6 October 2010
Back to Virginia in just on nine hours, giving plenty of time to reflect on the building season just completed. These two photos say it best, taken one year apart. Returned the air compressor I had borrowed from Chris Thiel, and discovered that I had left one of the hoses inside Delores. Hope the mice aren't too hungry this winter...
5 October 2010
Up to Kampersville first thing for the final tank dumping of the season. Then went through the rest of the 62 item checklist that results in Delores being properly tucked in for the winter. Scattered beaucoup cat hair under Delores to discourage furry creatures from taking up residence. Perry came over mid-afternoon to help get the blue tarp in place, the final piece to the winterizing process. On my way to another night Chez Pirkkanen, got all the way to Camp Keewaydin on Lake Dunmore (better there than half-way to Virginia!!!!) when I remembered that I had closed the RV refrigerator and freezer doors to do some final cleaning… and never reopened them for winter storage. Fortunately, untying one knot allowed the tarp to be pulled back just enough to open the driver’s door, so fixing the refer doors oversight took less than five minutes. Took Lynne and Perry out to Cattails Restaurant for another excellent dinner.
4 October 2010
A beautiful fall day: clear and dry with temps in the mid-50’s. Mike the mechanic at G. Stone Motors took approximately five seconds to reattach the emergency brake sensor wire that had come undone with his machinations on Friday. Hydraulic system back in normal operation. Tried to start the generator as part of the winterization procedure. No joy. Oh, crap… looks like the kids' inheritance is going to take another hit! Parged the remaining three sections of rocks that had been dry laid on Saturday. The eighth course is complete; only four more sections to lay and parge and then the ninth course also will be complete… next spring after I get a new supply of building rocks. Secured the site: tarps weighted down over the sand, lumber, and concrete forms piles, Hopea Kanootti up on sawhorses in the shed cellar, and, with a few minutes of backing and filling, the pickup truck maneuvered into the shed cellar, battery disconnected, and covered up for the winter. Loaded into the van everything in the RV exterior storage compartments that won’t be spending the winter. In the “just because I could (and I’m stupid)” department: went for a swim at the end of the workday. Water temp now 63°, which REALLY gets your attention on entry. Marty & Merry came up for garbage soup, biscuits, cake, and Ben & Jerry’s… plus some more of the really wonderful 2007 Da Vinci Chianti .
3 October 2010
Took Delores down t’ the Leicester General Store for cheap gas, only to find that the price had gone up by 11¢ a gallon since last week. With the gauge reading just above empty, she gulped down 65 gallons… which cost a staggering $175. Glad we only have to top up once a year. Emptied all the leftovers in the refrigerator plus sundry other ingredients (including what remained of the Tanqueray gin) into two pots and made a delicious soup. One pot went to Kate & Dan to have for a late breakfast; the other is for dinner with Marty & Merry tomorrow evening. While the soup was simmering, parged six sections of between-column rocks. Then took a break to help Dan put up storm windows and clear brush over at his place. After a late mac & cheese lunch with Kate and Dan and sad goodbyes for the next six months, returned to parging rocks, getting another three sections done. Baked a couple of cakes after dinner, one for Mr. Glutton and one for tomorrow’s dinner.
2 October 2010
Continued laying between-column rocks, using the absolute dregs from the pile. You might say I’ve reached rock bottom. Or maybe not… Alverta arrived late morning to see the progress since her last visit in mid-August. With her help got the rest of the eighth course and all but four sections of the ninth course ready for parging. She says I should plan to live in the shed cellar, it looks so nice. Chree will make that decision… Lynne came over at noon and brought a lentil soup plus corn bread for lunch. Quite yummy!
After them good eats, Alverta and I paddled Hopea Kanootti down to the boat access ramp at the southern end of Fern Lake and then used her car (which has a roof rack just for that purpose) to bring the canoe back to the shed cellar for winter storage. Went over to Kate and Dan’s for an great lasagna dinner and to catch up on news, not having seen them for nearly three months. Stayed up far too late sitting around their campfire roasting marshmallows…
1 October 2010
The rain that was supposed to clear off by this morning didn’t. Worked on dry laying the ninth course of between-column rocks for the same six sections that I did yesterday, they being under cover of the shed deck. Didn’t stop me from getting soaked through by mid-afternoon when, praise Allah, the G. Stone courtesy van came to take me to fetch Delores. When we arrived at the dealership, Delores was still in the shop with the mechanics working on bleeding the new rear brake lines. Multiple attempts failed to extinguish the brake warning light. They tried fiddling around with the emergency brake. No luck. Then they tried bleeding the front brake lines. Voilá, the brake light went out and the brake pedal resumed having that nice firm feel. Shelled over $600 ($70 of which was for expedited shipping of two $50 brake lines… does anyone else see something wrong with this picture?) and drove Delores back to Fern Lake. Now in order to activate the hydraulic pump that operates the leveling jacks and the slide out, the emergency brake has to be engaged. Suffice it to say that the hydraulic system isn’t working and the suspected culprit is whatever the mechanics did to the emergency brake… as the hydraulic system was working just fine just before they did whatever they did to bollix things up. Of course, the time this was discovered was 5:10 p.m. and the G. Stone service department closed at 5:00 sharp… and won’t reopen ‘till Monday. So much for closing up camp on Sunday… Had invited Marty and Merry over for dinner in the mists of time before brake failure. Instead, we had an excellent prime rib repast at Cattails Restaurant in Brandon.
