A Day at Cd'A

Today, I rode out to Coeur d'Alene Lake with my friend Rob. He has a place out there and he needed help closing it up.

We didn't do a full shut down. He'll go out later this year to drain all the water and winterize the cabins.

Today we hauled the gangplank from the shore up onto the main dock. There it will sit in its winter home down the bay.

Rob has been doing this for years by himself. Since I am now a retired person of leisure, he invited me to help. Although he didn't really let me help much.

Here he is with a strap attached to the gangplank that is wrapped around him as he pulls the gangplank to the dock. All I did was help lift the end up on the dock, slide it forward a little bit and then took a bunch of pictures.

Afterwards we barbecued some Brats and drank some beers.

It was a good way to spend the day.

Chop Saw

I solved my chop saw conundrum today by purchasing a new one. Well, new to me. I'm not paying those high retail prices for a saw at Home Depot that I can get for half price or more at the local pawn shop. Pawn One, to be exact.

I'm quite happy with it.

It helped to turn that unsightly pile of scrap wood into nice little pieces for the fireplace.

As a bonus, it came with a nice sharp blade.

That pile is significantly larger now but I forgot to take any pictures.
   

Interstate Fair 2021

We went to the Spokane Interstate Fair today.

It was better than last year's since it was canceled due to Covid. But because Covid is still around, it was extremely scaled down.

For instance, they did not have a wine competition this year. The exhibits were about 50% of the number they would normally have been.

There was lots of food but two Fair favorites were conspicuously missing. The Shriners Elephant Ear booth was closed. No activity. 

And the Boehm's Chocolates ice cream bar was missing.

With all that was missing, it didn't prevent me from spending $55.00 in no time at all.

Messy Space

 I had a very productive Friday. I got to work on cleaning up the area between the garage and the Carriage House. It was full of mostly scrap wood and a lot of garbage.

I loaded the garbage into the bed of the truck and I'm going to the dump tomorrow with Mark and bunch of his garbage.

I ended up with this pile of wood that will soon become fire wood. That round table you see is going to remain intact. The rest gets cut up into easily handled fireplace lengths.

I would have gotten started on that today but my chop saw is no more. The safety switch on the trigger seems to have a problem completing the circuit. I can only turn the saw on some of the time. It's quie annoying and therefore, toast.

Labor Day Float

 It has been a wonderful Labor Day Weekend. The weather was fantastic all three days. Hot, but not too hot. We had some excellent food and there was of course, plenty of beer.

We rounded off the weekend today with a float on the Little Spokane.

With our friends Randy and Karen, we parked a car at the confluence of the Spokane and Little Spokane rivers. We put in at the Robinson property and took a three hour tour.

The highlight was passing this moose who was happily grazing in the river. We kept our distance as we passed her and she didn't seem to pay us much attention. 

If only we had seen a squirrel too!    

Labor Day 2021

It's Labor Day weekend which means the unofficial end of Summer. I looked back at my posts from last year to see what we were up to. We were varnishing the floor in the TV Room and cooking a brisket on the barbecue.

This year, we don't have anything as ambitious planned. I have just finished staining and varnishing a shelf for the armoire we are using as a stereo hutch. I think we'll be cleaning out the old and moving the new into place.

I'm going to work on the hot tub. It needs a cleaning and a filling, followed by a servicing. When last I had it filled, the breaker in the tub was flipping off when the heater was turned on.

The first thing I'm going to do is glue a piece of tile into place. That means I'm off to the General Store for some Gorilla Glue. But first, my final visit to Jim's Home Brew, which is closing forever after today.

5:28PM: As usual, some other stuff got in my way and prevented me from replacing the tile. It's not a problem though because I managed to get the hot tub cleaned out.

It's been sitting empty since last Fall and it had some small puddles of water and some badly decaying organic matter...mostly leaves.

So I got it scrubbed out pretty well and it is filling now. I'm going to run some chemicals through it to clean the jets and all the attached tubing.

Then I will drain it tomorrow and glue the tile in place and hopefully, refill the tub by the end of tomorrow. At 500 gallons, I'm using a lot of water this weekend.

