The Manic Mechanic

The last several days have been interesting, productive, fun and relaxing. Jeff had accumulated some time off from working extra days, and he bundled them around this particular weekend. All together, he's off from Thursday through Tuesday, and our dance card had already been pretty much filled. On Thursday, we headed down to wild, wonderful West Virginia and the town of Cass to ride the restored rail line, once part of a lumber operation and now a scenic railroad. The three of us boarded the train, the beautifully restored Shay steam locomotive chugged to life and we were on a relaxing excursion through the woods and hills of the area. Scenic is definitely the best way to describe the 11-mile journey as the stout locomotive pushed the cars to over 5000ft in elevation in 11 miles. I will most likely post more about this, as I collect the pics and video. Stupid me, I had forgotten to load a fresh SD card into the camera, and I'm still unaccustomed to how fast the memory gets eaten up taking full HD video. I ran out of space halfway into the trip and had to use my cell phone for the rest of the day. We had a great time, despite the 4+ hour ride to and from the area (neither one of use had to drive). We might do this again in the fall when the leaves change, the colors would be beyond breathtaking. I bought some art as souvenirs, there are quite a few unique items made locally by hand, a refreshing change from finding touristy trinkets crafted from Chinesium in such places. The lady who rung up my one purchase was also the maker. Definitely a friendly place on the "must return to" list.

Friday we spent clearing out the rest of the vegetable garden for planting as well as doing other yard work. I also did some upgrades to the truck as prep for next month's PTown trip. We picked up various soil enhancements and I fired up the big Troy-Bilt and tilled the area into a respectable spot and Jeff planted two varieties of sweet corn in that last quadrant of the garden. Jeff was so happy to finally get this done as well. Now we just have to figure a way of preventing damage from the stink bugs and other vermin that have been problems in the past. More research is needed, and I want to minimize the use of chemicals.

We took both pooches to the groomer in Saturday morning, old hat for Kodi but a first for Snickles. While the dogs were away, we continued with the yard stuff a bit and did other things which included a nice lunch devoid of begging dogs. When the call came from the groomer, we picked up our freshly washed pups and brought them home. We cleaned up after a while and headed to the Merriweather Post Pavilion to see the Zac Brown band perform.



These guys can rock, despite their country leanings. A band for pogonophiles everywhere, they played a tight set and kept everyone on their feet. I was blown away by their cover of Metallica's "Enter Sandman," especially with the lead guitar solo being played to the hilt on the fiddle! We both had an awesome time at the show despite the outrageous prices for food and refreshments. There's not much escaping that folly these days, however.

Sunday Jeff took Kodi with him to Pennsyltucky while I kept Da Snick home with me. While he tended to family business as well as getting the trailer cleaned up and ready for the trip, I worked in the garage on various overdue projects. As is usually the case in The Garage of Mayhem, a simple project took a curvy left turn and became something different. The vegetable garden is surrounded with a 4+ foot wire fence to keep the critters out, and there are four "gate" to get in and out. The "main" entrance has an arbor with a double swinging gate, the other three sides have an opening in the fence to get equipment in and out which has a section of the fence wire loosely hung into the openings. The two side openings are about 4 feet wide, the back one is a bit shy of seven feet wide in order to get the tractor and other stuff though. Hanging the wire fencing by itself was never a permanent solution, especially since we have a big, fat, nearly invincible groundhog that likes to work his way under the loose fencing and get at our goodies. We've both shot at him several times and missed. Time had finally come to make use of the rebar I had picked up earlier to make a frame to attach the loose wire to and make the garden groundhog- (and many other critter-) proof. All I wanted originally was to make a simple rectangular frame by cutting and welding the rebar together, attaching a panel of wire fencing, then placing this on the ground against the openings in the fence. Well, the simple rectangular frame looked rather plain, and given the size of it (80 inches wide, 60 inches high) and its location opposite the main entrance, I decided to make it somewhat of an art piece instead. Here is what I came up with, before the wire fencing is attached.