30 September 2010
A major storm rolled through Vermont today. Laid and parged six sections of the eighth course that were under the shed deck, so stayed relatively dry. And speaking of relatives, early afternoon, when an absolute deluge was in progress and the weather reporter on the radio was recommending people dig out their ark plans, Lynne called. “Jeesus”, she says, “kinda looks like rain.” “Heard tell that it might”, says Burt and I. Yuk, yuk!!! Good news: G. Stone got the RV brake line parts that were special ordered yesterday. Bad news: one of the parts was the wrong one. Didn’t we already go through this drill with the pickup 4WD repairs back in July???? MAYBE the right part will arrive tomorrow… Spent the night at Lynne & Perry’s again.
29 September 2010
The penultimate big day for Delores for this season. Left Fern Lake at 8:00 headed to Middlebury for propane and groceries, then supposedly back to the Leicester General Store for cheap gas. Coming down the steep hill on Fern Lake Road, noticed that the brakes were a bit soft and not as robust as usual. Continued on to Middlebury… as the brake pedal kept getting closer and closer to the floor. Not good, especially driving a 15,000 pound vehicle in traffic! Headed back south, stopped at Hannaford for a few victuals. When I started up again to continue on to Leicester, the brake warning light came on and there was NOTHING left to the brakes. MOST fortunately the G. Stone Ford dealership was less than ¼ mile away. They quickly determined that the left rear brake line had rusted through… and the right rear weren’t long for this world neither. The bad news is that Delores is so old that Ford no longer stocks parts for her. But, after some research, the mechanics found a place they could special order the brake lines. Can you see the $$$ here??? By 1:30 pm was back at Fern Lake via the dealership’s courtesy van. Laid and parged two sections of the eighth course of between-column rocks. Lynne and Perry most graciously provided a delicious dinner and place to lay my head for the night.
28 September 2010
Didn’t feel like building horizontally today (and probably don’t have enough rocks in the pile for another course, anyway), so engaged my creativity and built vertically in the center section at the back of the cellar. Took me awhile to find a square stone of the same size and color as the triangle and circle, but a little trimming with my diamond-tipped Skill saw eventually did the trick. Also used the saw to cut in half lengthwise a 2″ thick piece of slate to form the lintel on which my creative genius is displayed. That diamond-tipped blade is one of the smartest 
purchases I’ve ever made. Found that parging the rocks together after building vertically is not nearly as easy as working one course at a time. Goodro Lumber’s boom truck showed up early afternoon and took away 25 bags of mortar mix that I won’t be needing (out of the 45 that were on the pallet they delivered at the end of July). Put the remaining 14 bags on the pallet that until today was under the camp fire wood supply (necessitating unstacking, building a new platform, then restacking the firewood). Wrapped the mortar mix in four layers of plastic and battened down the hatch, confident that the bags will stay dry over the winter. Went swimming again after work; took a full five minutes to work my way into the water, which is getting just a mite nippy. But, after everything numbed up, the exercise certainly felt good. Blew a gale as a squall moved through after dinner; sounds like a machine gun with the acorns hitting the roof of the RV. So who needs sleep, anyway?
27 September 2010
Parged the seventh course. Figure I’m about ⅓ done with laying rocks between the concrete columns. Threatened rain all day… but didn’t start until just as I was finishing the cement work. Not that I would have minded raindrops falling, having the shed deck to work under. Then down t’ Merry’s & Marty’s for another wonderful repast… and most pleasant evening.
25 September 2010
Helped Perry move six pickup-loads of wood from where he had cut and split it at the lower end of his property into his “ready” supply stacks near his house. Small payback for all the time and effort he has put into the shed construction project this summer. A nice fall day, in sharp contrast to 100° in the blazing sun the last time we moved wood at his place. He and Lynne made a delicious vegetarian pizza for dinner.
24 September 2010
Finished laying and parging the sixth course. Called Tammy Walsh to arrange for her to come over next week to help me find some more good building rock – with her backhoe! Temp today climbed to 78° so went for a swim while the camp fire was turning into coals for chicken BBQ. Water temp now a brisk 67°. Entering the lake, you-know-who wasn’t very happy, but there was no danger of falling asleep while “relaxing” after a hard day’s work.
23 September 2010
Got half the sixth course laid and parged. Serious shortage of good rocks really slowing things down, especially as the top of the sixth course has to be pretty much even with the two-foot mark all the way around. (Every third course is “level” for Type A aesthetic reasons.) Marty stopped by to admire progress and offered to let me scavenge rock from the old dump on his property. Looked at what was available there and came back with one good rock. Sigh…. Mid-afternoon a seaplane was using Fern Lake for touch and go landing practice.
