05-17-11

Patti and I went up to IC on Friday. The weather started out clear and warm.

We got to the cabin around 2:45.

The first job I had to do, after unloading the van, was to hook up the stove. This time I had all the parts for the job. I had to drill a hole in the back wall for the gas line so I grabbed the cordless drill, installed a 7/8 spade bit in the drill and started drilling the hole. The bit made it about half way through the 1” board when the battery died. “No problem, “ I thought, “I have an extra battery”. I went to the van, got the spare battery, plugged it into the drill and tried again. The spare battery was also dead.

“@#%”

“No problem, I have a generator and an AC drill motor. I’ll just get the generator out of the van and use it to run the drill and charge the batteries”.

I unloaded the generator and started filling it with fuel. As I was pouring the gas into the tank I noticed a stream of fuel running from the “Fuel Cock” onto the ground. I leaned the Generator against some wood so that the fuel cock was up and took the fuel cock apart to see if there was anything I could do to fix it.

Inside, there’s a gasket with four holes in it that align with four ports

and an O-ring that is supposed to seal the cock.

I tried turning the four hole-er over and putting some oil on the O-ring but when I put it all back together the fuel still ran out.

“Okay” I thought. “I have a 1,000 watt inverter in the van, I’ll just start up the van and use that to power the drill'”. I knew that the battery that is connected to the inverter is old and week therefore I started up the van so that the battery could get some help from the alternator. I turned on the inverter with nothing plugged into it and instantly it went to the “Fault” position. The red light came on and the warning buzzer shrieked. I turned the inverter and the engine off, then I hooked up a fresh battery to the inverter with the same result.

Ok, so now I have a hole drilled halfway through the wall, none of my power systems are working, I want to get the stove working, now what do I do.

Ahah!! The cabin isn’t called the Tool Shed for nothing. Some of the decorations are old hand tools and it just happens that there is an old “Brace” hanging from a beam above the wood stove.

I retrieved the Brace and inserted the bit into the collet. Fortunately the bit that I was using had a hexagonal shaft so there was enough grip to hold the bit in place and turn it.

I got the hole drilled and the stove hooked up. It works just great.

All the jobs that I had planned to do this weekend require electrical power, it was obvious that I wasn’t meant to do any work on this trip. “Bummer”

Patti and I spent the weekend just enjoyed the cabin and the nice weather. We sat in the sun, talked, played cards and I did some R & D on some of the projects that are coming up.

The fire wood stack was getting low so we cut up a few down Tan Oaks. I need to get serious about cutting firewood for the Fall/winter season.

We took a walk up the road and saw a couple of Alligator Lizards.

one appeared to have an injured left arm. You can see in this video that it is acting strange.

Between the left shoulder and the neck you can see a large semi healed gash.

We also found a “Red Sided Guarder Snake”

and a “Millipede”

Unfortunately. the snake was dead. I think we must have driven over it on the way into the cabin.

The woods here are very dense but occasionally you get a nice view.

The wild Iris’ are blooming

in some spots they line the road .

We picked some Iris’ and Patti made a nice bouquet. When we got back to the “tool shed” she put the flowers in an old water pitcher and set it on top of the stove.

Patti got the chance to get some macro shots of these tiny flowers.

It started raining Saturday night and rained hard all night. It rained all day Sunday and at one point it dropped a bunch of pee sized hail.

We left for home around 2:00.

I talked to Felice last evening and she said that she will not have to undergo the Chemo treatments since there aren’t any drugs that would be effective in her case and the ones that they do have that might do something would likely do more harm than good. Instead they are taking the wait and watch approach. She is clear of cancer at this point and she will be tested every few months so that if the disease returns they will catch it early. That is as good as we can get for now so we will have to just keep our fingers crossed.