30 September 2011

Made three trips into Middlebury to schlep Kate & Dan from / to G. Stone Motors, where they were having some work done to Kate’s car.  Cut all of the pieces of wood for the shed ramp using Tasi’s old / my new Skilsaw, which certainly runs a lot smoother than the one I killed by sawing stone.  Had Marty, Merry, Tammy, and Fran over for barbequed spareribs, Merry’s orzo with roasted vegetables, and Tammy & Fran’s sweated broccoli salad.  I forgot to serve the baked beans that I had made the other day special for this occasion.  Senile? Tammy also provided Our Daily Red, a 2010 organic California table wine.  Not bad for a vintage that sells for less than $10 a bottle.  A most enjoyable evening!

29 September 2011

A thoroughly rainy, miserable day, spent mostly cleaning the interior of Delores, including shampooing the carpets and trying to remove the ceiling stains caused by cracks in the roof.  Cut in the first color coat on the shed people door.

28 September 2011

Good news: the water pump and shower work just fine… if you have water in the tanks.  Oops!  Guess I’ve been a little profligate lately.  Installed the trim around the people door, then put two color coats of paint on the door casement, the north end vertical trim, and all the trim around the garage door.  To reach the top of the north side trim, had to stand on the very top (above the top rung) of my Little Giant stepladder at full extension, which put my feet 10 feet above the ground. Falling off would have really hurt, so I didn’t. Tasi’s (now my) Skilsaw arrived late afternoon. Perry stopped by to review progress since his last visit and to make sure I was keeping up with standards vis á vis my beer supply.

27 September 2011

At 4 o’clock in the morning the mouse decided that a bite of cheddar was just what it needed.  He/she now resides under a stump at the Silver Lake parking lot… two miles from here.  Two other major milestones today: the shed electrical wiring and the roof are complete.  Roof looks great!  And the lights and outlets all work. Alverta arrived about 12:30 with the condo checkbook, which isn’t balancing.  After an hour’s head scratching, it still doesn’t balance, but at least we know to within a couple hundred dollars how much money is in the account.  She and I then applied primer to the people door, door casement, and vertical trim on the north wall.  After lathering up completely, lost water pressure in the shower… and the water pump really is sounding sick.  Have you ever had to towel off still covered with soap?  Delores, obviously, is still in payback mode…

26 September 2011

Puttered around doing odds and ends waiting for the roofers to arrive, including smoothing out the path that Merry Lapidus likes to use when she ventures up the hill and sealing cracks on the roof of the RV.  Pikey and Mike arrived at 10:30.  I left to spend money in Middlebury shortly thereafter.  Upon my return at 12:30, found that all the rest of the roof panels had been installed. Mike came back a few minutes after I did to check the fit of the ridge vent roof blocks he was making in their shop.  After lunch, installed the rest of the PVC conduit and hooked up the shed upper level light fixture.  Now when you say, “Let there be light!”, I can oblige with the flip of a switch.  Then I tackled the job of pulling wire through the conduit to feed the exterior light.  Probably would have taken two people five minutes what it took me over an hour to accomplish.  Good exercise, though, schlepping up and down and up and down the hill between the shed upper and lower levels.  Lake water temperature felt even warmer than yesterday.  Rebaited the mouse traps with a very fine New York State extra sharp cheddar, as the little blighter has repeatedly turned up its pointy little nose at the peanut butter and crackers.

