Smoothie

I have been frustrated for a long time about my table saw. It vibrates really bad when you first start to use it. After a while it gets a little better, but not great.
Another thing that frustrates me is not being able to see as good as I would like to see. I find that when I assemble pieces of my cabinets, I have to feel and double check myself to make sure the boards are lined up properly. And, reading a measurement is tough. I have to be very careful planing boards down to a certain thickness.
Well, I am able to report good progress on all of this. I got a flyer in the mail from Woodcrafters. They had a dial caliper on sale from over fifty dollars down to twenty nine ninety nine. So on my lunch break today, I stopped to buy the calipers. I looked it over and you can easily read accurately to one sixty forth of an inch. I mean to say that it is very easy to read.
While I was there I looked at the vee belts that they sell for my saw. They had this style that is modular. You just twist several links together to create a belt to the right length. The salesman said he installed it on his own Craftsman saw with good results. I could not resist.
I came home after work and installed the belt. Wow!!!!!!! I do not recognize the saw. It is perfectly smooth. It is a real smoothie!
Kayak Bandit

Still Alive

Well, anyone that is worried why I have not posted for a while, stop! I am fine. I have been busy and my mind has not been able to create the blog. Some days I sit down in front of the computer and the words just appear. Not lately.
I was talking to Dick, Red Lion Man, and he said Barb has mentioned most mornings that I did not post. She was a little worried. Speaking of them, be sure to go to the link and see what they are up to. They are on an extended working vacation that sounds like a lot of fun (and work).
Yesterday I took five newbies out kayaking. I am afraid they have the fever. They were talking about going shopping for kayaks and racks for atop their car. I warn you not to try it if you cannot afford to buy yourself a kayak. Almost everyone really likes kayaking. The day was cool until underway. Once you started paddling, you were just right.
I forgot the storage bags to carry the lunch in the kayaks, so we returned to Doug and Colleen's home to eat her fabulous lunch. The day was a perfect success. It may have been the last kayak outing until the eagles show up in December. I love to go out then and see them swooping down to pick kokanee trout from the water. Last year it was so cold that in quiet water there was a skim of ice. It is toasty inside the kayak. I can hardly wait.
My cabinets are progressing slowly. At times I am completely anal about getting them perfect. Where did that come from? At other times, I am down right lazy and slow. I have decided to take the week after next off to work on the kitchen. I want the kitchen off my back so I can play without feeling guilty.
Boy, that was not hard. I should blog every day.
Kayak Bandit

Furnace Repair

I have a furnace again. A kayak friend has a furnace business and he allowed me to buy from his wholesale account. I bought the part and when I went to install it, it was a little different than the old one. I took it back and to my surprise, the correct one was twenty five dollars cheaper. When does that ever happen?
I installed it after dinner and tested the furnace. Another surprise - it worked! Boy, that takes a lot off my mind.
Today, I worked on my custom cabinets. I am building the lazy susans. It is rather time consuming for me since I have not built cabinets for a long time, and never a lazy susan. I keep thinking I am past the slow tedious stuff, but everything is slow and tedious when all the units are unique. I cannot set up the saw and cut a whole stack of similar parts.
I am thinking about going for a bike ride tomorrow. The weather is perfect. My kitchen can wait. What to do?
Kayak Bandit

Last Work Day

Yipee!!
TGIF!!
I know I should not wish my life away, but it is great that friday has arrived. I look forward to the weekend. This is a wonderful time of year. There is the smell of fall, that smell reminds me of past hunting camps.
In the fall, the weather can avoid a hard freeze for a while, or it can freeze my dahlias early. They are looking mighty fine right now. Recently, I planted a letterbox in my garden to invite my letterboxing friends to come see the dahlias.
The smell of fall reminds me to get ready for winter. Last spring my furnace quit working. I used electric heaters until I did not need heat at all. So, I better get it fixed. Yesterday, I bought the part to fix it. It does not have the same number of places to connect wires as the old one. I will take it back today and see what they say. Isn't that the way repair projects often go?
I hope all of you have a great weekend.
Kayak Bandit

Mouse Opinion

My sister Sharon writes:

Yeah!! I'm glad you're clear over there, as I doubt you'll release it in a park by me. If it were me, I'd stomp its grimey little rodent head.

Sharon

As you can all see, there are others in my family that are mean like me!

