Weekend Stuff

What a "weather weekend" we had!  The spring/summer weather is finally upon us, and it's about time.  I had an excellent weekend.  You know, I remember when (and it wasn't so long ago) that I measured how "nice" a weekend was by whether or not I hit the pavement astride my steed of steel (my Harley for folks that aren't quite up to speed yet as you read this).  Not so any more.  Sue is a very busy woman, and she likes to measure her day based on her accomplishments.  For me--Not so much.  I do know that when I do have a good day of accomplishments I feel good about it.  It just doesn't happen as often with me as it does her.  I'm just not as "driven" as she is.

This was a weekend that stuff on my list got done though.  Okay, maybe not complete, but on the way to completion at least.  One of my jobs that I have had underway for a little while now is my chainsaw.  I bought a little 14" McCulloch from my then father-in-law several years ago and it has long since fallen into a state of neglect and disrepair.  Not only was the chain so abused and worn (I remember using in on tree roots in dirt once for example) that it had also long since refused to start.  This little chainsaw is more like a mechanical jigsaw puzzle.  The parts fit so intricately and carefully that there was no real room for error--I either went together the right way or not at all.  I basically tore it down to go through the carburetor and ignition systems, both of which needed attention.  No service manual to go by--Only common sense.  I do have an owner's manual, but it wasn't much good.  Anyway, I finally got it together and running.  It can still benefit from some tuning, but it's up and running with a new chain.  The formula?  Woodstove + surrounding woods = Need for chainsaw.  Sure, it's a gutless little chainsaw (you'd never catch a professional using one) but it's ours and it works!  It should fit our needs just fine.

While that job did get complete, one of my other jobs got underway.  I bought a radial arm saw back October of 08 (thanks blog, for being my history reference) and due to one thing or another, not much ever got done on it.  I did get a bunch of new stuff (blog post) for it way back when, but never got around to completing it and setting it up.  Anyone that knows anything about radial arm saws knows that they are a pain to set up.  There are tons of things to adjust, and they have to be done in order because one adjustment affects the other.  Well, it's underway.  I have a need for it.  I want to have a dedicated place in the garage (or shop as Suzie likes to refer to it) for doing wood-related stuff.  I need to build planter boxes, a new gate for the driveway, steps for the deck, and who knows how many other things.  There is also an ongoing need to whack up some dimensional lumber for our woodstove that I bring home from work on occasion.

We spent the majority of yesterday working on our individual projects, then jumped into the car and went lake shopping?  What?  Yeah, we have a bunch of lakes around us here, and we wanted to see what we could and could not access with our canoe.  We had a good time driving around and checking them all out.  We finished off by stopping at a new (only open for a week and a half) restaurant in Covington called 2 Seven 2 and had dinner.  It's a fairly common-looking eatery but it's menu items are more "upscale" and a little more pricey.  I welcome more restaurant choices in Covington.  I liked what I had and I'm sure we'll go back again, but we'll give them some time to work out all the little bugs that any new place has.

Today was in interesting day.  I finally got to see the Pileated Woodpecker that Suzie has been talking about.  She has seen it (I like to assume it's the same one) a few times before, but it's usually only here for a short time during mid-morning.  Today I got to finally see it, and It's pretty impressive!  Besides having a cool "punk" haircut, it's a big bird.  Click the little thumbnail over on the right to see it bigger.  The suet cage he was working on is 6" square so you can see how big he is.

When we got dressed we went canoeing.  We chose Lake Wilderness out of the places we checked out yesterday.  It was a quiet lake, and it was almost exactly 10 miles from our house.  It was a perfect day for it--No wind and nice, sunny weather with a blue sky.

Now it's time for our weekly cap-off-the-week ritual:  Hamburgers on the grill and watching The Amazing Race.  Back to work tomorrow.