One step at a time...

So the title of this blog is the answer to a question. The question is: How do you paint stairs? I've never actually done this before and it requires thought, especially if it is a stairwell that provides the sole access to an important part of the house, in this case, the basement. To go back to the beginning, in my previous blog I wrote about painting the stairwell walls. Well that was done and it came out nicely. I expected to paint the stairs all along, so I allowed my self to drip everywhere on the old stairs. Now it was time to think about painting the stairs. First, color. My initial thought was a standard grey, which would match the kitchen. Cindy was more interested in keeping a brown shade of some kind, better matching the theme in the rest of the house. So, we went out and purchased a sample, then another, then another, then...well you get the idea. We couldn't find a shade of brown or tan that we liked, and thought it would hide dirt being dragged in from the side door. Cindy then agreed and we tried a shade of grey and we liked it. Nice being right for a change!

Exciting photo of the underside of our basement stairs. 

Now, the logistics of painting stairs. Keep in mind the walls were done last month, so this is just the steps themselves. At least two things must be considered: How to paint them and in what order. For starters, when the painting is complete, we must keep off the stairs for at least a day and have no access to anything in the basement (including litter boxes). Then there's the how. I decided to paint all the "trim" areas, like the undersides of the steps, the risers and stringers, along with the railings first. For the undersides and other trim work near the bottom, I used my crawler which is normally used for under car repairs. There's also the issue of painting the underside of the stairs at all. I don't know if the stairs were original to the house, but clearly they had never been painted and looked to be in pretty good shape. No one is likely to see them, so I was inclined not to paint the bottom of the steps, but one raised eyebrow from Cindy changed my thinking. Anyway, all the sides, bottoms, and rails have now been painted twice and I await a time when I can close off the stairwell and paint the surface of the stairs. They will need two coats so at least a couple days to paint and properly dry.

Very professional looking installation,
don't you think? 

The issue of security continues to come up and I am dragging my feet on a decision of what to do. The immediate area around our home is good, with good neighbors, but frankly, there are some pretty shady areas and people in Binghamton these days and I work a lot of nights, leaving Cindy and the cats alone. In fact, we have some squatters living in a home down the street that have had the police called on them at least 50 times this year already. In any event, I think I have settled in on a security solution, but haven't decided on which (self installed) package of equipment suits us best. More on that in a later blog. In the meantime, I went ahead and changed out one of our (broken) interior cameras for an exterior grade camera. Nest gave me a nice discount on the camera since the other had broken. I decided to mount the camera on the garage, facing the driveway and the backyard, mainly because we already had a car broken into, and our garage is not secure (I know, I know). The camera itself is interesting. You screw a metal plate onto the mounting surface, then stick a cup shaped magnet to the plate. The metal, rounded back of the camera holds it to the mount and is infinitely adjustable as it slides around in the magnetic cup.

The view from our new security camera. Anyone steals
our garbage, I got'em. 

The camera is set to find your WiFi network so before mounting you use the camera, and your smart phone or tablet, to find out if the signal at your chosen spot is strong enough to be useful. That's a bit tricky while standing on a ladder. The camera does have to be plugged into AC power, which we have in the garage. Unfortunately, like so many other things in our home, the electric is not properly installed so I have yet another job to do re-wiring the lights and installing proper outlets on the second floor. In the meantime, I have an extension cord running to the camera's plug. So far, the camera has been working great. I look forward to keeping an eye on things when I am away from home.

What's next? Well, it's not on the list...

A beautiful late Spring sky. 

I almost named this blog Miscellaneous Part 4, but decided to be a bit more clever. I'm not sure I succeeded. In any event, this edition has no particular subject, mainly since I've not worked on any projects that would fill a blog. That's not to say that we haven't made progress.

