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Nobadays
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# Posted: 1 Oct 2019 10:41am - Edited by: Nobadays
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The aspens have pretty much all turned. The leaves will be on the ground and the trees will likely be bare in a couple of weeks. Wife finished cleaning out the eons of accumulated leaves from under the porch then screened it off yesterday so no more leaves under there. Water system is all buttoned up in it's new insulated boxes and pipes... faucet removed and plugged for winter. Now just need to get the winter water system, a 50 gallon tank in the loft up there and a faucet plumbed to the kitchen sink. Going to do a dry run pumping from 7 gallon water containers from downstairs up into the tank. I'm using a Chugger pump (if you are a brewer you probably know this pump) just not sure how well it will work to lift water about 10 feet. If need be I can use our Shurflo pump as it will be off and in the house for winter.
Gotta get some rat poison next time we are in town. The PO always threw some under the cabin in the fall and judging by the 2 dead rats under there this spring it works. We are fortunate that the cabin is tight an no mice can get in during the winter.
Now that it is cooler I'm back clearing down logs and brush, making a pile to add to the burn pile after the first snow. A bit peeved with the HOA as they are against slash burning. Kind of got scolded for the burning I did last spring. Covenants say just a small "covered campfire" is allowed. Yet nothing else is in place to take care of slash... no chipper or community burn pit. Most properties are a mess... a forest fire waiting to happen! Nothing in the covenants regarding firewising properties! Just not right... One of the board members told me they have nothing against "fires for roasting hotdogs and marshmallows, just keep it small, wink, wink!" I told him when the first snow hit I'm lighting it up.
How are you preparing for winter?
Dang it! I resized this photo to turn it upright... worked last time. I don't get it! I know why but resizing is supposed to alter the meta tags I thought.
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Brettny
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# Posted: 1 Oct 2019 11:50am
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"Define the word small officer" HOAs can be terrible. I have a huge 30x30ft brush pile im going to set off this weekend.
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hattie
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# Posted: 1 Oct 2019 12:14pm
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Nobadays - If you kill a rat with rat poison and another animal or bird (such as an owl) eats that rat, the other animal/bird will also die. 
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Nobadays
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# Posted: 1 Oct 2019 01:05pm
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Hattie.... dilemma... as far as I know they have died under the house... I buried them. The PO owner has done this for years. I will continue the practice.
Judging from the copious amount of owl poop and pellets this spring on the upper deck... our local owl is alive and well! Fenced off the upper deck to use as a "catio" this summer so the owl will need to find a new winter roost. The local fox is well, as well.
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Nobadays
Member
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# Posted: 1 Oct 2019 01:18pm
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Brettny... our HOA is pretty loose but they have their pet peeves though I don't think firewiseing/burning is one of them unless they see large slash piles being burned when conditions are dicey. We burned a lot this spring with no one saying anything to us.... someone did report "sombody" having a bonfire to the HOA president (whom I know also burned slash this spring) and he brought up the covenant regarding fires at the annual meeting. At which I asked whether we as a community wanted controlled slash burning or did they just want a forest fire to sweep through and clean all the down timber up. They then admitted things needed cleaned up but weren't sure how to get this done since they have no community chipper or burn pit.... firewiseing really needs addressed by our HOA.
Our burning this spring was always on very wet and or rainy days with no wind or very little wind. We stopped feeding the fire by 10AM and then watched it/patrolled the surrounding area until nightfall when we watered and stirred the ashes. Not all would do this so really the issue is educating for and a how to burn safely.
Ok off my soap box!
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creeky
Member
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# Posted: 2 Oct 2019 10:04am
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Make sure you have a bag of buns and some wieners handy!
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Brettny
Member
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# Posted: 2 Oct 2019 02:34pm
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I use poison blocks also. Its really the only thing thst keeps the mice at bay. I do use very few. One under the cabin, one under the shed and one under the firewood pile. I didnt do this at first and both our tool shed and cabin/shed was brought in on the same weekend. In 2 weeks they had taken the toilet paper out of the tool shed and made a nest ontop of the wall in the cabin/shed. There 75ft appart.
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moneypitfeeder
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# Posted: 5 Oct 2019 06:36pm
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A quick fix for mice stealing TP rolls, put the roll in a can with a lid. Years ago Charmin had a promo where they would send you a decorative plastic canister with a lid for "hiding" an extra roll; but a coffee can or similar works great too. We used to use poison, but have found by eliminating access to anything they might want to eat or nest in the problem has gotten much better and is manageable w/o poison. Might be worth looking into.
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Ontario lakeside
Member
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# Posted: 5 Oct 2019 10:46pm - Edited by: Ontario lakeside
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Whats the deal with HOAs? We don't have them in ontario. How do they get their power?
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Nobadays
Member
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# Posted: 5 Oct 2019 11:26pm
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We live in an old mining town that was divide up into lots (1/2 acre is the smallest but most like ourselves have a full acre)back in the 70's I think. A board comprised of lot/cabin owners was established to help "govern" the development of the properties. Covenants were established addressing things like no livestock, no old vehicles parked on properties, an architectural committee to review plans for building, and, oh yeah no slash burning.... etc. For the most part there is no issue with the board or the committee, they are pretty tolerant. The idea is to keep the place attractive for lack of a better term... no homesteads, no junkers and trashy places.
We agree with most of the covenants. My big beef is downed timber, standing dead and juniper brush have been left to litter the forest for far too many years and is becoming a huge fire hazard. Most of the cabin owners are here a week or two out of the year and the largest amount of lots are owned by people who never come and are left undeveloped. Which in some ways is nice, lots of forest and distance between cabins. But it also means very few are firewising their properties. Add this to the no slash burning and no chipper or nearby brush pit and you can see why I'm a bit of a rebel about it.... I'm going to burn. Fortunately by the end of this month there will only be about three cabins occupied and I am pretty sure they will look the other way as long as there is snow on the ground. We will be back up over Christmas and New Year's as well and there may be one other cabin occupied then... I just plan to have a big stockpile of slash ready to burn then.
