Jul 28 - industrious

The big news is that Sara and Matthew are home.  Sara is still in a lot of pain, obviously, since it's a six week recovery from the surgery, but they'll both get more rest at home.  Being in the hospital means constant interruption and noise.

I needed to whip the grass / weeds back into shape before heading to Reading PA so I did that first thing.  As usual, the weed eater needed a dose of Quick Start to get going but then it ran like a champ through several stops and starts and a tank of gas.  I'll continue to feed its habit since it does run well once going. 

The day started off cool and windy but gradually warmed up into the mid 60's.  You wouldn't think that it was summer here though it was good weather for outside work.

The middle of the day was get-caught-up-on-financials.  Some of my accounts update automatically into Quicken; others need manual entry.  One hadn't been updated since February ... tch tch.  I'm now caught up.  I also updated the Randonneurs Ontario account and squared up with that, since I've received some cash from a few members for bag and cap purchases. 

I tied up all the pipe that I've got loaded on the old yellow trailer, readying that for it's trip to the dump.  The trailer will stay there too.  I did a test ride with all the stuff loaded to the turnaround and back, to ensure that the wheels would keep rolling (this trailer hasn't moved for 10 years) and the pipe would stay in place.  My plan is to take it all to the dump this morning.  It's now parked by the barn ready to go.

I also did a dump run with household garbage and some old moth-eaten tarps.  Well, not really moth-eaten but you know what I mean.  Shredded in places etc. I suppose that there were sections that might have been salvaged but once these things start to shred, they're generally breaking down anyway.

I decided to tackle the fallen maple tree before heading into town, so the Stihl chainsaw got some work.  Nice machine.  Like a hot knife through butter.  I'll have to do a chain touch-up so that it continues to run that way. 

A tree on Jason's side of the property line between our two garages had broken off about 30' up, snapped like a toothpick.  It fell just to the lakeside of my garage, clogging up the area between the garage and the propane tank.  It's a big tree; some pieces that I was cutting were almost at the limit of my 18" chainsaw blade.  As usual, dealing with the brush is the biggest issue, especially for me working on that steep slope.  However, I got most of the brush cut and hauled up to the driveway at the garage as well as some of the easily accessible chunks cut up into firewood size.  There's still a lot left lying on the ground that will take cutting and rolling to finish off.  That's not going to be easy on the slope.

Once I've finished with the stuff lying on the ground the standing portion should be taken down if for no other reason than for the good firewood.  Standing, it will just dry out and be useless.  There's probably some punky stuff at the breaking point but the rest of it is good wood.  Once it's all cut up I'll borrow Jim's splitter.  Jason and I can share the firewood or perhaps he should take it all ... I've already got all I need.   It will need a year or so to dry out.

I thought that the tree had snapped when there was no-one here -- did it make a sound ?  Well, it turns out that Jason was here and it did make quite the CRACK.  I guess that it was raining with a tiny bit of wind but nothing unusual.  It's time had come, I guess. 

So ... I got the brush piled up and had a quick shower and went into town to pickup my two pieces of mail.  I'd hoped that the bundle from the US had arrived but in an email exchange from Lisa she said that it had been turned back because Canada Customs, I guess, didn't like the fact that she hadn't put her name in the return address.  It was on the customs form but not on the envelope.  Rats. 

Through all of this Abby hangs out, watching the proceedings.  She also came to the dump and into town with me -- two separate trips.  There were no bears at the dump so there was no furious barking.

Once home and not happy with the look of all that brush, I put Jim's trailer to good use and did two trips to the end of the road.  Once I'm back from Reading, I'll move his trailer into the barn and finish up the trailer light re-wiring.

By this point it was running close to 6pm and I headed over to Jason's.  They'd invited me over for wings and I'd accepted, of course.  Kim, Gavin and Amanda are up as well and we drank our one beer during prep and cooking and then mostly polished off the rest of the Meritage that I'd brought over during dinner.  We're not exactly big drinkers since, as a group, we didn't even finish one bottle of wine. 

My plan is to finish off some chores here, get the car ready and then head to Reading early tomorrow.  How early that is will depend on when I get to bed.  Depending on the weather, I might also squeeze in a ride today; perhaps not a full length version, we'll see.  I still haven't decided on whether I'll bring a bike to Reading -- the purpose of bringing a bike would be so that I could ride when we go back down.  I'm thinking yes ... but will decide later today.

Onward !