Stayed up way too late
hooked on the final chapters of The
Coroner’s Lunch by Colin Cotterill… an excellent murder mystery (with
touches of the occult) set in 1970’s Laos just after the Communists have taken
control of the country. When I finally
got motivated this morning (extra strong Starbucks Breakfast Blend helped a
lot), put the stringers and railing post (with deck light) on the in-ground
posts I finished up with yesterday. Then
tackled the railing caps, railings, and toe caps for the first turn landing and
the 8′ section of walkway that goes from the landing to the east side of the
lower “driveway” gap. The joints for those
six pieces are all compound angles: 45° in one plane and 3½° in the second
plane. That’s why they make radial arm
saws… though mine is an ancient and much abused Craftsman that probably
wouldn’t recognize a ½ degree angle if it tripped over it. At noon Tammy stopped by with her bill for
the marriage-saving backhoe work she did… and admired the progress made since
her last visit. Mid-afternoon helped
Marty install a window air conditioner in one of his west facing upstairs
bedrooms, then headed into Salisbury and Middlebury to do errands, the most
important of which was to replenish my Ben & Jerry’s supply get
another section of ½″ PVC conduit for the low voltage electric line gap
crossing trench. Returned to Fern Lake
just before 5 and decided to install the conduit, hook up the next deck light,
and back fill the trench, all of which was done by swim call at 6:30. Pizza, beer, and (need I say?) ice cream for
dinner…
Woke up at my “usual”
time, circa 6:30, only to discover that it really was already 9 o’clock! Guess that’s what happens when you get
debauched and have two beers. Finished
digging the trench in which will be buried the low voltage wire to power the
deck lights on the lake (or west, if you prefer) side of the lower “driveway”. For obvious reasons, had to dig the trench
below what will become the driveway grade level. After awhile, felt that if the trench went
any deeper on the upper end I’d have to start learning Chinese. Surprisingly easy digging: mostly soft sand
with only a few small rocks, though with lots of pesky roots. Most un-Leicester-like! That is until I got ⅔ of the way across and
ran smack into a very large rock.
How large, you ask? Though it was
clearly labeled 600 pounds, you just can’t trust those Chinese. Actual weight, once I got that sucker out of
the ground, was better than 750 pounds.
Why not just go around the (fill in your own
adjective) thing, you ask? Well, I needed a place to put Perry’s
5-gallon water jug, and that rock seemed like just the ticket. After the trench was finished, dug the holes
for the next two in-ground posts. Took
me a couple of trials before they were where they should be, somewhat
complicated by a 200 pound rock that was exactly where the southern post needed
to go. The good news? Once that rock was liberated from the soil
(child’s play compared to its cousin from the morning), not much more digging
was needed before that hole was deep enough for the 4x4 post.
Are you wondering why
it took me most of the day to install two 8′ long longitudinals and 17 deck
planks in the next section of the wooden walkway? Here is just one example of how things went
today: needed to clamp in place the 2x4x12 that serves as a temporary guide for
aligning the deck boards. Only there was
a root from a tree stump in the way where the lower end of the 2x4 needed to
go. In order to cut the root without
totally destroying my limb saw and/or root cutting ax, I had to remove a 75
pound boulder that was underneath the root… and held firmly in place by said
root and several smaller, but not petite, sisters and brothers from the Igneous
family. A half hour of vigorous toil
later, all was clear to start chopping.
During one of my more Bunyanesque back-swings with the ax, managed to
clobber the deck light that I’d just installed on the nearby railing post. Double-bladed root cutting ax vs. cheap tin
light, you can guess who won that battle.
The good news is that I now have extra easily-lost mounting screws and
an extra T-5 7w light bulb for the deck lights.
So, an hour and a half after beginning the one minute job of clamping a
2x4 in place, I was ready to start putting down deck boards. Do you also wonder why I’m having more than
one beer tonight in front of the campfire?
Finally figured out how to take elevations (using my poor-man’s transit:
my father’s ancient leveling sight steadied on Tasi’s old camera tripod) with
nobody available to hold the range rod.
