20 April 2013

Cold front came roaring through overnight: lots of wind and periods of heavy rain.  Was still pretty unpleasant this morning, so spent some time cooking, installed the shelf in the shed lower level and gave that area a thorough cleaning (wouldn’t want to have a dirty dirt-floor garage for the tractor, after all), then went into Middlebury to run errands.  Met Marty at Hannaford’s, where I was buying ice cream since it’s supposed to get down to 25°F tonight.  Have tractor, will play!  Did some driveway grading for an hour after returning to Fern Lake until I decided it had finally warmed up enough to do some real work.  Installed the railing posts and longitudinals for the next 16 feet of walkway, then cut deck boards until dinnertime.  Bought a new thermometer today (how can a thermometer go bad just hanging on the wall over the winter????) so can attest that the lake temperature is now a balmy 49°, two feet below the surface. Discovered that one of the six former milk jugs in which drinking water is kept (which are stored out of the way in the back of a clothes closet) was only ⅔ full.  You can paint the rest of the picture, soggy clothes and all…