Kayak Bandit

Mouse Photo

Okay, you can exhale. Kayak Bandit Caught the mouse.
The first thing I did was call Steph to tell the grandkids. Lily was very happy. Lily wants me to turn it loose in a park on the play structure. I am in favor of that. Do you want this mouse released in the park next to your home? You will never know. I am telling no one where I release the mouse.
The mouse has had no opportunity to groom himself since he was trapped in a small space with a lot of peanut butter. He is having a bad hair day.
May little mouse life long and happy.
Kayak Bandit

Runnin on Empty

What type of person are you? Do you let your gas tank get so low that the warning light comes on before you start looking for a gas station? Or, do you fill up every time you pass your favorite gas station even if you have plenty of gas?
I bet you are somewhere between those two scenarios. As for me, I have the mentality that my cars are out of gas if they get to one quarter tank. I get antsy if it gets close or below that level.
So, the next question is what to do about my low level in the "fuel tank" of life. You see, I am running on fumes in the energy, time, motivation and money department. I keep thinking about how easy tasks were when I was much younger. Why, I could cut a couple loads of firewood and deliver it to someone in the daytime and still have energy left to go to the archery range in the evening. I barely have enough energy to get the chainsaw sharpened before I am looking for a resting spot.
My motivation tank, energy tank and time tank are in direct conflict with the money tank. I could hire more of the work except that my money tank cannot stand for it. I have to say that I was mislead whenever I heard people talking fondly of the golden years. I think those people were duped into believing yellow snow is the gold they seek.
Kayak Bandit

Spokanites

Here is a little known secret that does not need to be kept secret anymore. Letterboxers from the Spokane area are the kindest, warmest and most hospitable people ever! Reinbow hosted an evening of conversation tonight. They have a lovely home and opened it up to the area letterboxers. What a fabulous time. The cheese assortment was wonderful. And, the ice cream with home made fudge was to die for.
I cannot say it adequately. It was great.
Kayak Bandit

Mouse

When the grandkids were here last week, we spotted a mouse in my house. Yes, a mouse in the house. A louse of a mouse in my house.
Yeah, I have my striped, cone shaped, flopped over hat on.
Anyway, there is this mouse. I know how to deal with mice. Get a good Victor mouse trap and "snap". Problem solved, right? Wrong. At least that is the wrong approach when grandkids are around. Nick and Lil insisted I not harm the mouse. Are you kidding me. How do you not harm something you want dead?
So I suggested poison. They asked how the poison worked. I told them that it makes them bleed internally and get very thirsty. I think I am right about that. I thought they would then relent and let me use the trap. I assured them the trap would be swift death. Hardly any suffering. Still wrong!
Okay, they are gone now. My grandkids are precious. I hoped to catch the mouse alive and carry it to the woods for release. So far I have caught nothing. Bandit seeks out the trap because he smells the peanut butter. I need to put them out of his reach. I think I will put it under the stove. Maybe, one behind the TV. I am going to give it a couple more days. I so very much want to be able to tell my grandkids I spared their mouse's life.
Vote in my poll. Victor, Poison, Live Trap or Leave Alone.
Kayak Bandit

Gulf

Boy, the Gulf dodged a bullet this time. Everything seems to be pretty good. What a difference from a few years ago.
Have you wondered why those idiot news people insist on standing out in the fierce wind to tell us that the wind is bad. I guess they want it to make a big impression. The thing that impresses me is that their mommy never taught them to come in out of the storm. I like it best when they show the view from a mounted camera. It is usually from a higher vantage point and tells me more than some bozo pretending to be tossed about by the wind. I saw one guy, dressed to the hilt with rain gear, hardly able to stand while he knew the camera was on him. As soon as he finished his spiel, and he thought the camera was off, he was able to walk around easily. How foolish do they think we are?
And, another thing, why does every network have to show the stuff 24/7? Golly, a few days ago everyone had to be talking about the gal that had a child go missing for a month before she reported it to the police. They were all clambering to get the best angle on that. Now that I am interested in that story, no one will tell me about it. Phooey.
Kayak Bandit

Too Quiet

I really got accustomed to sounds in the house. I do not mean the sound of the tv. I mean the sound of kids. Stephanie left this morning to return to Portland and took the sounds of kids working on their masterpieces of Legos and Beads.
Yesterday, Stephanie and Amy went letterboxing for the second straight day. Amy had most of the local boxes. Stephanie had only a few local boxes. Stephanie needed about twenty boxes to get to one hundred and Amy needed but three. They developed this scheme to let Stephanie catch up to Amy and both reach one hundred at the same time on the same box.
Stephanie called me when they were each at ninety eight. Both needed the two boxes they were headed to get. They were going to get one in the library and then another one that was outside. What they did not plan for was a bonus box in the library. So, when they opened that box, they were anti-climatically at one hundred and restrained from any celebration. They quietly took some pictures to record the moment.
If you know either one of these two, you know they do not restrain their emotion very well. I bet it almost killed them.
Congratulations to both of you two.
Kayak Bandit