For now, the tub seems to be heating but we shall see how long that lasts.

9:24PM: We have just returned from the Hub where we watched the first half of the WSU vs Utah St Football contest. It was a very low scoring half with the Cougars putting up 9 goal scores and the Utahians placing 5 goal scores. In the end, the Cougs lost by 3.

We barbecued some tri tips but the cat got lost so mine was slightly overcooked while we looked for her somewhere in the yard.

I drained the tub mostly after running the chemical stuff through the jets. The water was very cloudy and it seems like I may need to fill and drain a couple of times.

Lawn Service

 I have a new mower. It's rugged and sleek. It's sturdy and well built. Above all, it's sexy!

I call the new mower Susan, cuz that's her name.

Susan won't let me mow anymore. So she has been breaking out the Honda whilst I sip mint julips on the porch.

It's not quite that bad but if I want to mow, I'm going to have to do it while she is at work. That's how I do all the stuff she doesn't want me to do.

The big project for today is to get this cabinet

up these stairs.

From my preliminary investigation, I believe it can be done. The trick is going to be the switchback. I have cut a piece of cardboard to match the length and depth of the cabinet. According to my simulations, it should work. It seems like it will make the switchback.

In the end, we decided not to try it.

So we were looking at the cabinet and came to realize that it was put together like an Ikea cabinet. That meant it could be taken apart.

Sometimes, I'm such an idiot.

So I grabbed my power driver and a 5/32nd Allen Wrench and took it apart. The reassembly gave me a little trouble but I got it done.

Yea!

Mo' Yard Work

I don't think it would be going to far out on the hyperbolic ledge to say that we kicked ass today.

This is what the yard looked like yesterday.

Here we are after todays' work. I know that the side yard still looks like a barren wasteland but it is becoming a barren wasteland that we are controlling.

We got out into the yard about 1:00 and the goal was to get all the leafy, sticky, frondy crap into bags and off to the dump. By 2:30, we had to stop to allow a downpour to pass over us.

Once that was clear, we loaded everything into the truck and set off for the dump. We easily had 15 bags.

As we drove into the Waste to Energy Plant, there was a little fire at the entrance that was picking up momentum. I had my camera with me but did not have the presence of mind to use it.

It took about 20 minutes to get into the plant. It took about 15 minutes for us to unload. I should have taken a picture because I had my camera with me but did not have the presence of mind to use it.

From the dump, we went to Costco because Susan had seen a TV Stand there that she liked a lot more than the one she bought on line a few weeks ago. So we are going to take the loss on that table and use this much nicer one.

When we came out of Costco, it was just beginning to rain. We loaded the TV Stand box into the truck and headed for home. 

And that's where we are now. We have a good solid day of yard  work to be happy about and a rainy evening to enjoy instead of the month of heat we've had.   

Yard Work

The weather has finally calmed down  and cooled down to allow us to work in the yard. Susan pulled out the mower and took care of that job while I did some weed whacking.

Then we prepped ourselves for some messy shrub cleaning.

It was Phase Two of our cleaning out the leaves and droppings at the base of our Arbor Vitaes. I don't know how those things have been getting any water. There were so many years of leaves and bush detritus under them that the ground was totally covered by all the crap. I don't think very much water ever penetrated the ground.

Now they are clean and ready to receive water again. Tomorrow we will be cleaning up that row of leaves you see in the picture above and then we will lay down a new drip line for watering.

All this clean up means that there is going to be a dump run soon. Probably Monday.

I just love having a truck.

Here are some additional photographs of the shrubbery.

This job was long overdue. There were years of leaves under those poor bushes. It was really thick. I think we're going to see those things really start to thrive once we get the water on them.

Of course, we went to the pool once we finished.

Rain

The big news for today is that it has been raining. Not a lot but it's been enough that I'm not going to water today. The down side is that it is very humid out. Well...humid for Spokane. But the temperature is in the 80's today as opposed to the 103 mark we hit yesterday.

One of the things we got from Mom was this nice rocking chair that we wanted to put on the front porch. But first, we had to      Scumbag-Proof it from the Scumbags who slither onto peoples porches and take stuff.

