A Cold Wet

September 22, 2006 (12:17pm)
53º F, Rain, SSE wind 10 mph 26 mph gusts.

Good afternoon,

It really is not a pleasant day outside! There is a very strong wind, kicking up 4-7 foot waves on the lake. The rain is just ending. I hope. Pulling on my britches this morning, it dawned on me why so much of me was hurting - the weather! Fall starts a bit after midnight tonight, but I think it has started before that this year.

I did get about one and a half courses of roll roofing on yesterday. Figured out that for each course I pound in about 100 roofing nails! At that rate, it will be about 6-7# of roofing nails needed. Probably more, since the splices take a bunch more. I put a nail every 2" in the perimeter of three sides, while the fourth edge has only a few nails to hold it in place., the next course edge covering it. I did spend some foolish money and bought a couple of tubes of roof cement for my calking gun. I say foolish as they are rather expensive. I laid the tar paper down first, not applying any cement to the edges. I just flat out forgot. I tried to put some on with a knife, but it really was a laborious process. This way all I have to do is lift the edge and squirt. Really works neat. I am using a knife for the rest of the job though.

The critters are making the job some interesting. Yesterday, while standing on a ladder putting the roof cement on the edges, I had a thrush try to land on the bill of my cap. I guess it thought I was a tree and a good place to pick bug for lunch. It got about 3" from my face, then discovering I really wasn’t a tree and changed course. It sure cause some extra wind to blow across my face.
Another time a red squirrel came dashing out from under the outhouse as I went out one door. It scurried up the nearest pine tree (about 2 feet outside of the door) and started to chatter at me for disturbing it. I don’t really like them that close to a building as they can do a lot of damage. Chasing it up the tree, by blowing like deer and thumping the trunk with a board, and eventually to the next tree. I got it to go several trees over before letting it alone, thinking it would feel "safe" and get away from the area. Haven’t seen it since.

At dusk the past few nights, the Canadian geese have been flying over at tree top level in pretty good sized flocks. If I has some larger sized shot shells, it would be very tempting to have goose for supper. Guess I would need to be a violator too! It would be fairly easy shooting and a tasty meal. They are flocking up in larger and larger groups now, so expect they will be out of here shortly. The black birds have already flocked and have gone. They have some major sized flocks!
The geese remind me of a time in the late 60's when Phil and I went to the deer camp to do some grouse hunting. It was about this time of year also. We had been climbing up some of the hills most of the afternoon, so sat down for a breather, leaning against a tree. A flock of geese flew over. Both of us, without saying a word or looking at each other, grabbed our shotguns and emptied them at the geese. I don’t think we did more than tickle their feathers since we were shooting grouse with #8 shot. Kind of like spitting at them. Guess we thought it was worth a try though. My dog at the time, Trav, got all excited and was running around the woods looking for something to retrieve. He must have thought it was worth a try too! That was a really good weekend.

We finally got a chance to have some of the beef soup I made. Turned out pretty good. What really made it special was Margriet making cornbread to go with. Ate about half of the loaf that night and the other half last night with some sweet and sour ribs. The ribs and the soup are/were excellent. The soup is now for our lunches. We heat up just enough for us to eat at one sitting. Think there will be a few more lunches from it.
I got a hankering for baked beans the other day. Started to get out the ingredients and discovered we don’t have any navy beans, in fact very few beans at all. The closest is some bean soup mix Margriet put together a bit ago. Since we had ribs last night for supper, I had Margriet take out twice the normal amount, separating the "gnarly" pieces out, for me to use for the base meat, since we don’t have any neck bones or like that in the freezer. Should have some good smells in the house again for a bit.

Amazingly, the price of gas has gone down to "only" $2.399/gallon. It seems like a bargain price, even though it isn’t. Only by comparison. Would like to see it drop another $1.50/gallon. That would be more reasonably. If it finally drops to less then $2.009/gallon, we will be able to afford some travel close to normal again. Would be nice, but not really expecting it.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><