Big Tree, Big Problem

Having trees on the property is great. They provide shade in the hot summer, block gusty winds and give cute little animals a personal playground. We have a mature oak tree in our backyard that stands more than 12m tall. It was in rather poor shape with some dead branches, plenty of "suckers", a "borer" infestation, poison ivy (!!!) and the list goes on. Considering that a few of the branches are long enough to practically hang over our roof and the neighbor's back-porch, it needed fixing, and fast. One thing we learned was that oak trees don't like being trimmed from April to October. The tree is actively trying to grow then and therefore loses nutrients through cut branches, which then develop infections. End result: dead tree. It was already March so I began calling around for estimates from professional tree service companies. This is way too big a job (and way too dangerous!) for a DIY project. We found a local company which gave us a very reasonable quote, described to us what the crew would be doing from start to end, and, most importantly, a written estimate that included the entire list. The boss also offered much appreciated follow-up care advice which demonstrated his knowledge and professionalism. The full crew turned up the very next day. I'm not kidding when I mentioned earlier that it was a very dangerous job!! The trimming and cleanup took about 2 hours. The results (below) speak for themselves. It's reassuring that we won't have dead branches the diameter of my leg fall on our heads while we're out in the yard.

Once Again: Google is Your Friend

One of the smoke alarms began to beep periodically, freaking us out. Since there wasn't any smoke in the house, we figured that it was either telling us it needed a new battery, or that something else was otherwise wrong with it. After putting in a new battery, it stopped beeping but was still blinking red once in a while. The stack of manuals that was in the house when we bought it did not include one for the smoke alarms. So it was Google to the rescue once again. A quick search for "Firex 120-1182" turned up a vendor that included the PDF manual and specifications on their website. Now that's a good sales pitch, in my opinion! Anyway, the red-blink once every 40 seconds was normal, just checking the battery level. All the other alarms were also doing it, we just didn't pay any attention to them because they're just those "work quietly in the background" things. So what would _you_ do when something in the house starts acting weird? Start practising your Google-Fu now.

Happy Chinese New Year!

Happy New Year to all! Here's wishing the Year of the Ox will be bullish. ;-) As per tradition in the family, we had a steamboat style reunion dinner. The photo below was taken near the end of the meal, where vermicelli is used to soak up the soup flavoured by all the ingredients that went before. Yummmmyyyy. The pot was lugged over to the US by Lee Kiang last summer (thanks!) and we bought the little tabletop burner just for this occasion. It worked real well and removed the constant need to be careful of the power cable, as with the previous electric wok. There were many of the usual chinese new year treats available in the oriental markets but we only picked up a few boxes of egg rolls (no, not the sort you eat at chinese buffets here in the US!) and mandarin oranges. Gong Xi Fa Cai!

Fun with Snow

Snow. It's Heavy.

The news in Singapore probably gave it a passing mention: the sky dropped a huge amount of snow on Michigan yesterday. At least 10 tons of which landed on my driveway. How do I know it was 10 tons? I'll skip the math, but suffice to say, I feel the weight with every muscle in my sore body. I started winter thinking that shoveling snow would be good exercise. After all, there is no need to mow the lawn in winter. The first snow with enough accumulation to need shoveling was this Wednesday. I shoveled the driveway, Jia Nin did the sidewalk and the walkway up to the front door (aerial view of the house from a previous post). The only indication that I might have future trouble was that it took 2 hours. Then it snowed yesterday for 10 whole hours, from 4am to about 2pm. Following the advice of experienced friends, I tried to keep ahead of the snow pile by clearing the driveway at about 10am, before it got too deep to lift a shovelful. About 6-8 inches had fallen by then. (No, I didn't go in to work. When there is a severe weather warning in the U.S. telling you travel is discouraged, you listen very carefully. But I digress.) Three words describe the effort: tiring, cold, oh-i-see. Tiring because the snow was wet and heavy and there was alot of it. Cold because the temperature was -4 degrees celcius and the wind kept throwing snow in my face. oh-i-see occurred around 10:30am when every single one of my neighbors rolled out their motorized snow-throwers and were all done clearing snow within 30 minutes. After 2 whole hours, I had only cleared enough to ensure my car could get to the road, roughly 1/2 the driveway. I didn't even have the energy to clear Jia Nin's side of the garage. And the snow kept coming. So I started to do research on snow-throwers. Lots of research, very fast. By 3pm, it was clear that the snow was done. I went out and cleared the sidewalk (by law, the homeowner has 72 hours to clear the sidewalk of snow, or risk fines), the walkway to the front door, and re-shoveled the 4 additional inches which came down on the driveway. That took another 90 minutes. That was I when called the nearest vendor and placed a order for a Honda HS520AS snow-thrower. I picked it up this morning, did some grocery shopping, had lunch and came home. Fired it up and was done in 20min. Holy. Cow. The ease. The speed. Why oh why did I ever think exercise was a good thing. :-)

These photos are of the walkway to the front of the house. I did this part manually, hence the very lumpy surface due to snow shoveled and thrown there. (Check out shots of the house without the snow for comparison!)

This side of the driveway was packed full of snow (including snow shoveled over from the other side of the driveway) before I started today. Now, all clear. Moral of the story: A chore is a chore first and exercise last.

Thanksgiving 2008

It was Turkey Day here in the U.S.A.. Spent it sleeping. ^_^ Then we spent Friday cleaning because Jia Tyan (Jia Nin's sister) and her colleague from the Michigan State University joined us for a turkey meal on Saturday instead of Thursday, giving the usual traffic hassles and last minute shopping rushes a miss. I roasted the turkey, Jia Nin made the cabbage casserole, croissants, pasta salad (not in photo) and gaucamole (not in photo) while her sister and friend brought the relish, stuffing and beer. For my first try at cooking a whole turkey (turkey burgers don't count!), it turned out pretty good. I adapted a recipe from the Good Eats cooking show (highly recommended!). Used the drippings from the turkey to make the gravy (add a cup of wine to dissolve the drippings, reduce in a sauce pan on high, add 1/4 cup of vinegar and 1/4 cup of heavy cream). The photo above was just after carving, before being picked clean of meat. The carcass is now in a pot, being rendered down for stock. Looking forward to Jia Nin's borscht soup. Yummmmm.. We didn't escape the final Thanksgiving Tradition though: Leftovers. The wings and drumsticks will make great snacks and the breast meat (and scraps) are to be used in the coming week's lunch sandwiches (yes, a whole week! 5 working days!). Next goal: surviving Christmas.