Hot again.\u00a0 It was so nice to have the cooler weather.\u00a0 But we get a little more of summer’s heat before Fall, I guess.\u00a0\u00a0 And no shortage of humidity.<\/p>\n
It was pretty hot even at the lake.\u00a0\u00a0 Thermometer said 102F in the shade.\u00a0\u00a0 The sun was intense.<\/p>\n
I decided to break up some more concrete, and clean up some more of the already broken chunks.\u00a0\u00a0 Spent a few hours moving rubble and filling holes behind my bulkhead.\u00a0\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Cutting the grass was interesting.\u00a0\u00a0 My electric string trimmer wasn’t making much progress, so I got out a manual tool.\u00a0 Not really a sling blade, but made for swinging at long grass and plants to cut them off at the ground.\u00a0 It worked ok, but there wasn’t any really good way to hold the handle of the thing to swing it.\u00a0 And it was a lot of work.\u00a0\u00a0 I did about 20ft and was done.\u00a0\u00a0 I’ll bring up my gas powered trimmer for the rest of the tall grass.\u00a0 Labor saving devices rock.\u00a0\u00a0 I’ll miss them when the fuel runs out and the machines don’t run anymore \ud83d\ude09<\/p>\n
Did some other small electrical tasks.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 The new LED fixture doesn’t get hot, and I’ll install a box when we redo the kitchen.\u00a0 Wire nuts are going to have to do for now.\u00a0\u00a0 Finished the circuit for the outlet in the master bath.\u00a0\u00a0 Pulled the romex with inches to spare, but needed to connect the outlets.\u00a0 I have a quad above the vanity, and a duplex under the vanity.\u00a0 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.\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
I’m surprised the previous owner never had a house fire.\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0 I guess it shows how much tolerance is built into stuff.<\/p>\n
My neighbor has started moving some of my leftover dirt to low spots in his yard.\u00a0\u00a0 He asked what I was going to do with the huge pile, and so I gave him half…\u00a0\u00a0 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.\u00a0\u00a0 Besides being just good neighbors, I figure it’s time to start weaving ourselves into the community up there.\u00a0\u00a0 Webs of favors done and owed seem like\u00a0 a good way to get started.\u00a0\u00a0 Because we’ve been so busy, we’ve declined some social offers.\u00a0\u00a0 I now think that was a bad choice, and now we need to work harder at joining in.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Meatspace baby! and Local, Local, Local….\u00a0 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.<\/p>\n
Today I’ll be doing some more pickups, starting bright and early with the lot I forgot on Saturday.\u00a0\u00a0 Should have me out and about most of the day, especially if I get a chance to do some organizing in my storage unit.<\/p>\n
Spend some time working on your network.\u00a0 Stack up a few good relationships.<\/p>\n
nick<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Hot again.\u00a0 It was so nice to have the cooler weather.\u00a0 But we get a little more of summer’s heat before Fall, I guess.\u00a0\u00a0 And no shortage of humidity.<\/p>\n
It was pretty hot even at the lake.\u00a0\u00a0 Thermometer said 102F in the shade.\u00a0\u00a0 The sun was intense.<\/p>\n
I decided to break up some more concrete, and clean up some more of the already broken chunks.\u00a0\u00a0 Spent a few hours moving rubble and filling holes behind my bulkhead.\u00a0\u00a0<\/p>\n