The Wood Warms You Twice, as the saying goes

Rich and I finally got to work on the red oak tree we felled 2004 January, sawed it into logs and began splitting it.  Fortunately, a slight bend in the trunk held much of the trunk off the ground so not much rot had encroached, little heat value lost.  This photo shows most of the logs sitting where the tree fell, we'd already split ~four logs.


Here's Rich's Volvo and our Trooper loaded with ~six logs worth of split firewood.  Rich had already taken the ~four logs worth home a day prior.

Mark Hewitt's Spring Kiln Opening

May 6, we visited Mark's pottery.  Often, at his kiln openings, the ~thousand pots diappear entirely in a matter of hours.  Pots seemed to move a bit more slowly this sale, I think Mark's finally finding price equilibrium.  At first, I thought the fellow in the foreground to be Mark, but he's a visitor.

Small Engine Repair 101 Redux ... Again

The new short block arrived.  Here's the destroyed block and the new block side by each.

I reassembled the engine without difficulty except the engine manual has no specific instructions how to adjust the governor linkage.  Not wanting to blow the engine again, I took it to Arvin and let the mech adjust it.  Back home, I reassembled the chipper/shredder shrouds onto the engine.  I've shredded the pile of leaves I'd started when it threw its rod and it runs like it did when it was new.  I hope this "learning experience" is over.

N.B.  Techumseh apparently acknowledged the flaw in this engine, that of the crankshaft running directly in a hole in the case.  This short block has bronze bearings for both ends of the crankshaft.  Let's hope it continues to run smoothly as long as I have brush piles to chip and leaf piles to shred.

Another Cracked Helmet Bites the Dust

I don't recall this Giro Eclipse helmet taking a blow that would've caused this crack, certainly didn't endo it into the pavement.  Nevertheless, it had to be replaced.  Being one of a matched pair we wear while riding Maizey, we decided to replace Jeanne's helmet too even though it has no damage.  We chose Limar F107 in Yellow Jeans at steep discount.  They look good and fit great with a clever design that positions the Y-strap exactly at the bottom of ear lobe.