Kimler Adventure Pages (http://randsco.com)

Utility Room Redo

Hutton House - After three days of debris, dust and upheaval, Rachel is already antsy for the project to be completed. Scott is thinking that he should have his head examined by a doctor of psychiatry, for beginning such a project, right before the holidays.

If you hear banging and notice plaster dust on your furnishings, it just might be from the newest Hutton House project - "The big utility room re-do".

Utility Room BEFORE: These two photos (vertically stitched at the chimney) show the utility room "before" the remodeling. Left-to-right: utility closet/laundry chute, garage door (hidden), washer, temp shelving, chick feed & recycle box, chimney, dryer, doors in front of water heater. _{Randsco Newswire}

"It's by far the biggest interior remodeling project we've done to-date," says Rachel, eager for her Christmas present, but unhappy to be living in turmoil till then (and secretly wondering if "her Christmas present" will be DONE by Christmas).

"We're just getting started," says Scott, covered in dust and up to his ears in plumbing, electrical, drywall and construction work.

The Hutton House utility room wasn't very ... well ... utilitarian ... for lack of a better word. The chimney and nearly triangular room makes the space awkward. Having a plumbing clean-out drain sticking up two inches out of the concrete floor, nearly two feet from the wall, doesn't help either. It meant the Kimler family washing machine sat nearly in the center of the room (since it can't be placed against the wall). There was little built in storage. Rachel bought and assembled a temporary shelving unit, which she put behind the washing machine - just to utilize the space. The electric dryer space is poorly utilized as well. It blocks access to the water heater, which is jammed into a triangular corner and was "hidden" with two large and ungainly doors. The only storage closet was - mostly - an laundry chute all the way from the 2nd floor bathroom.

Demolition Starts: Scott begins tearing into the drywall. You can see the exposed washer plumbing, which will be moved interior to the wall, & the drainpipes sticking up from the concrete flooring (on either side of Scott's left foot). _{Randsco Newswire}

"We thought the laundry chute was kinda cool," said Scott, "but we don't use it. So we're removing it and replacing it with a bonafide broom closet."

Other things that will change:

• baseboard heater - removed
• plumbing - moved interior to wall
• washer - moved to dryer location
• washer/dryer - stacked
• washer area - add counter, cabinets & sink
• add 220 Volt 20 AMP plug for garage
• use dedicated 110 Volt 15 AMP circuit
• more sockets + another overhead light
• wash/dry area - add counter & storage
• add lighted display cubby to stairwell
• add coat hooks & shoe bench
• new linoleum flooring
• smooth textured ceiling & skylight box

"Of course," said Scott, "One thing leads to another and now we're looking at adding some kind of ducting system to move hot air from the living room - which has the wood stove - to the dining room and guest bedroom."

Rachel rolls here eyes, knowing that her life (and house) are going to be in varying states of demolition and construction for some time to come.

"Scott has a way of starting projects," she explains, "then putting them on hold whilst he works on something else."

"Hey," he retorts, "I finish stuff!"

"Yeah," says Rachel quickly, "but you do in years, what other people do in weeks."

"Hey, at least I finish them," Scott says, sheepishly.

We'll follow the progress of he utility room re-do, whether it's over the course of several weeks ... (or years - which is another matter entirely).

Chickens Three Raccoons One

Hutton House Hen House - The Hutton House hens caught another two raccoons in their trap. The raccoons were tried and convicted by a chicken court for their participation in the murder of a Hutton House chicken. Sentencing was carried out swiftly by the court bailiff, amid much clucking and brawking.

Oop Rabbits

Alex reports that she has been having loads of fun in kindergarten. In fact, between kindergarten, day-care, swimming lessons and Sparks (earliest Girl Guide group), she's got quite the social calendar.

Besides having her very own (first) birthday party this year, she's also on the social circuit for attending many parties of other kids ... AND ... she's even starting to have "play dates" with some of her school chums.

Oop Fort: Alex "remodels" the living room by re-arranging furniture, pillows and blankets into a "fort". _{Randsco Newswire}

Eye vey, little Alex Kimler is growing up quickly!

It used to be that Alex spent a great deal of time at home, doing her own kind of "remodeling projects" (most of which involved loads of "demolition" and very little clean-up .... hmmmm .... kinda a lot like her Dad's projects!) Now, with school, her remodeling is pretty much limited to weekends.

