Moving In (a little)

The Fuzz hasn't only been tearing around the countryside on his Motorcycle these days.  Earlier this week he was over at the Old Place loading up a trailer full of toolboxes and such.  

Since the Shed is now more or less secure, he's been moving stuff out here to the Woods.  And things are beginning to come together just a bit.

There is now a place to put all the tools and equipment he's been gathering for years.

Of course, it all still needs to be sorted out.

The next phase of this long term project will be getting some power out there somehow.  At this point that involves a long drop cord.  But something a bit more permanent is needed.  The Fuzz has it in mind to bury a line out there.  But that will be a lot of work!

A Ride

The Fuzz had been thinking about a ride up in the mountains for awhile.  With His Sweetie and the Young Daughter going off School Shopping, it looked like a good time to go.

Not being on the job anymore, means he doesn't have to work these things in on the weekends.

He took some back roads over into Rutherford County, and rode up though Lake Lure, Chimney Rock, Bat Cave, and up toward Asheville.  There he topped off the tank, and picked up something for a picnic lunch.  Then it was up to the Parkway.

He stopped for at the picnic area at Craggy Gardens for a sandwich and a beer.  There, he tried to sketch the view from his  table. 

Then it was back on the Parkway.

The Parkway is not a real challenging ride, the speed limit is only 45.  But it is right pretty.

It was a bit cool at the higher elevations near Mt. Mitchell, and The Fuzz was glad for his leather.  There were a few rainy spots also.  Up there it may rain on one side of the mountain, but when you get to the other side, nothing.

He took the infamous Devil's Whip* down from the Parkway, and stopped by this lake (Lake Tahoma) to get out of those, now, too warm clothes.

Lastly he caught Old NC 18, back home to the woods.  It was a fine ride with a lot of variety and a great day.


*Used to be called Devil's Staircase The Fuzz believes. (Check out this video)

  

Busy Times

Last week was a busy one for The Fuzz.

It may be remembered that when we moved out here in the woods, we had a lot of remodeling to take care of in this old trailer*.  One of the projects was to refinish the plywood floors.  Not having the funds to install hardwood flooring, The Fuzz's Sweetie went for the Artistic Option**.

But a few years of hard traffic had taken their toll, and it was time for a touch-up.  This needed to be done before the cold weather set in.  Since he no longer has to be on a real job, this fell to The Fuzz.  So while His Sweetie was busy in town, the Energetic Fuzz got busy.  First thing in the morning came the sweeping and mopping.  He let things dry off while riding His Sweetie into town.  Then it was time for the varnish.

There was, of course, a plan.  Not wanting to spend the night getting high on the fumes, arraignments had been made to spend the night out of town with family.

It was a nice visit with a taco dinner and a bit of wine.  In the morning there was a visit to the Havana Carolina Cafe for Cuban Coffee and a bit of breakfast. 

And here's a look at the once again, Shiny Floor. 


* This one goes way back.
**Check it out!

Boats of the Seine 18

Boats of the Seine 17

That's Alota Cats!

And that ain't all of 'em!

Boats of the Seine 16

Antiques and Such

  This was one of the situations that The Fuzz was faced with, from a quote of a never published post.

"The Fuzz has a hard time conceiving of a computer as an antique.  But that seems to be the problem here.  Apparently, this old Mac's OS is as new as it can handle.  Unfortunately, Blogger (and other sites) keep telling The Fuzz that it's just not good enough any more.  Yes, he has been managing to get these posts up somehow, but there are times he has to resort to a few tricks.  This is not fun.  At times it can be a pain in the ass.  Mr Blogger is saying that this situation "may result in unexpected behavior".  This actually occurs, frequently.  But this "unexpected behavior" is becoming expected!  So is it really "unexpected" anymore? 
"Compose" is completely unreliable. He has to keep going back to "HTML" just to get anything up these days! Oh well. Life is like that sometimes."

Here's a look at one of the first home computers that The Fuzz saw at the Smithsonian on a recent trip to Washington.

The equipment we were dealing with was not quite that old, but old enough to be causing a few complications.

Our Fuzz has been running a mac, a bit newer than this one.  But part of the problem could be blamed on Apple changing their processors sometime ago.  Let's be honest about this.  A lot of the problem could be blamed on this.  The newer versions of OS X will not run on the older machines.  That kinda sucks.

The Fuzz realized that although the thing was only 10 years old, (What's 10 years?) we were looking at replacing it.  So when his former employer paid off his unused vacation time, he and His Sweetie bit the bullet, and sprang for this new one.

Ah, the march of progress.

Fun With Computers

Part of the fun of a new computer* is trying to get your stuff to work with it.

