Tar & Chips

 

The Surprise lilies popped up the other day. You never even know they're there, then overnight they're a couple of feet tall and in bloom. Lovely.

I've been getting a lot of yardwork done but still a long way to go. It's been relatively cool, so I've been trying to take advantage of it. Ninety-degree weather is not for me but by going out on my bike in the morning and working outside late afternoon/evenings, progress is being made. 

However, the county hit the road in front of my place with a fresh coat of tar and chips yesterday. While there are some cyclists who relish riding gravel, I'm not one of them. After a couple of weeks, since everyone drives down the middle of the road, the chips will be pushed to the side and it makes it tough on a cyclist to ride when moving over to allow a car to pass. Plus, the cars and trucks don't always slow down, so they end up slinging chips on the bike rider. They also do the same when going by another vehicle in the opposite lane resulting in broken windshields. The fresh chips end by the railroad tracks just out of the photo to the left, so if that's all the farther the county is planning to go, that'll be the way the Missus will be going in her new car whenever she leaves the shack regardless of her destination.

 

Tree Trimming

 

The tree crew showed up yesterday morning. They took down two oak trees and trimmed up a bunch of stuff. In the photo the bucket man is trimming the branches away from the shop roof and then moved on to the big barn and did the same thing. He topped a couple trees in the front yard to keep them out of the power lines coming into the house as well. That should be good for a few years now - at least until the trees grow back into the power lines.

These will be the next ones to come down. They both are leaning as a result of a big storm that came through right after we moved in. There was another one to the right of these two that was uprooted. After it got cut up, I started counting the growth rings but gave up after getting to two hundred. The tree was probably at least 300 years old as are the ones in the photo. There's another one to the left of these two that has a trunk a bit larger. It'll be a shame to have to cut them down when the time comes but they both dropped a large branch in the last big blow. 

I've planted a bunch of trees since I've lived here and I've allowed some volunteers to grow. I've been cleaning up some of the scrub trees and undergrowth lately. The backyard looks like a park when it's trimmed up. I'll do a little more trimming and start splitting the pieces the tree guys left for me. I'm going to have a lot of nice firewood.

Boxing Day

I tagged along with Coach Jen to ATT in Indy today. The gym has open sparring on the first Saturday of each month. Not a lot of boxers there today but some really good sparring sessions. The guy on the right in the photo is a pro fighter with a record of 10-0. I've seen him fight several times and he seems to be the most relaxed guy in the ring you'd ever want to see. He's scheduled to fight another guy who's also 10-0. Should be a good bout.

I worked with one of the boxers. Jen told me he's a hard worker but due his short stature, he needed some help on getting inside. I showed him a couple of things to help with that along with a couple other things I noticed when he was sparring. I hope it'll help.

I had a good time today - watched some quality sparring, had lunch with Coach Jen and then a nice chat on the drive home. Beats working!

Lumberjacking

 

I cut up a big limb that fell a while back into short pieces for the fireplace on Sunday. I left the couple of pieces in the foreground because it was hot, I was sweating, and I could feel my heart beating. I rested up for a couple of minutes and took my pulse - 85 bpm. If you take the most common formula for determining maximum heart rate, mine works out to 220-75 = 145. 145 x 80% =116. So, if I go by the numbers, 80% of my maximum heart rate is 116 bpm, I wasn't even close at 85. However, it was hot and humid and I've learned not to push it, especially when the heat index is around 100. 

Yesterday it was a perfect summer day for working outside, so I moved the cut up lengths to the splitter and split them. The tree man will be here soon to take the rest of the tree down, so I'll have plenty of oak firewood for the winter. I'll take some of the next batch and put it under the shelter on the backside of the garage. The rest I'll stack with this pile and then tarp it after it has a chance to dry out a bit.

Other than some lifting, twisting and turning, splitting doesn't even feel like work - more like some of the Tai-Chai exercises I've been doing. I keep an eye on my fitness level by checking my resting heart rate. It was 56 bpm yesterday morning. Not bad for an old cardiac patient. Just need to watch the diet and stress levels to keep the arteries from clogging up again.