I think we did a damn fine job. I placed an eye bolt into the corner of the front of the house and secured the chair with an eight foot chain. 

Eff U Scumbags!

Working in the Heat Wave

Our home is loaded with crap. Well, not so much crap as stuff.

After moving day at Mom's, we pretty much signed off on the house and left it to Rockwood. We left a bunch of cook books behind, some assorted crap (that really was crap) and some framed pictures that will go to the Corner Store at Rockwood.

Today, we tried to clean up a little. We loaded a bunch of stuff into Susan's car and hauled it to church for the yard sale and to Goodwill for their personal use of the stuff.

We felt pretty good about our progress and we'll do some more tomorrow.

According to my phone, it got up to 103 degrees outside. Fortunately, we have access to a pool that went completely un-used except for us.

We both enjoyed a nice swim with a couple of beers and kept ourselves comfortable during this heat wave.

We have now returned to the house where our little AC unit in the kitchen is keeping us comfortable and we shall have some dinner.    

Mom's Moving Day

Today is moving day. All of the remaining stuff at Mom's is going into storage, except for the garage fridge that is coming here. I have a couple of hours to clean up the basement and get it a little bit in order before they come. Then we go to the storage facility and unload.

I hope it all fits!

12:25PM: Things aren't going well with the movers. I just talked to Patty and they are loading up stuff that is coming to the house. I got all my cleaning done and I'm ready for the refrigerator whenever it gets here.

In the meantime, it's time for lunch. 

I put a nice pork chop on the barbeque. That was good.

The movers were here and gone. More stuff in the house. More stuff in the Carriage house. More stuff in the garage. 

MORE STUFF!!!  "ARGGGGG!" as Charlie Brown would say.

Old Bed, New Bed

Yesterday, we stopped at Walker's Furniture on Division and bought a basic bedframe. ($79.95)

Today, we dismantled the big bed we brought in a few months ago and put the mattress back on the new frame. We aren't as fancy pants as we were, but the bed is functional and we plan to make a headboard out of the old balusters from the stairs to jazz it up again..

The bed is going to the auction house because it goes with the rest of the bedroom set we are selling.

So I feel like we've had a productive day.   

B' Bye Beer Fridge

We are getting a new (to us) refrigerator for our basement beer cooler. The one we've had down there for the last couple of years never got cold enough that the freezer worked properly. Now we are getting a nice side by side Whirlpool from Mom's house.

So today was the day to get the old one out of the basement and be rid of it. Mark and his grandson, Derek came over to help me. Other than removing the door to get the fridge out, I didn't really do anything.

So we got it into the driveway and I took a couple of pictures to post it on Facebook Marketplace and Craigslist.

It was gone within two hours.

So that's a good days work accomplished by 11:00.

 

First Day of Retirement

Because it is the start of the week, I have designated today, Monday July 12th, as my first day of my retirement. To that end, it is my intension to do something towards the house everyday. It may mean cleaning out my closet, which is what I have planned for today. It won't always be a big thing. Just another step towards making some progress.

But first, some breakfast.

Okay, I've had breakfast and I have taken a mile walk around the park. It took me 28:54 to go around. It's going to be another hot day so I'm glad to get it out of the way early when it is still coolish. 

Next, I have to make some calls to cancel Mom's credit cards.

Okay, I was afraid this would happen. I didn't work on the closet at all.

I made some headway towards canceling a couple of Mom's credit cards but beyond that, I didn't accomplish much.

Maybe tomorrow will be the first day of my retirement.

  

Heat Wave 2021

We are smack dab in the middle of a heat wave.

It's currently 95 degrees at 6:00PM. The weather has been hot since the first of the month. I managed to enjoy the worst of the heatwave in the hospital. For more information than you would care to know, check out my health blog for around this date: www.porkymccorpulent.blogspot.com

Work on the roof has stopped. We haven't seen anyone here since Tuesday. It is practically finished but not quite. As long as it is unfinished, I guess we don't have to pay. 

The annoying thing about it is these guys are not from this country and they have no regard for where garbage goes. There are water and gatorade bottles everywhere. We have seen shirts and shoes and some nice tools all over the place.

