7 July 2013

Returned to Virginia from Old Saybrook in 6½ hours, surprisingly fast given the heavy post-holiday traffic.

6 July 2013

Packed up, cleaned up, locked up and went down to Charlestown, NH for the annual Tarrio Family get-together at Chree’s sister Ann’s place.  From there Katy and Alex headed back to Boston and Chree and I drove down to Old Saybrook to spend what may be our last night at 23 Briarwood Drive, as Frank and Fran are putting the old homestead up for sale this coming week.

5 July 2013

With Alex demonstrating such precocious virtuosity with the backhoe, decided to continue trenching for the waterfront power and water lines.  The stretch from where Chree and I left off the other day down the steep slope and through the wooden walkway was best done with two people operating the Kubota – one controlling the backhoe and stabilizers, the other controlling the steering wheel, brakes, front bucket (used as a sea anchor), and forward / reverse foot pedals.  Going down the hill was challenging but relatively benign, as digging with the backhoe tended to pull the tractor back uphill.  When we reached the waterfront we turned aside from the trench with no problems.  I might have been able to dig faster, but certainly could not have produced any nicer trench than what Alex did. Alex and I quickly put 100 feet (each) of ¾″ PVC power line conduit and ½″ PVC waterline in the trench, the latter capped off at the upper end and marked with a 2x2 wood stake.  Going down the hill a second time (backwards) to fill in the trench was fraught with peril, as  digging with the backhoe tended to pull the tractor downhill and the front bucket was relatively ineffective as a sea anchor.  Alex had to use the backhoe bucket as an emergency brake a couple of times. Chree, Katy, and Alverta (who had arrived midway through the digging phase) had to leave off watching my hair turning white.  Alex and I got to the bottom of the trench with all body parts intact and the tractor upright, but, when I tried to turn aside, the Kubota fetched up against a stump with the left rear tire and the front bucket snagged a cherry tree… just as a thunderstorm was rolling in (of course)! With the tractor well and truly stuck, Alex and I beat a hasty retreat, on foot, back to the RV, where we discovered that Lynne had arrived and it was already 3 o’clock… the hour previously appointed for our family cookout.  As soon as the rain (mostly) abated, I started a cook fire.  As soon as the cook fire was roaring away ANOTHER thunderstorm rolled in and… put the fire right out of its misery.  So we cooked our “barbeque” on Dolores’ stove and somehow managed to seat seven people (Perry also having arrived in the midst of the second T-storm) around the RV settee (which nominally seats four… if they’re not too plump).  Can you say, “cozy”?  After some beer (medicinal nerve-calming variety) and dinner, Perry, Alex, and I returned to the scene of the crime in the Case of the Stuck Tractor.  After using our considerable forensic skills to analyze the situation, we filled in a couple of holes with rocks, then I jacked the rear of the tractor uphill using the backhoe so I could cut off the stump using Mr. Jonsered.  With some absolutely hair-raising jockeying (seatbelt firmly fastened and convinced on more than one occasion that the “big roll” was imminent), I extricated the tractor from the cherry tree’s evil grasp and got it back onto level ground.  Whew!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

4 July 2013

Did some serious RV cleaning while Chree went into Brandon for supplies.  Alex and Katy (the latter carrying 8 months of unnamed male progeny) arrived at 10.  Alex was given the honor of striking the match that set the brush pile ablaze.  By 1:30 most of the brush had been turned into smoke, so Chree, Katy, and Alex went over to meet Lynne at the annual ice cream social in Salisbury.  While they were gone I finished backfilling the conduit trench.  Alex returned for his first backhoe lesson.  In literally a few minutes, it was like he had been using a backhoe his whole life.  So I set him to work digging out rocks for the waterfront retaining wall.  He succeeded in pulling out a behemoth that (by measurement and later calculation) tipped the scales at 1,875 pounds, well more than twice what the Kubota can lift.  Marty & Merry joined us for mutton cooked on the campfire and much hilarity.

