After breakfast Linda downloaded the Hanks Writer to her iPad2 while I downloaded three app updates to mine. After checking in on the blogs that I follow, I spread some grass seed around the bare and thin spots in the back and west side of the yard by the house. I wanted to take care of that while it was cool and the ground was still damp with dew from the overnight lows in the upper 50’s.
Darryll did not call last night, so I did not expect him to be here today. Our son might be interested in the old window air-conditioner so we moved it to the southeast corner of the garage and plugged it in to make sure it worked. It did, so I sent him a text message to that effect.
We cleared off the table we have been using to cut drywall and got the 1/4″ birch plywood panel that will be the front of the box that encloses the electrical sub-panel and cables. We measured carefully, twice, laid out the cut lines, and checked the measurements again. We got the center cutout very close to correct on the first try and only had to trim it a little bit in one corner to get it to fit around the panel box. We did not secure it place as we still need to feed the thermostat cable through the wall and put some insulation in the wall cavity to the left of the panel as this is an outside wall.
With the carpentry work done we started cleaning and reorganizing the garage, making sure that Darryll will still have access to things he needs to work on. We plan to have the storage pod picked up on the 12th or 13th, so even though Darryll is not quite finished, we were anxious to start working on the rest of the garage.
We moved the tools and supplies we’ve been using to the three new shelving units on the east wall of the garage. We then unloaded two shorter units and two tall units on the west wall and spread everything out on the floor. We moved the units to the northeast wall, the shorter ones fitting nicely under the low end of the flue where it exits the utility closet wall. We went through the stuff on the floor and put some of it in the trash, set some of it aside to recycle, designated a few things to go to the Salvation Army, collected RV parts in boxes to take to the GLCC Surplus and Salvage rally next month, and put the rest back on the shelves.
We took a break for lunch and then finished up in the garage for the day. Linda worked at her desk and I changed out of my construction clothes into something more suitable for working at my desk. She made marinated baked tofu cubes for dinner, with sautéed green beans and corn-on-the-cob (organic and non-GMO, of course). We sat on the deck and watched our resident American Red Squirrel gather pine cones and move them under the cluster of three big fir trees where we presume it has a nest and pine cone midden. These trees have never been trimmed and the lower branches are sizable and long and the ends rest on the ground. I peeked in there the other day but did not see pine cones piled around any of the trunks like I expected, so I’m not sure where the midden is located.
I was up later than I should have been but I finished reading Big Lake Scandal. The fifth book in Nick Russell’s Big Lake murder mystery series, it was a good read. Nick has created an interesting place with interesting characters and reveals a little more about them with each volume. He is particularly good at capturing the way people might actually talk to one another on a daily basis in a small western town. He should know; he has spent a lot of time in such places over the years.