First thing in the
morning raked over Kate & Dan’s driveway, filling in the grove left by dragging one
of the stumps there yesterday. Then
tackled the much more serious furrows in the Triangle Square Circle driveway. Spent the remainder of the morning doing
errands between Salisbury and Middlebury.
After lunch, began moving rocks and dirt and more rocks for the top
section of the walkway. I can attest
that swinging a pickax into Leicester soil for a few minutes gives you a terrific
workout. After shoveling and picking
rocks all afternoon, Chree is doing Naproxen with a Beefeaters chaser
tonight. Unfortunately, the area where
the natural slope is most out of sync with the desired 1:8 walkway slope is at
the very beginning of the walkway. We
managed to excavate the first, worst 12 feet in four hours of very heavy labor. Afterwards Chree took a cold shower (saying
something about the sight of my well muscled sweaty body…) and the dogs and I
hit the lake.
Chree and I spent the
morning and early afternoon dragging a couple of stumps and five truck-loads of
brush from the house site over to our bonfire spot (future leach field
site). Also dragged five spruce logs off
the house site over to the campfire area… and punctured the left rear tire in
the Ranger, but that’s another story. Once
that was done and the new growth hacked down, the house site was fairly well
cleaned up, at least enough to put stakes in the ground (for the umpteen
zillionth time) to mark the corners of the future house. We checked the bearing for true south by using
the azimuth of the sun at the proper time (11:56 exactly for this date and
location). Our original desire was to
have the house oriented exactly north / south / east / west. But true south is a lot more east than we
thought, so after scratching bug bites our heads for awhile, we decided
to turn the house 25 degrees clockwise, i.e., the south-facing wall will
actually be aimed towards 205 vice 180 degrees true. Once the house corner stakes were in the
ground (no mean feat given the abundance of rocks, all located exactly where
each stake needed to go) and checked for reasonable squareness, we had to
decide the house base elevation (top of the foundation walls). Further scratching of bug bites finally
resulted in a nail being driven into the large hemlock at the northwest corner
of the car turnaround area, said nail denoting the house base elevation… at
least in present-day theory. All of the
aforementioned work needed doing in order to decide exactly where (location and
elevation) the wooden walkway will begin.
Had to turn on Delores’ air conditioner mid-afternoon to make her
habitable for the dogs, even after they spent a joyful half hour in the lake. Delores has a slightly rounded top and the AC
condensate drain is, of course, on the starboard side, which means the condensate
drips right onto the middle of the main entry stairs… and anyone entering or
leaving the RV. Some engineer was really
not thinking too straight the day he/she/it did that design!
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Turned the refrigerator
back off and defrosted / aired out / thoroughly scrubbed (with bleach) the
freezer compartment. Not exactly
springtime fresh, but at least we eliminated the gag reflex upon opening the
freezer. Chree learned how to use the
radial arm saw (and still has all her fingers, so the teacher must have done an
okay job). Together (Chree sawing, me
removing nails and drilling holes) we manufactured 100 2x6x7½″ blocks that will
be the footers underneath the 4x4 in-ground posts that will support the wooden
walkway. Went up to Junction Auto to
retrieve the Ranger. Turns out that the
new right front wheel bearing was manufactured poorly, so that it didn’t sit
against the wheel hub tightly enough to preserve the vacuum needed to actuate
the 4WD. Ford sent a replacement bearing
and paid Junction Auto to install it, so no charge to me. I’ll take back half of the nasty things I’ve
said about Ford Motor Company products in the last two weeks. Of course the Check Engine light did come
back on three miles after I left Junction Auto…
To Fern Lake with
Chree and the dogs (Geisha & Shlomo) via an overnight stop at Frank &
Fran’s (Chree’s parents) in Old Saybrook, CT, then a nice lunch with Alverta in
South Burlington, and finally a call at Pete’s RV to retrieve Delores and our
new Lifan Energy Storm 3600 inverter generator.
The RV repair bill was $500 less than expected. That’s the good news. The bad news is that someone (NOT me!) put Delores’
auxiliary battery switch into the O•F•F position during her stay at the repair
shop, which cut power to the
refrigerator for a sufficient amount of time for everything in the freezer to
thaw and spoil. Nothing like the smell
of rotten chicken mixed with rancid Ben & Jerry’s to give you that Welcome
Home feeling! That and the fact that
vandals have once again made off with the Triangle Square Circle driveway
sign. At least they had to break the
sign in order to steal it this time, as my anti-theft modifications worked at
least somewhat. Great consolation!
