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My wife’s vehicle has one tire that keeps going flat, so in the spirit of the season I’ve decided to put her winter tires on, about two weeks early, so that I can get a clearer look at the tire, and see if I can patch it.

After removal I see it has a screw lodged inside the tire between the treads. I pulled it free and then the air started to blast out in my face. Lovely. I used the rasp to clean up the hole, and hopefully size it to take the ultra sticky fibrous plug. Rasp moves in and out with ease after a few several reams of the hole.

Whoo boy getting the plug in the needle is a struggle all on its own. That was a process. I don’t hold out much hope that this plug will sink into the hole all nice like, and be an easy fix. I must prepare my wrists for maximum efforts.

Yeah that was a bitch. I got worried the plug would get stuck only barely into the hole I widened with the rasp. I thought about whacking it with a hammer, but if I break the tool then 8 really can’t fix this tire — at all. So I basically had to sit over the top of the tire and pour my entire body weight into the needle to get the patch to pass through the hole 2/3 rds of the way and then pull only the tool out, leaving the patch behind. Luckily enough it worked out.

I used my Knipex flush cutters to remove the excess patch material, filled the tire up, and then sprayed it with soapy water to watch for bubbles. Looks all good so far. We will know if it took, if come spring time when I go to put it back on the vehicle and the tire is still at 40 lbs. If it’s completely flat I know I failed miserably and we should buy at least two new summer season tires.

Weather was 20°C, a tad windy and the rains have held off. A successful Sunday morning. Only needed one trip to Canadian Tire for parts, and now I’ve washed the tires and can put them away after I finish lunch.

I would wager that a fair percentage of the last fifty posts here had something to do with splitting wood, as it was a pretty major update to my regular daily life in most recent days. That, and discussions of my splitting mauls, work boots, and mini sledge hammer that pairs with my Fiskars wedge. I nearly bought an Estwing nine inch long wedge to go along with the new hammer, but I held off for now. I’m not supposed to sink more money into this endeavor, as it was to keep me busy, get some exercise, and to take my mind OFF of on-line shopping out of boredom. Oh well! Win some, lose some. Ha.

But on the bright side, here we are at day 550 of the writing streak, and I am still going strong. Due to whatever item took off in Germany this July I am having THE best year ever on this blog, both by way of total views, and unique visitors. The likes on posts are way, way down. I’m not really producing any creative short story content so I’m well below the 1,000 plus likes I got when I was posting micro short stories multiple times per week. I have no idea how I will ever be able to top this year’s numbers. I don’t even try to these days, I just write what I want and hope it finds an audience that can relate, or is amused by my mundane musings. Again, I have zero inkling of what caught fire in July, as the only label showing views was Archives. So yeah. I don’t know what you found, or were seeking out, or were drawn to, or repulsed by (but felt you had to check it out for yourselves) I don’t know. It’s a mystery. One that nobody felt compelled enough to comment on, so that I could weigh in myself. So it couldn’t have been that disdainful, since people love to moan about awful things. If it was truly bad I think somebody would have posted to that effect.

We are drawing ever closer to winter. You can feel it in how cold the mornings, and evenings are. I’m sad to see Spring, Summer & Fall go for the year. Though work was quiet for long stretches this year, I got to spend a whole lot of time with my kids, and see them do their thing(s) that they are passionate about. Well, mostly. Of all the days available we still had multiple events on the same day,  several cities apart. So I did not see everything, but I did see a decent chunk!

Not only that but this year I took the kids to Florida by myself (we met up with my inlaws, so not totally by myself I admit) and I took my kids out west to British Columbia to see my brother’s, their kids, and my parents for a four night long visit by myself. My father is in various stages of being unwell. He has vascular dementia, which is slowly taking his short term memory, among other ailments. So we thought it best to head over and see them while his memory isn’t too badly impacted — yet. We had great weather for both trips, and I enjoyed myself a great deal. I believe the kids did too. Five of the six young cousins were there to hang out, and get reacquainted, so my kids had a peer group their own age to play with at times throughout the trip west.

Soon the weather will turn ugly, and I’ll become an indoor hermit, whom stays out of the cold for as much as possible. November is a grey, dreary lonely month around these parts. Fog, freezing rain, flurries, heavy dark clouds, and a severe lack of sunlight are all things we have to look forward to once Halloween is done. If I catch one good day I will erect the Christmas lights, even if it is prior to Rememberable Day. I just won’t turn them on until after the 11th. Our Christmas tree typically goes up late in the day on November 11th out of respect for the soldiers, vets, and those that sacrificed for us.

