Hanging out there

October 6, 2007 (6:54am)

62º F, Waiting for rain, SSE Wind, 3 mph.

Good morning,

Boy did I wake up late this morning. Overslept 1½ hours! My sleep was interrupted sometime aroung 2:00-2:30 A.M. with a thunder and lightening frog choker. The light show and rain really were big time. Looking at the radar, more appears to be coming later today. Can’t believe the temperatures either. This is almost the middle of October and we are supposed to reach 80+º F today. Almost as warm tomorrow and the following few days too. This much be “Indian Summer” but seems to be lasting longer than normal. We already have had a couple of really warm days. Does give me a chance to get some things done, needing to get done.

The wood splitter is hanging out the back door of the truck and not on the ground yet. Don’t like that, especially with the rain last night. The truck is outside! I had a choice of putting the back of the truck into the shop, leaving the doors of the shop open, or the truck outside with the doors of it open. Chose the latter. If I didn’t have so many projects going on in the shop, I could have put the whole works inside. Oh well. Too much to do and such a short time to do it!

I wrestled with the splitter most of the day, after unloading what I could. It is a conundrum for sure. At present, I can’t lower it enough, and have it stable, to reposition the chain hook-up. Used everything from concrete blocks and timber pieces to very large blocks of firewood, but nothing worked, at least a solid resting place I would trust. One problem is as I transfer the weight from the truck to the splitter, the truck raises with the lighter load and not allowing me to get any slack in the chain. I did manage to move it this far out of the truck using my come-along. My come-along has a strap rather than a cable as most do. That allows me to have a 25' reach if I need it and move something 6-8' at a time, shorten it without re-hooking, and pull again. It really is a handy gadget and wished we had it dragging the trucks out of tight spots at deer camp, rather than finding a convenient tree every 6 feet. Hope I will be able to hook one end of the come-along to the end of the lift arm and the other to the splitter. Have to check and see if it is short enough to lift it a bit to release the chain hook-up so I can put it on the ground. One thing sure, it will come down - eventually.

The wood splitter and the snow blower were stored under a tarp between uses. I noticed yesterday that the mud wasps have been busy turning, at least, the wood splitter into a mess of mud nests. I will need to pull the covers off of the engine, &c. to make sure the cooling fins are clear as well as other important areas. Sure don’t want to burn up an engine or two. I spread the tarp out on the lawn to let the rain wash it off. I thing the rain we had last night should have done a pretty good job on one side. Will turn it over to do the other side today.

I received in the mail yesterday the tractor repair and operator’s manuals I ordered a bit ago. Now at least I will be able to see what I should be doing. Not saying that I will get it, but one less excuse for not. One thing for sure, I will be adding an attachment to the bucket, so I could reach into the truck and pick things out or put them in if I need too. Can see the value of it for many other tasks too. First I need to get the tractor and learn how to use it!

Margriet spent a good chunk of time yesterday “puttin’ by” our produce we bought on Thursday. Some went into the dehydrator, some into a cool place, some into the freezer, and some into our bellies. We will have some variety for a time. The peppers were rather cheap, by normal store standards, so many of them were cut up and dried. Good stuff a-coming. There is a space under the stairway to the basement in the main house that will be come our root cellar. We should be able to put a lot in there, but I need to do some work on it to get it ready. Not on the immediate 2-DO list. The terrain here is conducive to building a root cellar outside and that may happen someday as I re-do the entrance to the basement some. There needs to be a new entry and some stabilizing of the dug out portion for the walk-in entrance.

Time to get the day a-going.

In Christ My Saviour,

Chris <><