Left Essex Junction (where the Burlington area train station is located) at
9 am aboard Amtrak’s The Vermonter. Due
to the 90°+ outside air temperature potentially warping the tracks, the train
was restricted to 30 mph for much of the trip to New York, where we finally
arrived 12 interminable hours later. And
we were lucky! There was a trackside
fire in Connecticut that stopped all train movements… just after we went
through! The rest of the trip to
Washington was at normal speeds, but we didn’t get to Union Station until 1 am…
which is an hour after Washington’s Metro (subway system) closes down for the
night. Consequently, Chree had to drive
into downtown DC to retrieve my sore butt sorry self. We finally arrived home at 2 o’clock, three
hours later than expected when I booked the tickets.
Secured the site for a
week-long absence, then took Delores to Kampersville for her mid-summer $15 constitutional,
from there to Agway in Middlebury to top off the propane tank, then up to South
Burlington to offload laundry and perishable food at Alverta’s, and finally
over to Pete’s RV… where the list of maintenance items needing attention grows
ever longer: roof leak repair / resealing, stove exhaust hood resealing,
transmission fluid top-off (and where, pray tell, did all the transmission
fluid go to????), Vermont State inspection, window blind replacement, and dead
generator removal. Too bad Tasi is in
Africa for three months, could have used him as collateral for the repair bill. Dinner at Bove's with Alverta... always a treat!
Spent most of the day
scrubbing Delores from stem to stern and back again by the southern route. Everything that doesn’t move got a good cleaning…
and even some things that were moving too slowly to get out of the way in
time. Filthy doesn’t even begin to
describe interior conditions too long neglected. Attempted to repair the bedroom window shade
that broke last week on one of my “lucky” days.
No joy: the operating mechanism (some very thin string) broke again as
soon as I tested the “repaired” shade.
Another item for Pete’s RV to charge a fortune to fix. Took the Ranger to Junction Auto
mid-afternoon so they can repair the 4WD while I’m in Virginia. Met Perry there, who gave me a ride back to
Fern Lake… and suggested some ways that I might correct the warped door problem
on the shed. It sure is nice having a
building construction expert in the family!
The architect insists
that the rock roof in the man cave must be roughened in order to achieve the
desired ambiance. Other than that one
trifling detail, the SHED IS D•O•N•E, done!!!!
Perry came over at 9. With our
previous practice, took us no time at all to hang the two doors for the
northern doorway. After some minor
planing and sanding on the hinge sides they fit the opening nearly perfectly! Only one minor malady: the north door is
warped about ¾″ out of true at the top where it doesn’t meet the south
door. Oh, well, it is what it is at this
point; there isn’t that much adjustment in the hinges. Installed the north doorway door stops then
used Perry’s power planer to make them and the south doorway door stops look
nice and pretty. Cleaned up the shed,
ready for inspection. To celebrate, swam
across the lake and back, which is somewhat over ⅓ mile for the roundtrip.
Removed four more
sections of the wood stairway; one to go.
Truth be told, even though I was wearing earmuffs, the siren call of the
lake became simply overwhelming after the third section of the day was
complete. So took a much needed half
hour cool down swim break.
Slacker!!!! Slow-cooked some
spareribs in the oven for five hours this morning, then finished them off with
a half hour on the campfire tonight. Cooked through and delicious as always, but
not yet falling off the bone.
After morning cat
duty, backed the Ranger down the hill by Kate & Dan’s fire pit, preparatory
to disassembling that portion of the wood stairway on our property that used to
lead from the Glassner’s (now Kate & Dan’s) house down to what was then
their, and is now our, waterfront. Went
to reposition the truck slightly and figured I’d better use the 4WD, as the
slope was a bit steep. No 4WD!!!! #$%@&^!!!! The truck was well and truly stuck and going
nowhere without assistance. Fortunately,
our neighbor across the road, Dave Todd, soon arrived with his real-man sized
pickup (that likes to swim, but that’s another story) and a long chain. A gentle tug and the Ranger was back on
reasonably level ground. An irate phone
call to Junction Auto followed… as they had just had the front end of the truck
apart for wheel bearing replacement and the 4WD was working just fine before
their ministrations. Appointment at 2,
so started taking apart the stairway, lugging the wood by hand all the way to
the top of the hill. Great exercise… and
you wouldn’t believe how heavy that pressure treated lumber can get after a few
trips. Got two sections (of eight that
need to go away) removed by time for a late lunch… and delivery of some
fresh-baked thank you lemon bars to the Todds.
