The New Twig Box

The Fuzz has not been very good at keeping up with things here in cyberspace.

Oh well.

One of the projects he has been up to has been a new "Twig Box".

Out here in the woods, the trailer is heated with a Wood Stove, as many followers of Kinda Fuzzy no doubt realize.

Well, when The Fuzz and His Sweetie are off on one of their frequent forays out into the wide world, the fire may burn out.

So it is necessary to keep a supply of kindling handy- and out of the weather!

Trying to start a fire with soggy twigs is a pain.

(you know where!)

They were keeping an old bucket of twigs in there near the heater.  But it didn't really hold much, and tended to be very messy.

The Fuzz's Sweetie wanted to start keeping the stuff out on the porch, which would be handy enough,

But-

also exposed to the weather.

So they came up with the idea of this

Twig Box!

There was an old chest of drawers that had been retired from bedroom duty.

So The Resourceful Fuzz disassembled the thing.

He then used the sides and drawer fronts to put this thing together.

The bottom is a piece of old fence wire, so any tiny bits and dirt can fall through.

An old piece of tin made a reasonably weathertight lid.

The interior was divided into 2 sections.  One for "small stuff" and the other for "Twigs".

Firewood Followup

The Fuzz took advantage of an offer from the #1 Son and Son-in-law to help with a bit of wood cutting.

And it was an excellent opportunity to try out his brand new chainsaw.

There were a couple of rather large trees at a neighbor's place that The Fuzz had been offered.

But they were a bit much for The Fuzz to handle on his own.

But with all this good help, things would be different.

The trees were dropped with no complications. 

(thankfully)

And the rest of the day was spent in cutting them up, and hauling the wood home.

Unfortunately the early darkness cut the job off before all was finished, and this sizable piece of the main trunk remained.

The Fuzz will take care of it later.

The pieces will be pretty big, but he should be able to roll them up the ramp into the trailer with out hurting himself.

In the mean time...

It was time to fire up the old log splitter.

The Fuzz will have to use the vertical configuration for these big guys.

That way he won't have to try and lift them.

But the woodpile is starting to look a bit better already.

Saw Situations

Well, the winter weather has seriously moved into the woods.

So that means a fire,

Which means.

Firewood.

The Fuzz was working on this the other day when his cheap chainsaw finally tanked on him.

This thing has been aggravating off and on over the years, but he had always managed to patch it together somehow.

The Fuzz suspected the carburetor this time.

But after he took it apart and cleaned it, there was no improvement.

At this point he suspected the fuel pick-up in the tank.  Perhaps it was clogged.

So he got a piece of wire and fished the thing out of the tank.

Something was missing here!

He managed to get the filter thing out finally.

But there seemed to be no problem, other than it had become detached.

So...

He put it all back together.

But the thing still refused to do more than spit a few times before it quit again.

A new spark plug didn't help either.

And so The Long Suffering Fuzz finally gave in.

It was time to "bite the bullet" as it were, and get a new chainsaw.

This time he decided to go for quality over economy, and went to the Local Stihl Dealer.

He did get to break it in on a couple of large trees over at a neighbor's place.

And it cut good!

Well, they say you get what you pay for.

Let's hope they're right in this case.

Power Tools

It is sort of a long term project, But The Fuzz is still working on getting his shop together.

One of the things on his wish list was a Drill Press.

Not having a lot of room in there, or a lot of money to spend, he had decided to go with a bench top model.

Having come onto a bit of cash, Our Fuzz decided now was as good of time as any.

So after checking around a bit on line, he headed over to the brand new Harbor Freight Store.

I guy could spend a lot of time in there, just looking and lusting after guy stuff.

Well, here's what he came home with.

Step 1 was to unpack it all.

Actually it was not all that difficult for The Experienced Fuzz to assemble this brand new piece of equipment.

There was a bit of a complication in mounting the thing.

Amazingly enough, in his whole collection of bits of everything, there were not any bolts suitable for mounting it to the small work bench.

But he was able to improvise something for the time being.

He will have to do this properly in the future.

But for now, here it is!

The Death House

Sounds pretty sinister.

At first glance it seems to be just another picturesque old country house that has seen better days.

So one day, whilst The Fuzz and His Sweetie were out walking, they decided to check it out.

That's when the creepiness factor kicked in.

As they got closer, the bad vibes intensified.

The destruction and debris spoke of foul deeds and a dark past...

Blackest murder !
Who knows what evil lies in the Hideous History here.

And so, we will slip silently by and leave these spirits buried in the past, hopefully, undisturbed.

Muddy Paw Prints

A bit of rain this morning here in the woods.

In case anyone wonders why The Fuzz's motorcycle is always so dirty-

The Fuzz does have a place to keep it out of the weather.

But these guys like to get out of the weather too.

Muddy cat paws!

Oh well.

Camping

Long time, no post!

Well, that's just the way it's been going lately.

But it's not like The Fuzz and His Sweetie have been sitting on their hands or something.

Any how...

The Fuzz and His Sweetie had walked down to a nearby creek to enjoy some Wine and Cheese together.

