Hot again. It was so nice to have the cooler weather. But we get a little more of summer’s heat before Fall, I guess. And no shortage of humidity.
It was pretty hot even at the lake. Thermometer said 102F in the shade. The sun was intense.
I decided to break up some more concrete, and clean up some more of the already broken chunks. Spent a few hours moving rubble and filling holes behind my bulkhead. Cut the grass that I had been leaving long to reveal the holes, since the foundation guy will be coming out later, and I figured he’d have a better idea of what was involved in stabilizing the bulkhead if he could see it.
Cutting the grass was interesting. My electric string trimmer wasn’t making much progress, so I got out a manual tool. Not really a sling blade, but made for swinging at long grass and plants to cut them off at the ground. It worked ok, but there wasn’t any really good way to hold the handle of the thing to swing it. And it was a lot of work. I did about 20ft and was done. I’ll bring up my gas powered trimmer for the rest of the tall grass. Labor saving devices rock. I’ll miss them when the fuel runs out and the machines don’t run anymore 😉
Did some other small electrical tasks. Changed a light fixture in the kitchen (no box of course, no wire nuts, and the lamps were too hot and scorched the electrical tape until it was crunchy… scorched the wood of the soffit above the light too. The new LED fixture doesn’t get hot, and I’ll install a box when we redo the kitchen. Wire nuts are going to have to do for now. Finished the circuit for the outlet in the master bath. Pulled the romex with inches to spare, but needed to connect the outlets. I have a quad above the vanity, and a duplex under the vanity. That way someone can plug in a hairdryer underneath and store it in a drawer or the middle cabinet and the cord won’t get in the way, or need to be constantly plugged and unplugged. And it still leaves 4 outlets above the vanity for phone chargers or curling irons, or whatever…. seems like there are never enough outlets in the bathroom.
I’m surprised the previous owner never had a house fire. I’ve found so much overheated and scorched stuff, including circuit breakers, walls, and the chimney cap, that it’s clear he overloaded stuff and ran things way too hot. I guess it shows how much tolerance is built into stuff.
My neighbor has started moving some of my leftover dirt to low spots in his yard. He asked what I was going to do with the huge pile, and so I gave him half… He had previously offered the use of his tractor, and he let me run an extension cord for the freezers when the electrical work was happening. Besides being just good neighbors, I figure it’s time to start weaving ourselves into the community up there. Webs of favors done and owed seem like a good way to get started. Because we’ve been so busy, we’ve declined some social offers. I now think that was a bad choice, and now we need to work harder at joining in. That’s one of the reasons I am willing to stop work and talk for however long someone wants to talk when they stop by.
Meatspace baby! and Local, Local, Local…. when every person I talk to has been in his house for 40 years, or has been coming to the lake and surrounding area that long, and has generations buried in local cemeteries, we’ll always be the ‘new family in George’s house’, but we can at least work at it.
Today I’ll be doing some more pickups, starting bright and early with the lot I forgot on Saturday. Should have me out and about most of the day, especially if I get a chance to do some organizing in my storage unit.
Spend some time working on your network. Stack up a few good relationships.
nick