After an hour at Junction Auto (mostly spent talking on the cell phone to
Lowe’s, ordering low voltage lights for the walkway), was informed that, yes,
an o-ring needed to seal the hub (the 4WD engages with a vacuum system) was not
installed with the new bearing on the right side… but the left side also wasn’t
getting good vacuum, cause unknown and no time to investigate this late on a
Friday afternoon. So drove my
now-2WD-only truck back to Fern Lake and took out my frustrations by destroying
another section of the stairway… and another inch of Black Lable.
Looked like the same
doe walked by again as I was eating breakfast.
One wonders, with the miles of forested land in this area, why she has
taken up residence in the vicinity of Triangle Square Circle. Maybe she just has a penchant for
geometry… This was a day of
driving. Left Fern Lake at 7:30, to
Lynne & Perry’s to attend to cats, to South Burlington to help Alverta get
her cat to the vet yet again, to Lynne & Perry’s (with Alverta following in
her car) to return Perry’s Ranger, to Junction Auto (in Alverta’s car) to
retrieve my Ranger with a new right front wheel bearing (a $400 ticket item)
and dashboard lights that work (a $350 in labor ticket item… took them many
hours to find the wire that was shorting out and blowing the fuse), back to
Lynne & Perry’s for afternoon cat feeding, and finally back to Fern Lake at
5 o’clock.
Finished putting
the cedar siding on the west wall, then installed the top 1x4 trim for that
wall. Next installed the north wall 1x4
trim… without seriously endangering life or limb, though the lower limbs are sure
to be sore after countless trips up and down my tallest ladder. Except for hanging the two doors for the
north doorway, the exterior of the shed is complete! The only interior items left to do are to
needle gun the rock roof to give it a proper rough look (for which job I still
need to find / borrow / steal / otherwise procure a pneumatic needle gun) and
to install hooks in the lower level east wall on which to hang ladders and
scaffolding. Final accounting: 3½ rolls
of Home Slicker, just a tad over four squares of #2 white cedar shingles, about
5,100 1¼″ stainless steel staples, and two gallons of Cabot Silver Gray
Weathering Stain used in siding the shed.
The taste of the obligatory celebratory Johnnie Walker Black Label:
priceless!
Rain was forecast to
start about 4 (it did), so went over to Lynne & Perry’s at 3:30 to see if I
could get the two outside cats in before they got damp around the ears. Should have known better! Before the rain drove me inside, got the west
wall completely shingled except for four courses in the southernmost
section. So close… Enjoying the dry comfort of the woodshed
while listening to the pitter patter of rain on the metal roof (so romantic!)
stained the two doors for the north doorway (definitely not a romantic
activity). Returned to Lynne &
Perry’s at 5:30 to feed cats. One
slightly damp feline returned to the nest, the other is going to enjoy Mother
Nature at her finest tonight.
After the morning cat care
duty at Lynne & Perry’s, put the shingles on the two northernmost
“sections” of the west wall, i.e., the narrow areas to either side of the north
doorway opening. Sorry about the best
part of your inheritance, kids, but finished my last box of Ceiltile T-50
staples. Temps in the mid-80’s today, so
took an extra long swim after returning from afternoon cat feeding. A small doe walked by as I was eating dinner…
first deer I’ve ever seen hereabouts.
Finished the first and
second courses of shingles on the west wall.
These were the two most time-consuming, as there was a lot of cutting
and fitting around both door openings and the ramp. The other courses should go on much
quicker. Baked and frosted a cake for
Alverta’s 88th birthday.
Unfortunately, the cake did not survive the trips up and down Lynne
& Perry’s rather steep and somewhat pot-holey road. And by “did not survive”, I mean you have
never seen a more pitiful excuse for a bakery product than what finally arrived
in South Burlington… top layer, fissured into two pieces, completely slid off
the bottom layer. A delicious mess… but
a mess nonetheless. Dinner at Three
Green Tomatoes with Steve, Mary, Lynne, Perry, Erin, and, of course, Alverta,
with “cake” and Ben & Jerry’s at Alverta’s condo after. Dropped the Ranger off at Junction Auto as we
passed by northbound. Fed Lynne &
Perry’s five cats as I returned southbound.
Driving Perry’s Ranger while mine is in the shop and Lynne, Perry, and
Erin are in Washington State this week for Jake’s college graduation.
Spent up to lunch
(which happened at 3 o’clock…) waiting for the radial arm saw and untreated
starter course shingles to dry out enough to continue the west wall siding
job. It really rained HARD yesterday…
two inches in the wheelbarrow in less than a half hour! Spent the morning (sic) assembling and
installing the bracket for the dehumidifier, then blasting a hole in the east
wall stonework to run the drain line from the dehumidifier outside. Only had to remove two rocks from the wall and
modify them slightly with the Skilsaw and diamond saw blade. That mission accomplished, spent the balance
of the afternoon staining and attaching shingles to the west wall.
