Estimated reading time: 5 minutes
FUN FACT: There’s an American town with a population of one. – Monowi, Nebraska, is the only town in the United States with an official population of one person. Yes, she owes taxes; To herself! She’s in her 80s and employed as the village’s mayor, librarian, and bartender.
I would love a small-town existence but this may be a little too small!
Another day and we didn’t leave the house. Our handyman came over at 10:00 AM, and he and I put an eclectic collection of dinnerware into the attic above the garage. We had four complete sets of beautiful dishes, complete with mugs, cups, bowls, etc. We had them stored in prime real estate in the garage; now, they are carefully labeled and reside out of sight.
Tom then installed about 200 square feet of radiant barrier in our upstairs storage areas. I was surprised by how well the barriers worked when I went into the attic to put the dishes away. The outside temperature was in the 80s, and the attic was pleasantly cool.
When the sun heats a roof, it’s primarily the sun’s radiant energy that makes the roof hot. Much of this heat travels by conduction through the roofing materials to the attic side of the roof. The hot roof material then radiates its gained heat energy onto the cooler attic surfaces, including the air ducts and the attic floor. A radiant barrier reduces the radiant heat transfer from the underside of the roof to the other surfaces in the attic.
When you add a radiant barrier to your roof assembly, it becomes your first line of defense against heat being transferred into your attic and then into the cooled spaces of your home. Virtually ALL of the heat entering from a roof into an attic is radiant heat. Over 90% of heat from a roof is transferred by radiant heat into the attic. The fiberglass insulation in your attic is merely preventing the heat which has entered your attic in the form of radiant heat from being transferred into the conditioned (cooled or heated) part of your home.
It makes a significant difference!
Mary fixed breakfast around 11:00 AM, our first time to sit down all morning.
We were back to the grind at noon with Mary working on closets and I going to tools and workbench items. The garage looks pretty good right now, and I can find my tools. At 3:00 PM, Mary decided we needed beef stroganoff this evening.
We found and defrosted a mess of steak, and I did the slicing and browning, which took longer than I thought. Stroganoff sauce is a sour cream gravy made with beef broth thickened with flour, and it’s flavored with mushrooms in it. I love the pale brown creamy color against the deep golden brown seared beef!
2 1/2 pounds is quite a bit; it took three passes through the parge pan to get it all browned.
Mary added onions and garlic and cooked them until the onions were translucent.
The fixins’
The magic sour cream sauce is coming, but a double-check of the recipe was needed. The recipe said, “chill in the fridge for twenty minutes.” There’s no way Mary fits in our fridge.
Back to double-check!
We sliced up the two zucchini into long pieces and soaked them in mayonnaise before adding a layer of bread crumbs, garlic salt, and parmesan cheese to them. Three hundred seventy-five in the over, and we had instant “salad.”
The recipe said, “for a bigger portion, just double everything.” We could not do that; our oven doesn’t go up to 600 degrees. I double as the Sous-Chef, Prep-Chef, and Clean-Up Boy when we cook. We made a good team, and Mary is an excellent addition to the three of us.
We gossiped with Colleen for almost 40 minutes as we made dinner. Our Alea follows us around the room as we move.
Modifications in progress.
In went the secret sauce, and now we wait twenty minutes while the concoction simmers. Time for a glass of wine and to set the table.
I mentioned to Mary that we ought to try haggis someday. I’m not sure what it entrails.
The final touch; secret sauce!
Again, when the table was set, and the wonderful meal was ready, I was so delighted to dine that I snapped one photo and dug into a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious meal!
Wonderful! Melt in your mouth fantastic.
I was terrible this evening; after this incredible meal, I fell asleep in my chair, and forty minutes later, I woke up to a dimmed room with the kitchen spotless and a beautiful lady reading her kindle. I got to be the luckiest man alive.
We went to bed about 8:00 PM and read our kindles. While working in t e office today, Mary found two more kindles/tables that I had forgotten about!
