Day after the big feast of roast beast and this damnable freezer has flash frozen over yet again. Guess putting one package of frozen burgers in it on Saturday evening was a step too far. Fucking thing. Now I really need to get a tech out here to look at it, see what’s going on with it. Or – the dreaded “or”, we have to think about replacing this twelve year old refrigerator. Not terribly happy about the thought of that, but some things can’t be helped.
Otherwise, yesterday’s big meal went over ok. Tasted good, didn’t create any undue gastric distress in anyone. Which is a massive plus in my book. Also I attempted roasted potatoes for the first time, and they were pretty damn good. A nice crunch, with fluffy interiors. The dusting of vegetable flavouring was right on the money. I could have done without the 4 straight hours of stress & worry, but it all came together, and I had it on the table for 6:00pm. So mission accomplished!
The day before we managed to get a whole lot done too. Leaves, grass, tree pruning, halloween decorations up on the house. Kids helped as much as they could. I pulled up the finished Glad bulbs, and pruned back all of the dead weeping heart in the yard. I moved a juvenile Oak tree, which I hope doesn’t kill it. It grew in so close to the stone walk way I had trouble grabbing as much of the tap root as I would have liked. But it couldn’t stay where it was. If it dies, it dies I guess. I have acorns to plant if I have too. The squirrels dug up & ate all of my black walnuts, so no hope of those growing here any time soon. Although it’s nearly time that I could go get more pods from the farm. Rather than buy slabs, I’ll grow my own! Only takes 25 years. Ha. Talk about long range planning.
Made some changes in the shop too. Tore down an old water damaged set of drawers. Kept the top two intact, and cut the rest off. Put the newly shorted, and undamaged portion under a work bench to store saw blades and lathe bits nice and close at hand. Kept all of the drawer slides and screws, then broke down all that crappy chip board ready for garbage day. I can now make a 4.5 ft cut without having to move my table saw. A real boon! I used to have to move it to do more than 2 ft. Which was a hassle. Plus, should I ever get around to buying a bigger bandsaw I now have a spot along the wall for it. But that is likely years away. Given the state of our refrigerator, water softener (which runs too much) & water heater (that fills a bucket with water every week from the overflow valve). A big tool purchase is a no go until all that gets sorted. Oh well. Not a huge deal.
I keep thinking about my radial arm saw. I think I could get rid of it, if I upgraded my mitre saw station to a sliding double compound saw. I don’t put a dado blade on the radial arm saw, I just use it to cut down overly wide boards, as it can handle 16 inches in width. A solid 12″ sliding compound miter saw would do nearly that without too much issue. And I could regain some additional floor & wall space in the shop. Wishful thinking perhaps.
In other less exciting news, I did the bulk of our laundry yesterday too, so I’m not planning on doing much of anything today. Had a sleep in until almost 9:00am, so that was a welcome rest after yesterday’s stressful afternoon. Not going to be much of a banger of a Domestic Duties Monday, but I will take a rest when I can get one. Oh yeah, we also got out to vote early on Saturday. One plus to not going up north for the long weekend. That, and no holiday traffic with kids in tow.
All the best to you and yours on this holiday monday. Ciao Bella!
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