Time

Where has the time gone?
It seems that Stephanie and the grandkids just arrived. We have had lots of fun, but tomorrow they plan to leave.
Stephanie has found a letterboxing fanatic like herself. Balladone Bunch (Stephanie) and American Boxer (Amy) hit it off from the first introduction to each other. Yesterday, after Amy got off work, Steph picked her up and they got about one dozen boxes for Stephanie. Amy had already gotten all of these for herself.
This morning I heard from both of them how much fun they had. They talked with so much animation about snakes, cows, people in the dark and more. Maybe I can get them to slow down long enough to write about it.
It is about noon and they are off letterboxing right now. They have a project that you will hear about real soon. I am watching the kids that prefer not to letterbox 24/7. We are having nearly as much fun here. Soon, I will fire up the old steam powered, steam roller.
Talk at ya later!
Kayak Bandit

Coolest House II

Stephanie reminded me that Nick was very much impressed with the swing in the basement. You see, a few years ago, I put a couple eye hooks in the ceiling. I can hang a swing from the eye hooks. He also likes getting on top of the defunct freezer while he waits his turn on the swing. He accesses the freezer from the steps to the basement.
But I am sure what he likes the best is the vast selection of soda pop. With today being a party, he got his fill. Stephanie counted at least five sodas. The usual limit is one soda per day while on vacation. Normally, no soda at all. I hope his little brain does not explode from sugar overload.
Kayak Bandit

Coolest House

My grandson gave me the biggest compliment possible. He said I had a very cool house. When queried, he pointed out that I have the coolest table in the world. It is a coffee table that the top lifts up and toward the couch while maintaining level. It is where I eat most of my meals when alone. Today Steph had the kids sit at the dining table and her & I sat at the coffee table.
Nick also mentioned the old tractor that runs on steam. He wants it down so very bad, but I will only get it down when I have time to supervise the solid alcohol fuel fire required to make it run.
He also like the room with the bunk beds near enough the queen bed and beside the queen bed is a single mattress on the floor. He enjoys jumping from one to the other. Both his mom and I are too tired to resist this antic.
He was saying how cool my house is when he was sitting on a rocking love seat. This was really amazing to him. When we pointed out that not only did the love seat rock, but each half is also a recliner. Boy, that dialed his amazement meter higher again. I let him play with that for a while and then I got his attention and pulled the back down to create a small table with cup holders in the middle of the big couch. I thought his eyes would bug out. We told him the couches were transformer couches.
Now, we had his full attention. We still had another surprise, though. I released the recliner on the end of the big couch and reared back. Yep, transformer couches. All the better to watch Harry Potter!
Kayak Bandit

Horseauger's Bridge

I was told that the old bridge we all knew as Horseauger's Bridge is no longer spanning the River. I guess it finally needed to be replaced. Rumor has it that the bridge is now in a nearby field.
Visiting that spot will not be the same. I remember making the turn as we head toward home and stopping in the middle of the bridge. Dad would get out and walk to the edge of the bridge and lean through the framework of the bridge to gaze into the water. He had to look for fish. Sometimes he would take but a few seconds, but lots of times he would take several minutes. When he was satisfied with looking at the spot where big fish were likely to be, he would walk to the other side of the bridge and look for sucker minnows. If he spotted a big school of minnows the right size, he would have to come back and seine for them. He used the minnows for bait. Eventually we would move on toward home.
In my youngest years, the bridge had planks that ran crosswise to the traffic. These planks were held in place on the ends of the planks, but the center of the planks were not fastened. This caused the boards to make a load noise as the weight of the tires moved along over the planks. It is a sound I can hear in my head as I write about it. I cannot explain it. Well, when I was about fifteen they added a few rows of planks on top of the old ones. These planks ran the same direction as traffic. It was probably necessary, but it ruined the nostalgia of the spot.
Kayak Bandit

