30 November 2015
Sean called at 6:50 to say that there would be no
geese at Fern Lake today. Spent the
morning cleaning that part of the basement where additional partition walls
need to be built. Also moved 129 (but
who’s counting?) 2x4x16’s from where Chree and I had stacked them (the pile was
blocking the area where the east wall of the shop needs to be built) to a spot
clear of all anticipated near-term construction. Spent an hour taking the backhoe and the
front end loader off the Kubota.
Definitely need another place (barn????) to store my man-toys… the lower
level of the woodshed just ain’t big enough. After lunch, took the
stripped-down Kubota up to Champlain Valley Equipment in Middlebury to have the
new snow blower installed. Left the
trailer there and continued on to Burlington to do numerous errands, including
picking up my laptop at Best Buy (it died just before Thanksgiving and had to
be shipped to Missouri for $700-worth of repairs). On the way back south, stopped at The
Residence at Shelburne Bay and enjoyed a longer-than-usual visit and dinner
with Alverta. Got back to Fern Lake just
in time for bed…
29 November 2015
Left Virginia at 5:15 in order to get ahead of the
post-Thanksgiving traffic. Succeeded,
but did encounter the remains of an obviously fatal accident on I-287 in
Morristown, NJ which, amazingly, only held up the journey by a couple of
minutes. Arrived at Fern Lake 9 hours
after leaving Springfield, which included a stop for fresh produce (and ice
cream, of course) in Brandon. Unloaded the truck into Kate’s house, which was quite
chilly, at least for those of us acclimated to mid-Atlantic temperatures… her
thermostats were set to 45°! Took most of the night to warm the structural
thermal mass using the propane stove in the living room, even after closing the
doors to all the rooms I won’t be using (i.e., the other four bedrooms, Kate’s
bathroom, and the study).
17 September 2015
Got up at 4 (gack!)
and was on the road with the dogs by 5:15.
Was so foggy that I drove out of the spot where the Tacoma was parked
and immediately got lost in the middle of Steve’s field. Eventually found the road, went a ½ mile and
realized my lunch was still in Delores’ refrigerator. Got underway a second time at 5:30, found the
road first try this time, and then crept down to Montpelier in pea soup
fog. Was in and out of the fog all the
way to Springfield… Massachusetts (200 miles).
Found a (too typical… oh, how I hate the DC-area traffic!) parking lot
on I-695 in Washington which meant that the last 20 miles of the 610 mile trip
took an hour and a half, which pushed the total trip time (with two stops) out
to 11½ bun-numbing hours. The dogs were very
happy to get out of the truck when we arrived!
Chree pulled in 45 minutes later (she ran into stop and go traffic on
the Baltimore Washington Parkway that I must have been just ahead of, but
avoided I-695 ‘cause I called her in time. We finished the last of our Virginia
JW Double Black. Unfortunately, the
bottle was mostly empty already…
16 September 2015
Followed by Chree in
the Prius, took Delores down to her home away from home (Green Mountain Garage)
for some more fixing, i.e., installation of high temperature spark plug
wires. Returned to Fern Lake to pick up
the Tacoma, trailer, and Kubota. Decided
to be daring (Danger is my middle name. No, that’s not right! Unsafe at any speed is my middle name. I’m so confused…) and took VT 125 up (and I
do mean UP) over Middlebury Gap and down (and I do mean DOWN) the other
side. Made it, but not sure the Tacoma
will ever speak to me again. Got to
Calais at 11:30, unloaded, and immediately turned around (in the Prius) to head
back to Brandon. Picnicked along the way
in Granville Gulf, a very scenic section of VT 100. Got back to Green Mountain Garage at 2:30 to
find Delores was ready to go. Chree
headed south to visit with Tasi and Rachel overnight in their Williamsburg, MA
apartment. I headed north with the dogs,
returning to Calais via Burlington and East Montpelier as, even with all 8
cylinders firing away, there is no way Delores could ever make it over the
mountains or up Bayne’s Hill (which the Tacoma needed 4WD to ascend with the
trailer and Kubota). Delores ran like a
champ the whole way! Got back to Calais
at 5 and settled in for the duration.
Steve and I went to the Positive Pie Restaurant in Plainfield for
dinner. Good, but not as great as
previous visits.
15 September 2015
Took Delores back to
Green Mountain Garage to have the leaking brake caliper replaced. That done, spent most of the afternoon
loading up for the logging trip to Calais.
Found that the new chainsaw chain I just bought is supposed to be
sharpened with an 11/64″ file instead of a 3/16”. Bizarre!!!!
Chree and I also finished cleaning the basement, removing several cubic
yards of planer shavings and lots of dust.
Then we went for a final (?) canoe ride around the lake, which now is
16″ below the top of the dock and a balmy 77°.
Weather today was about as perfect as it gets!
14 September 2015
Oh why, oh why does
Delores hate me so? Was doing pre-trip
checks this morning and discovered that the inside left rear tire on the RV had
an air pressure of only 20 psi, i.e., she was a flat. So called Green Mountain Garage and was told
they don’t do flat tires, but to try Rouse Tires in Middlebury. The person at Rouse said there were some
customers ahead of me but to bring ‘er on in.
Major loss of power during that 10 mile journey, same as I was
experiencing last year when two of the spark plug wires were disconnected. When I got to Rouse, having filled the leaky
tire to 70 psi before leaving Fern Lake, the tire was again flat and copious
amounts of smoke was pouring from that area.
A quick inspection revealed that the brake caliper was leaking fluid
onto the hot rim. Rouse’s found a bad
valve on the flat tire, easily and inexpensively repaired, but they don’t do
brakes. So called Green Mountain Garage
back and begged them for an afternoon appointment, laying stress on being the
owner’s (Chuck Munger) neighbor. Limped
down to Brandon, with the brake pedal going all the way to the floor the two
times I tried to slow down, with emphasis on the word “tried”. Unsafe at any speed, that’s me. Green Mountain didn’t have the brake caliper…
for some reason they don’t stock parts for 1995 F-Series Ford vehicles. Roy, their new mechanic, found that two of
the spark plug boots were torn and burnt / melted. Green Mountain also didn’t have a set of vintage
1995 high temperature spark plug wires. Put
the needed parts on order and Roy put
some electrical tape on the spark plug boots, used a set of vice grips to pinch
off the leaking brake line, added some brake fluid to the system, then Delores
and I hobbled back to Fern Lake for the evening. Did I mention that my middle name is, “Unsafe
at ANY Speed”?
13 September 2015
After bed and
breakfast, Chree and I drove over to Chatham, NH… which was quite a challenge
as the Prius’ navigation system didn’t have that town in its database. We finally found Kate & Nate’s place
(Chree’s niece and husband, whose wedding we attended in Fryeburg, ME last
summer). Stopped there for an hour to admire
their 6-week old daughter, Savannah Pearl, tour their house, and see their
maple syrup production facility. Then
fought with the navigator once again (ended up back in Fryeburg at one point
and knew that wasn’t right) trying to get to Charlestown, NH via the
Kancamangus Highway, which would have been a lovely drive had the sun been
out. Had a nice late lunch with Chree’s
sister, Anne, and retrieved my Sperry Topsiders (don’t ask). Then headed for Salisbury, arriving in the
midst of a downpour (the only one encountered all weekend… of course). Quickly loaded up the dogs, returned to Fern
Lake (still raining), unloaded (still raining) and… the rain stopped.
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