Fixing up this house sometime feels like I'm trying to bail out the ocean. Long range projects compete with short term repairs and on going maintenance. Also, there's that pesky work thing in which they expect me to show up at least 5 days a week and perform tasks for them, if I expect to be paid. Considering all this, Cindy and I are discussing which major project we need to take on next. The two in the running are the kitchen and the bathroom. I'm pretty comfortable that I have finally fixed the chronic tub leak, so the kitchen ceiling below needs a repair and paint job, as do the walls. In the bathroom, a major renovation is somewhere in the future, but in the meantime a paint job and tile repair is in order. Cindy preferred to do the bathroom first and I didn't feel strongly either way so the choice was made. The decision having been made, naturally I went on and did something else.

Cindy kind of surprised me with her utter disdain for the stairwell going to the basement. On the list of things to do, this stairwell was not even on my radar but when she pointed out how dirty and dingy it was, I realized she made a good point. The cream colored walls were smeared with hand prints and general dirt. Whoever had painted it, had used a flat wall paint making it look even uglier and better at catching grime. I already had a gallon or so of pure white satin finish paint so this should be an easy and quick job, right? Oh you optimistic fool!  It turned out taking two full days of difficult work.

This stuff is the best.

First, I took the handrail down. Easy enough. I put it in the basement and assigned Cindy the task of cleaning nearly a hundred years of hand grime and grease off the railing. It turned her wash bucket water black. Yuck. I began to look at the walls and quickly realized two things: There were a lot dents and holes in the walls, and, I had several different surfaces to work with. For the holes, it was a fairly simple matter to get out the patch repair stuff and fill them in. The surfaces, and general poor condition of them, required more thought and work. The wall types were standard plaster on lathe, our famous exterior wall finished block, poured concrete, and finally a wooden wainscoting type surface on the lower interior section. All were stained in one way or another, but the concrete especially had water and rust stains that would never be covered by regular paint. So, I decided to go with BIN. The stuff smells bad, is a pain to work with, and it destroys any paint brush you use with it, but it really does a good job sealing and covering stains. It's not cheap either, but I decided to do the entire block wall and the poured concrete with BIN before painting. Luckily, it dries quickly and I was able to get the first finish coat on before the end of the day. The next day I did a second coat to even out the job. It looks great.

Of course, there's the stairs themselves. The paint on them is worn, plus now there's a bit of white wall paint on them as well. It looks like the last time they were painted they used standard semi gloss wall paint in a deep brown. I already have the light chocolate floor paint I used on the porch, but that may actually be a bit too light for the stairs. We still haven't chosen a color yet so that job remains open.

Elsewhere, I did manage to plant some flowers in two huge pots we had sitting around. I did a red, white, and blue theme in flowers and they actually look pretty good. They sit in the yard at the front corners of the porch. Around back, I did some more weeding in the "flower" beds and added some fresh while marble stone after spaying some weed killer on the edges. The weed barrier I laid down last year apparently lasts only one year. Rats. Next year I may have to remove the stone, double down on the weed barrier, and put the stone back.

I've been carefully avoiding the tree roots with the lawnmower so I've had no more problems. We've had a pretty wet year and the grass is really growing, so naturally I'm quite pleased with the new mower. Instead of pretty much using up a day, I can finish the entire thing in less than an hour, and not be tired. In fact, I can do it easily after work now.

I like being surprised, most of the time

Most of us enjoy movies and/or books of one kind or another. They generally fall into a certain category or genre, like a western, horror flick, or a comedy. They also, unfortunately, tend to fall into a standard form, and if you think about it, you can usually figure out exactly what will happen in the movie, almost from the opening credits. So, the trick for the director and writer is to entertain you along the way. Titanic is a good example of this. You know the damn boat is going to sink, so it's what happens before that unfortunate event is what is important. How did James Cameron attempt to do this? Well, I was not really a big fan of the film but for me, it was with fascinating CGI of the ship and it's engines, and just the general day to day operation of the ship. For many others, it was the love story. Forbidden love that is, between a First Class aristocrat, and a Third Class poker player. But this is where the movie lost me, because not only did I know the ship was going to sink, I knew the romance was doomed as well. Wouldn't it have been a better story if they surprised us and Jack survived? Think for a moment where the story could have gone then.

