The band saw repair is fini. 

September 21, 2013 – Saturday morning

43 degrees/clear/calm

Pentoga Road

I just received a weather warning over the internet saying tonight’s low temperature is to reach down into the mid to upper twenties. We’re heading from warm and muggy conditions to those of late fall and early winter. Oh well, this whole past year has been a roller coaster ride in the meteorological department, why should it change now? I hope to heck my giant pumpkins don’t freeze. I’ve been waiting for Andy to arrive next week to move them onto the front porch. Over a hundred pounds each, we’ll utilize my hired hand, the front-end loader on the tractor.

I graded papers for a good part of Saturday morning while water poured from the sky. In the end, it worked out well. I finished around fifteen assignments and we received just shy of an inch of rain. It was a win/win proposition.

The skies were clearing and with that, I hopped aboard the trike and did a much easier three miles. Even the two big hills that had been such a challenge on Friday seemed much less daunting. The trike and I are starting to have a love affair. I enjoy sitting just a few inches above the ground, silently buzzing along at twenty miles an hour. It gives me the impression I’m going much faster than I really am… kind of the same feeling one gets in a sailboat under a decent wind. I arrived back home with the endorphins flowing and sporting a natural high.

I’d picked quite a bit of broccoli a couple of days ago along with a bowl of cherry tomatoes resulting in a couple of end of the season veggie omelets for brunch. I wish we could have the fresh produce all year round. I’m not one to eat a pile of vegetables on my plate, but I sure enjoy them in omelets or mixed with other foods.

We went to town shortly after to purchase an electric chainsaw trimmer that’s on sale. Naturally, they were out, but we got a rain check. Supposedly the trimmer will be in next week or the week after and that’s okay. I doubt those limbs will be going anywhere between now and then.

Sargie helped and we unloaded the wood from the truck onto a large tarp. I’ll cover the pile to keep it dry before the weather turns snowy. I’m also thinking of building a quickie bin, simply nailing boards onto four conveniently located trees, making a rectangle with an open front, in which to corral the extra wood and keep it covered with a tarp. Stay tuned. It’s still in the planning stages.

What was that yellow streak zooming by on the road? Why, it was Sargie piloting the trike through all twenty-seven gears! The girl hopped on the tadpole and took off out of the drive and headed straight up the large hill heading south. I grabbed the two-wheeler taking over five minutes of hard peddling to catch up. I think I may have found a future bike-riding buddy. We had a lot of fun.

Here she comes. 

And there she goes!

I finally got the band saw reassembled, but only after I drilled two more holes and did some other milling on the generic new replacement part. Naturally, it took ten times longer than it should have. A new saw is so expensive and though I had to drill and file to make the part fit, it was just $13 and seems to work just fine. The saw is only forty years old and to my knowledge, this was the first original part to break. If the replacement lasts another forty, I’ll let Andy worry about finding a fix.

While I was working on the saw, Sargie was cleaning the rest of the shop. Eat your heart out, guys.

The day outside culminated with another three-mile trike ride. This one went smoothly and I can already begin to feel my legs grow used to peddling rather than walking. The knee doesn’t complain a bit and I hope next week to mix the two activities; a five to ten-mile walk in the morning followed by a good trike ride in the afternoon.

We’re heading to Appleton today for Brielle’s first birthday party. Our Sam’s Club list is growing and we’ll stop by the giant big box store in Green Bay before heading further south. It’s our hope to be back home before dark or soon after.

It’s going to be a busy day, but then I’m not surprised.

A man’s work is never done, you know.

So are the tales from Pentoga Road…  

Neighbor Mike and his dog, Winnie, stopped by to hunt partridge on Friday afternoon. He bagged three in the back of our property.