The hardest place to
shingle on the west wall, obviously, is under the ramp to the people door. But, clever me designed and installed the
ramp so it would (in theory) be easily removable. Et voila, fifteen minutes and the ramp was
out of the way. By noon the shingles
were on that small section and the ramp was back in place, like it never
happened. Art Tournet, owner of Vermont
Pest Control, arrived just as I was finishing caulking the ramp / door
threshold joint. He spent an hour and
said, yes, the pile of sawdust on the lower level footer was definitely the
work of carpenter ants, but the ants must not have liked the flavor of the oak
beam, ‘cause they had already vacated the premises. GREAT!!!!
Then he said, no ants, no charge.
He told me to apply Bora Care to all the exposed interior wood and I
would never have an ant or termite problem for the life of the shed. Continuing the shingle installation after
lunch, the sky grew ominously dark.
Threw the tarp over the radial arm saw, otherwise battened down the
hatches, and decided that staining shingle butt ends inside the shed was a good
thing to be doing. Sure enough, a few
minutes later a tremendous storm hit, including enough ½″ hail to completely
cover the ground. If you’ve never been
inside a metal roofed shed when ½″ hail is raining down, let me tell you, it’s
VERY LOUD!!!! In the midst of the
deafening deluge, looked out and saw that the tarp had blown completely off the
saw. Oh fudge! Oh fudge, fudge, fudge with double chocolate
and nuts!!!! Threw off the tool belt
(literally) and raced out to recover the saw.
If you’ve never run through a downpour with ½″ hail, let me tell you,
them pellets do sting some. Thoroughly
drenched, butt-head went back to work staining butt ends. Wrapped up work early to go with Lynne &
Perry to the Middlebury Town Hall Theater for the opening night performance of
Jules Massenet’s opera Thaïs. Opera?
Doug? Well, you gotta try
everything (except skydiving) once. The
best part of the show was the pole dancer, actually a VERY strong and very
flexible scantily clad artiste who normally performs with Circus Smirkus. The real reason for attending was that Perry
has spent all of the past three weeks co-building the set, which I wanted to
see and was pretty awesome. Drove back
to Fern Lake in the Ranger in the fog sans dashboard lights, which makes
judging your speed virtually impossible.
Fortunately, there weren’t too many other fools on the road, and they
were probably drunk anyway.
Unfortunately, there is a sound coming from the right front that sounds suspiciously
like the wheel bearings are gone on that wheel.
Can somebody get me some fudge?
Double chocolate with nuts?
The day started out
not so good: Marty (aka: The Road Warrior) hit some loose gravel and crashed at
the exact halfway point of our morning bike ride. He and his bike were sufficiently beat up
that we had to call for evacuation.
Fortunately Merry was home, though three Good Samaritans did stop at the
accident scene to offer assistance. Even
more fortunately, nothing was broken except the tires on the bike. I soloed back to Fern Lake, then headed for
Burlington where I spent the day helping my mother with things she needed help
with… and spending more money at Lowes.
Upon return to Fern Lake I offered to bring Marty some Black Label, but
he demurred, saying that codeine was proving sufficient for the pain from his
wounds. So I drank his allotment as a
toast to his speedy recovery.
Three signs that the
gods are smiling in your direction: (1) got back from a ride with Marty around
Lake Dunmore / Fern Lake just as the first drops of a nice downpour started;
(2) ate lunch during said downpour and the rain stopped just as I finished; and
(3) grabbed a handful of nails to attach some trim and ended up with exactly
the right number in my tool belt pouch.
With those auspicious portents, remanufactured and reinstalled the door
stops for the south doorway. MUCH mo’
better! Also shortened both of the north
doorway doors by ⅜″, routed out the six hinge
pockets on those doors and their counterparts on the door frame, and attached
the hinges to the doors. Those doors are
ready to be hung and stained.
Temporarily set up the
dehumidifier (one of yesterday’s purchases) in the lower level of the
shed. Moisture control in that space has
been a concern for some time and I finally bit the bullet and have done
something except fret about the problem.
As I was doing the aforementioned, noticed a substantial pile of sawdust
on the concrete footer directly below one of the oak beams. “Oh, crap”, says I (or words to that effect),
“strongly suspect there is a carpenter ant infestation in that beam.” Carpenter ants LOVE moist wood, which
certainly describes conditions for much of the time since the beams were put up.