This past Saturday (known to the Oop as "Cartoon Day") Alex decided she wanted to build a fort. So she took her "TV Blanket" (quilt made for her by her Gran) and the couch afghan (made by her other grandma), pillows, chair and foot-rest - placing them around the coffee table. Blammo ... instant fort!

A "Rabbit": Alex holds up a "rabbit" (a hard-boiled egg onto which Dad has drawn the picture of a rabbit face. It's an easy - and cute - way of identifying which eggs are hard-boiled.) _{Randsco Newswire}

Alex got her very first report card from school the other day. She "met expectations (advanced)" in all categories and "exceeded expectations" in her ability to "verbalize her thoughts and feelings". (When Scott and Rachel met with Alex's teacher, they learned that this was because Alex puts on such great "Show and Tells").

Alex has a show and tell opportunity each Wednesday. So far, she's shown and told about: Her summer trip to "Watch Lake (she brought Gran's photo scrap book to share); the different types of forest mushrooms (Dad and the Oop picked a variety of mushrooms from around the Hutton House); about her chickens (she brought a "rabbit" to show. For those that don't know, Scott draws a picture of a rabbit onto hard boiled eggs, to tell them apart from raw eggs.) and shared that her dad is in the fire hall (she's informed Dad that he'll have to come by the class and "talk" to the kids about the fire hall).

"Oh joy!" says Dad.

Festival of Lights

Ladysmith - Besides being the home town of Pamela Anderson, Ladysmith - a seaside town just south of Nanaimo - is also known for its Festival of Lights, a Christmas tradition.

The festival started in 1987, as a way to compliment the town's heritage and revitalization project. From the last Thursday in November, till the first Sunday in January, the town of Ladysmith is awash in shimmering Christmas lights. Over the years, the festival has grown, attracted corporate sponsors, more visitors and (of course) the light-up celebration (complete with a visit from Santa, a town parade and a fireworks display) is widely attended.

Festival of Lights - Rachel got this great shot of Alex and Scott, as they made their way down to the Ladysmith downtown core, to watch the parade and light-up celebration. _{Randsco Newswire}

The first year the Kimlers moved to town, the light-up celebration was canceled, because of snow. They missed last year, but made up for their lapse by attending this year.

They joined the throng of people lining the main street. They watched, while Santa (perched on a roof) did the honors and lit up the town. Then it was time for the parade. All manner of emergency vehicle, truck and float - sporting a dazzling array of lights - made their way slowly down the street. Clowns, elves, Santas and other people walked along, handing out various trinkets, flyers, discounts and candy to kids small and large.

Festival Throng - Onlookers line the sidewalks of 1st Avenue, as Ladysmith Fire & Rescue trucks roll by in the parade. _{Randsco Newswire}

The Kimlers headed for home, after the parade, skipping the big fireworks display. (It was already past the Oop's bedtime - 8 PM).

"It's a great way to ring in the holidays," said Rachel, "and it's made even sweeter, because I took my final exam for my Labor & Delivery course, which means I'm done with school for this year! Yay!"

Then There Were Three

Hutton House Chicken Run - Last Thursday evening, sometime between dusk and 7:30 PM, the Kimler family lost one of their four egg-laying hens.

By "lost", we don't mean that they set the chicken down somewhere and just can't remember where it is. We mean "lost", as in - a predator sneaked into the chicken run, killed a chicken and then made off with the carcass. Murder. Plain and simple.

Reporters were stunned at the news and a teary-eyed Alex tried to grasp the situation.

"One of our chickens ... is ... gone," she sobbed to the throng of reporters gathered the next morning at the Randsco campus gates.

"What took it?" reporters asked.

"We're not 100% certain," said Scott Kimler, who was standing next to Alex, putting a consoling arm around his 5-year-old daughter. "We think it was a raccoon, based on the forensic evidence."

By "forensic evidence", he meant that only feathers were left behind. Reporters, touring the chicken run, noted a light scattering of feathers, everywhere. However, there were two spots in the run, each of which had a mass of feathers.

"We think the chicken was killed either here, or here," Scott said, pointing to the two feathered spots, "then the culprit made off with its kill."

As it turns out, different predators have different "MO-s" (Methods of Operation). Not all predators will take a chicken, once they kill it. Minks and Weasels, for example, will generally chew off the head of the chicken and then drink the blood that drains out. They'll leave behind the carcass and often kill multiple birds, leaving the carcasses neatly piled. Skunks, who hunt mainly during the night, eat the entrails and leave much of the skin and muscle untouched.