The fencing will cover the lower 48 inches, with the uppermost divided rectangular area left open. Rather than being hinged, the gate has a pair of spikes that go into the ground and it gets held in place by a couple of clamps. It only gets removed to take equipment in and out of the garden and to deal with weeds. No reason why something utilitarian can't also be attractive at the same time. I have yet to make the smaller side gate frames, those will be simpler, just a square with a crisscrossing reinforcement, and perhaps a rectangular upper panel to match the big gate. I need to extend the fence posts to about seven feet tall, and attach a course or two of wire to keep the deer from jumping in and out. The deer are the worst garden destroyers here at Mayhem Acres, and they keep multiplying. Until it was cleaned out, the southwest quadrant (the bare ground in the photo) had branches and brush piled in it from last fall, and that had gotten overgrown with weeds as we neglected it and worked the other three areas. This had become home to a tiny fawn as Jeff discovered while cleaning. The fawn got trapped in the fence until our dogs began barking and chasing it. Jeff was so close to having another pet.

Jeff will be in PA with dad for another couple days. In that time I have some mods to do on the truck, fluid changes to do, plus cleaning it up. The Stratus will get a couple more suspension parts (lower control arms w/integral ball joints plus front swaybar links) to satisfy my worry that they, like the tie rod ends, might be close to failing. The replacements will have grease fittings and can receive regular maintenance, giving me some peace of mind.

A few years ago I needed some replacement parts for my Weber gas grill. Not finding anything local and unable to make use of universal parts I had to order from Weber. No big deal, just a bit of wait, and the prices were not outrageous. However, ordering online has, of course, set me up with a bit of bacn (spam from a business you do business with) in the form of a "Recipe of the Week." The recipes all involve some form of drilling, o'course. Most of them look quite good, ranging from basic to exotic. The one from the week before last, however, really intrigued me, and I let Cheff Jeff take a gander. Well, he decided to give this one a go tonight and we were completely blown away. It also helped that we provided some of our own fresh veggies out of our garden for this and our accompanying sides as well.



The watermelon came from our garden as well, one of the prime motivators for picking this recipe. Jeff halved the jalapeño just in case, yet it was not spicy at all. OMG it was so good, served over couscous and barley and with a side of sauteed grape tomatoes, zucchini and onions. I'm getting hungry again just thinking about it.

Jeff was in full kitchen mode today, making this along with stuff for later in the week plus four loaves of zucchini bread (can you tell what veggie we had a bumper crop of while we were away?). Soon to be on tap, or, shall we say, up to our ears in: Tomatoes and apples.

I overslept today.

The ongoing heavy rains and winds currently gripping Casa Greatbear and The Garage of Mayhem knocked out the power sometime this morning around the time Jeff left earlier. As a result, the alarm did not go off. However, when the power came back on, it was accompanied by strange sounds and bizarre behavior of light controls, appliances and whatnot. A strange smell emanated from the basement I found to be a blown power supply that operates a car radio I have down there as an 'entertainment center' in the workshop. Checking in the Lab of Doom on the other side I find my server off, the UPS running and things generally haphazard in an electrical sense. Turning on the UPS that runs an old PC I used down there I was greeted by a loud bang and more odd smells despite everything functioning normally. I shut all that down and will track down the culprit later. Most likely a blown surge strip or noise filter.

With all the potential (no pun intended) electrical hell and the mental exhaustion from the past couple days, I took the day off for obvious reasons. Outside resembles a rain forest, with some climbing plants under the deck pulled away and slumped over, while everything else is drooping and soaked from the most rain we had in ages. It feels more like early March than the middle of May. The rain is much needed, though. I would tell you how much has fallen, but the rain gauge I got a couple days prior got knocked off it's perch by winds and is no longer sending to the base station.

The grass will undoubtedly be knee high before it dries up enough to cut. The veggie garden is a mud bog. I have been trying to take care of indoor tasks in the meantime. It seems to never end, but such is life here. I'd have it no other way.