Jul 24 - can we try one more time ?

When we were away, Lorraine cut most of our grass/weeds in the front. It would be embarrassing to have her come back and find that I still had not done anything with the rest. In this case "the rest" is the scraggly stuff past the gazebo, the hill down from the septic bed and the area around the driveway and garden. "The rest" is best done with the string trimmer (they're called that even though they don't use string).

So ... I headed over to Jason's and found that he'd left his trimmer right at the front of his shed for my use. I had no more excuses. With one of those little squeeze bulbs to prime the gas, it's started right up. Appropriately dressed in boots and long pants, I took aim at various patches of grass and weeds.

Earlier in the day I did go fishing with Abby. It was too windy to sit in my usual spots, so I went into Smith's Bay, first stopping by the "sea mount" past Grumblenot Island (named by the owners) and then later at my usual spot across from the landing. There was no action at the first spot but at the second I pulled in a good-sized crappie within seconds. A little later I landed a small bass. After that, nothing. I was probably too late for the crappie, which tend to bite shortly after dawn and shortly before sunset. With so little to show, I let them loose and headed home.

After cleaning up from the weed-whacking, I found myself in the garage for one reason or another and decided to have another go at my own machine. Even though I've given up on it several times, I know that there's nothing inherently wrong with it and it "should" work. Ha. Yet again I pulled the carburetor, this time taking off the fuel line and plugging that with an appropriately sized nail. This time I not only opened it up on the side with the screen, but also on the other side, gently removing the little rubber diaphragm and marveling at the itsy-bitsy parts inside. Everything was clean, nothing visibly wrong ... but then I don't know how it's supposed to look.

Taking a stab in the dark, as it were, I poured some of the cleaner on the open parts, letting it percolate through and drip onto the ground. A better approach would probably be to simply find an appropriately-sized container and soak it ... but I'm an impatient sort. I did this a couple of times and then reassembled, hopefully not introducing any dirt in the meantime.

Mentally crossing my fingers, I tried to start the machine and voila, it ran for a couple of seconds more than before. With the choke on, I could actually get it running for 10-15 seconds. I played around with the jet adjustment screw up, down, up, trying to figure out where I got the best result. It didn't seem to make any difference, but as I played, it would run longer and longer. I surmised that the cleaner that I'd added to the gas was also having an effect and sure enough, as I worked at it, finally got it to the point of continuous running, albeit roughly and sounding like the gas/air mixture was too rich.

With the machine running, I decided to do some more trimming, getting at some spots that I'd missed and/or were difficult to access. As I worked, the machine sounded better and better. Success ! I decided to quit while I was ahead !

Outside work completed for now, I worked inside on the roads board spreadsheet, preparing a cover note and sending to Mike Nadon at the MTO. I'll call him in about an hour, hoping to review it with him. I also updated the meeting agenda, sending to Sue, Randy and Erika for comments. As I was working, Erika called to say that she'd looked over the spreadsheet (at my request) and checked the numbers and everything looked ok. I always feel better if someone has reviewed things.

Jason and Lorraine arrived around 3:30 and Lorraine came over for a short visit. Later on, before dinner, they both came over, but in the meantime Lorraine was clear-coating a door that was due for installation upstairs at their place. Jason and Kyle (mostly) have been working at re-doing the upper landing and entrance to the loft, putting in a new window and opening up the space. They also hung three new doors. It looks good but it's very time consuming. He still has to build a closet, railing etc. and he's going to put down new flooring throughout the upstairs bedrooms.

Yesterday at this time it was quite windy and wavy, today it's glassy calm. I hope to go for a bike ride, time will tell. George and Geri are arriving today as are Stef and gang. Aaron has to be in Sudbury at 4pm and will be dropping everyone off on the way. Hopefully they won't run into any problems with traffic -- Jason had terrible luck earlier this year even during off-peak periods.

Last night was my turn to cook dinner and we had stuffed rainbow trout. Tonight is my turn again, I believe, with deep fried turkey. Hopefully it won't rain on that parade !

Onward !