Whilst there, The Fuzz remarked that it made him want to go camping.  And She agreed.

It must be understood that there is a history here.

Many years ago, it was while living in the forest that The Fuzz and His Sweetie first met.

And they lived quite happily like that that for some time before returning to civilization...

and younguns, and jobs etc.

And so, the Woods have always held a special place for them.

So on the spur of the moment, they decided to head over to South Mountain State Park, which is only about 20 minutes away.

It was nice.

Very nice.

It was a chance to get in one last camp before the cold weather sets in.

Exhausted

Well the Old Fuzz has been down in his back again.  But he did manage to make it out for a camping trip.  Of course he let the other folks do most of the work!

But he hasn't been completely idle out here in the woods.

The old clothes dryer was getting pretty rough.  It had a tendency to catch the clothes in the edge of the tub as it turned. Even if they didn't get torn, they would still get a really nasty stain from all the rubbing.

So a replacement was ordered and delivered from the local Home Improvement Store.

They would have taken the old one away, but The Fuzz figured that the motor could come in handy for something else someday.  So he decided to keep it.

His Sweetie laid down the law on this.  I would NOT remain in the yard, no matter how well Our Resourceful Fuzz tried to hide it.

So with his back improving a bit, he decided it was time to strip the thing and take the rest to the Recycle Place.

When he finally got down to the motor, he found it was connected to this squirrel cage.

With just a bit more work, he now has this cool exhaust fan for the shop!

(when he gets around to installing it)

And tomorrow the carcass gets recycled.

Quilt

What The Fuzz's Sweetie has been up to.

Christmas?

Whilst The Fuzz was waiting for His Sweetie at the Coffee House the other night, he had a nice seat in the window.

This was what was going on out in front.

The City is getting ready for the Christmas Season!

Every year they light these lights all around the Court Square.

And every year they need extensive repairs.

Hard to believe it, but the Holidays are not far away.

But no need to panic...yet.

That can come later.

Big City Bike Fest 2

The Fuzz's Sweetie has her own interests, so they split up for a bit.

The Fuzz wandered around on his own and watched this crazy guy for a while.

The Fuzz doesn't plan on trying this at home.

Later he met up with His Sweetie for lunch.

The food was surprisingly good.

People and bikes were still arriving.

Check this out.

1 more pix.

It was time to go now.

But The Fuzz was glad to have stumbled into this. 

First Frost

The Fuzz had to make a trip out of the woods over the weekend.  The weather has been a bit cooler lately.

When he got home he found that His Sweetie had the fire going.  Of course this was no surprise, no one enjoys freezing their tush off.

When he checked out the garden he found this.

It seems there was a bit of frost this morning out here in the woods.

Well, it looks like tomato season is over.

Big City Bike Fest

It wasn't part of the plan, but when The Fuzz and His Sweetie got to the Big City, they found that a Bike Fest was going on!

It's no secret to followers of Kinda Fuzzy (both of you) that Our Fuzz does have an interest in motorcycles.

The Fuzz was there on a Friday, so things were just getting started off.

So here's a look at a few of the bikes.

The Fuzz will get some more pix up next time.

Watching You

So...

Who's Watching?

While in that Big City, the Capital of Our Fair State, The Fuzz's Sweetie noticed this Thing staring at them.

It seems you never know who or what is watching you.

So you better watch yourself!

Big Tree

Well, it's been a while again.

So what's the Old Fuzz been up to?

Well, he & His Sweetie took a trip over toward the State Capital.  There are kinfolk in the area that were willing to put them up for a few days.

One of the days they went in to the Big City itself.

The Fuzz got a shot of this street artist by a parking lot.

And this is what she was trying to capture on paper.

This thing covered the whole side of the building, which was huge itself.

At first The Fuzz thought it was just a huge tree - impressive enough.  But then he backed off a bit and realized the thing was moving!

Maybe you can see it here better.

Wow.

Pumps & Plumbing Stuff

It may be remembered that earlier this year, there was a plumbing situation at the Old Place.  Well that Procrastinating Fuzz finally got around to addressing this situation.

The first step was to remove the old tank from beneath the pump.

(which The Fuzz was assuming still worked)

As can  be seen, it was in pretty bad shape.

This kinda left the pump hanging.

It was time to see just what he had here.

It will be noticed that the new tank is somewhat smaller than the old one.  The Fuzz is hoping that this won't cause any problems in the operation of things.

Of course it did mean that he would have to make some adjustments in the tank supports to compensate for this.

This was done by simply adding a few blocks and bricks to bring things up to the proper level.

That Lazy Fuzz was trying to use as much of the old plumbing as possible.

And so the drain valve and pressure relief valve was retained.

But He did have to add a bushing to compensate for the different thread size.

Then the old PCV pipe was cut back, and a new piece made to fit.

And everything glued up.

There was no problem priming the pump.  But when he cut it on, he found that the pump would cycle on and off much too rapidly!

So some adjustments were made to the pressure switch.

This seemed to help.

Hopefully this will work out OK.

Here's a look at the finished job.