Freezer is full

 I took this at Thanksgiving. It's nice getting everyone together. Heather was especially overjoyed.

 I picked Hedy up this morning at the butcher shop. Live weight was 1190 lbs.

 We got 7 flats, as expected. Plus a bag of bones for Heather to take to a co-worker.

The hanging weight was a little higher than expected, but we had enough space in the freezers.

Hunting season 2016

 I got a nice 8 pointer this afternoon just before sunset.

The freezer was getting a bit low- Hedy doesn't go in for almost another month. It will be fine now.

Work truck got bent

 My work truck got bent up yesterday. There was a chain reaction in the other lane and one of the cars got bounced into my lane.

 No serious injuries, but there were several bent-up vehicles, with a Honda minivan getting the worst of it.

The damage to my truck is mostly cosmetic because of the fiberglass hood and fenders, but there are a couple of broken parts under it, like a shock absorber and a sheared U-bolt.

New front door

 This old front door was overdue for replacement.

 It was hard to open and close in the winter and was leaky, too.

 The new one lets in the light and gives a new feel to the room.

Looks good, too. I am still looking for the storm door I want to put on. I want a half and half, but haven't found it yet.

Holly got moved today

Holly got moved today. She is now with all the other cows. Lisa, Heather and I walked her to the front pasture. She wasn't skittish, so Lisa has done very well taming her down.

Late September on the lake

 Heather and I took the boat up to the lake for a couple hours today. It was beautiful out on the water.

 We went for a swim while we were there. Willow went too, but isn't really a water dog.

 On the way back to the dock, we saw not one, but TWO bald eagles. I think they are mates because they pretty close together.

 They were in the same area as the one I saw earlier in the year, so they must live there.

Willow doesn't mind wading, but she isn't real big on swimming. After swimming, she has to get out and find some dirt to roll in.

New Molly

This is Molly, our new Hereford heifer. Heather, Lisa, and Jim picked her up today.

Chair #2

This is what the second chair base ended up looking like. The shorter skirt DOES look better and still had plenty of support for the legs. I added a cross bar for a different style of wheel.

Dining room chair experiment

 I had an idea to get the broken chairs back in use. We needed another one since Heather moved back anyway. It was a fairly easy to build a base and add legs with casters to it.

It doesn't tilt or swivel like the original one did, but maybe won't break like the original one, either. I think the next one will have a smaller skirt on the base, though. This is a bit of overkill for the structural support that a chair needs.

Fixing the brakes again

 I started off this morning by putting new wheel cylinders on the back of the truck. I should have replaced them when I put new shoes on it a couple months back, but just didn't have the extra money then. The electric impact made wheel removal much easier.

 The first side came apart easily and also re-assembled fairly easily. This always makes me nervous. Today was no exception. The other side fought me every turn.

I did get it changed with no bloodshed, but ended up with sore fingers. They will be fine tomorrow.

Finally on the lake again

I finally got back out to the lake again. It seems like every time I wanted to go, something else came up, or the weather was bad. Anyway, I had a hot sunny day and the lake was fairly busy. That is to be expected with the water being so warm. (87)

Good day for boating

 We had a beautiful day and I finished the mowing yesterday, so I took the boat out for a while. Perfect boating weather, too. Water temp was 83 and air was 85, with a slight breeze blowing.

 I found some fish in this cove, and caught a couple stripers, a few bluegill, and a tiny largemouth bass. They seemed to stop biting after noon, so I jumped in for a swim. Very nice!

 I watched this guy fly across the lake and land in a tree along the shoreline.

I got as close as I could, but I really needed a higher resolution camera with a bit more zoom.

More on the shed, and other stuff

 The doors were installed on the shed yesterday. I still need to paint them and add the rest of the hardware - the latches and the slider bolts.

 Since the water pump didn't work last time I tried to take the boat out, I put a new one in today. It isn't really hard to do. There are some small parts that can be a real headache.

 Full disassembly and waiting for the parts to be put back in. In the correct order, of course.

 Reassemble and re-install the lower unit. It is a bad thing to have any parts left over. There weren't any parts left over. I will test it tomorrow, but expect everything to work fine.

Last, but not least was Heather's car. It was a bit overdue for an oil change, so we did that today, too.

Weekend project: rebuilding the shed

 I needed to replace my leaky old shed and this weekend turned out to be the right time. I had extra hands and could get a few more.

 I picked up most of the supplies we would need on Friday before Allen got here.

 The new roofing material - bright white to help cut down on excessive heat build-up.

 Allen and I got all 4 walls built on Saturday. We covered them in case it decided to rain, but luckily, it didn't.

 We emptied some of the stuff out of the shed and unscrewed it from the base, then after Heather got here, tipped it off the back of the base. Heather and Lisa then dismantled it so we could re-use the sheet metal for the new walls. There are lots more pictures on Heather's facebook page.

 We had proper supervision, of course.

Almost finished covering the walls at lunch time today. I did finish the center section. The new door was just a bit oversized, so I'll have to sand it down before I can install it.
A big THANK YOU to Lisa and Jim for helping, as well as Heather and Allen.

Good bye to the blue truck

My Chevy truck was bought this morning. I hope it serves the new owners well, as it did for me.

Stormy night

 There was a double rainbow during a small break in the storms. I managed to get a picture of it.

 One shaft of sunlight lit up the hill out back. It was spectacular, but only lasted for a minute or two.

Even more impressive without the camera flash and showing the dark sky behind the hill.

Exploring Grayson Lake

 It's still early in the year for boating, but I thought the water would be higher than this. I still had no trouble launching, though.

 There are a lot of rock outcroppings lining the lake. Some have an overhang that will disappear when the water is up to summer pool.

 This Canadian Goose was not thrilled by my presence.

 I ran across some very large formations, most were down the lake quite a ways. There is a lot more to the lake than I originally thought.

The dam and marina where I launched. There are quite a few jumbo houseboats docked there. One of them even has a corkscrew slide coming down from the 3rd deck.