At Home In The Woods

[Obed]

Our piano arrived Saturday! I've really looked forward to getting our piano back after living 13 years in the camper. As far as we can tell, the piano movers did an awesome job.

We don't really like where the piano is sitting. We'll probably move it to the left side of the windows instead of the right side. When we sit at our kitchen table, the piano blocks a large portion of our view out of the windows. Moving the piano won't be a trivial task. We can't just roll it without risking putting ruts in the hardwood floor. We'll have to put something under the three wheels before attempting to roll the piano across the floor.

I have to say it strikes me as strange to be posting pictures of a piano on a tractor forum.

Now if we can just get some furniture to sit on!

 

[buckeyefarmer]

Glad you had good luck with your piano movers. When my wife bought a baby grand years ago, the previous owner insisted we get a piano mover to move it, and we did. They promptly dropped it on the ground, taking it down a steep ramp and they couldn't hold it. Fortunately not too much damage. After that, I have always moved it myself. It's really not hard to move a baby grand, if you don't have many steps to consider.

 

[Obed]

Glad you had good luck with your piano movers. When my wife bought a baby grand years ago, the previous owner insisted we get a piano mover to move it, and we did. They promptly dropped it on the ground, taking it down a steep ramp and they couldn't hold it. Fortunately not too much damage. After that, I have always moved it myself. It's really not hard to move a baby grand, if you don't have many steps to consider.

Sorry to hear about your piano getting dropped. I'd rather not think about how I might have reacted in your shoes. Our piano is a full grand and is quite heavy. We considered moving the piano ourselves but moving it 400 miles was going to be a logistical challenge. We would have to arrange helpers in both cities, rent a truck, and make or somehow rent a special piano moving dolly.

We have moved the piano 3 times, always using piano movers. The first mover ran the end of the piano into a brick ledge and put a dent in the end of the piano. The other two movers did a great job. The company we hired this time moves pianos all over they country. They are located in St. Louis, MO. They drive an 18 wheeler around and pick up and drop off the pianos in a circuit that best works out for their moving jobs. It took 6 days from the time ours was picked up until it was delivered to our house. It could have taken up to 3 or 4 weeks to receive the piano. These movers really know what they are doing. I would highly recommend them. I suspect that the smaller local piano movers may not have as good a system as the national guys. With the equipment ( All Terrain Dolly and skid board ) and experience they had, they only needed two guys to move the piano down 6 steps. They used a large 4 wheeler with a special trailer to move the piano from the tractor trailer parked at the bottom of our street to our house.

 

[Obed]

We have had some incredible storms in this area. Two nights ago 127,000 homes lost power due to downed trees, power lines, and some flooding. Last night about 1 AM, I heard heavy rain so I got up to see how our rain gutter was performing. I turned on the floodlights behind the house and did not like the view. Our tall trees were swaying violently back and forth. Rain was blowing sideways. Seeing the trees moving like they were made me anxious so I went back to bed.

We got 2 inches of rain in just a few hours. Today a local news article said a tornado was observed just 2 miles from where we live. I wasn't terribly surprised based on what I saw last night.

The good news is our gutter did not overflow in the heavy rain.

 

[Obed]

If you remember, a few weeks ago I made a mouse trap using a bucket.



I didn't put any water in the bucket to see if I could catch the mice alive. I caught no mice that way. There were mouse droppings in the bucket so I know the peanut butter was attracting the mice.

Last night my wife and I could hear a mouse inside one of our walls chewing on something in our wall. The mouse was inside an area where the duct shown in the picture runs between the basement ceiling and the 1st floor ceiling. Our sympathies for the mice quickly abated.

So last night I put fresh peanut butter in the bucket trap and added 3" of water to the bucket. This morning I found 2 dead mice! Yay! The bucket trap is a very effective device. It's much better than risking putting out poison. Plus, when using poison, you don't necessarilly know how well the poison is working. The bucket is also better than the traditional spring type mouse traps because the spring traps only catch one mouse at a time. You have to continually bait them and reset them. The bucket trap can catch several mice at a time.

 

[Obed]

Last night we caught another mouse. Yesterday we did not hear the mouse chewing on our house near rhe duct. I had heard that noise the 2 nights previously. Although I'm not thrilled about the method of killing the mice, I am happy we have a means of catching them. I've never felt before that I had an effective way of combatting mouse problems.

 

[mkane09]

You need a cat. Doesn't have to be indoors... Mine kills all sorts of small pests and she lives outside 24/7.

mkane09

 

[Coyote machine]

Buy some sticky traps and place them in corner entry areas. Once they step onto sticky pad they're done, just toss in trash. No muss, no fuss, no peanut butter/ water etc. No mouse will get away from a sticky trap, guaranteed! Home Depot sells them, among other stores.

 

[Obed]

Today I got a voice mail message from the fireplace guy. He found a Quadrafire dealer about 60 minutes from us who has a floor model of the same model as our fireplace. I plan to contact that dealer to arrange getting a look at that fireplace. I want to compare the air combustion mechanism of the dealer's fireplace to ours so I can rule out a manufacturing defect on ours.

 

[Obed]

Dehumidifier Question
I'm looking for a dehumidifier to put in the basement. We have a floor drain in the basement specifically intended to drain the dehumidifier. Do you guys have any suggestions? Have you had good or bad experiences with any specific brands?

Our basement is 2100 SF. Many of the less expensive models will not handle this size square footage. I almost wonder if I should get two smaller sized dehumidifiers instead of one large one. The cost for two smaller ones seems to be less than the cost of one larger one of equivalent square footage rating.

Thanks,
Obed