So called Vermont Pest Control (Marty’s
recommendation), who promised to come armed to kill later this week. Meanwhile, back in the upper level of the
shed, the door building continued apace.
Got both doors for the north doorway all done (ha, ha!!!!) except for
staining and hinges, then installed the aluminum threshold for that doorway,
measured the vertical dimension of the final opening, and discovered I need to
cut another ⅜″ off each “completed”
door. A good job for tomorrow morning…
and better to find this out now than after the doors are hung.
So how long is “forever”? Well, it turns out that forever is about an
hour and fifteen minutes, which is how long it took me this morning to remove
two cedar boards from the right-hand door for the north doorway, move the latch
to the correct position, and reattach the cedar boards. Seems that the much less expensive (than the
Locktite PL-series products) Liquid Nails construction adhesive that I used
does not bond to Advantech sheathing… and only marginally bonded to the cedar
boards, i.e., my 5-in-1 tool scraped it mostly off and a quick hit with the
belt sander finished the removal. Not
often, but sometimes being cheap pays off.
After another fifteen minutes moving the latch on the left-hand door,
headed to Burlington to spend money, help my mother, and do laundry. The upshot of my visits to Loews and Pete’s
RV was that Chree got a call from our credit card company’s fraud detection
center, wondering if some unauthorized person was using our card to go crazy in
Vermont. We assured them that the
charges were legitimate, though they had the crazy part right…
Installed the cedar edge
trim and finished getting the right-hand door for the south doorway all sanded
and ready for stain and hinges. Felt
like building the woodshed workbench instead of working on the left-hand
door. Sometimes it’s good to be the
boss!!!! So spent the balance of the
morning building the bench and a shelf for the chainsaw and associated
paraphernalia, all made from “scrap” wood that was destined for the
bonfire. Just color me green! The workbench is strong enough for a 160
pound idiot to jump up and down on. The
shelf, on the other hand, protested a bit when sat on by that same idiot. After lunch, resumed work on the left-hand
door. Got the Advantech sheathing on,
then installed the door latch. When I
built the right-hand door yesterday, was so proud that this geriatric Ivy
League educated pseudo-carpenter remembered (from back in early May) that the
door latch was to be installed exactly 36½″ above the door’s bottom edge. No need to take the (literally) two steps to
measure what I’d done on the south doorway doors, I REMEMBERED! So I got the latch installed on the left-hand
door this afternoon and thought that something just didn’t look quite
right. Took those two steps and
discovered that the latches for the two north doorway doors are 3½″ higher than
the latches installed on the two south doorway doors. The measurement (36½″) was correctly
remembered. Where the measurement was from
was correctly remembered. Where the measurement
was to… Bear in mind that once
the cedar is put on the doors (e.g., the right-hand door for the north
doorway), the latches are in place forever, ‘cause the cedar covers the
heads of the carriage bolts used to hold the latches onto the door, and that
cedar ain’t never coming off if the Liquid Nails construction adhesive people
have anything to say about it. This little faux memory pas will, of course,
haunt my dreams for the rest of my life.
A beautiful fall day:
temps in the 50’s, rain showers and drizzle, blustery winds this morning; even
had to put on my winter jacket for awhile.
Wait! It’s June… that can’t be right…
except in Vermont. At least the nasty
weather kept the nasty flying insects at bay.
Built the 2x4 frames for both of the north woodshed doors, then sheathed
one with Advantech and applied the cedar 1x4’s... remembering this time to use
scrap pieces where they’ll be hidden under the edge trim. Made this door ⅛″ shorter than what I started
out with for the doors already hung, as I’ve cut at least that much off those
doors to make them fit right.
THE SOUTH WALL IS DONE!!!! Returned the staging to Taylor Rental at 7
o’clock. Charge was $40, which makes me
appreciate even more the staging loans from Bob Hillman and Don Ross in times
past. Haven’t yet figured out how I’m
going to put the final trim piece on the north wall without either (1) more
staging or (2) another non-acrophobic person or (3) killing myself. During the drive the Check Engine light went
off, so cancelled the Ranger’s appointment at Junction Auto. Installed the trim around the northern
woodshed doorway; perfectly level and perfectly plum, of course. After two days of misery, for some reason the
mosquitoes took a day off; hardly any to speak of. Go figure!
Lake temperature now a delightful 75 degrees. To celebrate the south wall completion,
briefly introduced a Porterhouse steak to my campfire. “Hello, Fire.” “Hello, Steak.” “Goodbye, Steak.” “Moooo…”
There are those who consider “rare” to be slightly overcooked… and I be
one of them!
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