31 August 2013
The last piece of
lumber was attached to the wood walkway at 12:07 this noon, rendering that edifice
complete. Let the celebration begin!!!! Total materials cost: $6,430.65; total
labor: about 1,000 man-hours; seeing the walkway all lit up at night: priceless.
A mostly rainy afternoon (as forecast), so spent time doing Type A things
organizing and cleaning the wood shed shop… TRYING to ensure that everything I
will need in Calais for the rest of the summer does, in fact, end up in Calais
on Monday.
30 August 2013
Cut and installed the
kick plates on the remaining two walkway sections that were barren of that
architectural detail. Then cut and
installed, with minimal fuss, the piece of railing for the Halfway Bench
landing that defeated me last fall. (See
blog post for 8 October 2012.)
Discovered two more items (my 2½ gallon gas can and electric pad sander)
missing from the Vermont inventory ‘cause Mr. Booby left them behind in
Virginia. Grrrrr!!!!! Swam across the lake and back. Marty brought his brother, Sid, up for a tour
as I was finishing dinner… and really enjoying a Labatt Blue.
29 August 2013
Schlepped the Kubota
down to Giddings in the morning for its 50 hour engine oil, oil filter, and
hydraulic oil filter change. Would have
done the work myself (and saved a hundred fifty dollars) except that the
hydraulic oil filter change was a real bear.
Right after lunch Marty came over for an hour to help feed (while I
pulled) the four electric wires down the conduit between the upper and lower
walkway ends. Then I finished connecting
the conduit to the lower junction box and connecting all the wires inside. Flipped on the circuit breaker and… (wait for
it!) everything worked perfectly. I
know, NOT what you were expecting from Mr. Booby. Marty and Merry came over for BBQ spare ribs
(the ones I pre-cooked in the oven for seven hours on Monday). After another hour over a smoky fire they
were absolutely falling-off-the-bone delicious.
Once it got dark, we staggered outside for Le Grande Illumination! Merry did the honors, throwing the switch
that lit up the entire walkway, top to bottom and back again by the southern
route. Stunningly beautiful, as
expected. After the Lapidii left, I went
for a swim to admire the lighting from the offshore vantage point. Even more beautiful (and the water was pretty
nice, too)!
28 August 2013
Why, oh, why does
Dolores hate me so?!?! Took her down to
the Green Mountain Garage in Brandon at 0730, whereupon Mike the Mechanic
changed the engine oil (finding that Junction Auto had put a transmission oil
filter, instead of an engine oil filter, on the engine at the last oil change),
changed the transmission oil (very black; supposed to be red) and filter, lubed
the chassis, checked the engine antifreeze, and replaced the spark plug wires
(original equipment dating from 1996!).
Mike also showed me why you should keep your car battery clean – there
was a 7 volt current flow across the top of the (very dirty) truck battery,
which explained (we hope) why the battery was losing its charge while Dolores
was in repose over several weeks. As
soon as Mike cleaned the battery, Dolores started right up without recourse to
the coach batteries. Amazing! We also found (and cleaned up) an extensive
collection of acorns, pine needles, and other chipmunk detritus on the top of
the engine… a catastrophic fire just waiting for the engine to get really hot,
like on the trip up to Calais next Monday.
Whew!!!! So, headed north up
Route 7 three and a half hours (and three and a half hundred) later, was just thinking
that Dolores has never run so well when she suddenly started shaking up and
down substantially. Vibration went away
when I lifted my foot off the gas, but came back as soon as I reapplied
power. Oh, fiddlesticks, says I! Limped back to Fern Lake (was somewhat in
denial mode) where I heard a chick, chick, chick sound coming from the engine
exhaust pipe. Suspecting another Dolores
fowl (sic) canard (actually, that one of the newly installed spark plug wires
had become detached), immediately motored slowly back to Brandon. Sure enough,
Mike found no poultry when he crawled back under the beast… but the most
difficult-to-get-to spark plug wire was waving in the breeze! Fingers, toes, arms, and legs crossed that
the problem doesn’t recur on Monday!
Finally back at Fern Lake to stay by noon-thirty, did some grading with
the tractor, cast more grass seed on the slope where the old stairway once
resided, then loaded the Kubota on the trailer for tomorrow’s excursion to
Pittsford. Spent the remainder of the
afternoon mounting various electrical components (low voltage transformer,
weather tight GFI outlet box, and mongo wire junction box) onto the waterfront end
of the wood walkway. An Amber Bock slid
down way too easy at quitting time!