I'm not sure if the heat is a factor in the delay of the job. They seemed to work through the series of 100 degree days we had.

If I don't see any action this week, I'll notify the contractor.   

Roofing Continues

I cannot think of a worse job than being a roofer. Today is the first day of a forecasted heat wave that is supposed to have temperatures in the 100's through next Friday. If that happens, it will break a record set in 1881 for most.

The roofers are out there today and they are close to finishing the sheathing.

Here are some pictures:

Trudell Diane Harvey Burke Robinson Jensen

This has nothing to do with the main purpose of this blog but I feel it is important to post it. My mom died today. She went in for hip surgery back in the first part of May. Everything started out swell but a number of setbacks led to pneumonia, at which point she decided to call it a life. We made her comfortable and she lasted two days. She was a week away from turning 88.

I'll miss you Mom.   

Roofing Begins

 

Almost Roof Time

We were told the roofing would start tomorrow and then that it wouldn't. 

When I got home from work, a couple of guys came wandering into the backyard looking at the roof. We had a bit of a communications gap as I speak English and they did not. Well, the one guy could communicate enough. 

They wanted to grab a ladder and get up there, which is a first for this project as far as I know. They said it was going to need to be completely torn off and then sheathed. That was not in to quote.

So, I'll call the contractor tomorrow and see what's happening.

Creating Work

 When I was mowing on Thursday, I was trying to get a bunch of dead leaves out of a basement window well where they had built up. In the course of doing that, the mower hit the window and broke it. I didn't even notice because I thought I was being careful not to do that.

But I wasn't and I didn't.

So I noticed the broken yesterday and realized it had to be fixed. Fortunately, Susan is into glass and keeps large amounts of it down in her glass room. I spent a good amount of time cleaning out the old hardened glazing compound out of the mullions. I had Susan cut the glass to 22" x 12". I should have had her cut it an eighth inch shorter in both directions. We ended up breaking out her glass grinder and shaving the sides a bit. I finally got it to fit but had a hell of a time with the fresh glazing compound. It got all over my fingers and wouldn't stick into the mullions. I'm going to watch something on YouTube to get some tips.

In any event, the window is in and mostly secure.  

Yard Sale Day

It's looking to be a rainy, chilly weekend so that means it is time for the Corbin Park Neighborhood Yard Sale.

I put out signs this morning directing people to the Corbin Park Community Yard Sale and drove around the park to see if anyone is participating. It looks like about 11 houses are participating. We've had pretty good traffic and a lot of people checking out the sales.

We have a bedroom set that we never wanted in the first place and it is on display out in the yard. It's the only thing we are selling. The price is currently marked at $150.00, but I will take $100.00. I would really like to sell it today because I want the space back in the Carriage House.

I have spent most of the morning sitting on the front porch, watching people drive by while I read the paper, listened to a podcast and took pictures of the cat.

11:45AM: VICTORY! I have sold it! I have sold it for $150.00. I am happy!

The guy that bought it (Caleb) lives in the neighborhood. He just bought the house on Washington and Buckeye that was for sale for about two hours. Well, it didn't sell that fast but it is a very hot market right now. He said they were happy to get it.

Caleb and his wife and two kids moved here from Havre, Montana. 

Since I have a truck, I offered to deliver. I even helped him carry everything into his house. I really earned that money.

1:45PM: Once I was able to close up shop, Susan and I walked the park to check out the deals. I might be interested in some tires but they're not quite the right size.

The day has turned out to be pretty nice as far as the weather goes. I felt a few drops of rain but it's nice out there right now.

One last thing, referring to my post on May 29th where I talked about paying an Idiot Fee because I forgot to write down my new password.

I found where I wrote the password down today. Susan was working on the curtains and had a large piece of cardboard on the table to protect it. I wrote the password on that.

Then, when she was done, I put it back in the Carriage House.

I pulled it out today to write down the price of the bedroom set we sold. I noticed it in the corner of the cardboard. It was Grumpy307!

What a dumbass!

Well, I've got money burning a hole in my wallet. Time to go to the Hub.