25 September 2011

Woke up this morning with this thought: The shed garage door opener is plugged into an outlet that is GFI “protected”, as it is supposed to be.  That protection was achieved by placing the garage door opener outlet (and the outlet on the shed upper level) in series with the GFI outlet in the shed lower level switch panel.  But what happens if the shed lower level GFI outlet trips when the garage door is down, which could easily happen if there is a ground fault while using the upper level outlet? The answer: it will take a small nuclear device to regain entry into the lower level.  Not the right answer!!!! Fortunately, there was enough slack wire in the garage door opener outlet box to rewire that outlet into the not-GFI-protected circuit that feeds the shed upper level light, so potential major problem averted.  In other news: moved all of Kate & Dan’s patio furniture back onto their porch, as they and their Ground Up Productions associates will be up t’ Fern Lake next weekend for their annual retreat.  Built, painted, and installed the block onto which the shed exterior light will be mounted.  Placement of that block was super critical because it has to align to within 1/16″ with the penultimate course of cedar shingles.  Ran PVC conduit until I reached the point where I need a fitting that I haven’t yet bought.  Took the kayak for a spin then went for a swim.  Lake temperature back UP to 71°.  RV water heater working perfectly normally this evening; guess Delores was just funning with me last night…  Har, har!!!!  As I was sitting in my favorite chair getting my daily fix of Diana Gabaldon (Voyager currently being consumed), the fattest mouse I have ever seen came strolling nonchalantly along the kitchen counter. When I got up to “encourage” him/her to visit one of the traps, he/she scurried back inside the burners, then down into the oven, and, assumedly, into the wall behind the stove.

24 September 2011

Spent the day wrestling with putting in PVC conduit and then feeding wires from the shed upper level light location back to the electrical feed in the lower level switch box.  That job would have been much easier with a second person to push wire while I was pulling (or vice versa).  Though I despaired of success at several points, finally got the job done, but not without scorching the woodwork with my language.  Discovered that I am short several connectors needed to run wire to the exterior light that will be mounted on the shed upper level northeast corner.  The seven P principal in action!!!!  Delores, curse her black heart, refused to let the water heater start when I went to clear away the debris in the kitchen and cleanse my troubled soul (and body).  Went to bed disgusted!  During the night, heard a mouse rummaging through the dirty dishes, having a good old feast.  Do you think the mouse would go into the nice peanut butter and cracker trap set right there on the counter?  Not on your life…

23 September 2011

Mike, Mike, and Mike (aka: Dad, Pikey, and Mike) arrived promptly at 8 to start installing the metal roof.  They brought with them a trailer that custom bends and then cuts each panel to whatever length needed, fed from a large roll of metal stock on their truck. They also had a nifty little self-propelled machine that runs up each seam, crimping adjacent panels forever together. They got about 85% of the panels installed by 2:30, when they had used up the 500 foot roll of metal on the truck… and quit for the day.  Depending on the light, the roof color (Colonial Red) ranges from copper to russet.  The shed should look pretty stunning once we have silver-grey cedar shingles on the exterior walls. In between watching the roofers roofing, I laid another course of rocks on the three sections of between-column walls that are incomplete.  Unfortunately, virtually every rock will need trimming with the diamond saw, so I have reached an impasse with that project until the Skilsaw arrives.  Switching hats, I began installing the conduit and running the wires to extend power to the shed upper level.  Note for do-it-your-self electricians: running five #12 solid core copper wires thru a 90 degree bend (in contrast to a 90 degree elbow) in ½″ conduit is not a fun proposition.  Got ‘er done, but ‘t was nip and tuck for awhile there.  By quitting time, the shed upper level had a working electrical outlet (GFI protected) and wires run to the switch for the overhead light.  Returning to the RV, found that the smoke detector was making the once per minute chirp again, so quickly called the First Alert customer service line.  As soon as they answered, the chirping stopped.  After explaining the situation, the nice lady agreed to send me a new unit anyway.  As soon as I hung up, the chirping started again!  And people wonder why I drink…

22 September 2011

Laid a few rocks before lunch, trimming by hand as well as I could, i.e., poorly.  Epoxy glued the RV vent fan plastic housing back together.  Ran errands in Middlebury after lunch and deciding that the roofers were not going to make an appearance, even though the forecast showers were nonexistent.  Tasi is giving me his slightly used Skilsaw as a Christmas present and will be shipping it north post haste.