"We're pretty certain, based on the evidence, that it wasn't a skunk, wolves, dogs, mink, weasels, rats or coyotes," Scott said, "which narrows it down a tad."

"Other possibilities include an owl, mountain lion, domestic cat or raccoon."

"The way the fence was pushed over, indicates that it probably wasn't an owl," Scott went on, "and while Vancouver Island has a dense mountain lion (cougar) population, sightings in our area are generally very rare. We don't think (and hope) it wasn't a mountain lion.

"As you can see, the fence has been pushed down in this area," Scott said, pointing to a rickety portion of the chicken run fence.

"We're not ruling out a domestic cat, though we know it's not ours - "Tuxedo" - as he was in the house at the time of the incident. Nope ... our money is on raccoons, who may hunt alone or in a family pack."

"When I went to put the chickens to bed the other night," said Rachel, "something in the bushes growled at me. It was very spooky."

"We think it may have been the raccoons, scouting out the area," Scott said, "Unfortunately, once they find a spot to nab chickens, they'll return on a pretty regular basis, every 5 to 7 days."

When asked what they were going to do to protect their flock from further attacks, Scott said that he'd for sure strengthen the fence and that they'd be certain to tuck the chickens into their coop, which is secure from predators, no later than dusk.

"Maybe we'll even enclose the chicken run - top and sides - with mesh, just to make certain nothing can get to "our girls".

It was a somber press conference. Sympathies went out to the missing chicken - a family favorite - and the group of reporters quietly dispersed.

ISP Woes

Manila, Philippines & Montreal, Quebec - After the tragic "chicken murder", the Hutton Household awoke on Friday morning to discover that their broadband connection, like the neck of their favorite chicken, had been severed.

A phone call to technical support - handled in the nearby neighborhood of Manila, Philippines - failed to re-establish their ADSL connection, despite over an hour of pulling cables, flipping switches and rebooting the computer.

At 9 AM, it was determined that the outage was on Telus' end. "We are aware of the problem and working to fix it. It should be restored in about an hour".

Scott drove into Nanaimo to run some errands, figuring that the broadband connection would be functioning when he returned.

At 10:30 AM, when he returned, the connection was still down.

Scott called Telus technical support (Manila again). The 'solution' sounded eerily familiar: "It's a problem at Telus' end, we're aware of it and it should be restored in an hour".

After asking to speaking with a supervisor - who didn't add much "new" information, other than a series of platitudes and excuses - Scott was passed over to Customer Service (in Montreal, Canada) where he requested a rebate for the inconvenience. The woman he spoke with was only willing to offer two day's compensation for "the actual time the service is down". (Wow ... a $2 rebate!)

Scott explained that he was losing $50/hour because of the outage, as he had billable work that needed to be done.

"I'm losing over $200-worth of work because of this outage and you're willing to offer a $2 rebate ... generous!"

In the end, he got one month's free service.

Though neighbors reported their broadband service was reconnected around noon, Scott's remained down.

Another call to the Philippines technical support office ended without a resolution and Scott's call was dropped during a transfer to Customer Service - "there appears to be 'a problem' with your billing account".

Saturday morning. Still no broadband connection. (Scott had used *gasp* dial-up - how antiquated is that? - to check emails and perform a few basic functions.)

This time, a call to Customer Service (Montreal, Canada) fixed the "problem" with the billing account - though it couldn't get fully resolved until the work week.

"You mean, because of a mistake that Telus made on our billing account, we'll be without a broadband connection until the middle of next week?" Scott asked "Donald", the Telus Customer Service representative.

"Well," he said, "I can transfer you to our technical support office, there may be a way to get your service back on today.

Scott again spoke with someone in the Telus technical support section. This time, however, it was with someone in Montreal, not Manila. "Martin" had already managed to reconnect the broadband connection, by the time Scott had been transferred.

"What did you do?" Scott asked, happy to have finally been reconnected, but shocked at how quickly and easily it had happened.

"A "stinger card" in your neighborhood had been replaced," explained Martin, "so I boosted the signal strength and did a hard boot of the card, from our main office. A hard boot generally unblocks the ports by resetting them, which is what appears to have caused your problems.

"Wow" said Scott, who then immediately thought, "Why couldn't they have done that YESTERDAY, when I called technical support in the evening? Eye-veh!"

