Slow day

July 7, 2007 (5:39am)
64º F, Clear, W wind, 5 mph.

Good morning,

For some reason, yesterday was not a highly productive day, at least for me. Just didn’t seem to want to get a-going too much or to often for some reason. It was a beautiful day and not too hot, but the get-up-and-go, got up and went somewhere else. Hope that is over for a time.

We did go to Crystal Falls to pick up some more bits for my RotoZip and in the process found an old fashioned dime store - Ben Franklin. Most of them have become craft stores to stay in business. This one, while it does have a very large sewing and crafts department, is also what the traditional dime store was designed to be. It was kind of fun going through it and did manage to find a couple of things to buy! We went there because Margriet was looking through some of the old "Needlecraft" magazines in the "stuff" from Mom. She looked it up on the web and discovered they now are distributors for various sewing and craft products. One of their retailers are the Ben Franklin stores and listed the ones carrying their products. So ..... we had to investigate. Another store on our list of "acceptable" businesses to frequent.

It was something of an adventure to get to the dime store. It is on the main street of town, which at the moment is torn up for new water/sewer system. Looks like they also are putting in new gas lines at the same time. Most of main street has been finished and only the last couple of blocks at the top of the hill remain unaccessible. The dime store is on the edge of that construction. We parked in the construction zone and walked the last half block to the store. All of the street that has the construction more or less completed, is paved with the base layer of blacktop, and will have the finish layer added after all of the digging is finished. We were surprised how busy the store was, in spite of the construction. That is a really good sign.

I did manage to work on the storm door a bit. Long enough to break another bit. I really expect that to happen occasionally, since they are rather small in diameter. Sometimes I want it to cut faster than it can. I did discover that I have not brought along my straight cutting boards. I have a couple of pieces of ¼" plywood I use as a straight edge to guide saws, routers, &c. ended up using piece of 1"x6" pine, but that will only work for so long before it wears and/or warps. It will work for the door well enough.

The trench is finally filled. It would be nice to have a steady rain now to settle it a bit. Probably should have put some grass seed on the dig, but not having any, not possible. Forgot to pick some up while uptown. It is not a big deal, as the "grass" will probably fill in on it’s own with weeds. The next digging project is the water shutoff hole. Have to put in an access to the valve and fill it in. Don’t want to do that until I can shut off the power as the power lines are in the same place. No fired Norwegians wanted here!

We have taken care of the mouse problem, I think, for the moment. But we have been invaded by ants! We did pick up some ant poison feeding stations yesterday and it wasn’t long before it was covered with ants. There are none at the station we put out this morning, but that may change when the day warms up a bit. Talking with the owner of the hardware store, he indicated that lots of folks are having the same problem. He was chuckling that in the early spring, folks come in to buy things to make things grow. At this time of the year, they come in to kill things. He’s right too! Hadn’t thought about that in that way before.

I did manage to build dinner last night for a change. Haven’t cooked for a long time it seems. Margriet had taken out some country-style ribs so made them with some fried potatoes. Turned out not too bad, in spite of not having many spices to work with. There weren’t any leftovers at least. We also finished the last of the dessert Margriet made the other day.

Time to get a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris ><>