Sock it to Me

We've got a young lady coming in one day a week to help out around the house now. I figured she would be doing cleaning chores, but the Missus decided moving everything around in the kitchen would be the first order of business. I can no longer find anything, but who am I to argue? Anyway, the Missus handed me the little teapot in the photo and asked me if I could knock out a couple of dents in the side of the thing. I was able to fit a small ball peen hammer inside the teapot and work a little metal shaping magic on the dents. I filed off the high spots followed by sandpaper, Scotch-Brite, buffing wheel and a final polishing with some Auto Sol. It's not perfect, and if was a motorcycle part I probably would have done a little more sanding with a finer grit, but as the old saying goes, good enough for the girls I run with.

I ordered some crew socks from the Amazonians thinking that's a no brainer. However, such is not the case. I should have read the fine print a little closer. The photo looked like what I wanted, but even though they were sold as crew socks and work socks, they are more polyester than cotton, meaning they stretch to over the calf length. I was looking for socks that stick out about 1/2" above my 8" work boots. If I wanted over the calf socks, I'd be looking for some like Chuck Wepner had on in his fight with Ali. Actually, I used to wear those when I was training back in the seventies. I haven't seen those on any of the fighters in a long time. They probably went out of style about the same time as Wepner hit the canvas. Anyway, I still need some cotton crew socks, and who wears polyester work socks, anyway?

Pump She Said .....

 

And pump I did, and I don't work there anymore.

In the interest of finishing one of the many unfinished projects that have accumulated over the years, I drug out the pump for the dump trailer. It's been in the original box out in the barn for years, and, of course, the mice set up shop in the box. No real harm done to the pump, but the instructions had been chewed up. Because of that, I'm not sure which port is the output and which is the return. I bought the pump from Northern and they now have a retail store not too far from me. I'll take a run up there with the info on the pump and see if I can get the info. First, though, I'll send Haldex an email and see if they can help me. I've got a control valve and some hose fittings already. It shouldn't take much to finish it up. 

When I let the dog out the other morning, I saw this little deer sleeping under the pine tree. It's young - still has its spotted coat. I've seen what appears to be momma and papa around here as well. They all appear to be healthy. Lovely animals - very graceful when in motion.

The weather cooled down lately. I've been taking advantage of it and doing some outside work. With the heat and the rain, the weeds and brush have gotten away from me. The tree trimmer stopped by this morning to give me a quote on taking down a tree and trimming up a few more. It won't be cheap, but neither will be neglecting the work and having wires come down or a branch come down on the shop roof. 

Planning on doing another 20-mile bike ride in the morning. I've been a little concerned about being out on the road after reading the article on ghost bikes in my last post, and then I came across this one. Female boxer died while riding her bike in what appears to be a deliberate attack. Lots of crazies out there. No reason all of us, whether it's a car, truck, bicycle or farm vehicle, can't share the road.

Cool as a Jewel

 

I got the air conditioning unit hooked up in the shop. I raised it up a couple of inches to clear the legs on the press and to allow the drain hose to have a little fall to it. The warm air exhaust goes through the same hole the heater comes through in the winter. Pretty easy install. However, it's real close to the mill so I'll have to protect it from flying chips. I'm thinking a piece of 1/4" plywood maybe 6' high with a stiffener along the edges that I can fasten to the shelving unit should work. The nice thing about this unit is you can use it for AC, a dehumidifier or a fan. Should be a blessing when the temps are in the nineties.

The weather's been quite reasonable the last few days but the smoke from the Canadian wildfires has been pretty rough. I went out on the bike the last couple of mornings since the smoke wasn't too bad but it hasn't been very healthy for anyone spending time outdoors.

 I straightened out the windmill for the sister-in-law. You have to look close to see that it was bent up, but since it was pretty shaky before it got hit, I'm sure she'll be happy. 

Really good article about "ghost bikes" and what often happens when a bicyclist is killed while out on the road. Most everyone around my area is fairly courteous and gives me plenty of room. Of course, I try to restrict my riding to the roads less traveled and at a time when there isn't much traffic. I've often wondered why people who drive 15,000 miles a year can't move over 5' when passing a cyclist or a runner. Just have to be careful.