22 September 2010
Finished parging the fifth course and started laying rock for the sixth course. Went for a canoe after dinner. Noticed that the mice are building a nice condo in the dock shack. Guess we won’t be leaving anything chewable down there over the winter. Amazingly (and totally jinxing Delores by saying this) there have been zero signs of mice in the RV all summer.
21 September 2010
Dry laid the fifth course of between-column rocks for the eight sections not heretofore completed. Starting to run low on “good” rocks, exponentially increasing the rock-laying challenges.
20 September 2010
Virginia to Fern Lake in just under 9 hours, even with a couple of gas stops and construction delays. Canoed over to the Fern Lake island after arrival for some quiet meditation.
17 September 2010
Back to Virginia in 9½ hours; the usual 1 hour trip from Baltimore to Springfield took 1:45 even though I was onto the Baltimore – Washington Parkway by 3:30 pm, in theory ahead of the Friday afternoon rush hour traffic. Nice theory…
16 September 2010
Spent the morning loading the van with everything that won’t be needed at Fern Lake for the rest of the building season (wanna bet????), including the radial arm saw (which Marty helped wrestle into place) and all but one of the ladders. Quite a load! Spent some quality time early afternoon on the RV roof caulking myriad cracks. This, apparently, needs to be an annual maintenance item. Then picked rock for an hour before the forecast rain rolled in. Ceil Todd came over to admire the season’s progress. She’s a Town Lister (and our across the road neighbor), so hope my property tax assessment doesn’t go up! Wet anyway, decided to go for one last (?) swim, which was amazingly invigorating once the shock of entry wore off. Ulterior motive was to raise the dock steps out of the water for the winter. Boy are they HEAVY after soaking in the lake all season!!!! Retired to the RV, whose heater works just fine, thank you!
15 September 2010
Finished Breaking Dawn sometime after midnight. Of course that meant that Alverta called at 7:30 to talk about some condo issues. Hope I was at least semi-coherent. Laid and parged seven sections of the fifth course of between-column rock walls. First day in a week that it didn’t rain. High temps last few days in the mid-60’s; lake temp has plummeted to 68 degrees.
13 September 2010
Finished dry-laying the fourth course, then parged three sections. Finished Eclipse, then foolishly went over to Lynne’s to borrow her copy of Breaking Dawn…
12 September 2010
Installed the new tarp on the shed deck to protect everything underneath until the woodshed gets built next summer. Started raining again just as I finished… perfect timing! Then started laying the fourth course of between-column rocks, staying nice and dry under the waterproof covering. Got 10 of the 16 sections done… had the “eye” for fitting stone today. Lynne called mid-afternoon to invite me over to their place for another fabulous dinner. She lent me her copy of Eclipse. Stayed up ‘till the wee hours trying desperately to put it down.
11 September 2010
South Burlington condo lease signed today… finally!!!! Worked with my new tenants to repaint the living / dining room and hallway, preparatory to them moving in next week. Wait a minute, didn’t I just pay a small fortune to George Bedard to paint those rooms???? Yes, but the paint selected for those walls won’t go with their furniture (she says), so, good landlord that I am, agreed to a color change so long as they were willing to help do the work. Dinner with Alverta, then returned to Fern Lake via Lowes to purchase a 10 mil tarp for the shed deck.
10 September 2010
Took the day off from shed building activities. Instead, spent time cooking, cleaning, building an extension for the RV dinette table so that there would be room to seat five, and finishing the Dick Francis novel. Marty, Merry, Perry, and Lynne came for lasagna, fine wine, and great conversation… the Pirkkanens and the Lapiduses having a common history of living in New York City and many mutual acquaintances in the Lake Dunmore / Fern Lake environs.
9 September 2010
The third course of between-column rocks is done! A chilly, rainy day, so was nice working under cover of the shed floor… even though all the seams leak without a tarp covering the structure. Had a real bad Stephenie Meyer craving, so visited the Salisbury Free Library mid-afternoon. The library had her entire oeuvre, but the one volume I wanted was the only one checked out. Rats! Got a Dick Francis instead… It being a good day for cooking, made a simply fabulous sauce for tomorrow night’s lasagna dinner.
8 September 2010
Perry called at 7:30, catching me still slumbering away. Couldn’t have been because of too much of the Lapidus’ excellent wine… After a mug of strong coffee, helped him install some kitchen cabinets at his job site in Middlebury. Rain overnight revealed that there is a slight low spot in the shed floor over the number 2 beam, just as we suspected. Oh, well… it is what it is at this point. Discovered that the green tarp leaks like a sieve. So much for “saving” money by buying a 5 mil vice 10 mil tarp. Parged four sections of the third course of between-column rocks.