21 September 2011

A moment of silence, s’il vous plait, for the not unexpected passing of Mr. Skill Saw, who will be sorely missed.  He gave up the ghost in a cloud of smoke, with screeching bearings, and has gone to a better place, i.e., the recycle bin.  Looks like Christmas is going to come a little early this year… In addition to destroying a much needed implement of construction, I laid rock all day, which takes a lot longer when you have to shape stones completely by hand with hammer and chisel.  Pikey Many and Mike Desjadon from Custom Roofing and Sheet Metal arrived mid-afternoon to get started on putting the standing seam metal roof on the shed.  They got scaffolding up and installed the drip edge on all but the east side.  The lake water temperature is now 70 degrees.

20 September 2011

Laid rock in the rain all morning.  Then went into Middlebury and down to Brandon to run errands.  The rain stopped as soon as I got in the car.  Figures!  One of the Brandon errands was to have a slow leak in one of the van’s tires plugged at McDonough’s service station.  Fifteen minutes, fifteen dollars, and all fix.  Returned to Fern Lake, promptly knocked three rocks off the wall from this morning’s endeavors while doing just a little touch up cementing.  You’d think by this time idiot-me would know how long it takes for mortar to set up!  So, spent the rest of the afternoon swearing up a blue storm while repairing the damage.  Two steps forward, one step back…  The 2008 River Road Zinfandel (Russian River Valley) is going to take a major hit tonight!

19 September 2011

Laid rock in the morning.  Alverta arrived at 10:30 to inspect progress and help pick out rocks for the wall.  Lynne arrived at 12:30 to inspect progress and do lunch.  She INSISTED that the sky and pinecones picture be put into the blog.  So there you go!  After Lynne left to return to work, Alverta and I paddled Hopea Kanootti down to the Fern Lake boat launch and then used Alverta’s car (with canoe rack on top) to cart the canoe back to the shed environs, where it will spend the winta’.  We then emptied the upper level of the shed to the bare walls and did a thorough cleaning.  Wouldn’t want the mice and chipmunks to think we keep a dirty wood storage shed.  Speaking of mice, this morning found definite signs that Delores is again infested.  (Humane) traps set, but thus far no takers for the Ritz cracker with Skippy Supper Chunk peanut butter with which they are baited.  The mechanism that opens the living room vent fell apart the other day (proof, if any were needed, that Delores is still getting back at me for taking her to the RV doctor last month).  So, while Alverta was urging me to swear as needed, I disassembled the vent / fan unit (the plastic parts of which literally fell apart… not to mention having a couple of decades worth of built up grime), figured out the problem (a screw and pivot pin had come loose), and got the vent opening mechanism operational again.  Then Alverta drove me up to Junction Auto to retrieve the Ranger.  Chree really will need to be sitting down when she gets that bill.  On a positive note, the brakes work just fine.

18 September 2011

Laid rock in the morning.  Skilsaw still alive… just barely!  After lunch I returned Perry’s tools, then spent some manly time with the Jonsered over at Kate & Dan’s, taking down another dozen trees blocking their view of the lake.  Incinerated all the slash.  It’s amazing how well and how hot fresh cut spruce burns, something to think about when you’re stringing the tree with those old, decrepit Christmas lights in a couple of months.  After sweating over the open fire (not to mention climbing up and down the hill a zillion times dragging brush) the lake felt cool and refreshing.  Remembered to call Tasi’s voicemail to wish him a happy birthday.  Good Dad!

