30 September 2012
A nasty, rainy day, so spent the morning doing
inside repairs and cleaning (including fixing the wall clock, which I thought
had bit the big one on initial inspection) and inventorying the supply of wood
walkway nuts, bolts, and screws, so I’ll know what to order for the renewal of
construction next spring. Without help
from Johnny Walker, moved two mice from the utensils drawer to their new
home under the stump in the Silver Lake parking lot. After lunch drove back to Shelburne to
retrieve the laptop.
29 September 2012
Spent all day working with Perry, Lynne, and Jake
moving Alverta out of the South Burlington condominium that she’s lived in for
the last 33 years and into a senior living establishment in Shelburne. Realized when I reached Salisbury that I’d
left my laptop in Alverta’s new apartment.
Once back at Fern Lake, four fingers of JW Black Label were not nearly
enough…
11 - 28 September 2012
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After being told about the damage to the hydraulic system (caused when the RV bottomed out while crossing Steve’s field en route to the parking spot) Chree renamed Delores “Dolores” (Spanish for pain). Spent much of this time logging a portion of the softwood stand on our property in Calais. My uncle and cousins planted a 3 acre field with Christmas trees back in the mid-1950’s… which were never harvested. Consequently, today the trees are much too close together, which is keeping the stand from optimal growth. From the pictures you can see what the stand looks like before and after thinning, and the piles of sawmill quality and pulp mill quality logs that resulted from many days of very rigorous exercise. Mr. Jonsered has had a workout! Hopefully my efforts will result in a couple of checks from the mills… and that my labor will net at least $1 per hour… maybe even $1.25! Was cruising along Waterbury flats (one of the few straight and level stretches on I-89) at a sedate 65 mph, taking Dolores back to Pete’s RV to have the hydraulic system damage repaired, when out of nowhere she started shaking so violently that I could barely see the road. Felt like a flat front tire on mega-steroids, only worse. Every drawer flew open, three wine glasses shattered, the wall clock flew off the wall and all the hands flew off the rotating stud), the toaster (which had quit working just that morning) was completely decrumbed, and, in short, the RV interior was totally trashed. Fighting mightily, I managed to keep Dolores on the road and upright, but came very, very close to a major wreck. Fortunately there were no other cars around me when the “incident” happened, as I took the whole road to get her stopped and then over to the shoulder. After I stopped shaking, thoroughly inspected the wheels and suspension… and found absolutely nothing wrong! So, very gingerly put her back on the road, slowly building back up to highway speed. No problems! Got to Pete’s RV a ½ hour later and added a suspension system inspection to the list of repairs. And they found? Absolutely nothing wrong! Had them replace the front shock absorbers anyway, as bad shocks (which could be worn out without external evidence) or bad struts (which are easily inspected and looked fine) are (all agree) the most likely cause of the shaking. On the afternoon of the 24th, Russ Barrett, The Vermont State Forester for Washington County, came up to walk the land and verified that the correct choices were being made regarding how many and which trees to cull. Whew! After two weeks in the shop, Dolores seemed eager to get back to Fern Lake, where we arrived, shake-free, late afternoon on the 28th.
10 September 2012
Spent the day stocking
up on Ben & Jerry’s (plus other victuals) and doing small projects that
kept me close to the RV in hopes that Santa the UPS delivery truck soon
would be there. Applied a coat of Thompson’s Waterseal to the first section of
the walkway, whose deck boards were salvaged from a 20+ year old patio deck in
Virginia. Them boards were thirsty;
within an hour they were totally dry again!
The UPS truck finally showed up at 4:22 pm; Delores and I were on the
road at 4:24, arriving at Steve’s place, 100 miles later and with a $200 stop for
gas, at the stroke of 7 o’clock. The washboard on the Pekin Brook Road in
Calais surely knocked most of the rust off Delores’ undercarriage! You were wondering, perhaps, what critical RV
system was going to fail next? Answer: the hydraulics, which activates the
leveling jacks and makes the slideout go out and in. Fortunately, the spot Steve and I had picked
to park Delores was reasonably level, but still…
9 September 2012
After the heavy rain
last night, decided to spend some time with my radial arm saw this morning
while the woods dried out somewhat. First
ripped a 15° bevel into a 4′ 4x6 post that will be the inside corner of the
next turn in the walkway. Then turned
five previously used (i.e., junky) 2x10’s into 21 fairly decent 4″x39½″
stringers and a wheelbarrow full of fire kindling wood. If you don’t know how 5
became 21, recommend you study the “new math” some more. During lunch,
reconsidered the design for the 15° bend and decided to use one tall post, vice
the regular in-ground post and railing post combination, on the outside of the
turn. That meant digging out the
in-ground post already planted there, moving the hole over six inches (which,
of course, was right where an unmovable-without-a-backhoe rock already resided),
then very precisely positioning (including top elevation) and planting the tall
post (on top of the rock and therefore not very deep). Also planted the 4x6 post. Put stringers and railing posts on the other
two sets of previously installed but unadorned in-ground posts. With all that
done, eyeballed the layout for the halfway-there bench seat that will be
located just beyond the 15° bend. Moved a couple of large rocks that would have
been in the way. Swam across the lake
and back, again without stopping to rest on the west side.
8 September 2012
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High wind warning in the weather forecast for today. Was a mite breezy, too! Sitting out next to the campfire pit eating my lunch, I heard a loud crack… causing me to levitate instantaneously and in time to see a 5½″ diameter red oak branch come crashing down… 20 feet in front of the van and completely blocking the driveway. Made quite a dent in the ground! Mr. Jonsered quickly eliminated the blocked driveway problem. Walked back down the wood walkway to resume work and discovered a large, but very rotten, birch tree had blown over.. just missing the walkway. Got the rest of the deck boards on the longitudinals I installed yesterday, then continued digging holes and burying in-ground posts for the next 24′, down to the 15° corner that marks the walkway halfway point. One of the holes needed to be smack dab in the center of an old stump that was wrapped around a 35 pound Leicester nugget. That were some fun digging! Two holes later, there were two large tap roots (one active, one ancient) right where the post needed to go. That were even more fun digging! As you might imagine, my root cutting ax is going to be spending some quality time with Mr. Grinding Wheel. Was starting to thunder pretty good ‘bout 4 o’clock so called it a day, put away tools, and went swimming. There were whitecaps on Fern Lake!!!! Got back inside the RV literally 30 seconds before the heavens opened up.
7 September 2012
After Art Tournet (owner of Vermont Pest Control) left me a voicemail yesterday saying that he was booked solid until mid-November, this morning I made up a 1:1 solution of BoraCare and thoroughly sprayed the three areas under which sawdust has accumulated on the shed footers in the last couple of weeks. At 2:45 this afternoon, just as I was leaving to run more errands in Middlebury, Art showed up at Triangle Square Circle. (He actually was here to do work at Marty & Merry’s, but their driveway is closed ‘cause Tammy, Fran, and Bob spent yesterday
6 September 2012
5 September 2012
The missing peeve has
been found! (In plain sight and painted
a bright international orange, sitting in our Virginia garage.) Returned to Fern Lake in a little over 9 hours
with a stop a Giddings Equipment to retrieve the new and improved Triangle
Square Circle driveway sign. Kinda
boring without the red lights on the dashboard.
Tire inflation warning light was on because the van’s computer thinks
more than 40 psi is overinflated whereas the new tires (which I was inflating
to 40 psi) are rated to take up to 44 psi.
Check engine light was on ‘cause the catalytic converter is nearing the
end of its useful life after 143,000 miles…
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