Random house photo. It was flag day and Cindy got a
bunch of little flags.

I don't mind a good romantic comedy. I sure have seen plenty of them with my Cindy. I just like to be surprised. Unfortunately, most rom-com's are just the worst offenders of this rickety standard plot fault. They meet cute, they fall for each other despite barriers put in their way, there's a big misunderstanding, they break up, but then something forces them back together at the end and TA DA! they live happily ever after. Still, it can work, and be worth your time, if the director and writer keep you entertained along the way. Examples of rickety plot but entertaining rom-coms include the Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan films and the classic, When Harry Met Sally. There are two, however, that threw the standard plot out the window, and really came up with something special.. Both are kind of sleepers. The first, Definitely, Maybe, turns the romance into a mystery. In the film, Will (Ryan Reynolds) is going through a divorce, his distraught daughter insists on hearing the story of how her parents met, perhaps in hope that the telling of the story will rekindle the romance and head off the divorce. Will tells her the story in a series of flashbacks and you are there with the daughter trying to figure out which of his romantic partners is her mother. There are plenty of big laughs and twists, along with some really heart tugging moments.

The best, however, is a more obscure Hanks-Ryan picture called Joe vs. the Volcano. In the very beginning, Joe is told by a doctor that he is dying. But this isn't a death sentence for him, it is a release from his mundane life, and horrific job (he sells rectal probes). I'll say no more about the film and just let you discover what happens as Joe meets his inevitable(?) fate.

Random cat photo. Natasha keeping Cindy warm at night.

Horror films follow a formula as well. Slasher films are generally not scary to me. They can startle me, make me jump, but they rarely scare me. An exception is The Texas Chainsaw Massacre. That movie was so unsettling, I'll never watch it again. Same goes with The Exorcist. Got me once, good for you. Not again. Probably the most unsettling and scary film I've ever seen is Pan's Labyrinth.  It includes vicious murders, large intelligent insects, a brutal war, and a young girl that escapes into an underground fantasy world. Talk about not following a formula! I highly recommend it, and will never see it again. You should see it at least once.

My favorite film of all time is a horror film, that really doesn't follow the formula. In Silence of the Lambs a student FBI agent is sent to interview Dr. Hannibal Lecter in the it takes one to know one theory to get insight on another serial killer, Buffalo Bill. As Clarice (Jody Foster), interviews Lecter (Anthony Hopkins) to gain that insight, a strange relationship grows between them. They are both fascinated, and competitive with each other. Most importantly, they respect each other and as Clarice finally reveals the tragic story of how she ended up in an orphanage, watch closely as tears fill Lecter's eyes as he realizes he is finally having a real relationship with a person, not another psychopathic episode. "Thank you Clarice, thank you", he says at the end. You know at this moment, Lecter would cut off his own arm, rather than harm Clarice, which he does, ironically, in the sequel. Most everyone has seen the film so I'm not really giving away a spoiler to write that Clarice does indeed catch Buffalo Bill, with Lecter's help, so in some way it does have the expected ending, but getting there was so much fun. Despite some of the gruesome scenes and twisted practices revealed in the movie, I can watch it endlessly and enjoy looking for the subtle clues and nuances as the brilliant Lecter toys with the investigators while giving Clarice what she needs to solve the case.

Random vacation photo.  Spring break in Wildwood

I could go on forever on movies, but considering that this blog is not even about movies, and this edition might be my longest so far, I should probably wrap this up. My ideas for this blog entry began as I thought about the novel I'm writing. Yes, you read that correctly. I've been working on a book on and off for many years and I just can't tell if it is any good. I am attempting to surprise readers, without employing a gratuitous plot twist. Hopefully, I can be clever enough and keep readers entertained without them realizing where the story is going. Perhaps some day I'll drop the opening paragraph here in the blog somewhere, if I have the nerve.

