Tarred and not quite feathered.

This week was a week of new experiences for me.

Thursday evening I got up on the scaffolding with a gallon of roofing asphalt (it's tar) and started to fix the small section of flat roof that has been neglected for years. Placing tar is a tricky endeavor. It shouldn't be too hot because it will melt and a make a mess of everything. If it's too cold, then you really can't spread it thin like you should. When I started, it was bordering on too cold. I had enough scaffolding to get my chest at roof level. I bought a brush with only a hole drilled for a handle and tried to find a stick that would fit. Oddly, they didn't drill the hole to fit a broomstick, or a paint brush extension (which I had), so I was improvising (with the leg of an old table, Dawn doesn't yet know). The sun was setting when I finally was getting underway (thank goodness they pushed daylight savings a little later, or I would have started in the dark.) It quickly became too cold to spread the tar thin. The thick tar kept pulling the brush off my makeshift handle. Out of frustration I finally just took the brush in my hand and started spreading it without a handle. A short time later when was finished my hands were completely covered in tar. At least it was cold. I asked Dawn for some feathers, but she wouldn't go for it. Too bad I was too tarry to take a picture and Dawn was busy with the kids, so no picture for you.

Our baking element on our oven burned out. We found a replacement part online and ordered it. The instructions for changing these mentioned that the element is really a wire with high resistance running 220 V through it and that it's not a good idea to touch (burn and electrical shock). The wire ends that the element plugs into also should be handled with care. With that warning I went to work. It was actually very simple. Unplug oven, unscrew baking element, disconnect wires, place new element, reattach screws, plug in oven. Wow, we could have paid someone a lot of money to do a simple thing.

The last new experience was fun. Dawn has the book "The Breadmaker's Apprentice" and we were making some Italian bread. They explain that bakers' ovens begin with some steam cycles and that you can modfiy your oven (with a brand new baking element) into a steaming oven. You get your oven to 500 dgrees, place a heavy duty pan to hold hot water and place your cooking stone on the rack. When the temperature is ready, you slide the dough onto your 500 degree stone, dump a cup of hot water into the steam pan, and then start spritzing the side of the oven with a water from a spray bottle. Use gloves so that you don't give yourself a steam burn and don't drop water on the tempered glass, or you'll probably break it. Easy. The bread turned out fantastic, probably the best homemade Italian bread we've ever made.

What new adventures await us this week? Hopefully not much, I'm on night float and don't like new experiences on night float.