30 September 2011

Made three trips into Middlebury to schlep Kate & Dan from / to G. Stone Motors, where they were having some work done to Kate’s car.  Cut all of the pieces of wood for the shed ramp using Tasi’s old / my new Skilsaw, which certainly runs a lot smoother than the one I killed by sawing stone.  Had Marty, Merry, Tammy, and Fran over for barbequed spareribs, Merry’s orzo with roasted vegetables, and Tammy & Fran’s sweated broccoli salad.  I forgot to serve the baked beans that I had made the other day special for this occasion.  Senile? Tammy also provided Our Daily Red, a 2010 organic California table wine.  Not bad for a vintage that sells for less than $10 a bottle.  A most enjoyable evening!

29 September 2011

A thoroughly rainy, miserable day, spent mostly cleaning the interior of Delores, including shampooing the carpets and trying to remove the ceiling stains caused by cracks in the roof.  Cut in the first color coat on the shed people door.

28 September 2011

Good news: the water pump and shower work just fine… if you have water in the tanks.  Oops!  Guess I’ve been a little profligate lately.  Installed the trim around the people door, then put two color coats of paint on the door casement, the north end vertical trim, and all the trim around the garage door.  To reach the top of the north side trim, had to stand on the very top (above the top rung) of my Little Giant stepladder at full extension, which put my feet 10 feet above the ground. Falling off would have really hurt, so I didn’t. Tasi’s (now my) Skilsaw arrived late afternoon. Perry stopped by to review progress since his last visit and to make sure I was keeping up with standards vis á vis my beer supply.

27 September 2011

At 4 o’clock in the morning the mouse decided that a bite of cheddar was just what it needed.  He/she now resides under a stump at the Silver Lake parking lot… two miles from here.  Two other major milestones today: the shed electrical wiring and the roof are complete.  Roof looks great!  And the lights and outlets all work. Alverta arrived about 12:30 with the condo checkbook, which isn’t balancing.  After an hour’s head scratching, it still doesn’t balance, but at least we know to within a couple hundred dollars how much money is in the account.  She and I then applied primer to the people door, door casement, and vertical trim on the north wall.  After lathering up completely, lost water pressure in the shower… and the water pump really is sounding sick.  Have you ever had to towel off still covered with soap?  Delores, obviously, is still in payback mode…

26 September 2011

Puttered around doing odds and ends waiting for the roofers to arrive, including smoothing out the path that Merry Lapidus likes to use when she ventures up the hill and sealing cracks on the roof of the RV.  Pikey and Mike arrived at 10:30.  I left to spend money in Middlebury shortly thereafter.  Upon my return at 12:30, found that all the rest of the roof panels had been installed. Mike came back a few minutes after I did to check the fit of the ridge vent roof blocks he was making in their shop.  After lunch, installed the rest of the PVC conduit and hooked up the shed upper level light fixture.  Now when you say, “Let there be light!”, I can oblige with the flip of a switch.  Then I tackled the job of pulling wire through the conduit to feed the exterior light.  Probably would have taken two people five minutes what it took me over an hour to accomplish.  Good exercise, though, schlepping up and down and up and down the hill between the shed upper and lower levels.  Lake water temperature felt even warmer than yesterday.  Rebaited the mouse traps with a very fine New York State extra sharp cheddar, as the little blighter has repeatedly turned up its pointy little nose at the peanut butter and crackers.

25 September 2011

Woke up this morning with this thought: The shed garage door opener is plugged into an outlet that is GFI “protected”, as it is supposed to be.  That protection was achieved by placing the garage door opener outlet (and the outlet on the shed upper level) in series with the GFI outlet in the shed lower level switch panel.  But what happens if the shed lower level GFI outlet trips when the garage door is down, which could easily happen if there is a ground fault while using the upper level outlet? The answer: it will take a small nuclear device to regain entry into the lower level.  Not the right answer!!!! Fortunately, there was enough slack wire in the garage door opener outlet box to rewire that outlet into the not-GFI-protected circuit that feeds the shed upper level light, so potential major problem averted.  In other news: moved all of Kate & Dan’s patio furniture back onto their porch, as they and their Ground Up Productions associates will be up t’ Fern Lake next weekend for their annual retreat.  Built, painted, and installed the block onto which the shed exterior light will be mounted.  Placement of that block was super critical because it has to align to within 1/16″ with the penultimate course of cedar shingles.  Ran PVC conduit until I reached the point where I need a fitting that I haven’t yet bought.  Took the kayak for a spin then went for a swim.  Lake temperature back UP to 71°.  RV water heater working perfectly normally this evening; guess Delores was just funning with me last night…  Har, har!!!!  As I was sitting in my favorite chair getting my daily fix of Diana Gabaldon (Voyager currently being consumed), the fattest mouse I have ever seen came strolling nonchalantly along the kitchen counter. When I got up to “encourage” him/her to visit one of the traps, he/she scurried back inside the burners, then down into the oven, and, assumedly, into the wall behind the stove.

24 September 2011

Spent the day wrestling with putting in PVC conduit and then feeding wires from the shed upper level light location back to the electrical feed in the lower level switch box.  That job would have been much easier with a second person to push wire while I was pulling (or vice versa).  Though I despaired of success at several points, finally got the job done, but not without scorching the woodwork with my language.  Discovered that I am short several connectors needed to run wire to the exterior light that will be mounted on the shed upper level northeast corner.  The seven P principal in action!!!!  Delores, curse her black heart, refused to let the water heater start when I went to clear away the debris in the kitchen and cleanse my troubled soul (and body).  Went to bed disgusted!  During the night, heard a mouse rummaging through the dirty dishes, having a good old feast.  Do you think the mouse would go into the nice peanut butter and cracker trap set right there on the counter?  Not on your life…