Lawnmower wars

I really thought I had the lawnmower thing figured out. I had gotten my old push mower back to running pretty well, thanks to repairs, using ethanol free gas, and clearing out the gunk using Sea Foam. Most importantly, I purchased my Cub Cadet riding mower which shrank a 2+ hour job down to about a half hour. But then, fate in the form of a tree root, interfered with my lawn mowing bliss, and turned a half hour job into a two day ordeal. I knew the root was there. I had mowed over it before, carefully raising my mower deck as I rode over it, as I did last week. Something was different this day, however, because as I rode over the root with the deck raised, there was a horrific bang, followed by a struggling mower, and finally a stall. I had just triggered a series of unfortunate events.

The tools are out. Game on. 

I turned off the PTO and restarted the mower and drove back to the garage. As I hit the driveway I heard something dragging against the pavement. Uh oh. I shut off the mower. climbed off and looked under the deck. One of the mower blades no longer looked like an airplane wing, it looked like a question mark. Wonderful.Well, replacing a blade is nothing you want to do on a brand new mower, but it's not all that difficult of a task. Right? Heh heh. A lawnmower blade is attached to the "drive" shaft by a single large nut. My first issue is that I did not have a socket or wrench large enough for the 1 inch nut. No problem, I do have a large adjustable wrench that is big enough for the job. Ha ha. Problem is that the thing that makes an adjustable wrench work is the same thing that makes it so maddening, especially when the thing you are trying to loosen is difficult to access and is very tight. You see, the wrench tends to loosen each time you try to use it, causing it to slip on the bolt.

Fine. I never need an excuse to buy more tools. My current set of wrenches date back to my teenage years and were a Christmas gift from my parents. A few have been lost over the years so I'll head to Sears and get a new set of Craftsman wrenches, including some larger sizes. That should do it. LOL. Nope. The largest wrench in my new set was STILL too small. Dummy. Time for plan C. Off to Home Depot for a larger socket and a breaker bar. Ta DA! The socket fits and I can put some serious torque on the nut now! Tee Hee. Uhmm...when you torque on that stuck nut, the blade simply spins. To overcome this, you need to jam the blade by using blocks of wood against the mower deck. Problem with that is with so much torque supplied by the breaker bar, the blocks slip and move. Time to re-think this. The shaft passes through the mower deck into a pulley and is secured by yet another nut, which is not easily accessible either due to protective shielding designed to keep some idiot like me from getting their pant leg caught in the machinery. Talk about initiating a series of unfortunate events! Anyway, at this point, I considered removing the mower deck from the tractor but found that I was able to get the nut on the bolt and loosen it. The shaft dropped out of the bottom of the deck and I had my first good look at what I had done.

Yeah, it;'s bent. Note the attached shaft and
nut. My new breaker bar is lying forlornly
nearby. 

Well, I destroyed the blade, that's what I and that maple tree root had done. Now, with the blade and nut easily accessible, my new socket and breaker bar, it will be a simple matter to remove the nut and install the new blade. BWAAA....HAHAHA. Wrong again lawnmower breath. I stood on the blade and tugged with the breaker bar. No luck. The neighbor stood on the blade while I put my considerable weight and strength on the nut. No luck. This damn nut job had me questioning I ever thought I knew about mechanics, physics, basic engine maintenance, and the origin of the universe. Researching the matter only made it worse because it turns out some blade nuts are reverse threaded to keep them from loosening as the blade spins. Careful inspection of the nut, and thoughtful consideration of the direction of rotation had me convinced that this was still a lefty-loosey situation but the damn thing still wouldn't come off.  Fine. That evening was monthly meeting night at the firehouse so I brought the blade and shaft there and let the men have at it. Well, this turned out to be the best decision I made. I locked the blade in the heavy duty bench vise and we hit the nut with Blaster, a penetrating lubricant made to release stuck parts. One of my fellow firefighters torqued on the breaker bar and the damn thing finally came off. WHEW!

