New toy. Lots of heat and storms.

This week has been hot, humid, and miserable.  Monday it was 100 in Keene (only hit 94 in Sullivan according to my thermometer), and the humidity was high.  So I have focused on inside stuff most of the week.  At the very least, the armoire is now stained.  There were a few gaffs in the staining, most of which were caused by insufficient sanding, but it doesn't look bad outside of one spot where I had to a peel a sticker off of the board and apparently both cleaning and sanding it, there was still some adhesive that made the stain absorb differently.  Ugh.  All that is left is the back, which I need nice weather since I don't particularly want to stain the back inside.  Especially with the AC running; the rest was stained when I had the windows open.

But the combination of the heat and storms every day has forced them closed.  I really need to get some gutters or something installed so I don't have to close all the windows every time it sprinkles.  Tuesday's storms were angry, but at least short.

The storms yesterday were particularly nasty.  While hard to tell in this picture, it made 6PM look like 8:30PM

The big story for this week though is that I have a new toy.

It comes with a 16" bucket.  That is probably wider than I need, but for now I will probably just use it.  The thumb is manual, not hydraulic, but the plumbing is there if I want to upgrade it in the future 

And I mean new.  All 0.2 of those hours were from loading it onto the trailer, and unloading it at my house and driving it up to the back yard.  While these machines come with oil and stuff in them, it is strongly recommended to change them immediately.

A pretty standard Briggs and Stratton engine.  Hopefully it lasts, they aren't great engines anymore.

It came with a few goodies that I didn't expect.  Notably a floor mat and a toolbox.  There is something in it, but I haven't perused it too much yet.  

I have heard rumors that you can literally run over your foot with this and be unhurt because of how well tracks distribute/disperse the weight of the machine.  While I have no intention of testing that, It is worth noting that it only barely folded over the grass I drove it over, which had mostly stood back up before I went in.  Without blowing this picture up, it is difficult to see where I drove, and my grass is really long to boot (the backyard hasn't been mowed in a month).

Unfortunately, the aforementioned storms occurred after I got the excavator.  Hopefully it can take some rain.  I will probably go and buy a tarp for it today.

Something else that happened during the week: apparently a cover fell off my light.  I can't seem to find it either, and given that this is right above the counter next to the garbage can, I am guessing it fell into the trash.  Sigh

Time is running short and the weather is being very uncooperative to my trip to KY for the 4th, so I will have to work on the trailer this weekend regardless of the fact that it is supposed to storm all weekend.  Or alternatively take Tuesday off and work on everything then.  I wanted to load the trailer on Tuesday though, so I kind of need it fixed before then.  Ugh.