Seeking Warmth and Less Radon
Tammy returned home Thursday night from nearly a week-long stay in Sanibel Island, Florida with Brenda. Brenda's parents rent a condominium for 6 weeks each year and invited Tammy and Brenda to stay with them. The weather could've been warmer during their stay but considering the huge snowstorm they missed out on here, they weren't complaining at all. She came back with some color so that's all that matters.
The most fun they had was when they rented kayaks and spent a few hours floating through the protected mangroves. Tammy came back all excited wanting to do some kayaking this summer. I'm in! I've been kicking around the idea of getting a kayak for a while but we'll just rent for now.
I was happy that she was able to briefly leave our frozen world behind because it's been since August 2009 that we were last on vacation. I'm fine with staying put, preferring to work on some other obligations first, knowing that for me, retirement is just around the corner and I'll have plenty of time to get away then.
She brought back an assortment of shells they collected walking the beach. She plans to give them to the kids whose nails she paints on Tuesday nights at Hosanna.
Our local paper recently ran an article about excessive levels of radon in Minnesota and more specifically, Dakota county where we live and that concerned me. Seeing Mike (a non-smoker) contract lung cancer and die was also a reason for concern about the possibility of radon exposure in our home.
I purchased a detector last week and set it up in our shop down in the basement.
Our detector is an electronic unit that takes at least a couple days to determine the level of radon gas. Our level was 1.4 after two days, 1.3 on day 3 and 1.9 today, day 5. It's recommended that you have some sort of radon mitigation fix done if your level rises to 4. The detector I purchased will keep track of our weekly, monthly and overall average levels. It's also recommended that you test for radon during different times of the year because the levels change in your home depending on the season and humidity levels.
I was surprised to see that our level is as low as it is considering the article I linked to above says that Dakota Country is in a red zone for radon levels. I got to wondering if maybe having our air-exchanger on as we currently do makes a difference. I'll know in another month when I shut it down until next winter.
I suppose you could say that we technically began work on our sun-porch/deck project this past week. You can see the update here in the separate blog I started for it.
I think Charlie is spoiled. He woke me up the other night by scratching my arm. I was in his spot on the bed. I moved over and he was content. Honestly, I don't mind although I know I should.
The most fun they had was when they rented kayaks and spent a few hours floating through the protected mangroves. Tammy came back all excited wanting to do some kayaking this summer. I'm in! I've been kicking around the idea of getting a kayak for a while but we'll just rent for now.I was happy that she was able to briefly leave our frozen world behind because it's been since August 2009 that we were last on vacation. I'm fine with staying put, preferring to work on some other obligations first, knowing that for me, retirement is just around the corner and I'll have plenty of time to get away then.
She brought back an assortment of shells they collected walking the beach. She plans to give them to the kids whose nails she paints on Tuesday nights at Hosanna.
Our local paper recently ran an article about excessive levels of radon in Minnesota and more specifically, Dakota county where we live and that concerned me. Seeing Mike (a non-smoker) contract lung cancer and die was also a reason for concern about the possibility of radon exposure in our home.
I purchased a detector last week and set it up in our shop down in the basement.Our detector is an electronic unit that takes at least a couple days to determine the level of radon gas. Our level was 1.4 after two days, 1.3 on day 3 and 1.9 today, day 5. It's recommended that you have some sort of radon mitigation fix done if your level rises to 4. The detector I purchased will keep track of our weekly, monthly and overall average levels. It's also recommended that you test for radon during different times of the year because the levels change in your home depending on the season and humidity levels.
I was surprised to see that our level is as low as it is considering the article I linked to above says that Dakota Country is in a red zone for radon levels. I got to wondering if maybe having our air-exchanger on as we currently do makes a difference. I'll know in another month when I shut it down until next winter.
I suppose you could say that we technically began work on our sun-porch/deck project this past week. You can see the update here in the separate blog I started for it.
I think Charlie is spoiled. He woke me up the other night by scratching my arm. I was in his spot on the bed. I moved over and he was content. Honestly, I don't mind although I know I should.
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