7 September 2010
Raked out and fine-tune leveled the area between the shed footers, removing three wheelbarrow-loads of ankle twister rocks. Vast improvement in appearance and walking-around / ladder placement safety. Perry arrived mid-morning. We discovered that the shed had grown overnight: west side went from 20′ ¼″ to 20′ ½″ and the east side went from 20′ even to 20′ ⅜″. Must have been the rain shower overnight?!?! The diagonals measured exactly the same, so the structure is within 1/16″ of square. Not too shabby, says the chief amateur builder. 
Even though Mr. Doubting Thomas didn’t think the joist hanger nails could ever be pulled out, Perry quickly proved me wrong… and reset the misaligned joist into its proper position. He then used his portable power planer and 6′ level to true up the joists, though it looks like the second beam in from the north is a tad lower than the others. While Perry was attending to other business over the noon hour, I made up a 1:2 mortar and sand mix to fill all the countersink cavities where the J-bolts lay, then filled-in and leveled the wane areas on the two beams that had 
been sistered together. Hope no one ever wants to get to those J-bolt nuts again, as they’ll need a jackhammer to do so. Then the fun started! Sure am glad that Perry was here to guide the laying of the Advantech, as he knew exactly how to get it right… plus all the tricks of the trade that made the job move right along. Used a whole case of PL400 plus 375 2½” Deckmate star-drive screws to fasten the flooring to the beams and joists. Doubt if a small nuclear device would budge the resulting structure. That floor ain’t a gonna squeak! Covered everything with a green tarp until we’re ready to build the actual wood shed… sometime next summer. Another delightful dinner at Marty’s and Merry’s rounded out a very productive day.
6 September 2010
Had to turn on the RV heater overnight to keep the interior warm enough for sleeping. Looks like the yellow jacket nest is finally dead… no sign of activity all day. Puttered around doing odds and ends: repaired the RV tile floor that was pulling up, sawed tongues and grooves off the Advantech that will become end sheets, installed temporary rim joists on the east and west sides, made a 3-foot step stool out of the 6-foot step ladder that was injured during the beam hoisting process, nursed my wounds, etc. Discovered that one end of one of the joists was installed 1½″ west of where it was supposed to be. Me bad!!!!
5 September 2010
Used a second can of wasp and hornet insecticide on the yellow jacket nest at crack of dawn. Hard to tell if the spraying had any effect as fall fell overnight… and the low temperatures may have discouraged flying insect activity. Zook and I cut and hung all of the 2 x 4 joists between the shed beams. Our right arms may never work again – six nails per joist hanger, two joist hangers per joist, 40 joists in all… that’s a lot of pounding into very tough red oak. When the pounding was done and congratulatory pictures taken, drove Zook up to South Burlington where we had an early dinner with Alverta before Zook caught a flight back to Virginia.
4 September 2010
Installed the 2 x 10 pressure treated rim joists on the north and south end beams, then sledge hammered those two beams into a close approximation of their correct positions… which didn’t make the yellow jackets any too happy. Then Zook and I used the van’s screw jack to raise each end of the four middle beams (so that I wouldn’t hit the concrete columns when cutting them off) and chain sawed them to a semblance of their correct length. Zook did the jacking, then wisely stood far away taking pictures while I did the cutting. By the time I finished trimming the 12th beam end, Zook pronounced me ready to carve a wooden bear. Then we sledge hammered the middle beams parallel to the end beams as best we could… which really, really didn’t make the yellow jackets happy. Perry brought over his deep socket ratchet set (mine being, inevitably, in Virginia), so that we could tighten the J-bolt nuts, guaranteeing that the beams will never come off the concrete columns, even in a Category 5 hurricane. While performing that job, I had to move a loose sheet of Advantech out of the way… and inadvertently moved it off of the beam that was holding it up. Most fortunately, Zook and Perry were not underneath when the sheet went crashing to the cellar floor. Somewhat less fortunately, I was leaning heavily on the sheet when it exited southwards. With blazingly fast reflexes I hurled myself onto another beam... landing hard enough that a gentleman really should propose marriage after such an encounter. The resulting cuts and bruises will, I’m sure, be gone within a week or two.