17 September 2011

Mosquito population much diminished after last night’s spraying.  Apparently I have forgotten how to mix mortar, as several rocks that I cemented in yesterday fell right off the wall with a slight touch this morning.  Not, as they say, good.  Strongly suspect the mortar was mixed too dry.  So spent most of the morning repairing the damage.  Two steps forward, one step back!  Went over to Lynne & Perry’s after lunch to take away Perry’s Paslode framing nail gun, which he had most generously offered to let me borrow this weekend.  Then proceeded to cut and install the 11 collar ties (the horizontal 2 x 4’s that run between the roof rafters), which help to stiffen the roof so that it doesn’t collapse under snow loads.  Collapsing, they say, would be bad karma.  Several times during the process I was sure last rites would have to be administered to my Skilsaw.  Also was surprised the EPA didn’t cite me for operating an unlicensed airborne pollution emitter, the smoke pouring out of the motor was so thick at times.  But, with a fair amount of babying and some cajoling, all 22 of the collar tie end cuts got done.  And for those of you wondering what to get me for Christmas… or maybe even Columbus Day...

16 September 2011

A beautiful fall day with lots of sun and temps in the mid-50’s.  Won’t be long ‘till the leave start changing!  Spent most of the morning cutting rocks to fit… until the Skilsaw quit working and literally started billowing smoke.  Let the saw cool down ‘till after lunch, when, miracle of miracles, it started working again… though obvious from the sound of the bearings that it’s nearing the end of its much-abused life.  By the end of the day only 21 cubic feet of walls remain to be built… though the remainder of my stone pile is looking downright ugly… which is why I’m spending so much time carving rocks with the Skilsaw.  The mosquito control people came around again this evening, and this time remembered to venture down Triangle Square Circle.  Hopefully tomorrow I won’t have to do quite so much arm waving down in the hole.

15 September 2011

A totally yucky day: temps in the mid-50’s and rain.  The mosquito control sprayer was out and about last night… visited Kate & Dan’s and Marty & Merry’s.  He who called got skipped! Consequently, the mosquitoes weren’t gone today… though they weren’t nearly as bad as yesterday.  Spent the morning getting wet, laying rock, and putting mortar where it would do the most good. Finally wore out the diamond blade on my Skilsaw, so after lunch and a change of clothes, added some more to my burgeoning tab at Goodro Lumber.  Spent the remainder of the afternoon carving rock with my new blade.  Got another section finished (except for some residual mortar application)... only three more to go!  Talked to Junction Auto.  Hope Chree is sitting down when she gets the news: all of the brake lines on the Ranger need to be replaced and so do the carriage bolts for the rear leaf springs.

14 September 2011

Temperatures later this week are supposed to dip into the 30’s, so took Delores into Middlebury to top off the propane tank.  Wouldn’t want the mice to get chilled after they’ve stripped all the insulation out of the RV.  Also was getting low on honey roasted peanuts, again.  I think the mice must be getting into them when I’m away. Even though the RV smoke detector was replaced with a new unit on 1 June, the every-one-minute beep started going off last week, indicating the battery needed replacing.  Done. Detector started beeping again yesterday. So I called the First Alert customer service line this morning.  A nice lady took all my info, then asked me to put the battery back in the detector to verify the fault.  Do you think the fool thing (obviously a cousin of Delores) would cooperate?  Right in one!  Now going on 10 hours with nary a beep to be heard!  Got  a course of stone laid and cemented in 2½ sections of the between-column walls. Mosquitoes were horrendous.  Had to bathe in Deep Woods Off and use the ThermaCELL lantern in order to work with both hands.  Called the mosquito control people and asked them to send ‘round their spray truck.  And remember: I don’t always drink beer, but when I do, I prefer Michelob Amber Bock.  Stay thirsty my friends!

13 September 2011

One section of the east side between-column rock walls is finished; also laid and cemented in a course of stone in the other four sections.  Mosquitoes out in force for the first time in many moons.

12 September 2011

When last we heard from the Master Mason, there were five between-column rock wall sections on the east side of the shed lower level that were incomplete, with approximately 36.7 cubic feet of wall remaining to be built.  By the end of the workday, that number was down to 32.9 cubic feet.  Woo Hoo!  Junction Auto came and took away the Ranger.  Chree says she sees $$$$ in her future.  Did the financial math over lunch and determined that I don’t have enough money to finish the shed this year… a major disappointment.  Should be able to get everything done with materials already on hand except for the cedar shingle siding and the two big doors on the west side.  Lake temperature now a refreshing 75 degrees.  Over to Marty & Merry’s with Perry for another fabulous repast, featuring two of Merry’s signature dishes: orzo with roasted vegetables and cranberry salad.