27 August 2013
Surveyed the walkway
so I could accurately draw it on the site plan that has to be submitted with
the Building Permit Application for the Dock Building and Walkway. Got that done just as the Fyles Brothers
truck arrived to deliver 7.2 gallons of propane (all that had been used since
the last fill up at the end of May).
Then started ripping old deck planks into 2 x 2½ ″ boards that will
become kick plates for the 195 feet of the walkway that still need that
component. Was just finishing up that
task when the FedEx truck arrived at 12:45 with the tools Mr. Booby left behind
in Virginia. Thus was able to smoothly
transition to installing said kick plates onto the section of walkway between
landing #7 and the waterfront. Finished
that section, then cut and installed the mounting board for the lower transformer,
just before heeding the siren call of the warm and placid waters. Swam across the lake and back without pausing
to rest on the western side.
26 August 2013
Met with Kate Briggs as planned this morning. She issued, on the spot, our building permit for the Wood Shed, which we have to prominently display for ten days. On a more contentious note, Kate INSISTS that our wood walkway is NOT a handicap access ramp (‘cause, she says, such a ramp can only provide access to a dwelling) and that the walkway is a “structure” in spite of the fact that it is not among the items listed in the Zoning Bylaws structure definition. We agreed to disagree on both those points. Compromise solution: I am adding the walkway to the Building Permit Application that is being submitted for our proposed dock building (that needs a setback waiver) so that the Zoning Board of Adjustment can consider them as a package. The ZBA hearing will be on 24 September. While I was meeting with Kate, the Glassner’s former handyman came in to inquire about building a dock for one of his clients. Kate said that so long as the dock is a temporary structure, i.e., capable of being removed from the water by “two strong men”, then no permit is required from the Town. I don’t think Kate has any idea what even a small wooden dock weighs. The design I am submitting with the dock building / wood walkway application includes the 24 x 12 dock I intend to build, constructed to meet the State requirements for a dock for which no State permit is required. As I was leaving our meeting, Kate expressed regrets that I’m not a full time resident and thus not available to help with rewriting the Leicester Zoning Bylaws… apparently an ongoing project. Methinks a blessing in disguise! Returned to Fern Lake, I put the Ranger into winter storage, i.e., disconnected the battery and called USAA to modify the insurance coverage. Also called the Storm King portable generator manufacturer to find out why the electric start no longer works. Get this: the generator does NOT recharge the starting battery when it is operating, so a few hundred starts later, the battery is out of juice. What idiot designed that system???? Planned to slow cook some spareribs all day. Opened the oven to ignite the pilot light and found… yes, the mouse (mice) had removed all of the rest of Dolores’ insulation and made another Taj Mahal-quality nest therein. Fetched the shop vac to remove said nest and found a baby mouse cowering in the back of the oven. On my way into Middlebury to
25 August 2013
Now you see them, now
you don’t. Backfilled the conduit trench
(mostly by hand, which was an excellent workout), then used the backhoe to dig
a nice deep trench next to the steel pole (and huge concrete base) for the
Glassner’s old satellite dish, toppled the critter over, and laid it to rest
forevermore. In lieu of flowers, the
family requests charitable donations made out to the Christine Tarrio Perkins
Trust. Kate and her houseguest took
Hopea Kanootti for a leisurely spin around the late at noon. While they were out paddling, discovered (no
surprise) that the Ford Ranger battery also was flat, so jumpstarted that truck
with the Tacoma. After letting the
Ranger idle for a half hour, found that the battery is still flat. Merde, alors, if you’ll pardon my
French. Hauled the tandem axle trailer
out of its parking spot to check that all was in working order for its upcoming
trips. One marker light inoperative, but
everything else seems fine. Made an appearance at the annual Lake Dunmore /
Fern Lake Association picnic held at Camp Songadeewin. While there, introduced myself to Kate
Briggs, the Leicester Zoning Administrator, and set up an appointment to see
her officially in her office tomorrow morning.
Another delicious dinner and delightful evening at Marty and Merry’s, complete
with pictures of Chree’s and my first grandchild, Devin Douglas Perkins.