3 September 2010
Lots of activity around the underground yellow jacket nest this morning, so they got another dose of spray. Unfortunately the nest entrances (note the plural) are in the tangle of roots belonging to the huge white pine next to the shed excavation, so firing for effect is more than tricky. The Goodro Lumber truck showed up at 7:30 with the Advantech ¾″ tongue and grove engineered wood and construction adhesive needed to create the shed floor. Tammy came back about 8:00, just as Zook and I were finishing making some thick cribbing needed to raise the working 
end of her Kubota higher off the ground… and hopefully high enough for her to be able to set the shed beams in place. Miracle of miracles, the first four beams went up and on with minimal fuss and bother, though the hole for the J-bolt obviously was an inch too far south on the west end of the first 10″ beam. No one to blame but me for that little faux pas, as I both measured for and drilled that hole. Raising the second 10″ beam was another matter entirely. The Kubota’s main boom kept dropping with that heavy a load, so we despaired of ever getting the beam high enough to go over the J-bolt pins. To make an hour long tale of really hard travail mercifully short, we eventually prevailed… and with all fingers and toes intact. After Tammy left, I redrilled the hole that was
out of place in the first 10″ beam, creating a REALLY ugly cavity, big enough to hide a Volkswagen in, that will (mercifully) be hidden under the shed upper level flooring. Zook also redrilled several countersink holes that were either not deep or wide enough. During that process my Makita 3/8″ drill gave up the ghost (bearings making an awful bad grinding sound). On a positive note, we checked dimensions and found that the end beams are only 1/16″ out of square… more than good enough for this project. Then we tried to trim off the ends of the two end beams, first using Perry’s Milwaukee Sawsall with a new 12″ blade, then using a very dead hand saw, then using my trusty brush saw. No joy… and three strikes means bring in the relief pitcher, Mr. Jonsered. By well-earned adult beverage time, three of the four corners were cut to length, though one cut was not even close to perfect. Guess I won’t be entering the chainsaw ice sculpture carving contest this winter… Marty, Merry, and Perry arrived to admire the day’s progress… and just in time to help Zook and me keep the Fern Lake beer consumption metric at a proper level. Still lots of activity around the evil stinging insect nest all day… so emptied the Raid can into the entrance holes at dusk.
2 September 2010
Zook and I spent the majority of the day dry laying the third course of between-column rocks. Got all but two sections done. About 3:30 Tammy Walsh arrived with her Kubota loader / backhoe. She moved several bucket loads of gravel into the area between the shed footers so that we could bring the grade uniformly up to 6″ below the footer tops. Then we tried to raise one of the beams into place using her backhoe and my logging chain. Unfortunately, even at full extension with the backhoe arm, the beam was still a good foot lower than the tops of the J-bolts onto which it needed to be placed. As it was now quitting / cooling-off-in-the-lake time, we left the beam-raising mission until the morning. I climbed a step ladder next to the east-side double column while futzing around with the beam. Zap, an evil flying insect (wasp / hornet / yellow jacket?) stung my left hand, almost exactly where it was stung a few weeks back. The pain, as Bill Cosby once said, was terrific. Tammy spotted the nest entrance, not two feet from where I had spent quite awhile working this morning! Lucky I only got one sting… and then for no apparent reason other than sheer cussedness. So after a couple of Benadryl, chased down by a delicious BBQ chicken dinner, Zook and I headed out in search of some Raid Wasp and Hornet Killer by way of Lynne’s and Perry’s water spigot (we’ve gone through 6 gallons of the clear wet stuff in two days of mid-nineties temperatures). The Hannaford in Middlebury was sold out, the Rite Aide didn’t have any, but, most fortuitously, the Hannaford in Brandon had two cans. We’ll see in the morning whether I squirted the right hole tonight.
1 September 2010
Toby Rheaume brought his portable sawmill over for a couple of hours. He was able to get a 6″ beam out of the log I had set aside for a new 10″ beam, then we had to scrounge through the discard pile to find a log from which we could (just barely) get a 4″ sister beam. After Toby departed, Zook and I sistered that beam together using a whole tube of PL400 construction adhesive, then tried to bind it using 5/16″ lag bolts. Unfortunately (and is invariably the case), the long ¼″ drill bit I needed for the lag bolt pilot holes was in Virginia. Using a shorter bit and then forcing
the bolt in resulted in one sheared off bolt and some words that can’t be repeated. Guess I have to stop eating Wheaties… So after lunch, while Zook drilled countersink holes, I made a quick trip to Goodro Lumber for a ¼ x 9″ ship auger bit. Once the two beams that needed to be sistered were made up, used Perry’s new monster Rigid ½″ drill with a 1″ ship auger bit to drill the holes through which the cement column J-bolts will go. That combination pulled chunks of wood (vice sawdust) from the bore hole – now that’s a MANLY tool!!!!. Zook used the Rigid for a few minutes with a 2″ Forstner bit to drill a couple of countersink holes… until the torque of the drill caused the bit to simply shatter. Woof!!!! By the end of the day all the beams were ready for hoisting and Ice and Water Shield (donated by Perry) had been adhered to the tops of the columns (so that moisture won’t leach out of the cement into the beams… causing them to rot over time). Lake temperature still a balmy (yet MOST refreshing) 80 degrees.
31 August 2010
Zook and I moved the beams and tree that need to be resawn / sawn to where Toby Rheaume will set up his sawmill tomorrow. Have I mentioned just how heavy those suckers are???? Two trips into Middlebury to have my chainsaw low speed idle adjusted (free of charge!) at Taylor Rental and to help Perry a wee bit with a kitchen renovation engagement he is finishing up. Then Zook and I finished parging between-column rocks previously laid. That done, watched in amazement as Zook grabbed no more than a half-dozen rocks and made four of them fit beautifully into one section. He has the “eye” for rock wall building.
