Tuesday, February 27, 2018

When you get the "yellow light".

Bit of a nice day today,  so I thought I'd do a little farting around outdoors.  On the sunny side of the house at this time of the year it's quite pleasant.  In the heat of the summer?  Not so much.

For the longest time now,  I've been meaning to remove the extra mortar that was put on the side of the house by the previous owner.   See,  he had this *interesting* idea that he wanted to have some sort of green house up against the side of the building,  but discovered after a couple seasons that it was mostly just a place to collect bugs.  Anyway,  it wasn't something we wanted to look at when we moved here,  so I ultimately took it away.  It was quite elaborate too,  with a metal frame and those corrugated Plexiglas panels and such.   On the one end,  there was a doorway,  so of course all the little spaces between the frame and the house had to be filled with mortar.





Probably better to show the pic I took yesterday.  I'm thinking of closing off that access with more fencing,  so I sent a note off the a company I've been dealing with.  Hence the need for a photo.









This is a slightly better angle:






After today's activity.  I still have a ways to go, but after a little bout with the pneumatic chisel,  I had had enough for today.

  

And yes I know,  there's a lot of "stuff" there that I have to deal with.  I'll get to it.  Don't judge.

Then I noticed on the Generator,  where normally the light on the side is green,  there was part of it that was showing yellow.

Huh?

Then I realised,  I had changed the oil and filter a while back, but neglected to reset the "service reminder"  or whatever you call it.

These days,  just about every machine has some sort of built in service reminder.  At least with the generator,  I don't need a special tool.   Just the one between my ears.  No mention as to how "sharp" it is.





Um.  Ya.

Good thing there's this thing called the "internet"?   Somewhere in my bunch of stuff,  I have a schematic of the labyrinth of commands that lurk beneath that keypad,  but I basically have very little clue as to just where to go.


Anyway,  after a bit of searching,  I did manage to find what I was looking for,  and we're back to a steady green light again.  What was not mentioned in all the videos and forum comments etc.,  was the fact the you have to turn the generator "off".  After that minor consideration, it was easy peasy.

So actually,  I did TWO jobs today.  Holy moly!

Thanks for stopping by.

Keep that stick on the ice.


Thursday, February 22, 2018

I tell myself, "It's only a game".

Couldn't bear to watch the Canada/US hockey game last night,  but when I checked in on line at one point and saw that they were tied up,  I had a sense of dread that there would be a shoot out.

I've never been a big fan of the "shoot out".  I think I'd sooner see something happen like the sudden death situation we see in the NFL if the game is tied at the end. You know,  play an extra period.  See what happens.

Whatever.

I mean, last time,  Canada won in a shoot out,  and I didn't hear anyone complaining,  myself included.

Both Travelling Companion and I should have probably sucked it up and stayed up to watch,  since she told me this morning that she had been dreaming about it all night,  and woke up tired.  I pretty much had the same experience.

And now,  on to more *important* matters.


(insert, "tongue in cheek" font here, by the way)



I may or may not have mentioned at some point that I quite regularly meet up with a bunch of retired old farts on Wednesday mornings for breakfast.  The food is average,  the washrooms are somewhat suspect,  but our waitress is dynamite and the conversation is usually quite lively.   So I go.

Plus,  it gets my sorry ass out of the house on a regular basis.

So,  what catches my eye as I head out the driveway?





See,  there are times when I'm no longer interested in eating that one last heel from a baguette or loaf of bread,  so I open the back door and pitch it out for the squirrels.

They do tend to come up with some creative means of "storage".


It was raining,  so maybe this was to soften it up a bit?



Happened to have the camera.  What can I say?


This sort of thing (seeing where the little numbskulls store their bread)  passes for "entertainment" around here.

Oh,  and I just looked out.  It's still there.  He must have stuck it down with some spit or something.



It's stopped raining by the way,   but there have been some issues along the Grand River,  most notably a young Mom who didn't see the road closed barricade due to the fog,  ended up in the water,  managed to get herself and her toddler out of her vehicle,  only in that instance to have the child swept away by the rushing current!

The story is here.

Sorry for the downer.

And I think that's all I got.

Thanks for stopping by. 

Keep your powder dry.


Tuesday, February 20, 2018

Just Walking In The Rain




Sorry,  but now this tune is going through my head,  so I thought I'd plant the ear worm in your brain too. 
No name calling,  please.

And to think,  this was 1956!   Um hello?  That was the year I was born,  so that tells me that that tune must have stuck around for at least a few years. 
I do seem to vaguely recall singing along with the Beetles later on in the early sixties with my then very young niece.  I was an Uncle at the age of five,  but that's a whole other story.


And yes,  it is definitely raining here at the Ponderosa.  Like....a lot.

The thing is,  if you're not entirely happy with the weather around here,  all you really need to do is wait a few days.  It'll change.   Not always for the better, mind you.

Darned good thing  that we had a thaw a few days ago,  or we'd be in some deep poop.   And that might mean literally.  But,  over the years,  I've carried out certain mitigating exercises to possibly avoid such a situation.  You know,  extra weeping tile and that concrete pad to set the generator on,  which just so conveniently is sloped away from the house.

Even the deluge we had in August of 2014 (before I had put in the pad)  only resulted in about three or four cup fulls of water coming in at that back corner,  which would now be really difficult.

He says.   He hopes.


Anyway,  I can't say I've been up to too much lately.   We did have a crew in on Friday to take down yet another one of the dying ash trees out here in the side yard.  Sad,  but necessary I'm afraid.




There's another one to come down which,  depending on the weather might happen later this week.  I asked if he was coming back today,  but he mentioned something about "back to teaching again",  so I'm guessing he must run a course at one of the local colleges?   I mean,  he is an Arborist after all,  and it's not just something you learn by some sort of osmosis.

I got busy on Saturday tidying up some of the longer chunks the crew left behind.



The deal was,  certain price was agreed to,  with the idea being that the bulk of the wood would be left behind.  I'll once again get around to splitting up this stuff at some point,  but it won't be ready to burn for at least a year or so.

That's my little "Poulan"  there,  that I bought not so long ago from a fellow who was "downsizing"  and sold it to me for an exceptional price.  He had won it as a "door prize"  at some sort of sales conference (odd thing to have as a door prize I thought,  but whatever)  and it was still in the box.  He had never used it.  I haven't even had to sharpen the chain yet.  Its been maybe 20-30 years since I've sharpened a chainsaw chain,  but I'm sure it'll come back to me.

Meanwhile,  I got it in my pea brain a number of days ago that I wanted to disassemble my bench,  clean it up and refinish it. 
Now I know why I had been subconsciously avoiding this job.

This is going to take a while:

Here I've removed both the tail vise and the shoulder vise,  and started sanding the whole thing:










Working on the tail vise.





So I moved the bench top over to a mobile cart so I could take the base apart.  It was pretty gross,  considering how long spiders had been hanging out under there.  Didn't help that we were away for four and a half years either.




Then i realised,  I'll need some sort of "bench" to work on the bench.  Thankfully I have a couple "workmates" stored out in the shed.





And well,   that's pretty much life around here.  Generally fart around.  Work on that for a bit.  Watch some Olympics.  You know.  Like that.


I'll check back in at some point.

Thanks for moving your eyes back and forth.

And remember,  keep your stick on the ice.