3 - 18 September 2013
Logging in
Calais. Sent one truck-load of spruce
and fir logs to be made into 3,185 board feet of lumber.
2 September 2013
Drove the Tacoma with
trailer and Kubota up to Calais. Rode
back to Fern Lake with Lynne & Perry (who had been in Calais for Labor Day
weekend festivities and fireworks). Then
drove Dolores up to Calais. She was
really hesitant to go up any hills… the short, but steep, climb out of New
Haven Junction on US7 almost defeater her. On the other hand, her parking spot at Steve's campground is simply lovely!
1 September 2013
Morning spent doing
laundry at Lynne & Perry’s.
Afternoon spent loading the generator into the RV, tools into the RV and
truck, the tractor onto the trailer, and trying to get the last load of laundry
to air dry. Three out of four ain’t
bad... Swam across the lake and back,
probably for the last time this season.
Put the dock steps up into their winter storage position.
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!
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