The next morning the reassembly went well and I carefully tightened all the important parts. I then started the mower and drove to the center of the north forty. Sitting motionless I tentatively engaged the PTO to get the blades spinning, half expecting a tremendous bang and further destruction. Nope, perfect. Hardly believing my skill and luck I went on to finish the job that had ended so abruptly days before, carefully avoiding the root near the sidewalk.

I need to decide what to do about that root. It's a big one, about 4 inches in diameter and (obviously) close to and above the surface. My short term plan is simply to avoid it and cut that area with the push mower. My long term plan may be to attack it with the ax and chainsaw, but we'll see.

In other news, home improvement has slowed. I have finished the other window and screen to be installed in the attic window, I just have to get up there and do so. We are on the verge of out first "heat wave" so I need to do this soon. I also purchased some flowers and placed them in planters in the front of the house. They look really nice. The look of the house and area was further enhanced by trimming I did after resurrecting by old line trimmer. It had been is storage ever since the move and after finally finding the batteries and charger I was surprised to see them hold a charge.

Finishing up old tasks and moving on to new

Finished room. Finding the right curtains was tough.

Interior wall mirror. Hope it holds, 

I think I can finally say that the guest room is done. We decided on curtains...sorry...window treatments...so I installed new rods and hung them. I also hung an antique mirror that matched the furniture set. Hanging anything on the walls of "fort" Morford is tricky, since any exterior wall is solid cement, but the interior walls are plaster on lathe and no thrill either. Of course the spot where we wanted the mirror was nowhere near a wall stud so I ended up drilling a small hole just to get the nail through the springy lathe. This leaves me with a bit of concern about the quality and durability of the anchor in the wall. I plan to keep an eye on it and if it looks like it's loosening I'll have to go with plan B.

We're very pleased with the room. It's bright and airy, really just perfect for a guest room. I think it would be a bit much for us to look at every day in the master but it makes for an attractive guest room, The trick was to go with curtains that matched the brightly colored wall without clashing against them or the white woodwork. We ended up with a tan or almost cane colored curtain that has a basket type weave. They make the room a bit less stark and warm up the space without toning down the color.

Attic widow and frame. Not good.

Glazed and painted window. Some clean up
still to be done. 

In other news, I continue to work on the attic windows. I first removed the one attic window and frame last week. That has been glazed and painted, but before I could install the window, I had work to do on the frame. On our 2 story home, the attic is essentially a third story window, with two roofs in the way, the porch roof and part of the second story roof, making the attic windows kind of a dormer. In any event, other that renting a lift, there was no easy way to reach the outside of the window. This meant repairing and painting the windows had to be done from the inside. All in all it went pretty well. Scrapping and wire brushing the old paint was the most difficult part. I was able to reach parts of the window by leaning out the other window. I ended up with paint chips in my hair and down my shirt, plus I was rolling around on the attic floor as I tried to get to the correct position. Painting was tricky but a bit easier simply because it's less physical. I did end up with paint on my shirt and arms simply because it was impossible to lean out and not bump into the frame.

As I mentioned in the last blog, the windows and screens are worth saving as they are original to the house and have character. I might be less inclined on the 1st or 2nd floor but the attic is unheated and I'm not real interested in replacement windows or screens up there. Eventually I need to work on painting and re-glazing the 2nd floor windows which are more reachable, but behind installed aluminum storms. That will make the job a bit more difficult. So the attic windows are kind of glazing practice for lower windows that will be more visible.

Memorial Day was a full work weekend for us as I had a rare weekend off. In addition to the attic window work, we managed to get in some yard work including removing another large, overhanging branch leaning in from the abandoned mansion next door. Cindy caught up on some neglected housework. Early Memorial Day we went out for supplies and Cindy found some inexpensive flags so we decided to line our driveway and sidewalk with flags. I imagine our neighbors think we're a bit nutty but there's no shame in honoring those who have fallen, and those who serve and have served. So while Memorial Day is a holiday to be honored, there is no reason not to enjoy the freedom and liberty that has been paid for so dearly by our armed forces. Life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness provided for and protected by the Army, Air Force, Marines, Navy and Coast Guard.

