It’s been a quiet week around Dahlonega.
We have a continuing worry about the immense tree behind the rental house. If you’ve been following my blog, you will have read of the crash in the night three weeks ago when a 70 foot tree limb dropped a few feet from the house. We alerted the rental agent and landlord, but in spite of a couple of reassuring comments, nobody had apparently been round to check. So we spoke with the tree surgeon who had done some felling on the build site (he lives in the same subdivision as the rental home). He came round, and shook his head sadly at the monster pine. He confirmed that in his opinion it was rotten inside and would eventually fall of its own volition. The natural direction of fall is down the steep steep slope towards the main road but “if that falls, the whole of the county will report an earthquake, and it will slide down the hillside taking out everything on its way”. Which would probably include the main road. If it fell towards the house, it would tear the back off the house and probably not leave a single frame post intact. So, we feel a little apprehensive about staying here. We passed his comments along to the rental agent, to cover ourselves from an insurance point of view if he worst were to happen
Our concerns have prompted some action, as the landlord’s wife came round to see us on Friday. We had a very amicable and open discussion with her and she confirmed that they were also worried about the tree. They had wanted to take it down (or severely prune it) some time ago, but were blocked by the subdivision committee. Her husband is trying to arrange to get something done, but that will be a long job, I suspect. So, we will have to wait and hope. To expedite the move to Porter Springs Road, we have decided to hold off on a number of tasks at the new house until we have moved in. That has the additional advantage that we can the feel of our new home before making any big (expensive) decisions. That include all the landscaping at the back, including the swimming pool.
On Sunday we went out to Wolf Mountain for brunch with our new friends Sandra and Jeff. Lisa met Jeff on her Master Gardner course, and we met them over drinks a week back. Wolf Mountain is always very impressive, great views and a very good buffet lunch. The wines are not bad, either. The buffet lunches change every month and have a theme – for July it is Southern barbeque – and very much a classy notch above the local BBQ restaurants. We went down to the tasting room below the restaurant afterwards and tried a few of the wines. We all had a great time, and agreed that we need to repeat the trip to another local winery soon.
On the Build Site
At the back of the house, apparent calm has returned and all has been levelled (approximately). The septic system was inspected and passed fit for use, the electricity to the house has been connected. Johnathan has now provided lots of electric lights (the switches are covered over with insulating tape to avoid nasty accidents). And the power also means that Bill has installed a dehumidifier which is sucking the construction water out of the foundation walls (and reducing the nasty mildew smell). Live power also means that Bob the aircon guy can couple things up. But, as always, the unexpected delays have happened. The big compressors to be situated outside to drive the air conditioning have not been delivered in time, so Bob has been delayed to next week.
We have had some good weather this week, which should have been of real value for the house painters at work now (as rain would keep them from the outside painting). But they preferred to start on the inside, so the week has been largely dedicated to cleaning up the place, sanding rough spaces on the walls and patching up gaps and cracks. The cabinetry and everything else decorative has been covered up with plastic sheeting. Abel, the leader of the crew, has been experimenting with mixes of stains to get the doors exactly rights.
The house is attracting a lot of attention –it will be used as a film set for a TV commercial that Jonathan (the electrical contractor) is starring in. Vicarious fame for us! Pity we don’t get any fees, but we have a very happy contractor, which cannot be bad.
We are starting to feel that this build will eventually end. Though we have bitten the bullet and extended the lease on the rental house for a month to cover September, which is when we realistically expect to move. And now we keep on hoping for no trees falling.
So, it is looking like next week should see lots of progress – power, painting and air conditioning. The challenge will be to keep everyone from tripping up over each other.
Robin’s Thoughts on America
Continuing my intermittent Thoughts, Likes and Dislikes section, here’s my personally opinionated thought for this week on life in USA.
Weather Forecasting
So far this year has not followed the pattern of 2013 (a summer of continuous rain). We have had some pretty warm muggy weather, but we had one really good week a fortnight back when Hurricane Arthur swung up the Eastern shores of USA, pushing the humid heat away from us inlanders. It went on it merry way, dumping a deluge on our friends holidaying at Cape Cod. For several days this week, we had wonderful weather – temperatures ranging between 15 and 25C, no rain forecast, low humidity. Apparently it is all due to that polar vortex which gave everyone a rough snowy winter. It is apparently on the move again – this time a little more beneficial for us.
I used to think that the British were weather obsessed, but it is just as bad in USA. As well as the main TV channels, there are now two channels dedicated exclusively to weather forecasting, reporting weather disasters and the like. And a mile down the road from our build site is an amateur meteorologist (well, he was professionally trained, but has a real day job) who provides daily forecasts and reports to those interested in his Facebook page. With this abundance of opinions, there is a major data collection exercise going on everywhere. As a result, virtually every day there is a report on TV of yet another obscure weather record for something or other being broken (“wettest Tuesday in July in 73 years”, “highest daytime temperature for 801 days”, etc.) On Thursday morning it was “coldest recorded Atlanta temperature in (I assume) July for more than 50 years”, a balmy 15C. On Saturday, with a high of only 65.8F in Dahlonega the record for the coolest high for July 19th was shattered – the previous “coldest high temp” record was 70 F set back in 1964.
The amount of effort going into weather forecasting and record breaking means that TV stations are continually looking for ways to jazz up their spots. So one local TV station (channel 11) has a graphic rating the forecast weather on a scale of 1 to 11, to make a differentiation from other stations. I guess all this enables the TV weathermen to justify their existence, but it doesn’t stop people complaining about the forecasts or the actual weather!