Sentry

I have talked about my dogs a lot. If you are tired of hearing about good dogs, turn your computer off now. If you want to hear another story of Bear, read on.
As you know, Bear went with me everywhere. He went with me to work nearly every day. I had this, used to be, Frito Lay step van. He would ride with me curled up on the floor beside me or he would jump up onto the motor cover and peer out the windshield. He had a sense of when we were almost at a destination and would be up looking out whenever we arrived someplace. The guys at the lumber store always had to pet Bear. He knew in an instant if someone belonged. I do not ever remember him barking at a co worker. He just knew.
When I would get to a job, I would leave him with the van with all the doors open. I had thousands of dollars of tools and supplies, yet I did not worry about theft. One look at Bear would send a would-be burglar away.
Well one day we were parked in front of the Postal Building in downtown Portland, Oregon. Bear was rather bored watching the van and had fallen asleep stretched out in the middle of the walkway in the back. I would come and go for tools and such and he would open one eye and go back to sleep.
As I was coming out of the Postal Building for something I noticed these two young boys walking along the street rubbing a stick on the side of each car as they came to it. They approached the van from the back end and rubbed the stick along the side of my van. They were met at the front door by Bear. He said one big Woof. That was enough for these nice young boys to fill their pants and run for their lives. Bear looked over at me, wagging his tail. All I could do was laugh as I told Bear he was a Good Dog.
I was convinced that I had the best sentry in the World.
Kayak Bandit

Makin' Hay

So here is the question. Do I make the beds for everyone, or do I let them make the beds for themselves? I tend to be lazy and want to find an excuse to not make the beds. I can legitimately claim that the bunk beds are hard to climb around on. But the real clincher is that I do not know what amount of covers each person wants.
All of the bedding is currently stacked up on one bed. You see, I stripped the beds and washed all the bedding after the last guests left. As each load of laundry was done, I just dumped it onto the largest bed. Yeah, I know, it has been several months!
Well, if I was to have enough time to make the beds, it would have been the time I took to write this blog. You folks needed to hear from me. When Steph shows up, I will tell her I ran out of time.
Kayak (Lazy) Bandit

Still Kickin'

You might like this:

A big city lawyer went duck hunting in rural Iowa. He shot and dropped a bird, but it fell into a farmer's field on the other side of a fence.

As the lawyer climbed over the fence, an elderly farmer drove up on his tractor and asked him what he was doing.

The litigator responded, "I shot a duck and it fell in this field, and now I'm retrieving it." The old farmer replied, "This is my property, and you are not coming over here." The indignant lawyer said, "I am a trial attorney and the duck is my property, if you don't let me get the duck, you will be sued." The old farmer smiled and said, "Apparently, you don't know how we settle disputes in Iowa. We settle small disagreements with the "Three Kick Rule"."

The young lawyer asked, "What is the "Three Kick Rule"?"

The old farmer replied, "Well, because the dispute occurs on my land, I get to go first. I kick you three times and then you kick me three times and so on back and forth until someone gives up."

The attorney quickly decided that he could easily take the old codger. He agreed to abide by the local custom.

The old farmer slowly climbed down from the tractor and walked up to the attorney.

His first kick planted the toe of his heavy steel toed work boot into the lawyer's groin and dropped him to his knees.

His second kick to the midriff sent the lawyer's last meal gushing from his mouth.

The lawyer was on all four when the farmer's third kick to his rear end, sent him into a fresh cow pie.

The lawyer summoned every bit of his will and managed to get to his feet.

Wiping his face with the arm of his jacket, he smiled and said, "Okay, you old fart. Now it's my turn."

The old farmer smiled and said, "Nah, I give up. you can have the duck."

Kayak (farmer) Bandit

Tile Floor

Today, I laid the tile floor in my kitchen. It came out quite nice, if I say so myself. Here are a couple pictures.

Tomorrow, I plan to go to the lumber store and buy a special piece of oak to make stair nosing for the top step coming in from the back door.

I need to stay after it, because Stephanie is coming to visit. I hope the weather is good, because we will not have all the appliances back into the kitchen. We will do just fine. Steph and her kids adapt well.

I sure enjoyed watching the interviews by Pastor Rick Warren. Did anyone else watch them?

Catch you tomorrow,
Kayak Bandit

Seeds

Recently, I got a nice compliment about my garden. I was flattered that others thought my garden looks nice.
After a while of thinking about giving credit for a good job, I felt in awe of God. All I did, was to plant the seed, and nurture it a little.
God, on the other hand, makes it possible to expect to harvest food for ourselves by merely planting a seed. Think about that. Inside this tiny little package is all the information and energy needed to replicate the plant that it grew from.
I have enough problem explaining to someone else what my thoughts are. But inside this capsule are perfect enough instructions to tell the seed what to do and precisely when to do it. Oh, and little seed, make more for next year!
Kayak Bandit