Wednesday, November 28, 2012

Oh Buck!

Last week looked out of my window and saw this guy:



First buck in 13 years I've seen not in hot pursuit of a doe. He was still hanging out a couple hours later when I went out to do firewood, and the ladies he wanted to flirt with had shown up.

Tuesday, November 27, 2012

Home Improvements, Oscar is not impressed.

Got the trim up on the bookshelf this weekend:



It's still only 80% done, not shown in the picture is the remaining end that I haven't decided quite how to finish it -- I can't really make it round, and didn't want a sharp square corner. But as I'm typing this, I just thought up making like three sides of an octagon -- I can cut that easy enough in the plywood shelf and the trim boards :)

I also put this up Monday, after my first setup on Sunday proved unworkable:

The shelving itself is from Home Depot -- $6 each for two sections. Meant for a garage, but nicely powder coated. Niteize S-binders from Target made for perfect hooks to hang the pots. I'll probably end up setting it up a bit higher when all is said and done.

This area will be trimmed with red oak, matching the bookshelf above, which will also go around the hearth area (you can see the backer board in the pic that will have some decorative brick or stone when all is said and done.) Also up for the winter is painting the kitchen -- already have the paint, which you can already see on the wall on the right.



Oscar, however, was less impressed then McKayla Maroney with all the doings in the house tonight.

Tree Trimming...and I'm not talking about Christmas...

Trimmed up some of the trees around the lower yard -- the generator + electric pole saw worked out well pulled by Mickey. The plow is in pieces so I could take care of some rust areas that made it difficult to adjust when I bought the tractor -- going to try taking off the mower deck and mounting the plow this weekend.

Bought some wood

First time I've ever bought firewood.

Granted, log length so I have to buck and split myself -- 2-1/2 cords for $250.



I'm working on cleaning up stuff around the edge of the yard, plus I have a spot I'm trying to clear out along the driveway to plant a small orchard (hopefully this spring), which has my production rate really low plus the trees are predominantly the relatively low quality Red Maple which I'd rather not try heating with in deep winter.

This load of Red Oak will do MUCH better.

Wednesday, November 14, 2012

Thursday, November 8, 2012

The thread with no title

Phillip Phillips "I'm going to make this place your home." The day I made this post was the first day I ever recall hearing the song, on the way home from the vet, after being told Oscar had cancer.

First Snow of the season

11/7/2012...nor'easter that dumped about 2" at my house, and quite a bit more just south of Worcester (like 10"!). The band just stalled there and dumped on them!

On sadder news, took Oscar for a follow up at the vets -- the anaplasmosis is better, but he's lost another 5# which really surprised me. The X-rays showed his lungs had cleared up -- but it looks like he has cancer :(

Monday, November 5, 2012

Mickey Mower

Well, the Ranger blew a brake line Saturday just after I loaded it to go to the dump. Guess it's good it did it in the yard and not on the road!

Was a beautiful day and I had wanted to haul several loads of leaves from the dump to the garden...grrrr.

Since I haven't done brake lines before, and wasn't sure how much $$$ that would take, I decided to park the truck and just fix a few things on Mickey so I could use it to haul wood on Sunday (which it did nicely).

What was left of the muffler fell off Saturday. It's $225 from the cheapest discounter I could find...instead I turned the pipe upside down and put on a $40 muffler and cap from Tractor Supply.


New NAPA gold oil filter, Rotella 15w40 oil, new air filter, new gas filter, new plug. The wiring harness was hacked to heck when I bought it which made troubleshooting really tough -- so I finally installed a push button switch to start it (instead of using a wire from the battery to starter solenoid), and a toggle switch to engage the PTO for the mower.


Got to remember to grease it and check the hydro fluid in the transmission.

Pretty soon I'll have to cut the wire ties that hold up one side of the mower deck and mount the snow plow :D

Oh, and somewhere I need to sneak in the greatest Kari Byron gif ever:

Sunday, November 4, 2012

So I don't loose it...

Nice set of videos on replacing brake lines...since the Ranger blew a line yesterday. Guess that's next weekends big project. http://www.ehow.com/video_2328138_removing-clips-cutting-brake-lines.html?cp=1&wa_vlsrc=continuous&pid=1&wa_vrid=04a70444-0b7d-41d2-88c7-20e85158eb62