Tales from Easement Acres
I’m a little late, but here’s the annual post. This is what I was up to in January of 2025:
Things happened! And it was more eventful than January 2024.
–Simon
In the world of units of standards and measure, there are weight distinctions to make. They’re confusing to the uninitiated, so here’s a quick reference guide in increasing ranks:
Crap Ton < Ass Load < Fuck Ton < Mother Load
Some of these are archaic, others are preferred in different industries, and some are the result of the Metric vs Imperial system.
These shouldn’t be mixed up with other measurements that append a descriptor to simply emphasize an ephemeral state. An example: “cold as balls” and “hot as balls”. Neither make much sense in an etymological sense, but that’s besides the point. You get the message.
So how to measure the weight of snow? I propose “Cold Ton”, but until that becomes standardized I’ll default to the American “Short Ton” of 2000lbs, vs the European “Metric Ton/Long Ton” of 1000kgs.
So when it snowed recently, during a cold as balls weekend, what originally appeared to be a Fuck Ton of snow quickly superseded Mother Load status upon measurement. It warranted such data collection, as it was the most snow I had ever seen.
Working from home, I’m generally not terribly inconvenienced by snow, so long as it doesn’t damage anything or knock out the power. So let’s first look at some nice pictures:
But, I still have to shovel it off the driveway, and even with the help of conscripted labor, it required two days and 16 Ibuprofen. Such a feat required me to measure the final weight of our adversary. Because data and math!
First off, I established a weight/volume baseline, because snow density isn’t a universal constant. Using a measuring cup and a kitchen scale, I determined that one cup (8 fluid ounces) of non-packed snow weighed 1.2 ounces by weight. And with a cubic foot being 957.5 fluid ounces (our snow in question therefore weighed ~9 pounds per cubic foot), and my driveway being 1581 square feet (which equals the same in cubic feet because we got almost exactly one foot of snow), and of course 1 pound being 16 ounces by weight…
We removed 14,191 pounds of snow from the driveway. Which equals about 7.1 Short Tons of snow!
(My proposal: Cold Ton = Ibuprofen / Short Tons. We received 2.25 Cold Tons of snow.)
Here’s what that amount of snow looks like visually. The portion shown in this photo is about half of the total:
Snow is heavy, and I certainly understand now how little of it will kill you if buried in an avalanche. Or why people get heart attacks shoveling it.
–Simon
Arcus, or jet contrail? Hard to tell.
–Simon
A house!
After my recent accomplishment of finally installing bathroom ductwork into proper external vents, I started to reminisce. We will soon hit our 10-year mark in this house, Easement Acres. What began as an American dream turned into a parenthood want: a place for the kid to grow up. And the romanticized homestead activities of decorating and gardening. I wanted a home. I moved a lot myself as a kid, with the longest stint in a Lubbock property – more of a prison, really, with a tiny backyard and a lack of permission to ever venture beyond the privacy fence unescorted. All it needed was some concertina wire to complete the feeling.
But now, with the decade landmark in sight, this will be the longest I have ever lived in one domicile. So I wanted to look back on what I’ve written about in my time here. Or more specifically, what I’ve written about regarding the house itself.
Here’s a chronological list:
2017
2018
2019
2020
2021
2022
2023
2024
2025
2026
Conclusion
A lot of work has been done here on Easement Acres! It’s definitely more than my parents had ever done to their home. I think the difference lies with the generation gap. My home was never a given. There was a lot of doubt we’d ever get to have one at all! So every day is a new opportunity to, again, partake in the ultimate hobby! It’s not simply a place to live.
I wonder what the next 10 years will bring.
–Simon
I like breathing. I wasn’t exactly consulted in the design of terrestrial animalia metabolic function, but breathing is a required component in the process of oxidizing hydrocarbons for cellular energy nonetheless. So it would follow that such a necessary and constant action should be made somewhat pleasant, right?
Why then does laziness and cheapness persist to make the process unpleasant? Why as a people would we not choose to band together and make air quality a priority? (Beyond the obvious monetary implications, that is.)
I complained about this when I originally discovered the bathroom fans exhausted into nowhere. Actually, I discovered one fan. The other fan I would later find to be buried completely under insulation. Both fans vented to the attic. Both lacked hoses. And one was covered. Not very effective.
The one fan I could find I attached to a flexible duct line and routed it to the top of the attic, but with no exterior vent hookup, I instead retrofitted a rotary fan onto a passive vent in order to vent the whole attic. It sort of worked, but eventually the fan rusted and seized. Back to square one.
The next phase of the saga revealed the hidden location of fan #2 when what I assumed was the master bathroom fan turned out to be the guest bathroom fan when I ripped it out of the ceiling to figure out why it wasn’t ventilating. Peering down from the attic into the wrong bathroom was an unpleasant surprise. I finally located the master bathroom fan by shoving a wire up beside it and having Liz wiggle it while I scanned the attic for movement.
Both fans got replaced with ducts added. But again, with no external connection point, they vented into the attic for several years, awaiting a proper solution. Eventually, the proper solution came with the new roof. The installers, being very accommodating, added external vents for me – one for each bathroom and one for a future kitchen vent hood project. Huzzah. I triumphantly scampered up to the attic to finally connect the hoses, and was greeted by the sight of a square hole under the vents. Apparently, they’re universal external vents, meant to be fitted with connectors, but not including them by default. Damn. Had I known that, I would have fitted connectors to the old roof’s passive vents, which probably would have been a net gain even though I’d be sacrificing full attic venting capacity. Oh well. At least now I can do it proper.
And the internet told me that this is a very normal scenario, with the easy fix recommending bolting on vent collars and filling the gaps with that heat-resistant foil dryer vent tape. And go figure – that worked just fine. Duct work, unlike plumbing, is surprisingly imprecise. Tape, is part of the standard toolkit.
I should have taken some more “before” pics, but I was choking in the dust and trying to wrap this decade-long project up ASAP. But here’s what it looks like inside:
Here’s the guest bathroom fan. I had the foresight to install a 120CFM beast, even though the size of the bathroom only needed an 80. But with a shared bathroom for anyone visiting, expeditious air evacuation is of paramount priority:
And a final shot of both ducts connected! At last!
Side note: with no shingles on a metal roof, the attic ceiling isn’t studded with thousands of skull perforators. I can safely stand up higher than I ever dared before! The only blood shed on this project was from the sharp metal edges on the collars.
It is done!
–Simon