So after a hot a blistering weekend, I checked the forecast for the upcoming week.  Instead of the little icons the weather usually has:  Sun, sun/cloud, clouds, rain, lightning bolts.   They actually had an icon that looked like FIRE!

Yes, it’s that hot here.  Surface of the sun grade heat.  The heat index, or “feels like” temp has been starting at 110.  118 I think is the highest I’ve seen so far.  And it is not a dry heat.  This is full out steam room, how the vegetables feel on the stove humid and hot.  How hot is that….

• Besides the feeling of your’re going to die when walking outside…
• I can’t ever remember not being able to use the air conditioner in the car in normal mode.  If we turn of the re-cirulation mode, it gets warm and humid in there.  It’s been on re-circ for 3 days now.
• If your dashboard vents aim towards the window, water will condense on the outside of the window and stream away constantly while driving.
• Sunglasses fog up when leaving the house or car.

I will say, that while being in the mid one-teens yesterday, there was a nice breeze.  So, you immediately soaked your self in sweat when walking outside, but the evaporation causes a cooling effect.  It was quite nice feeling.

Progress?  None!  Too dang hot.  I’ve been removing cedar shake shingles and replacing the decking on the shed with plywood.  It’s about half done, and since I was working in bursts anyhow, I was trying to tuck the upper edge of plywood under the last remaining row of shingles to keep rain from pouring straight in.  Needless to say, there are plenty of holes, but I don’t care at the moment.  It’s hot and not raining.  It’ ain’t leaking right now!  It’s going to wait a few days.  Just before the heat, I did get some trim on the windows, and here’s a pic.

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After finding the new bottom windows a while back, I’ve been looking for the perfect fit for the top row of windows.  I finally found something the right size, and cheap. Barn sashes – recycled plastic frames and plexiglass panes.  These also fit snugly in the stud bays and were about an inch short of the hole I wanted to fill.  The difference was made up by adding a 1×4 to the bottom sill and that got my top edge aligned.

I was on limited time on the day these went in.  I need to remove the top 2 boards and get some solid sheathing in there.  Then finally, I can finish off some trim around the windows and get siding up on half of that wall.  Hurrah!

Also on the to-do list is to re-shingle the shed, and get the old center bin removed so my grand living room can start shaping up.  We have been eating lots of peas and strawberries from the garden.  The potato bushes are coming up, and there seems to be a good crop of Bok Choi as well.

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Remember the two banks of windows? The first project was a mosaic, where the other side I slapped up the rest of the windows just to cover the wall for winter? We ended up liking the more uniform approach and have kept that in mind over winter.
I was shopping around Menards for something and decided to look for cheap windows. And I found them. 21 inch windows to be exact, which would fit nicely in our 24″ on center studs in the crib. In fact, a mini-frame of 1×4′s outlined them nicely. I’ll be repeating this on the other side of the crib on the next payday, then I need to find a shorter version or some sort of transom window to fill out the space along the top. Windows, ~$65 each. 4 down, 4 to go.

In other news, the strawberries and peas are growing fast. The spinach and Bok Choy are now up, and I found the first few sprouts of romaine as well. Farm grounds are well mowed, trees are coming back to life and things are looking good.

Barns make money! I’ve been reclaiming old joists from the barn remains. 2x10x16′ boards go for around $14.  I just reclaimed 7 of them, with 6 more left over there.  Still solid, with just a few messed up ends.  Still stronger and straighter then what’s at the store.

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Every season, the tractor has a fit. Spring, over with. This time, the old John Deere 300 suddenly made a change. It had been running rather well for several tanks of gas, but suddenly it didn’t start. I had cranked on it for a minute and nothing happened. I finally gave up and took off the side and found a pool of gas in the air filter. Huh, flooded. After draining, I gave it a crank and saw more gas pour back out of the carb. After draining for a few minutes, the next crank didn’t start it, but saw more gas come out, along with a back-fire. Foomp! That splash of gas became a fire-fountain!

There was a shovel behind me, that I tossed dirt over the spot burning on the ground, and a pair of water bottles got the burning side of the tractor down to a fire small enough that I could blow out. Damage…. well, the end of a little drain/vent tube looks a little crispy.

I returned the next day and pulled the carb bowl. There was a bunch of debris in there. The needle valve looked good and I sprayed the carb inside and out with cleaner. Slapped all this back together and it ran smooth on the first try. When I bog it down, it floods a little. Need to re-adjust the settings again.

Also, the trailmower had seem better days. Two summers ago, the engagement linkages froze up. Then last year, the engagement pulley (having been stuck in place) sheered off. This got dragged to town in case the tractor had bigger problems. I could pull this behind the toaster in an emergency mowing.

I found a new axle bolt for the pulley, a new belt, and sharpened the blades. After a good cleaning, and oil change this too was back together. Second pull, and it roared into life. This engine always starts. We also played around with the wiring. Since I bought it (used) the electric start wasn’t working nor tested. But, we hooked up 12V to the starter and solenoid and it cranked. So, it appears the problem is closer to the key, as something is bypassed I think. We might keep testing this out during the week and return it to the farm next weekend.

Good news, the entire farm did get mowed. Mason also proved his powers at the push mower, so there might be more work for him this year, hehe. I also picked up a tractor mounted de-thatcher. It seems to work rather well, as I can make a pass with it in deep grass, then mow it. It looks far cleaner and “lawn-like” then if I just try to mow that stuff down. Also cleans up thatch from the lawn areas as expected. The compost pile is now huge again from this experiment.

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The day started well enough. Reagan left early for the book sale at the local library, and ‘us men’ got to sleep in a little bit. We got up about the same time, and I made breakfast. Mason started to wonder toward his computer, and I interrupted him by saying “Saturday morning cartoons, let’s go.”
I actually have no idea what is on during a Saturday morning. We have had no TV feed for over 5 years now, no cable, no satellite dish. I do have a digital antenna hooked up to it, but only check local stations during bad weather alerts, the Olympics, and the president’s inauguration.

Besides having a DVD/Blu-ray collection, we also use Netflix. The streaming service is also quite nice, and we happen to get at it via a Roku device. We have done several entire TV series with it. This morning, we turned on Phineas and Ferb, which is a newer Disney cartoon. Funny, and every once in a while has a song that will stick in your skull for days.

After 30 minutes of that, I got the truck warmed up, grabbed some supplies and we headed to the farm again. I’ve had one goal lately, that I hardly work on. Now, this corn crib is solid. We have been standing in it with some high winds and there no movement. However, I do like to overbuild. The frame work of the front wall only exists where the bins used to be. The rest of it exists to hold up the siding. The goal was to create a beam that ran horizontally across the wall at 8′. This would tie the bins wall into the rest of the wall, and also tie the wall to the main support studs. By laminating a beam out of 2×6′s, and mounting it on the wall, it would be straight and well reinforced. I prototyped a few versions on a new table saw and figured out the best way to construct it. And in short time, this big support was mounted and I dang near tried a Spiderman impersonation to see if I could stand on it. At some point, I’m planning on adding beams that connect across to the balcony to the loft. While made of new lumber, I plan on wrapping them, hopefully out of old barn wood for that old barn look. I also got another item crossed off my list. Since the upper part of this wall existed to hold up siding, I was sister-studding some 2×4 studs around the top windows with 2×6′s to match up with the rest of the wall. I got the last 2 of these done also.

Then home, shower, grilled burgers. Tomorrow is Jefferson clean up day. Time to place bets on how long before your trash becomes someone’s treasure.

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