30 August 2010
From Springfield to Fern Lake with Gene Zukosky (Kristen’s father – and known to all, far and wide, as “Zook”). Pleasant nine-hour, three-stop, trip. Barbeque / canoe / swim after settling into camp.
20 - 23 August 2010
Back to Springfield via Old Saybrook. Lengthy stopover in CT occasioned by Fran’s unexpected hospitalization and subsequent abdominal surgery.
19 August 2010
Fun with rocks in the morning. Chree dry-laid three sections of the third course of the between-column rock walls (her first, quite nice effort, shown here), while I repaired a section that had not bonded properly, laid a missing section of the second course, and parged things together. After lunch we took my malfunctioning brand new chainsaw back to the Jonsered dealer who fixed the problem in 10 seconds flat… which made me feel like a complete, total, quintessential, unadulterated idiot. How many chainsaws have I owned in the last
40 years???? Great solace being told that many before me have come in with the same “problem”… and left similarly embarrassed by the solution. Feeling a bout of Type A disease coming on, completely emptied Delores’ tool storage compartment, cleaned a year’s worth of dirt and associated debris out of that space, put up a bunch of pegboard hooks, and restowed the compartment in an organized and shipshape fashion. I feel SO much better!!!! After a quick swim, went over to Lynne & Perry’s for a wonderful, right-out-of-the-garden dinner.Note to file: Chree did not put on her bee-keepers hat even once all week… that’s how few flying insects there were.
18 August 2010
Laid awake much of the night thinking about beams with too much wane. Bummer! After breakfast, confirmed my fears – three of the six beams do, indeed, have so much wane that the joist hangers will not attach properly. So one of the 10″ beams will have to be resawed into an 8″, one of the 8″ will have to be resawed into a 6″, the 8″ with the hole in it will have to be resawed into a 2″ (thus solving the errant hole problem) and sistered to the 6″, and a large oak top in the house-site pile will have to be sawed into a new 10″ beam. Good news for Toby, bad news for my checkbook. Chree and I took the measurements for where the holes will have to be drilled in each beam. Then she gathered and washed a bucket of small stones (for making concrete) while I hand-dug (literally) the hole for the driveway sign. After retrieving said sign from the Pittsford Kubota dealer and an old plastic pickle barrel that Perry was donating to the cause, Chree learned how to make a batch of concrete so that we could set the sign in place, concreted into the barrel. So now our driveway officially exists! No doubt 1750 Lake Dunmore Road, also known as Triangle Square Circle, will soon be a prominent Google Maps landmark. Hot dogs and marshmallows over the wood fire to celebrate.
17 August 2010
Another gorgeous August day. In Vermont they only have three seasons, and one of them is August. Spent the morning using top’n’bond to level the tops of the shed columns while Chree used a wood chisel to remove bark and cambium remaining on the beams where the log wasn’t quite as big as it needed to be for the size beam being sawn. Spent the afternoon finishing the bark removal process while Chree ran errands in Brandon. Also drilled the first hole in what was supposed to be the north end beam, then realized that that beam will not work in that position because of too much wane (places where the bark and cambium had to be removed after the beam was cut). Fingers crossed that the hole is in the right place for placing that beam in one of the other positions. (Can you hear the hollow laughter in the background, Mr. Murphy????) Also realized that I really, really, really need a backhoe (or a skyhook) for hoisting / moving the beams, as they are far too heavy to be horsed around by hand. Beautiful canoe around the lake after dinner.
16 August 2010
Rained most of the night, then a few brief showers in the morning, clearing off into a beautiful day. Toby Rheaume arrived shortly after 7 o’clock with his Woodmiser LT 70 portable sawmill. But before starting on sawing the shed beams, we returned to the house site for a large hemlock that had been overlooked during Saturday’s felling operations. A half hour later that tree, too, was in the skid pile destined for a commercial sawmill. Toby then pawed through the log pile set aside last summer
out of which I hoped we would find the six beams needed for the shed. Assured that we had sufficient red oak raw material, Toby and the sawmill went to work. The first two beams he cut are 9 ½″ x 10″ x 12 feet long; straining with all my might I can lift one end an inch or two off the ground. The other four beams are only 9 ½″ x 8″ x 12 feet; those I can lift one end maybe a foot off the ground. Getting these critters to the tops of the concrete columns, 7 feet 8″ in the air, is going to be a challenge. Unless, that is, my fairy godmother suddenly delivers the backhoe I so desperately crave. At his suggestion, Toby also sawed a large maple log into 1″ boards. Depending on how well they come through the drying process, those might become the built-in computer table, cabinets, and shelves in the Study when we build the house. They’ve been cut to a length (10 feet 4″) that will fit inside the van so that they can be taken to Virginia for air drying in our basement. After Toby was gone, Chree and I drove down to the Kubota dealer in Pittsford, who also makes street and driveway signs, and put in an order.