11 September 2011

What were you doing when you got the news ten years ago today?  As partial payback for letting us use their house for a week, spent most of the day dropping trees on our property in order to open up the lake view from Kate & Dan’s villa… and burning up the slash from today’s chainsaw victims and previous deforestation efforts. When the temperature is 55 and you’re sweating profusely, you know you’re not sitting in front of the TV. Got all but nine trees cleared before I ran out of go-juice.  Also opened a path along the flat spot right next to the lake to connect Kate & Dan’s property to our dock complex. Retrieved and secured their swimming float, which was trying to make an unauthorized voyage down the lake.  Found another fox den under an enormous rock that forms a natural cave, but there weren’t nobody home.

9 - 10 September 2011

Schlepped Alverta, Perry, Lynne, Erin, Jake, and Carrie down to Beverly, MA for the wedding of Lauren Perkins (my brother’s older daughter) and Justin Williams.  Found a note from Pikey Many upon return to Fern Lake saying he expects to install the shed’s metal roof towards the end of the week of 19 September.

6 - 8 September 2011

Back to Fern Lake via CT.  Eight loooooong hours in heavy rain from VA to Old Saybrook… including 22 miles of stop and go traffic from the NY / CT state line to Bridgeport! While enjoying their always generous hospitality, cut down a couple of dead / dying trees that, left to Mother Nature, would have fallen on the Tarrio’s backyard shed.  From CT to VT with no difficulties… rain stopped as soon as I got away from the coast and VT 103 was very passable, though flood damage from Hurricane Irene in the Ludlow area was plain to see.  Perry called soon after I left the Tarrio’s to tell me that Lynne had suffered a complete brake failure in the Ranger as she was taking it back to Fern Lake.  Then smoke started coming from under the truck.  She was, needless to say, a bit freaked out!  Fortunately, she was at Kampersville Campground getting gas when the brakes went, so moving very slowly.  Perry went to Lynne’s rescue, discovering that one of the brake lines was rusted through (shades of my adventures with Delores a year ago), was spraying brake fluid on the muffler (hence the smoke), and the brake fluid reservoir was empty.  Once I got back in the area, Perry and I filled the brake reservoir and verrrry slowly and without-using-the-brakes-no-matter-what-happens drove it back to Fern Lake, where it will stay parked until Junction Auto’s wreck retriever can haul it away next week.  The fun just NEVER stops!

3 September 2011

Left Fern Lake just on 8 o’clock.  First stop: Kingsley’s Farm Stand to procure corn for export to Virginia.  Leaving Kingsley’s driveway I had two choices: turn right and backtrack to the Leicester / Whiting Road to VT 30 to US 4 well west of Rutland to New York State or turn left and take the route that would lead me either to VT 73 (which I thought likely was closed due to high water / damage from Hurricane Irene) or to US 7 to Pittsford / VT 3 through Proctor / US 4A and US 4 in West Rutland to New York State.  Knowing that the Rutland area had been hit hard by additional heavy rains a couple of days ago, I turned right.  Got part way to Whiting and found the road closed due to high water.  Visions of not being able to get out of Vermont in my mind, I headed south.  Fortunately US 7 in Brandon had been repaired… though the buildings next to the road where the river overflowed are complete toast.  VT 73 also was closed as expected.  Fingers crossed, I proceeded to VT 3… which was open, but the trees and bushes either side of the road had mud lines about three feet above road level.  Whew!  With the detours, took over an hour to get to New York State (consistently a 45 minute drive no matter the route taken).  Considering this was a major holiday weekend, traffic was only moderately heavy all the way to Virginia, with but one or two very minor slowdowns the whole trip.  Consequently, made the entire voyage in just over 8½ hours… an excellent time!

