Fixing Up

Suzy Painting the Porch Floor

We've worked on Woodman's Lee for nearly 15 years...and it's far from done.

The porch needed sprucing up to be suitable for our overnight visitors. Suzy painted the wall and floor to brighten it up and make it easier to clean. Despite our fastidiousness the porch always reverted to a middenish hovel. 

Our first step was to remove everything, then clean and paint the walls and floor. We took the old table, benches and bed to the thrift store and I burned the old mattresses. I moved the tools and supplies to the tarp -covered containers on pallets in the back. Eventually the ever-growing number of tools and supplies will move into our new shed. Then we moved the vanity and futon to the porch. It's now a rather nice guest room.

The Old Loft Window

The loft window was a big job because it was my first window replacement. We needed more light - hence a bigger opening - and the work wasn't at ground level. Scaffolding was well worth the investment, it's safer than working off a ladder and access is key to a high quality job. 

The replacement window is energy efficient, it's significantly larger and provides much better ventilation because it's a double hung window. We can vent the heat from the high ceiling quite effectively by opening the upper window, or close it down tight for cold weather operations. We'll crack it open just a bit on cold nights, allowing the crisp night air to mix in with the heat from the wood stove. That's a luxury you can't find at some of the finest homes and hotels in the world because either the climate is too humid or their windows are fixed. Civilization may impress itself with its modern sealed, recirculated-air conditioned buildings - so essential for survival in the South - but I think they are unpleasant and unhealthy.

The New Loft Window

Suzy also painted the loft floor, brightening it up and making the floor easier to sweep. Then we hauled the big Tempur-Pedic mattress from the storage facility and hoisted it into the loft. So now we have a very cozy sleeping loft, and now it'll be all too easy to sleep in late on those cold winter mornings.

Oil Train Intrusion

Old CP Rail logo. 

The beaver has been eradicated on their new logo.

North Country residents are preoccupied with the outdoors - work, chores, crops, and cold weather preparations consume most of our energy, and any spare time is spent with family, hiking, getting ready for deer season, fishing or chatting about all this stuff with neighbors. What happens outside the Blue Line is generally of little consequence. Exceptions typically involve the cost of the latest idiotic school mandate or the equally idiotic feel-good firearm-law-du jour out of Albany. 

But a catastrophe that happened outside the Blue Line last year managed to get everyone's attention, even though it was 250 miles away. 

On July 6, 2013, a runaway 'oil train', - a long string of tank cars transporting Bakken crude oil - derailed at Lac-Mégantic, Quebec. When these cars derail they also ignite. The oil companies aren't required to boil off the volatiles before rail transport as required for pipeline transport. So they save money by not doing that but the oil train crude has a lower flashpoint. When that energetic fuel ignited the explosion created a blast zone over a mile in diameter. That flattened the downtown area, polluted the lake and killed 46 people. 

Oil Tank Car BLEVE at Lac-Mégantic, Quebec.

The initial reaction here probably involved a glance at the headlines but a longer gaze at the sky, as the weather determines the cadence of work. Oh, it was unfortunate but it was one of so many outside-our-world tragedies. Then we realized that this accident could have happened here, as there are 100 miles of track inside the park, right along Lake Champlain's western shore. 

Adirondack Oil Train Enroute to Albany

Every day a Canadian Pacific Rail oil train rumbles through Port Kent, 25 miles from us, enroute to refineries in Albany. The Feds control the rails so CP Rail can ignore operational inquiries from state and local governments. Railroads have a rich tradition of arrogance. But anyone can count cars so we know they ship a million gallons of crude oil through Essex County every day. 

The quantity of oil shipped through here has increased exponentially in the last 5 years and it'll further increase if the Keystone pipeline is cancelled. The oil companies are hedging their options by seeking modifications to refineries to process the dirtier Alberta tar sands oil. The industries are directing their obedient servants (aka, our elected representatives) to fast-track modification permits, specifically the Albany refineries. It's entirely possible that another million gallons of crude oil a day could be transported through Adirondack Park in the next few years.  

