Aug 26 - stage two

I spent a good part of the day yesterday cutting wood -- stage two in the process of harvesting something good out of downed trees. First, though, I had to do some work on my chain saw.

I did some dismantling, trying to get it to idle lower, and was moderately successful. The trigger in the handle rotates a small cam which pulls the cable for the throttle. There doesn't seem to be any adjustment, but after taking it apart and putting it back together again, the cable was less tight and it would idle down. After doing some wood cutting, however, it back idling so fast that the chain keeps moving. I'll have to look at it again.

The other two problems that I dealt with were adjusting the chain, which is easy, and adjusting the high speed jet -- another moderately successful operation. I'm still not getting full power out of the saw, but was able to do my cutting.

Some of the wood is already the correct length for the fireplace -- much of it was not. There was a lot of cutting, some of the pieces being quite large in diameter so this took a couple of hours. Now I await stage three -- splitting the wood -- for which I have to await Jim Matthew's pleasure. He has the splitter.

Another mini projects from yesterday included drilling holes in the rock at Jason's for guy wires for a pine tree that could be taken down by the wind. Later in the day Jason mixed up some concrete and put the rock anchors in the holes.

Stef, Aaron, Kylie and Lauren arrived around 4pm. We ate dinner around 6:30 and then I took Lauren fishing. Before dinner, however, I roasted some jalapenos in the roaster from Arlene. The jalapenos came from our garden. Jason, Gavin, Aaron and I sampled the results -- stuffed with feta cheese, blue cheese and chili sauce -- and found that they were not hot at all. We then each ate a raw jalapeno -- still no heat. It seems that the cool, wet spring and summer have translated into jalapenos that taste like green peppers.

Lauren caught 10 fish ! Nobody believed her and asked me for confirmation -- yes, 10 fish. Two small pike and a perch which went back into the water, catfish and crappie -- her rod saw much action. She's a funny girl -- when David and I took Meagan and Keri out we constantly had to tell them "no, you don't have a fish, it's just the minnow making your rod bounce". Lauren was just the opposite -- her rod would be bending into the water and I'd have to say to her -- "Lauren, you have a fish". The action was constant -- as often as not I would be getting a bite on my line while I was helping her land her fish with the net. When I got back to mine, the minnow would be gone. It was quite entertaining.

It was also fairly cool. By the time we got back the temperature was down into the 50's and hit the mid 40's overnight. This morning, when I got up, the lake was dense with fog ... 70+ water hitting 40+ air. I'm not sure if it was the cold or something else that my allergies were interacting with but I was constantly sneezing while cleaning the fish. It didn't end there -- I blew my nose all night long and this morning I have a sore throat, headache ... yup, without warning I seem to have caught an instant cold. The fishing expedition was successful -- the fillets, combined with the two bass that I got in the morning, will make a good meal for all of us tomorrow night. Sandy is planning on doing pork tenderloin tonight. I caught something else on the fishing expedition. I'm sure that it's coincidental -- you don't catch a cold in the cold.

Today is Jason's last day here for the summer. They head to Brantford tonight and then to Kingston tomorrow to line up accommodation for Kim at Queens university. They are toying with the notion of coming back up for Labor Day weekend, but that remains to be seen. Kim comes back from the UK on September 1st and Lorraine has to be in school for a PA day on September 3rd.

Today ... I don't know. Originally I was thinking that I'd go for a bike ride. The way that I'm feeling that is probably a bust. I have to take something for this cold shortly or I'll look like Rudolph. It's been a while since I've had a cold. I get the sniffles much less frequently than I did when I used to be on an airplane constantly. I wonder why ?

We've been thinking about going to Toronto for Labor Day weekend. I want to go back to the optometrist; Sandy wants to get her hair done; we've talked about going to the CNE; there's also a bike ride that I might do on the Sunday. Right now that all seems like a lot of effort. We'll see. The only thing definite is that Sandy wants her hair done. We could also do that on the way south -- we're heading to Florida shortly after Labor Day, via NYC (see a show on Saturday, bike ride on Sunday) via -- possibly Hemmingford (Sheryl/Jimmy), possibly Connecticut (Patti & Norm), definitely Reading PA (Jeffrey/Sara/Emma).

That's about it -- what has been, what will be, what might be.