May you have either a productive Sunday, or a restful one. Whichever you prefer. Ciao Bella!

I’m not going to wait for the head to fall off and whack me in the face/head, so I have replaced it with an Estwing 4 lbs mini sledge, due to arrive at some point later today. I believe it was milled out of one piece so the head shouldn’t ever threaten to fall off. Safety first!

The current one has been in my possession for a fairly long time. I think 8 bought it either when I opened my business in 2006, or when we bought this house in 2009, because we did our own demolition for the renovations. Which was a tonne of fun. The cleaning up afterwards wasn’t a whole lot of fun, as the dust just kept showing up no matter how many times I vacuumed the house, walls, and all the hard surfaces.

Have a Saturday. Ha!

Spent a bit more time on the dog walk while it drizzled, and saw they have tilled some fields making it easier to pick up stones, rocks and such from the ground now it’s all loosened up. I have picked up a handful of rocks every morning and left little Cairns strewn around the front field edges since I started splitting wood in September. My rock piles are starting to be visible from several meters away. I found a number of eight plus pounders today. I’d like to borrow a Kabota side by side, and drive the whole field picking up bigger machine wrecking rocks, but the older farm hands always need them because they can’t walk more than a few steps without looking Shakey AF. Happens when the farm hands are both near eighty years old I suppose.

Speaking of wrecked equipment take a gander at what I found mixed into the earth from about 60 feet out into the field.

That can go right back onto the machine that threw it off in the first place. Just needs a new bolt or pin, or peg to keep it in place. Either way it has been located, retrieved and put somewhere it can be easily found and reused. No longer my problem.

So here we are — Friday. A tad grey, a bit wet, and more than a little cool outside. After the steady stream of things to do last weekend I hope we can have a quieter couple of days now that some big things were finished. I for one look forward to not driving multiple hours up north just for a few nights stay. Maybe after climbing, and our family photo session on Saturday I can sit back and relax. We could try to Halloween Haunt at Wonderland one more time before it gets way too cold for extreme high speed coasters. Riding them when it is snowing very lightly is an off putting proposition. Makes the eyes water uncomfortably. Still fun though, just chills you right down to the bones where even a hot shower, or a hot bath doesn’t make you feel warm again right away.

Hope you all had a favourable week, and a pleasant weekend ahead of you. Ciao Bella.

I was almost sad to see it completed, but then 8 realized how much was left over by Pile One, and how many new chunks have been dropped off over at Pile Three, and I realized I will be at this for quite some time yet, and next fall too! So no need to get nostalgic for it just yet. I will admit that it has been really awesome to see one mound shrink and the other grow until I had all I could muster up the strength to split chopped up and sorted into bins, or left waiting for another collapsible green wire bin. Very therapeutic to wail on stubborn wood with either a 6 lbs maul, an 8 lbs maul, or a 4 lbs sledge hammer & a wedge. I might need to invest in a better hammer because mine had the top cap crumble and fall apart with every new walloping I give with it. I am concerned the head might come off at some point injuring myself along the way. Not cool.

So here we are on Thursday, after the long weekend. This short week feels long anyway. And next week is short again because of the York Region elementary school PA Day. I’ll need to figure out what we are doing with the kids to keep them occupied for the day. Maybe I’ll just have them clean their rooms, closets, and toy bins. Bring some order back to this house! Fair time really throws a wrench into how we clean up around here.

If I remember correctly we are doing our Turkey Dinner this weekend instead because the farming, and cottage trip were both up in the air until the very last minute. We managed to get the big dock disassembled and put away in another bay, and some boats came out, and seafood, and the snowmobiles got moved for winter time access. I winterized the mower and put that away. But! I need to go take the battery out of it before too much longer or else that will likely go dead in the freezing cold uninsulated big shop.

My hands, wrists and back aren’t too worse for wear after nearly a month of wood splitting. Did 75 minutes today. Had a late start because I had to drive across town to get gas instead of starting right away like I usually do. The dog even lounged in the back of the van to watch me instead of slinking about stalking all the scurrying pests at the farm.

I need to remember to go to the post office at 1:00 pm today, so I should set an alarm for that so I don’t forget. It’s kind of important!

Well I hope you’ve all had some success this week with whatever you are working on. I am both happy, and kinda sad I finished one whole section already. But with more bins coming to the farm I should be able to keep chopping as long as the weather holds. Which, as you may know, is not a given. We could get a major snowstorm on November 1st! And then everything will be far more challenging in the ice & snow. I don’t see myself splitting beyond the middle of November anyway. We sometimes get a nice little warm spell that I do our leaves in, and enjoy the seasons last hurrahs before winter settles over us in a suffocating blanket of cold greyness. But I digress. I love every other season besides winter. I hate the cold. Hate it with a passion.

