot, pushed north by the wind towards the dome.

It got down into the lower portion of our property, the meadow where the leach lines for the septic tank were dug, and burned some grass down there. You can see that it passed over so quickly, though, that the trees are unscathed. I don't think we lost any trees at all; even the tiny apple trees in the orchard seem to be largely untouched.

More frighteningly, the fire also came right up to the propane tank behind the dome, but the fire department was on scene by this time and knocked the flames down before anything could happen there. The tank isn't even scorched. We had the gas company people come out to inspect it, just to be on the safe side, but there's not a thing amiss with it. (You can see the oh-so-intelligent neighbors' house in the distance of this picture.) All told, around five acres burned. I am thankful that this turned out to be a minor-sidebar type of story -- it could have been much, much worse. Also, two good things will come of this little adventure: 1) The grass will come in green and lush in the burn areas this spring. 2) I won't have to work very hard to convince Mike of the virtues of brush-hogging the property this year.

Painting is Finished

We finished the final coat yesterday, except for a few touch-ups and a little work on the upstairs dormers... as is pretty obvious in this picture, we were racing the weather. (It's supposed to rain tomorrow.) What a relief to finally have it done. Now, with the exterior finished, we can concentrate on the interior work all winter.

For some reason, there are ladybugs all over the dome. I don't mean a few here and there; I'm talking thousands. It's common to see these kind of swarms during Indian summer; the bugs will be gone once it freezes again. But still. I think they are attracted to the flat concrete surfaces of the dome, which may look to a ladybug brain like a cliff (its natural winter habitat)... or perhaps they think they have found the mothership, who knows.

Dome Primered

Mike & I were out at the dome painting this weekend... the primer coat is almost finished. The dome looks completely different now. The finished color won't be white, however; it'll be more of a light beigey natural shade.

Painted Dome

There is actual paint going on the actual dome! Mike started the primer coat today. He's using Loxon, an acrylic primer specifically meant for concrete. He has to roller it on because it's almost always too windy to spray on the ridge -- it'll probably be a four-day job.

Finished Dormers

The dormers are all complete! We finished the wide first-floor ones with a colored stucco product called Dryvit... the smaller upstairs window dormers are plain concrete & will be painted with the house.

It rained off & on last week (what a wet season we've been having!), but the forcast says sunny & cool for all of next week. Paint at last!

The apple trees, by the way, responded well to spraying & put out another batch of leaves just in time for the coming frost. Oh well. It looks like they are in good shape to thrive next spring.