15 August 2010
After a blueberry pancake and strong coffee breakfast, spent an hour fixing the chain on my new saw that had had a “little problem” yesterday afternoon. Chree, Tasi, Kristen, Alex, and Katy set to work chipping brush and tree tops at the house site. In moving the truck and chipper for them, hit a stump that some idiot (that would be me) left too high too close to the “road” to the house site. Alerted to a problem by Tasi yelling, “Dad, STOP, the truck is gushing oil!!!!”, we quickly ascertained that an oil line under the front end had pulled apart. Fixing the disconnected oil line was relatively simple. Figuring out which system had hemorrhaged was not. Drove into Brandon to consult with a mechanic and get gasoline plus other supplies. Unfortunately, the only “mechanic” on duty at any of the stations this Sunday morning was totally clueless. Arriving back at Fern Lake, Alex greeted me with, “Dad, we’ve got some more bad news!”. Oh, joy! Seems the brush chipper had stopped working and was making a funny burnt-rubber smell. Suspecting a clog or jam, removed every access plate I could find, but to no avail. Something definitely ain’t right. Good thing I paid extra for the Taylor Rental damage waiver. Meanwhile, with Perry looking under the hood of his Ranger while I looked under the hood of mine (cell phones in hand), we were able to ascertain that it was the power steering system that had leaked. So Tasi schlepped off to the Leicester General Store for the proper oil. With the dipstick totally dry and large letters on the cap saying, “DO NOT OVERFILL”, I put in maybe a cup of oil and overflowed the system. Gotta love them “engineers” at Ford! Not wishing to waste this golden opportunity to abuse plentiful free labor, we set to work dragging chipper-sized tree limbs close to places where we’ll be able to position the chipper once it’s repaired. Alex and Katy headed back to Boston mid-morning. Tasi and Kristen held on until 5 o’clock. Perry came over mid-afternoon with the leveling transit and verified that the shed columns are “close-enough” to the right heights, with maybe two exceptions that will need some top’n’bond treatment. Started raining right after Tasi and Kristen headed south. Perfect timing… for them.
14 August 2010
Alex and Katy (younger son and wife) arrived for their first-ever visit to the property at 7 o’clock, having arisen at 2:30 and left Boston at 3:45. Toby also returned promptly at 7 o’clock with a very manly Husqvarna 372 chainsaw (took me two hands just to pick the thing up; I wouldn’t last an hour if I tried to use it in the woods. Toby, needless to say, handed the saw like it weighed two pounds.) He quickly set to work dropping trees that could be sent to the sawmill. In his hands, that saw could CUT!!!! A 20″ red oak: about a minute and on the ground and exactly where he planned to put it. Ditto every other tree he dropped. He taught me a ton about tree felling technique. His tractor has an hydraulic PTO-driven ½″ steel cable winch that made child’s play of removing multi-ton logs from the woods. I had a great time playing choker-man while Toby was in winch-operator mode. By noon, every marketable tree (we thought) was in a skid pile out by the road, so Toby departed to enjoy the rest of his weekend. Meanwhile, Tasi had been to Taylor to fetch the brush chipper. After a quick safety briefing (with many references to the movie Fargo), Chree, Tasi, Kristen, Alex, and Katy set to work turning the tops of the trees that Toby was felling and the many large brush piles along the driveway into fair-sized piles of mulch. The first branch that Chree fed into the maw promptly whipped across her face, cutting her cheek and fattening her lip …and I wonder sometimes why she doesn’t just LOVE working in the woods!?!? Alverta arrived at noon, bringing a pan of her special Butter Fudge Fingers, one of my favorite desserts. With her supervision and gasoline-fetching assistance, by swimming time all the brush and newly fallen tree tops east of the shed were history. Lynne, Perry, and Jake (their son), arrived for a visit as we were demolishing a few pounds of under-cooked steaks on the barbee, some divine Kingsley’s corn, and various adult libations.
13 August 2010
From Old Saybrook to Fern Lake via Ehler’s RV in Essex Junction (to retrieve Delores, looking oh, so, suave with her new $600 main cabin door steps) and Agway in Middlebury (for a propane fill up). As soon as Delores was parked and the van unloaded, headed for Taylor Rental to retrieve their brush chipper. Alas, they had told another customer that the chipper was available without consulting the reservation log. That person showed up just as I was headed out back to hook the chipper up to the Ranger . Needless to say, he was quite disappointed to learn that he had been misinformed. So I asked him how long he needed the chipper, thinking we could split the time over the weekend and save both of us some money. Bottom line is that I returned to Fern Lake chipper-less, but with a promise that the chipper would be ours come 10 o’clock Saturday morning. Tasi and Kristen arrived while I was away not renting a brush chipper. While we were getting the fire ready for cooking dinner, heard some banging and crashing out by the road, but didn’t think that had anything to do with us. A few minutes later a tractor came lumbering down the driveway with none other than Toby Rheaume at the controls. He was just getting the tractor pre-positioned for the following day’s activities. A quick beer, a chat about the plan of attack, and he was gone.