Ok too much information!
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darz5150
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# Posted: 5 Oct 2019 11:32pm - Edited by: darz5150
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HOA's get their power when you move into their neighborhood or sub divisions.
I was in construction for a few decades, and have seen the HOA mongers in action.
Basically they can be the the neighborhood Nazis, dictators, small government, and basically want and have control of everything you do.
We were building a high end sub division. All homes were $350k and up. A guy that owns a major lumber company in our area, bought the local Walmart out. To put his company in their old building so they could build a super WalMart 1/4 mile away.
Then as part of the deal bought the whole sub division, to fund the wally world buy out.
Part of the HOA agreement was that anyone buying a home in the S/D, had to buy all materials from his company. EVERYTHING!
They control fire pits, outdoor lighting and mailboxes, how many people park on the street, how many people can gather for a bbq or wedding reception, swing sets, outbuildings, swimming pools, and even how often and well you cut your lawn.
Usually all is covered in a Covenant. Which is a nice term for do what we say if you wanna live here.
It still amazes me. People/sheeple were lined up to live there. The smallest lots were 2 acres. $75,000. Then I got to stack a $350k house on it.
That sub division is just 1 of many that I built on. Same type story. Too many rules and regulations.
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Nobadays
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# Posted: 6 Oct 2019 08:25am
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Darz.... Wow! That is like the opposite end of the HOA spectrum compared to the our community! Our HOA covenants are 4 pages with 2 of those dedicated to preamble about purpose and definitions. We were able to read them before we bought and I saw nothing that raised red flags, except the burning guidelines which basically stipulates a campfire with a spark screen. But looking around our property and others I saw places where people were burning slash so dismissed that....and I still think I'm ok. We just made the mistake of burning in early July when most of the part time folks were here for the annual meeting. That won't happen again!
Our architectural guidelines just say it needs to blend to the natural surroundings and from what I see and have been told - by a committee member - they primarily want to just see a sketch of what you are building and see that it is well within your property boundaries and isn't painted some wild color. There are conventional log homes, kit log homes, board and bat homes, oiled plywood homes and even a couple of sided and painted homes in the community. Not too "Nazi'ish" about enforcing our covenants. I come from a career that included land use planning and even a little planned development covenant work... the guy who drafted the rules, so when I looked at these I was a bit underwhelmed! They, in many ways are just guidelines. I say that as the only area, I can see, in the covenants with "teeth" is the enforcement of the yearly dues (for our 1 acre it is $200/yr, $100 for 1/2 acre lots). They spell out the lein process for lack of payment, but in all other areas it states something like "what the law allows." I looked into Colorado laws regarding covenant enforcement and in order for them to fine or lein a property for infractions the fine schedule and lein process has to be clearly defined within the covenants, they are not. So basically they are relying on county and state laws regarding other possible infractions..... except there really aren't county and state laws for most of the covenants... like keeping livestock, color of houses, parking of vehicles, and.... in my case burning - unless the county has a burn ban in place. I considered offering to help them rewrite the covenants but after more thought, I think I'll keep my mouth shut and leave things as they are, other than encouraging them to think about how we can get this community firewise.
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paulz
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# Posted: 13 Oct 2019 11:50am
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Yeah Darz, that's quite a story. I could never live in a HOA, too much junk.
Anyway, back to the title subject: Woke up this cold morning facing another season of dragging firewood in, feeding the stove, dumping the ashes... Started looking online at space heaters: Ventless gas - too smelly won't sleep with one going. Electric - too expensive.
So, went outside and got some wood, fired up the wood stove. Sat in front drinking coffee. I guess it's not so bad...
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Nobadays
Member
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# Posted: 13 Oct 2019 12:40pm
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Update on burning.... the President of the HOA was by yesterday as we were out cleaning up the rest of the property.... still have about 4 - 8' trailer loads to bring to the slash pile and we will have all the downed timber off the full acre! Anyway, we stood there talking and he told us that he brought up firewiseing at the last board meeting and told the board that if they won't allow people to burn then in essence they are telling them not to do in fire mitigation work, and that is unacceptable. There decision was to tell people to pile up slash in open areas on their properties and they will have the caretaker (yep a new property owner right on the main road plans to live year round so they hired him as caretaker... yay road will be plowed to within a mile of the cabin).... caretaker burn the piles this winter when snow is on the ground. Not a bad start.
He told us he wanted to tell us at the meeting not to sweat it, wait until the snow and, more importantly when few to no weekenders are here and burn our slash... just couldn't say that at an open meeting!
Yep back to the original message... fall is here, leaves nearly off the aspens. The other morning it was 14*F and hasn't been into the 30's since in the mornings, day times in the mid to upper 50's, might even hit 60 today. Happy our new buried and insulated water system is not freezing every morning!
Got the winter water system in and operational... I did another post on that. I think we filled the main water cistern for the last time this year. We will be here until about the end of October and the 550 gallons should more than meet the needs between now and then. Neighbor below us closed up and drained everything early this morning and pulled out until spring. We offered to give them/their gear-food a ride up the hill on the snowmobile if they want to coordinate meeting us up here during the winter. Taking the water/snowmobile hauling trailer to town next week to load the snowmobile for winter. Another neighbor lives in the nearby town and let's me park our snowmobile there rather than dragging it 9-10 hours back to our primary home in AZ.
How are you getting ready for winter?
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