A diamond in the rough

I'm happy. Really. 

So as I have written several times in this blog, my old lawn mower has given me fits since I began to use it to tackle my big yard. It did indeed run better last week but even so, a triple lot, old age, and a 22" push mower is an ugly combination. In any event,  I rarely make large purchases on a whim, and without careful research (except this house!). I've been pricing and researching riding mowers for over a year and had recently narrowed my choices down to John Deere, and Cub Cadet. I know that many people have a strong brand loyalty to things like tractors, especially John Deere, so I will tread carefully here. Entry level Deere lawn tractors are subcontracted to MTD, and, while well made, are not substantially different than most other small tractors despite being around 20% more expensive. Also, all parts and service must go through a John Deere dealer. Cub Cadet, well made and well reviewed are cheaper to buy and service, and even go on sale from time to time.

Last Saturday, I stopped into Tractor Supply since they sell Cub Cadet tractors and lo and behold they were on sale! The sale ended the next day so I left and stewed about it. In the end, I approached Home Depot and they agreed to match the price and honor a 10% coupon I had received in the mail. Done deal. I rented a flatbed from them for $20 bucks to get it home. It'a an XT1 Model with 22 horsepower and a 46" cut on the mower. My first run at cutting the grass, being slow and cautious, took 20 minutes. No more  telling Cindy I spent the day on the lawn! I still need to use the old push mower for trimming near the house and bushes and I was happy that it started on the first pull. I still plan to do some minor maintenance and keep my old buddy around for awhile.

Old glazing removed and wood scrapped.
 Ready to be glazed. Note the
diamond shaped glass 

A good friend gave us
 this sign. It hangs
on our porch. 

The other project I'm working on is the attic windows and screens. We've finally started to get some warm weather and the attic is heating up. We do have a roof vent but it really helps to put the screens in the two front windows to get the air circulating better. It helps keep the second floor cool as well.  One of my projects for this year is to continue painting the window frames on the house with the second floor on the agenda. I would like to do the attic windows as well but they are pretty much out of reach from any normal ladder. So, my plan is to paint the window frames from the attic. They are right next to each other so I will lean out the one window to scrape and paint the other frame. The windows themselves, and the screens, come out completely so they will be easy. However, the need to be repaired. The first set is on my work bench right now. The screen is destroyed so I removed the remains and the frame holding it in place. I scrapped the wood and filled the numerous holes and nicks. The window was in better shape, except that it needs to be completely re-glazed. I took all the old glazing off the window with a putty knife, and scraped and wire brushed the wood. I then re-glazed the window and am now waiting for the glazing to cure so it and the screen can be painted. Our nickname for the house is the diamond in the rough and this is at least partially because of the diamond pattern in the windows. This diamond pattern makes the window unique and worth saving, while at the same time makes the maintenance and repair a bit more difficult. We love these windows and have carried this diamond theme through the house with our window treatments and bed covers.

In other news, it's graduation weekend at Binghamton University which means the bed and breakfast across the street will be full with the families of the graduates, Something about this pleases me. I like seeing the people check in and enjoy the extra activity on our street. It reinforces my desire to maintain and improve our home simply because we have guests in the neighborhood. I like to sit on the porch and watch them come and go to dinners and ceremonies and feel a certain amount of pride in our town. With graduation weekend comes the annual bar crawl where students walk from the west side to downtown hitting the bars and celebrating. We are far enough removed from the festivities to have little affect from them, but we occasionally get a straggler on the sidewalk and an empty cup in the lawn. A small price to pay for having one of the top public universities in the nation located here.
.