In fairness, CP Rail didn't cause the Lac-Mégantic catastrophe. Another railroad, Montreal, Maine & Atlantic, was responsible for that. MMA quickly realized they were mind-numbingly negligent and preemptively declared bankruptcy only a month after the accident, basically conceding every lawsuit. (They also didn't have to repay their $20 million US government loan.) Ah, it's swell to be judgment-proof. 

Here's one example of their incompetence, which happened the night of the accident: MMA thought it was perfectly ok for their engineer to essentially abandon their train carrying a quarter billion dollars' worth of oil, and get some rest at a nearby motel. And so it was parked next to busy highway, and left unattended overnight...with the locomotive door unlocked and its (damaged) engine running. While the engineer was asleep the engine blew, caught fire and the local fire department responded by shutting the fuel and pulling the circuit breakers, all per procedure. That put the fire out. Unfortunately that also shut down the air compressor supplying the air brakes and the engineer didn't apply the parking brakes. As the air slowly bled down, the train lost its brakes and rolled a few miles downhill, gaining speed and blasting through 13 grade crossings, until it finally derailed and exploded in downtown Lac-Mégantic.

Given this level of industry incompetence, it's amazing that there isn't more train accidents. CP Rail averages about ten derailments per year - for over 14,000 miles of track.

Corporations coldly analyze the cost vs. safety benefits of adding crew, strengthening the tankers, shortening the trains, slowing them down, upgrading the track, improving operational safety practices...and training/equipping the emergency responders. The decision makers must have determined that the benefits aren't worth the cost. Besides, they don't even live near the train tracks, also known as the Blast Danger Area.

A Lac-Mégantic-class accident here would overwhelm the first responders - and probably all the subsequent responders, too. There's not enough Class B foam or tankers in all of Essex County to knock down what's known as a cascading BLEVE (boiling liquid expanding vapor explosion). It took two days for 150 firefighters to extinguish the Lac-Mégantic fire...in other words, it just burned itself out. The environmental cleanup is still underway, over a year - and a billion (taxpayer) dollars - later.

Corporate budgets for common decency were zeroed out years ago - if they ever existed at all. In desperation, communities must now badger the federal government to force railroads to clean up their act. The process starts with concerned citizens who arrange public forums that the politicians can only ignore at their peril. Railroad and oil execs get anxious when the people notice how out of control they are and the commoners demand no-brainer regulations. 

Citizens may, for instance, request an end to the current practice of one employee, working 12 hour shifts, single-handedly operating a mile-long oil train. The railroads adore the labor efficiency and are undoubtedly developing drone trains to bring their labor costs closer to zero. But the public isn't enamored with one overworked locomotive engineer piloting an oil train that has the explosive potential of 25 tons of TNT. 

Thus, Suzy and I attended a public forum at the Whallensburg Grange this week. It was well attended by a collection of politicians, media and concerned citizens. Some of the attendees abused the Q&A session with bloviating questions seemingly designed, but failing, to impress the rest of us. 

Overall, it was a successful event because it grabbed the attention of the politicians and media. Additional, larger meetings are being scheduled. You can sense that something's going to change - after the inevitable stonewalling and perhaps another catastrophe or two.

With a little persistence and luck the people may indeed prevail on the oil train issue...perhaps the ethanol and propane trains, too!

Town Meeting on Oil Trains at The Grange in Whallensburg

Diēs Caniculārēs

The Dog Days began in late July. Definitions vary, but the Romans fixed the dates at July 24 through August 24. They invented the Julian calendar, so I'll accept theirs as the authoritative version. 

W graciously interrupted her busy day to laboriously demonstrate the traditional dog day pose. The proper technique involves sprawling out to match the curvature of the earth.