 

3 July 2013

A decent day weather-wise, FINALLY!  Dug the trench for the first 70 feet of the waterfront power line conduit.  I did the first 30 feet and then turned the controls over to Chree… who immediately came up against an enormous boulder.  Fortunately there was just enough room to detour around its southern end.  After digging for awhile, Chree named the Kubota Sisyphus and said, “Digging in Leicester is like trying to put socks on an octopus!” Once the trench was dug, started laying conduit.  Got two 10-foot sections glued together when I remembered that we needed to run a line through the conduit with which to pull the electrical wires later.  Major head slap!  Have you ever tried to push a ¼″ nylon rope through a 90° bend and then down 20 feet of ¾″ conduit?  That weren’t goin’ t’ work!  So used the shop vac to suck a string through the conduit with which to pull the rope… which worked like magic!  The conduit’s closest point of approach to the (future) house is 8 feet from the southwest corner of the Sun Room.  The conduit is at least 10 feet below the baseline house elevation (top of the foundation walls) from where it crosses the lower access work road until it turns west, 25 feet west of the house west wall.  By sunset the trench was backfilled enough for the Kubota to escape back to the shed for the night and I was more than ready for a plunge in the lake, which is up to a perfect 78°F.  Chree and the dogs, meanwhile, were making sure that Dolores’ air conditioners were in proper working order.

2 July 2013

Very heavy rain all night and forecast to continue all day, so Chree went into Brandon to do some more teacher homework this morning.  Stopped raining soon after she left…  Miracle of miracles, got a phone call inquiring about the Ranger.  After being honest with the caller about the underbody rust situation, that was the end of that.  Dave Todd stopped by to make sure that the location where he wanted to stack some firewood for Kate was, in fact, on her property.  It was.  Karen and Mark Evans stopped by to invite us to their annual party across the lake.  Unfortunately we already have plans for Friday evening.  Patched the hole that Art Tournet found in the between-column rocks that could have been an ingress point for the carpenter ants.  After lunch, Chree practiced her backhoe skills for a couple of hours by digging largish rocks out of the house-site area for use in the waterfront retaining walls.  When she had exhausted her fun quota for the day, I took the backhoe down the work road to try and move the last rock out of the way of where the power line conduit trench will go.  Almost got the rock moved, and almost got the tractor stuck (again), but almost only counts...  While I was doing that, Shlomo found a dead fish to roll on down at the waterfront, so Chree had an extra bit of fun trying to give him a sponge bath afterwards. Took the ½ ton come-along and some logging chains down the hill just before dinner and had the rock moved out of the way in less than five minutes.  Heavy rain started again during dinner which is not going to help the widespread flooding that already is occurring.  Cribbage tournament score stands at: Chree 10 / Doug 0. Glad we aren’t playing for the usual stakes!

1 July 2013

A totally yucky day.  (That’s another of those technical weather-speak terms that means rain, rain, and more rain.)  Took the Kubota in the lower work road to haul out some brush and really didn’t like the side hill in the area where the Ranger slid off the other day.  So spent an hour with the backhoe leveling that area out… probably something that should already have been done.  The load of brush that I subsequently was hauling out decided to part company with the tow chain right at the fateful spot.  Figured I’d done a good enough job making the “road” passable that the Ranger could manage, so brought it in to retrieve the stray brush… no problem!  Somewhere along in here Shlomo managed to get tangled in the power cord for my computer and pulled the whole shootin’ works off the table, breaking off the power supply coaxial cable pin that goes into the computer.  As Chree and I had had enough fun in the wet, we went down to Rutland (where it was nice and dry, of course) to get a new power supply.  The cost will be coming out of Shlomo’s allowance!  On the way back, we stopped for a tasting session at the recently established Otter Valley Winery in Brandon.  Good company, fair wine.  Started raining again as soon as we got back to Fern Lake.  Feeling daring, backed the Ranger all the way to the end of the work road… with minimal difficulties.  Chree and I piled on another truckload of brush for deposit on the ever burgeoning burn pile.  Then I took the Kubota back in to move some very large rocks (just up-slope from the wooden walkway north of the half-way bench) that were in the way of where the waterfront power line conduit needs to run.  Got all but one rock moved out of the way… and came very close to getting the Kubota well and truly stuck.  After that hair-graying experience, decided to call it a day.  Got permission from the Leicester Fire Warden to burn brush on Thursday… assuming the weather breaks as forecast.