12 August 2010
From Springfield to Old Saybrook, CT with Chree and the dogs. Took an hour to go the first 20 miles ‘cause of stop-n-go rush hour traffic in the I-395 HOV lanes. VERY frustrating because the regular lanes were speeding along just fine.
9 August 2010
10 hours from South Burlington to Springfield. Would have been at least 45 minutes faster except for a miles-long construction delay on I-87 in New York.
7 August 2010
Alverta and I drove down to Fern Lake to retrieve the van and secure the site for a further week’s absence. Did a short canoe, picnicked on the dock (beautiful sunshine, perfect temperature, NO bugs), installed 12v solar-powered lights along the path, and emptied all the rocks out of the pickup. The resulting pile is impressive, but definitely far short of what will be needed to complete the shed between-column walls. After Alverta headed back north, mixed up a batch of mortar and parged three more sections of the second course. Then, after a quick dip in the lake, headed for South Burlington (via Kingsley’s Farm Stand) in the van.
6 August 2010
Repairs, painting, and cleaning at our condo. Late afternoon, Bill from Ehler’s informed me that the RV stairs would not be repaired this week. So drove out there to remove all perishables from the refrigerator and retrieve items that needed to go to Virginia, such as the keys to the van, dirty linen, the shopping list, etc. When I closed the main cabin door for the final time the steps cycled in (like they were supposed to), then out, then back in again. Almost like Delores was sticking her tongue out at me for leaving her parked in a foreign field for two weeks. Returning to Ehler’s office to drop off the RV keys, I parked in front of an RV that was backed up to the building. When I got out of the car, noticed that there was a driver in the left front seat of the RV and it looked like I had just blocked him in from leaving. Long story short, the RV was just arriving, not leaving, and was a 2010 Winnebago Adventurer – same model as Delores, only 14 years newer. The couple who owned that magnificent creature had me in for a tour. Wow!!!! All the bells and whistles, including a washer and dryer, solar panel array on the roof, a king bed, and a big screen TV. If we ever trade in Delores for a younger woman, I know just the one to go for. Of course, the price tag was somewhat over 10 times what we’ve spent for Delores… and you’d definitely have to shave and put on clean underwear every day if you owned her younger sister.
5 August 2010
Repairs, painting, and cleaning at our condo. Late afternoon, said, for the umpteenth time, “The $#@! tool I need is in the RV”. So drove out to Ehler’s to see how things were progressing… and to grab every tool I could think of possibly needing. Bill, the Service Department Manager, said the RV steps were working perfectly, though right after I dropped Delores off the technicians watched the steps go in and out and in and out a bunch of times of their own volition. Bill said that was symptomatic of the electronic controller going bad.. a $350 item. He also said the bounciness in the steps was due to one broken bolt and another about to let go. If the second bolt had failed, the stairs would have collapsed, potentially causing serious injury. Not a good thought!!!! After discussing the options, elected to go with a whole new stairs unit.
3 - 4 August 2010
Spent these fun-filled days doing ceiling and other repairs at our condo in South Burlington.
2 August 2010
Spent the morning parging first and second course rocks on the east and south between-column walls. So long as it doesn’t fall apart again, the first course is complete! Break out the champagne! No, wait, there are another 24 courses to go… After five hours of work it was time to give the ole back a rest… and there are still five sections of the second course that are incomplete. Mid-afternoon drove Delores up to Ehler's RV in Essex Junction through a roads-flooded thunderstorm. Any side bets on how many hundreds of dollars Ehler's will demand before they’ll give me back the keys?
1 August 2010
Picked rock along the driveway in the morning. Found one perfect rock and a truckload of what I hope are more acceptable shapes than I’ve been using. Spent the afternoon parging the second course of rock on the shed east wall. Backbreaking work due to the bent-over position needed for that job. Lynne and Perry came over for fabulous lasagna (made by yours truly, so no bias), fresh Kingsley corn, and a nice salad mostly from Lynne’s garden. Ate outside – NO bugs!
31 July 2010
Drove down to Quincy, MA to surprise Tasi and help him load the contents of his apartment into a large U-Haul truck for transport to his and Kristen’s just-bought co-op in Bethesda, MD. Dinner at Alex and Katy’s new apartment in Brighton, MA. Alex calculated that the pressure at the bottom of a 7′ 8″ column of concrete (having a density of 150 pounds per cubic foot) is about half a ton per square foot. No wonder the lower sections of the concrete column forms blew out!!!! That evening on the trip back north and with the red light on the gauge glowing brightly, fortuitously found a gas station still open in Bethel, VT, just before starting the trek up and over the Green Mountains. That would have been a nerve-wracking adventure with only fumes in the tank! Round trip 15 hours and 400 miles. Back to Fern Lake by bedtime. Upon returning, found a beautiful bouquet of sunflowers sitting on Delores’ still unretracting main cabin door steps and a bag of garden vegetables attached to the door handle, thoughtfully provided by Lynne and Perry.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)