Yard work and closed lows

Two closed lows meander over the U.S., one over New
York and New England 

I mentioned in my last blog that my immediate agenda included yard work and my old mower. Indeed it did, despite the weather, and the old mower again became a reluctant work partner. First of all, the weather. Yard work is, of course, dependent on the weather, and in no place is this more true than upstate New York. Spring here is often a bitter disappointment. After a long and hard winter, even snow lovers like me really look forward to a warm and sunny spring day. While we are "flooded" with traditional spring images of sunshine and flowers, spring here in the middle latitudes often offers a different, much harsher reality. Spring is the time of year for closed, or cut off lows. "What is that?" you say. Glad you asked. In the spring, we still have big differences in the cold to the north and the increasing warmth in the south. This develops large and strong low pressure storm systems, just like in winter. The difference is that in the spring, the jet stream that moves lows and highs, has begun to retreat to the north, leaving these big lows cut off from the flow, and meandering aimlessly. If you happen to be in an area where there is no low, you may have days of warm sunny weather, but if you happen to live in an area under one of these cut off lows, you will be in for days of clouds, rain, and cool air as the low moves slowly, or even circles about. Often, upstate New York seems to be in the perfect place for lousy weather, as it was (is) for much of the first part of May.

Friday deluge. Green is bad. Yellow,
really bad.  Red? Oof. 

So, being a professional meteorologist, I knew this was coming and decided that on Thursday of last week I needed to get the lawns done before this low moved in and established residency. Now I had already cut the lawn at home once and was pleasantly surprised with the old mower and how quickly it had started. It ran pretty nicely as well. The Sea Foam additive had done it's job. I expected little trouble when I went to cut the grass on the last sunny day before the deluge. Ha Ha. One solid hour of priming, pleading, and pulling and that damn mower wouldn't start. I removed the spark plug, the most common cause of non starting small engines, and to my untrained eye, it looked quite fouled. I carefully cleaned and reinstalled it. No luck. I was out of time. I had to still drive to the in laws and cut the grass there. So, I put the mower away and gave up. Friday, as predicted, the rain came. In buckets.  Saturday, a brief break arrived and I headed out. I pulled the plug again and ran to the hardware store for a replacement. I popped the new plug in the mower and it fired immediately. My guess is that in doing it's job, the Sea Foam additive did indeed dissolve the years of gunk in the carburetor that got into the combustion chamber and in turn fouled the plug. In any case I had to wait to cut the grass until the puddles in the lawn mostly disappeared before I did a fast and furious job on the lawn ahead of the next round of rain. I finished the entire thing in about an hour, a new record.

One of the bigger trees I cut down. Note that the gloves are
not near the chainsaw. 

Before the rain on Wednesday, I got out my el cheapo Harbor Freight chain saw and attacked some more of the low hanging branches and dead trees in the side yard. Overall, I'm pleased with the performance of the saw. It had plenty of power and was light and easy to handle. On the down side, the double safety switch was hard to squeeze and keep in the "on" position with heavy gloves on. I ended up taking my gloves off and it was easier to keep the saw going at all angles. I cut up some old wood I had laying around to fireplace size, and took down some new dead and live branches and trees that just needed to go away. A big improvement to the general look to the trees and lawn, and it made it much easier to mow.

Lowe"s wants $89 for this 3 foot high
"Fat Albert" spruce.Yikes!

We want to do some plantings in the near future and have started to look at some options at the local home stores. I'm somewhat apprehensive since the growing and nurturing gene seems to have skipped me and despite the green thumbs of my parents and brother, pretty much everything I plant dies. In any case, we haven't made any firm decisions, but are looking to plant a spruce somewhere near the middle of the side yard. I'm surprised at how difficult it is to find a spruce to transplant, and how expensive they are if you do manage to find one. I need to find a friend with some acreage and some wild spruce so that I can dig one up and plant it in my yard.

Little if anything has been done on the home repair and improvement front. I'm becoming more convinced that I have fixed the tub leak and will soon begin the repair the kitchen ceiling (triggering a new leak no doubt). This may trigger some more work in the kitchen very soon, including the oven hood/microwave combo installation and wall repair and painting.