We had our first visitors, long time friends from Florida a few weeks ago and family from Connecticut last week. That's always fun for us, and I hope they had a nice time here. We've planned outings, but it seems as if the guests want to hang around here and relax. It is a peaceful place for an afternoon nap...as W can occasionally attest.

The shed is taking form but there's a lot of work remaining. I hope to get the rafters up, and the siding on the roof and walls completed this month. It's a slow evolution, but I don't work more than a few hours at a time on it.

We finally moved into the new firehouse, here's a photo of #345, our American LaFrance pumper, on its final departure from the old station. I was offered the brush truck to drive to the new station but I declined because I haven't been checked out on it. That was prescient because then I'd have to back it into the new station, which I may have literally done.

The new facility is nice, we have more space and I can store all my gear there. I can also charge my pager using the outlets right above my locker. The pager is an analog device, inefficient compared to the digital electronics that are common nowadays. Recall the 'old days' of analog cell phones, back when a battery charge would last a few hours. EMS pagers in more affluent areas (pretty much anywhere else) are routinely upgraded but due to the vast coverage area, remote and mountainous terrain - and limited budgets - we can't expect to stay current with the technology. So, it takes a lot of energy to charge my pager and the battery life is short. That's a problem for us because we don't generate much power from our 5W solar panel. It's a luxury to have an AC outlet available!

Anyway, here are the trucks safely parked in their bays. 

And here's a photo of my turnout gear's new home, this is so much better than leaving it around the cabin or car.

I've enrolled in a pumper truck operator class, 3 hours every Wednesday night for 8 weeks. Although pumping water looks easy, doing it right (and safely) involves a plethora of hydraulic theory and a solid understanding of the mechanical components. The class is taught in the Jay firehouse, the converted old schoolhouse, with big open windows, cool evening breezes...it's probably the finest classroom on the planet. Our class of twelve students ingurgitates a staggering amount of chewing tobacco during the lectures. I sip coffee, which feels appropriately old-school and, to a casual observer, looks like just another spit cup.

On a less repulsive note, the weather has actually gotten a bit cooler - in defiance of the Romans - the ominous prevision of a long heating season. 

I've cut and trimmed many trees, but the impact on the property is almost unnoticeable. We have an abundance of trees, which appear to grow faster than they can be harvested. 

Here's my latest woodpile, about a cord, which I figure will last about a month. I don't have a splitter so I hope that the small logs will suffice, as is. I may get a splitting maul, but I've never had much luck hand splitting logs. A gas engine powered log splitter would be the obvious gadget but I'm resisting the temptation to buy everything I think I need. It's not easy to do.

My firewood routine is to cut down the trees, limb them and either chip or burn the brush. Then I section the trees into cordwood logs, stacked and dried at the edge of the forest for a couple of months. Here's a photo of two cordwood piles around the property.

After that bit of seasoning, I cut the cordwood to size and restack it, letting the wood dry for awhile more before use. It's a lot of work but the reward is heat without using fossil fuels and nothing beats a wood stove on a chilly day. Although some fuel is used by the chainsaw, it has a tiny engine and consumes little fuel and bar oil.

In addition to laying in a stockpile of wood, I have to tune up the backup KeroSun heaters (we have a primary and a spare in storage), and clean the chimney.

To reduce heat loss, I began the loft window replacement, removing the old one and establishing the rough opening for the new one. Once that's squared up the installation should go fairly smoothly.

I completed the Election Inspector class, passed the state test and was sworn in. We have another primary on September 9, so I may work that day. Tonight is the Volunteer Ambulance meeting, and later this week is the big Oozeball tournament. The inmate detail from Ray Brook worked on the site last week and will finish up the preparations this week.

Soon the dog days will be waning and it'll be apple season. With luck, the bugs will become less energetic and we'll be harvesting more goodies from the garden. The tourists will start to diminish and it'll be even more pleasant to be outdoors...maybe we can sneak in a few hikes!