Good evening all!
We all have stories about things we learned from our dads. I
personally can go on and on regarding projects about electronics and
electricity that I did with my dad that have given me a confidence with
electricity where I’ll do things that a couple of general contractors I know
wouldn’t attempt. And really there are many other areas I can dwell on
about the things I learned over the 50 years I had with my dad. But all
of that is for another time. This update is the first of what I expect to
be several updates that include an excerpt about “What I learned from my Uncle
John!” We all call him “my” Uncle John but he’s really everyone’s Uncle
John. Close to 30 years ago we were introduced by a couple that had long
since moved away but John and Shirley have never been able to shake us
loose. Anyone who is familiar with “our” Uncle John knows that he will do
anything for anyone, as long as he can finish in a day! And Uncle John
has helped me many times without question from repairing a door jamb on a
rental property that was broken into, to rebuilding a portion of a downed fence
on a killer slope, to replacing a water heater, each done in a day or
less. So when Uncle John (or more likely Aunt Shirley) decided he could
use some help trimming back the tree in the back yard I was more than happy to
help. Apparently when you get into your seventies it’s time to stop
climbing into trees with sharp heavy objects. So instead, you call
your adopted nephew in his fifties who’s apparently just matured enough to be
climbing in trees with heavy sharp objects; my hypothesis based on the fact
that this was the first time I was asked. So here is the first
installment of “What I learned from my Uncle John!”:
1. You can cut firewood with a skill saw!
So anyway, I’m up in John’s tree trimming branches when Uncle John
brings out two skill saws. One of the skill saws was a big heavy cord
connected Craftsman with so much torque that it turned your wrist when you
squeezed the trigger. This Craftsman was made before we were so concerned
with “light” and “portable.” You know, when men were men! Uncle
John proceeds to use his skill saw to reduce this huge stack a branches into a
stackable pile of 18” kindling. And in no time at all, certainly less
than a day, we were done. So what brought this less than intuitive but
practical gem to mind? Maureen has been after me to get some firewood
under cover so it can dry before Halloween. She wants to sit out front
with a nice warm fire to hand out candy in our new neighborhood and invite some
neighbors to come join us for some holiday cheer. Some of you will recall
our big cast iron fire place with a nice warm crackling fire on our front drive
in Corona
For those of you keeping up with Liam’s college running career,
this past Friday evening, Liam was the Division I and overall winner of the College of Charleston
Classic Cross Country Invitational College of Charleston
Classic Rock Hill , SC Furman College Winthrop University Furman College
We have been dying for some cooler weather. Not that it has
been over 100o for days like some of you have been experiencing in
October. But what is the point of living in the mountains if you can
still wear shorts and t-shirts all fall. The past week or so has been
cooling off in the evenings enough that sweatshirts and long pants were in
order. This weekend however we’ve seen some fall mountain temperatures in
earnest. It has dipped down close to freezing Friday and Saturday nights
and we had to unpack the winter wardrobe, as much of a winter wardrobe as we
have anyway. Here is Maureen decked out in her Disneyland hat and
gloves courtesy of Aunt Shirley.
I had frost on my windshield Sunday morning. I’m going to
have to be careful to check that the wiper blades are not frozen to the
windshield before I turn them on from now on. Better yet, I’m going to
have to finish unpacking our stuff so we can get to all of our winter gear and
I can get the cars in the garage before the freezing temperatures become an
issue. This just might be one of those “be careful what you wish for”
winters. My knucklehead son actually slept outside out in the wilderness Saturday
night. I spoke with him on Sunday morning (to make sure he didn’t freeze
to death or get eaten by a bear) and he told me; “yeah, it was uncomfortably
cold” that night. Duh! And all of our camping gear, including his
nice below 0o sleeping bag is still boxed up in my garage. I
know he made it into college and he has been doing well with his studies so far
but sometimes I wonder about that boy! On the plus side, as cold as it’s
been I’ve yet to turn on the heat pump. We have a propane gas fireplace
that gets so hot even on the low setting that we can only keep it on for short
periods before it heats us out of the room. The fire heats up the rock
wall around the fire box and even after the fire is off the heat radiates off
of that wall for hours. I just turn on the FAU fan and try to spread the
heat throughout the house. I don’t remember if I’ve mentioned this before
but this house was custom built, for himself to live in, by someone who works
for an insulation contractor . Just based on what we’ve experience so far
I don’t anticipate having a problem keeping this house comfortable this
winter. Having to go outside, now that’s a different story!
Odds and ends: It’s been just over four months now since we
arrived in North Carolina Weaverville , CA
I just checked the weather forecast for tonight. I suspect
our heat pump just might be put to use tonight after all!
Our best to all of you!
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