2 September 2011

Went in the Ranger to pick up Perry at his place so that he can use my truck until his is repaired.  We stopped at Goodro’s for a case of Paslode nails and a square of ice and water shield… the former to replace those used in building the shed upper level, the latter for installing the people door, which is what we did for the rest of the morning.  In breaks away from the action with Perry, I also drilled holes in three spots in order to bring electricity from down below to where it will be needed in the upper level.  Just before lunch we put 30# felt on the south shed wall in anticipation of putting up the corner trim on that side.  However, in discussing time management and priorities over lunch, we tackled the north end corners instead, as they were especially challenging.  Push come to shove, I can put up the south end corner trim myself… obviously not as perfectly as Perry, but probably acceptably for a piece of carpentry that doesn’t have hinges.  To build the north end corners Perry had to marry 5/4 pine with 5/4 PVC (which, as Murphy would tell you, are not the same thickness) to produce 4½″ wide trim pieces that are weather-proof on the lower end and a lot less expensive on the upper end.  While he was doing that, I attempted to remove granitus impedimentia from the northwest corner retaining wall so that the trim on that corner could wrap around to the west side of the shed.  Partial success only… and now all my cold chisels need to spend some quality time with Mr. Grinding Wheel.  Jake Pirkkanen and his girlfriend, Carrie Ledbetter, arrived to take Hopea Kanootti for a spin while the foregoing was ongoing.  By way past quitting time, Perry and I had the north end corner trim attached to the shed for all time.  We then spent an hour cleaning up, putting away, and covering up… which made the sitting down and tilting back all the more appreciated.

1 September 2011

Perry had some errands to run first thing, so I spent an hour tidying up the work site, then nailed roofing tins (those round silver pokka dots you see in the picture) along all the 30# felt seams to hold them flat until the metal roof is installed.  Was just finishing that job when Perry arrived.  We then set to work disassembling all the staging and scaffolding used for the roof construction.  After the top level of staging was removed on the north side, we used the lower section as a platform to install a metal drip edge above the garage door.  That would have been a whole lot easier if I’d known to put the drip edge on BEFORE the tar paper went up… and then was silicon sealed into place.  Oh well, you live, you learn!  We then completed putting up the tar paper on the north face of the shed before taking down the rest of the staging.  When Perry threw the last staging plank onto the pile (up close to the campfire locale) apparently he covered over the entrance to a bumble bee nest.  Didn’t know those bees were ground dwellers.  Now know that dumping a 2 x 10 x 16 plank on their nest entrance REALLY makes them mad.  Fortunately we spotted the swarm before anyone got stung.  Marty came up with Graham and Gabby Glassner (two of his grandchildren) for their daily inspection visit right after we riled up the bees.  A few minutes later Heather & Billy Glassner (Marty’s daughter and son-in-law, who coincidently is Sid Glassner’s son) also came up to see the sights.  After the inspection party headed back north, Perry and I loaded his truck with all the staging materials borrowed from Don Ross and returned them from whence they came.  Then we loaded Perry’s truck with most of Bob Hillman’s staging materials and discovered that Perry’s truck has a transmission fluid leak.  To say that Perry was somewhat unhappy with this development is perhaps the understatement of the century.  I followed Perry as he limped his truck back to Bob’s construction storage depot (just down the hill from Perry’s house) where we unloaded.  I then went to Goodro’s to give them a check for $2,100 for last month’s charges (gulp!!!!)… and return $50 worth of materials that we hadn’t used.  Back at Fern Lake, I worked for another hour putting away lumber and plywood that was stewed about, then decided that something serious had to be done about my hot and sweaty self.  You’ll be pleased to know that the lake temperature is still a very pleasant 76 degrees… and the water level is just lapping the top of the dock after the hurricane’s deluge last Sunday.