The Fuzz had been having a time with the printer and the old mac.  He had kinda hoped things would be different with the new one.

He finally got to the place where it was time for the "Test Page".

This is what he got.  

It seems that the "Congratulations" were a bit premature, since the thing didn't quite finish the job.

Apparently there are still a few issues with this.

*We will have more to say on this in later posts.

Boats of the Seine 15

There are little ones also.

Continuing to Move Along

Well here we go.  The Fuzz is attempting to post this from a fine, brand new computer. 

He's not sure how things will work out yet, but it may be Ok.

He's also reporting that he finally got both doors up on the Shed Project.

This means it can now be locked up.

He also managed to move his tools out of the corner of the living room, and into the new Workshop!

Of course, there is quite a mess to straighten up out there.

But, this was a major step!

And here's an interior shot.

Boats of the Seine 14

Things Still Continue to Move Along

The Fuzz is continuing to work on these doors.

Now that the tracks were up, the next step was building a frame.

Wanting things to be as stable as possible, he decided to take the extra time to make some lap joints at the corners.  
But with the table saw at the Old Place, he had to improvise as usual.

So he used the old "Multiple Saw Cut"* technique to cut the frame pieces, and cleaned them up with a chisel.

After laying the frame out, he covered it with a piece of plywood, and used screws to fasten it all together.

Mounting the hardware got a bit tricky, hence we have no pix of that part,  (Our Photographer's attention being occupied with other matters at the time)

Once the drilling, countersinking, and hunting for the right wrenches was finished, it was time to hang the door.
Our Fuzz had to struggle with the heavy thing, but of course being a guy, he insisted on doing it himself.
But he didn't hurt himself seriously, and we are able to post some pix of the first door in place.

Of course there is still the other door to take care of.  But that should be easier since now The Fuzz has some idea of what he's doing.

And we even have a pix of the interior.

*Crude, but effective.

Things Continue to Move

The Old Fuzz is not so pressed for time as he once was, so he is able to take these projects at a more leisurely pace.  Of course some would argue that he never was one to be rushed on a project.  There are still a lot of half finished things around to make the point.  But he is making progress here.

In a previous post he mentioned some complications, and how he dealt with them.  Well, things continue to move, if a bit slowly.

He did manage to get the rails, or tracks, mounted, at least temporarily. 

The "temporarily" part comes in because it will be necessary to lower the one track in order to slide the door itself back in.  The Fuzz figures it will be easier to build the doors on the floor rather than whilst they are dangling from the tracks.
And assembling the doors is the next step.
The Fuzz has included a few pix of the tracks in position. 

These double door should open up the work area nicely.

Of course the Doggies don't understand all the fuss.  As long  as there's a porch to lay around on, they're happy.

Boats of the Seine 13

Complications

Well, when The Fuzz went to mount the rails for the sliding doors on the shed, he found that this one had a dent.  Said dent was bad enough so that the rollers would bind.  It was possible to force the rollers though.  That might have been the easy way, but it wouldn't be the cowboy way!

 Careful measurements showed The Fuzz that the track was supposed to be 1 3/4" wide.  

 So The resourceful Fuzz went to his toolbox and found his 1 3/4" spacer. (which also happens to be a 30mm socket*)

 But of course with the ding there, the socket wouldn't slide into the position where it needed to be.

 A piece of scrap* left over from the framing (The Fuzz has a tendency to hang on to these things) was driven into the slot.  This enabled The Fuzz to position this special tool correctly.

 Pounding against the plywood floor was ineffectual, so the rail was backed up* with this splitting maul.

 The Fuzz then hammered around the original ding, thus bringing the rail into a reasonable semblance of what it was supposed to be.

 It worked, and now there is no problem with the rollers or track.  

*Another handy Techno-Tip

 

Time travel

While working on some doors for his Shed Project, The Fuzz realized that he needed an additional piece from the Farm Improvement Store. He had planned on riding his bike up into the mountains that morning, but the weather forecast was a bit discouraging, and he decided to stay home. But he was able to work in a semi-local ride. He was out on some back roads when he came upon this.

It was too good to pass up. And since he happened to be carrying a camera, you get a look as well!

Sometimes, The Fuzz just kinda Time Travels in his head.

Tomatoes

In a previous post, The Fuzz mentioned some problems with his tomatoes.

Well, eventually things worked out a bit better.

 They are still not all that impressive, but at least we actually have a few.

 And of course some tomatoes are better than none tomatoes.

 In fact, Our Fuzz got to enjoy a tomato sandwich for his lunch!

And here's a little teaser pix for y'all.