Long Weekend

During the week last week it got pretty toasty.  Despite that though, I didn't need to turn on the AC at home.  It was cool enough at night that I just opened the windows and chill the place at night, and then close everything up (including the blinds) in the morning before I left.  The house only picked up 5-6 degrees during the day.  While it was only one day, that even worked when it hit 90 on Wednesday (though I don't think Sullivan quite got to 90, only upper 80s).

Saturday was the only nice day of the weekend, and the big project for Saturday was fixing the mower.  It took me several hours to mow one piece of the front yard with the push mower, which is not sustainable.  As I found on the internet, the deck is actually really easy to drop.  While it took a little bit longer than I used to with the Craftsman deck, now that I have done it this one will get much faster.  It is much simpler than the Craftsman deck to drop once you know where everything is.

The only annoying part is I hate these type of clips, so I replaced them since I mangled them getting them off.

The mechanism on the deck had all but seized (was excessively stiff).  After a lot of penetrator and a few swift kicks, it broke free.  

The underside of the deck didn't look bad at all.  I tried to get the blades off to sharpen them, but even with my breaker bar they wouldn't budge.  I used to have a longer breaker bar, but I couldn't find it.  Unfortunately my "Leverage Enhancement Device" doesn't fit my breaker bar, and I didn't have a 3/8" socket large enough (the nut is a 15/16").  The blades weren't in bad shape to my surprise, so I sharpened them as best as I could still attached to the deck, and I will deal with it next year.

After making a run into town it was kind of late in the day and my motivation had left, so I didn't reattach the deck until Sunday morning.  I sprayed the mechanism with some lubricant (as opposed to penetrator) and reattached it.  It works, kinda.  The mower bogs really bad and starts blowing smoke when the blades are engaged (like the old gray Craftsman we had in NY), but once it managed to get back up to speed it worked so that is a problem for another day.  After that I did the rest of the mowing.  The other section in the front is still really rough, I really need to smooth it some.  But it is chopped down.  It really needed it.

After that was done, I turned my attention back to the cap.  It was sealing time.  I got the sides all done, and the front piece on the bottom done before I ran out of cheap wood glue.  The reason I am "painting" the wood with wood glue before glassing it in is just to give it a second layer of protection.  In theory, after painting the wood with wood glue, I don't even need to glass it in, but I will anyways.  

It dried pretty quick thankfully since I got some surprise rain in the afternoon.

Monday I decided to work on inside stuff courtesy of storms, so it was back to the armoire.  I got the outer box glued and nailed.  The glue is the primary workhorse here; I am only putting a couple of finish nails in each board as a last resort, and because I am not using pegs, cams, or other joining materials.  I am a bit disappointed in the large clamps I bought for furniture building; of all the ways they could be cheap and disappointing, the metal bar flexing under pressure was not the one I expected.  

I also got the upright part glued to the shelf.  The corner clamp I bought works but not great, the Harbor Freight motto.

This is what the inside is going to look like when it is done.  There will be hooks on the board on the right, two cubes for storage on the left, along with another couple short shelves for hats and gloves.

I did manage to get a cookout in on Monday (albeit a little early), but just barely.

I also went to Harbor Freight on Monday to pick up one of their cheap utility trailers since I had a coupon, used ones are obnoxiously expensive, and renting one for my July trip costs as much as buying one, but apparently they are out of stock in the entire northeast.  So I am still poking around on trailers as well.  I have one I intend to call on today that while a nicer trailer, costs as much used as the Harbor Freight one did new.  On the wheeler front I have had a bunch of no-shows for the wheeler, which is why I waited until late Saturday to go and pick up the new clips.  I have gotten a bunch of emails on it, but so far no real action.  I also still haven't found an excavator, though some are starting to reappear online, just not anywhere reasonably close.  Most are on the far end of CT.