More Girls

New Chicks: The Kimlers just got four 2-week-old chicks to add to their flock. Three are ISA-Browns, as before, but the dark one (foreground) might be a different breed entirely. "I wonder which breed," said Scott. _{Randsco Newswire}

Hutton House - Dad and the Oop left the Hutton House, walking to homes of four neighbors, yesterday. (Four homes in our rural location means about a mile of walking). Their quest was to sell Girl Guide cookies, as Alex is now a member of "Sparks" and they raise money by selling popular mint Girl Guide cookies.

She sold three boxes to Charlie and Evangaline - right across the street - and two boxes to Georgina (who lives on the corner and has 4 horses, whom Alex loves to pamper with apples, carrots and fistfuls of grass). Alex's cookie box was 5 boxes lighter, in her pocket was $20, but she also came home with something else - live creatures stashed in her cardboard cookie box!

A couple of weeks ago, Georgina acquired another batch of chicks from the Rochester hatchery in Alberta. She asked Alex if she wanted some more. (Scott had been meaning to ask Georgina about new chicks, as the Hutton House ISA-Brown hens are now a year old and will be slowing egg production this spring. While they're a hybrid that's a prolific layer, they taper off quickly after their first year).

ISA-Brown Baby: Alex holds one of the 2-week-old ISA-Brown chicks, just after returning home with four of them, held in her (empty) Girl Guide cookie box. The Hutton House Hens doubled their population over night, from four, to eight! _{Randsco Newswire}

Of course, Alex said, "Yes, please!" and Dad was nodding his head in the background. Out of the 100 or so that Georgina had running around under a heat lamp, in a small shed, she indiscriminately picked out 3 and plopped them into Alex's empty cookie box. She then said that she thought she had a rogue chick, which wasn't an ISA-Brown, but a different breed.

"She's that brown one there," she said, pointing to a much darker chick, amongst a sea of mostly yellow.

"Oh, I want that one, Daddy!" exclaimed Alex, as Georgina scooped it up and dropped it into Alex's Girl Guide cookie box.

So the Oop and Dad returned home with four new chicks, which was quite the surprise for Mom!

These chicks are already a couple of weeks old, so they're not quite the fluff balls that arrived last year.

During supper, the chicks huddled together in the Girl Guide box, but after dinner, Dad cleaned out the wire cage, put blankets around it, added a heat lamp, a roosting stick, water, food and built a "warm-box" out of cardboard, at one end. This will be "home" for the chicks, until they're big enough to be added with the other four Hutton House girls.

The hen population at the Hutton House has doubled, overnight!

Another Odd Egg

Hutton House Hen House - It seems that the Hutton House has again, gone to the birds! All the news lately seems to revolve around four (whoops - sorry chicks ... eight) hens!

We reported an odd (very small) egg last week and this week, it's another egg oddity. This time, it's an egg without a shell!

This is the second such egg that's been laid, but this time - there are photos to back the claim.

Shell-less Egg: One of our ISA-Brown chickens laid this full sized egg that lacks a shell. It was laid a few days ago and has since collapsed a bit, from evaporation of inner liquids. The egg is surrounded by only a tough, pliable membrane. _{Randsco Newswire}

The shell-less egg appears to be encased in a rather tough, flexible membrane. The outside is rough, as if a shell was started, but never finished. When it first came out, the membrane was rather taut, but over the course of a few days and evaporation of fluid from inside the egg, the egg lost volume and appears more wrinkled, having collapsed a little.

The assumption is that the egg is normal in every way, just lacking a shell. Despite the presumption of normal contents, egg owners Scott and Rachel are hesitant to consume it ... which is partly why is sat on the counter for three days.

"I'm not eating it," said Rachel.

"Nor I," said Scott.

"I'll eat it," piped up Alex.

"No you won't," said Rachel.

Some readers inquired about the very small egg reported last week.

Comparison: The egg without a shell, compared to two regular eggs. Besides being lighter in color and wrinkled, the shell-less egg also is quite pliable. _{Randsco Newswire}

One reader surmised that it didn't have a yolk. Another asked if it did (have a yolk).

As it turned out, it did - albeit a very (very) small one. (We surmise that the "yolk" is on the reader who thought it didn't have a yolk!)

"Boo ... hiss," reported Rachel, groaning at the lame joke.

"It looked more like a small blob, than a yolk," reported the Hutton House master egg gatherer (Scott).

They didn't eat the contents of that egg either, it turns out, though Alex very bravely volunteered (again).

"Parents just have a natural aversion to letting their kids eat unusual things," Scott said.