My steel rock-removing bar and a quick clamp do the job quite nicely,
thank you very much. Also figured out
that the walkway will need to continue on the other side of the lower
“driveway” (the level area that will be used to access the rear of the house
and the septic tanks located there) as though it crossed that 20′ gap with the
same 7.5:1 slope it has everywhere else.
That way the walkway will only be 15″ or so above ground level at the
next turn… a much more reasonable situation than if I’d stayed with my original
plan to have the walkway cross the lower “driveway” with only a 6″ slope from
one side to the other.
Continuing the saga of
missing things: as I was putting away tools this evening, noticed that the
chuck key was not where it is always kept in the holder on the Bosch
hammer-drill. Not a big deal so long as
henceforth I only want to drill ¼″ holes 8″ deep with a ship auger bit. Put the deck boards on the first turn of the
wooden walkway this morning. Spent the
early part of the afternoon surveying the next section of the walkway, which is
extremely challenging without someone to hold the range rod while you shoot the
elevation from 75 feet distant. Bottom
line (if I can believe my own observations and calculations… never a good bet):
the walkway will be 3 feet up in the air at the next turn. Hmmm….
Moved a fair amount of dirt and rocks out of the way, then put in the
in-ground posts, stringers, and railing post for the next piece of the walkway.
Rained hard on and off
all night; awoke to a dreary, damp day, so decided to do some “inside” jobs for
the first few hours. No mice, sober or
otherwise, in either trap. Attempted to
repair the bedroom blind, but the string I brought from Virginia for that
purpose didn’t work. Back to the drawing
blinds board on that project. Sharpened
the chain (which was seriously abused cutting roots a couple of weeks ago) and
did some not-so-periodic maintenance on Mr. Jonsered. Then spent the balance of the day building
the framework for the first turn on the wooden walkway. Changed the construction design. Instead of putting in two in-ground posts with
an above-ground railing post secured between two stingers, put in one regular
in-ground post and then put the railing post into the ground as well, with two
stringers tying the two posts together.
The hard part is getting the top of the railing post at the right
height, but that’s why they make Sawzalls.
Now that Chree and the dogs are gone, so are the deer flies. Not many mosquitoes around, either. Mid-afternoon misplaced my brand new 12′ tape
measure. Looked everywhere and
couldn’t find it! Called Chree and told
her I needed a hug, but she had neither my tape nor spirit level (also among
the missing). Found the tape when I sat
down in the Ranger; was in my back pocket the whole time...
Left Virginia at the
crack of dawn where the humidature (effective temperature given the humidity)
was supposed to reach 109°F today. After
hiking a few feet on the Appalachian Trail
yesterday, felt good to sit down for awhile… like maybe five minutes. Even with moderate to heavy traffic the whole
way, and having to go all the way around DC on the I-495 beltway ‘cause
somebody forgot to put up a sign that says you can’t get to I-295 from anything
but the right-hand lane which you have to enter before the Eisenhower Road exit
(5 miles earlier), arrived in Brandon a “mere” 8½ hours (and 1,600mg of
Ibuprophen) later. Temperature inside
Delores was a frigid 67°. Had to open
some windows to warm the place up! Lake
temperature is 79°… maybe I’ll sleep there tonight. First of the Kingsley corn for dinner… yummy
as always. Opened the utensil drawer to
get some tongs for removing said corn from the cooking water and discovered
beaucoup mouse droppings and a wine bottle stopper that is a lot shorter than
it used to be. Set up both humane traps
in hopes that the tipsy mouse (mice?) will be lacking judgment tonight.
Back to Virginia. Due to reported horrendous traffic backups on
I-95, took the Merritt Parkway to the Tappan Zee Bridge, then down I-287 along
the route I normally take from Vermont to Virginia. Considerably longer distance and time, but that
route also avoided traffic battles with the Cross Bronx “Expressway” and the
New Jersey Turnpike.