Ciao Bella!

I have six bins filled, with enough to fill one more, plus whatever becomes of the as of yet unsplit wood by Pile Two here.

With the holiday weekend, and my daughters cross country meet I had to take four days off from splitting here, so I  got back at it with a vengeance today and did 2.5 hours worth. I’m bushed. Also sorted the unsplit table junk from the good stuff, so it can get dumped in the wood lot to return to the dirt, where it belongs! Nasty stuff. Just doesn’t want to become firewood by any means. If I had a hydraulic log splitter that would be a different story, but oh well. Should have, would have, could have…

The kids had great weather for their race yesterday. Afterwards we went to the mall for Taco Bell, a book from Chapters/Indigo, and a walk around Spirit Halloween for some costume weapons the kids needed to complete their costumes. All good. I need to go eat breakfast, or lunch, or a bigger snack because I’m fried. Stick a fork in me I’m done.

And cried by the end of the movie about his life. “I like me” was very moving, touching, and informative. I was surprised, saddened, maddened, and heart broken by what was in it.va solid entry in the documentary category by Colin Hanks and Dan Levy. Not sure I could watch it again anytime soon though.

…and now I’m up, heart pounding with adrenaline due to a blaring, blinking, squawking false alarm that woke us from a dead sleep. The dog’s upset, the kids are wired awake also, and I just can not seem to fall back to sleep & I am still physically exhausted from stacking wood yesterday, among other things. Not the auspicious start to the holiday Monday that I was looking for.

I was hoping for a late start to my morning, with a suitable lie in, to awaken feeling both rested, and excited to finish up a bunch of chores before we sit down to eat a giant meal and watch some more Blue Jays baseball. Not that last night’s 3-1 loss to the Mariners wasn’t frustrating to watch, but I’m looking for them to do more with their offense tonight. Shake off the loss, and come back with a vengeance!

It is Monday after all, and you just knew that Monday was going to Monday all over the holiday long weekend. Once my heart stops pounding I’m hoping I can fall back to sleep while it is still somewhat dark out. Fingers crossed for more zzzzz’s.

Not as much fun as chopping firewood and tossing the bits onto an ever growing pile, but with the need for bins to show up before I can split more, I have to stack a bunch now. At least it looks to be sort of sunny out today. Yesterday’s rain has passed over top finally. Should make for an easy morning at least.

If I am correct today is Sunday of the long weekend. The kids went hunting for pumpkins in the patch with some cousins yesterday morning before climbing. We only just arrived in time for their lessons because of it. My kids aren’t very punctual, which bothers me to no end. It’s disrespectful of other people’s time, and efforts. I don’t much care for that. But I digress.

Anyway, Happy Thanksgiving to all of the fellow Canadians out there. Enjoy your long weekend. Go close down your cottages, and move those docks if you didn’t all ready do so on Labour Day weekend. Partially cloudy, but mostly dry, so have at it! Elbows up! All eyes turn to Halloween after this, so get spooky people.

**EDITOR’S NOTE: Stacked two and a bit rows in the wood shed, and freed up five green wire bins for more split wood, so now I don’t actually have to stop if I don’t want to. Yahoo! I can fill three wire bins with what I’ve got split already, which is awesome, and then I can direct load into the bins as I go removing a second step of loading out the piles later. I’ll have to see which work flow moves better, spending a week making a pile, then using one hour on a Friday, or the following Monday to load up the bins, or chucking my splits directly into the nearest bin as I go. I think it will depend mightily upon the wood itself. Stuff that falls apart at a look can produce a much greater pile over a shorter period, and may take more effort to toss where needed. We will have to see. My hands are getting weary from handling the piles so much, but climbing, and axe swinging means my forearms won’t be solid unusable bricks tomorrow. And that’s a good thing!

This cold is fairly mild thus far, but I do hate being sick. I just don’t feel right. Not a fan. Do not recommend it to anyone, anywhere, anytime. I do not know if my outdoor exercise routine with the axe has helped me out at all, but I’ve still been able to split wood while not feeling 100% soni have that going for me. Our holiday weekend plans are all a jumble right now. We were going, we aren’t, it’s raining so it’s back on, but the rest of the weekend is dry so the farming is to continue… I don’t know what is going on. I do have climbing coming up later this morning, so at least that is scheduled, and moving ahead as planned. I’d rather spend my time lounging around, or back in bed to be honest with you. That’s how I’d love to spend my holiday weekend.