25 August 2013
Now you see them, now
you don’t. Backfilled the conduit trench
(mostly by hand, which was an excellent workout), then used the backhoe to dig
a nice deep trench next to the steel pole (and huge concrete base) for the
Glassner’s old satellite dish, toppled the critter over, and laid it to rest
forevermore. In lieu of flowers, the
family requests charitable donations made out to the Christine Tarrio Perkins
Trust. Kate and her houseguest took
Hopea Kanootti for a leisurely spin around the late at noon. While they were out paddling, discovered (no
surprise) that the Ford Ranger battery also was flat, so jumpstarted that truck
with the Tacoma. After letting the
Ranger idle for a half hour, found that the battery is still flat. Merde, alors, if you’ll pardon my
French. Hauled the tandem axle trailer
out of its parking spot to check that all was in working order for its upcoming
trips. One marker light inoperative, but
everything else seems fine. Made an appearance at the annual Lake Dunmore /
Fern Lake Association picnic held at Camp Songadeewin. While there, introduced myself to Kate
Briggs, the Leicester Zoning Administrator, and set up an appointment to see
her officially in her office tomorrow morning.
Another delicious dinner and delightful evening at Marty and Merry’s, complete
with pictures of Chree’s and my first grandchild, Devin Douglas Perkins.
 |
24 August 2013
Took the Kubota down to the waterfront first thing to finish digging the power / water line trench from where Alex and I left off in early July to the end of the wood walkway. Maneuvering the tractor onto the slope from the upper work road was more than a mite hairy. Even with the seatbelt fastened, I thought I’d have to stop and get clean underwear on a couple of occasions before I got situated. Then, trying to dig the trench while pointed uphill, the Kubota kept trying to do a wheelie… which was a tad disconcerting until I solved that problem by filling the front bucket with rocks. Trench dug, assembled the next 40 feet of conduit and pulled the line through with no problems. [The line will be used, eventually, to pull the electrical wires through the conduit.] Went to feed the line through the very last section of conduit and the $%#@!!! thing came apart. Only thing I could do at that point was to pull all the line back out of the conduit, suck a string through, and use the string to re-pull the line. Kate, up for a weekend of R&R, graciously came over to help feed the string into the upper end of the conduit while I created suction at the lower end using the shop vac. Worked just as advertised. Told Kate I could do the rest myself… oh, foolish me! Was re-pulling the line with only moderate difficulty when… the string broke! So, what should have been a 15 minute job took me over three hours… but at the end of a very frustrating day there is a line all the way through the conduit once again. The lake level is 8″ below the top of the dock and the water temperature is 77°. Can’t decide if the swim after work or the lager and wood-fired T-bone for dinner was the highlight of the day.
23 August 2013
Another mouse,
recently residing in the utensils drawer, has been given a new home at the
Silver Lake parking lot. Met with Joan
Donahue, Esq., in her office to discuss questions about the applicability of
the Leicester Zoning Bylaws to the various construction projects (completed,
ongoing, and future) that are the subject of these ramblings. On the way back to Fern Lake stopped at the
Middlebury Hannaford to procure several food items that got left in Virginia
because I’m an idiot. Then started to reinforce
the plastic milk crate mounted on the Kubota for tool carrying (it wasn’t
holding up to the abuse it was getting) and discovered that I’m even more of an
idiot that I thought… except that apparently even such simple thoughts are
beyond my ken, i.e., I also left both cordless drills, my drill bit assortment,
and my hacksaw behind in Virginia. On a positive (????) note: I now have TWO
full bottles of Black Label and FOUR tubs of butter here in Vermont. Do you suppose the Scotch will
counter-balance the cholesterol? Faked repairs
to the milk crate with my monster hammer drill and a ship auger bit while Tasi
was busy in Virginia getting a $50 FedEx shipment together. Spent most of the afternoon filling out
Leicester Building Permit applications and doing the requisite drawings (site
plan, floor plan, and elevation) for the (already built – oops!) Wood Shed and
(wanted to build this summer but that ain’t gonna happen) Dock Building and
Sauna (that will need a setback waiver from the Zoning Board of Adjustment).
22 August 2013
Left Springfield at
0600 and set a new land speed record to Baltimore – 3 hours 25 minutes, for an
average “speed” of just over 20 mph for that leg of the trip. Finally got to Fern Lake at 1700, completely
strung out. We had emptied the ice cube
trays when we left in July, so had to drink the requisite restorative beverages
neat. What torture! Good news: 1,600 mg of Naproxen taken just before departure
kept the sciatic nerve pain in check almost all the way. Bad news: Dolores is up to her usual tricks,
AGAIN!!!! Starting battery COMPLETELY
flat. Only took me 2½ hours to remember
that the RV coach batteries can be cross-connected to the engine starting
solenoid, i.e., the RV has the capability to jumpstart itself. That done, Dolores condescended to start so
that I could extend the slide-out. Lots
of mouse “signs” in the usual drawers… looks like they found out that the cat
has been away for six weeks.
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