A comedy of frustration

Almost two weeks ago we drove to our cabin to get more firewood and change the blade on our chipper.  The latter was to set it up for winter storage.

After I hit a deer in March, I’ve been leery of driving alone.  I try to go only when my “eagle-eye” wife can also watch for deer.  She is pretty good at seeing deer dozens of feet from the road and even calls attention to deer busy eating dozens of feet from the road.

But, probably close to where I hit the deer in March, another deer was in front of the car.  I slammed on the brakes, hit the deer, and then it was standing well off the road wondering what happened.  I got out and checked the front end but found nothing even scratched.

We continued on to our cabin and discovered a snowplow mound of snow across our drive.  OK, I’ll get out the shovel in back and clear it off.

Except there was no shovel in the back.  We hadn’t put it in before we left.

OK, I’ll get the snowblower.  It had started with only a couple of pulls a few  weeks ago.  I uncovered it, pushed the primer a few times, and pulled the starter cord.  One times, two times, three times… Nothing!

I pushed it back to the cabin in order to plug it in.  Even though there was not much snow, it still was an effort to get the wheels to turn.

i unburied the cord from under the splitter and plugged it into the outside outlet and into the snowblower.  The power-on light on the cord didn’t come on.  With a bit of wiggling, I got it to come on.  I plugged it into the snow blower and pushed the ignition button.  Nothing!  Not even a few turnovers.

So, I grabbed a snow shovel and went back to the road.  My wife had used a little shovel that belongs in her car to clear a goodly amount of the snow.  I used the bigger shovel to get more out of the way.

Finally we were able to drive into our parking space and unload the car.

We ate our lunch and then I went back out to put the snowblower back by the parking space.  As I started to heave it along, I noticed that the electric cord was not attached to the spark plug!

I put the cord back on the spark plug, and I think I had the snowblower going in three pulls.

The good news was that I was able to work on getting the chipper blade off.  I had already spent three weekends trying to loosen the nuts holding it in place.  I used two different kinds of penetrating oil.  Now I came armed with acetone and a ten-inch breaker bar.  The hardware store recommended acetone to loosen the blue Loctite, supply the level that could be loosened with hand tools.

I decided to try the breaker bar first.  It is long-handled socket wrench.

Would you believe that the nuts loosened with only three or so pushes?

I took the nuts and bolts off the flywheel and the chipper knife, the latter well-nicked.  And I managed not to drop the knife to the bottom of the housing as I pulled it out.  That would be lots finagling to get it past the flywheel.

I didn’t put the sharp knife on.  Our time was running short.  I sort of stuffed all the tools and parts into the shed and covered the chipper up.  I did take off the battery and the solar charging panel to take home to a warm basement.

Putting the chipper back together will have to wait until spring.  ’Tis a pity!  We have a huge pile of balsam boughs to chip.

Two missed wildlife photo ops

As we drove to our cabin today, I saw a large bird at the side of the road.  At first I thought it was a turkey and I slowed down.  As we got nearer, I saw that it was a raptor and was standing on a weasel or rodent.  I got my camera out just as it struggled to take off.

It started flying down the road with its prey in front of us about eight feet off the ground.  The wing span was at least as wide as our Trailblazer.  It wasn't an eagle because it was a mottled gray.  Later we guessed it was an osprey.

It moved more to the side of the road and then I lost it.  I should have stopped the car, gotten out, and started taking pictures before I got too close.  Oh, well, I probably won't learn for the next time.

When we pulled into our cabin drive, we saw a doe and two fawns in the meadow at the end of the drive.  I stopped the car, got out my camera, and took a picture through the window.

I got a picture, but I was too slow.  The doe had moved off behind some trees, but one fawn was scratching its ear with its hind leg.  Of course, the picture was a bit blurry.  It still is somewhat satisfying after cropping and blowing up, especially with the nonchalant fawn.

What I thought I saw wasn't a puddy tat

As I was driving back from our cabin yesterday, I saw a medium size dog crossing the road.  But it didn't look quite like a dog.  It was too heavy for a fox and it was dark brown.  It had a black tip on its tail and a short snout.  I wondered if it was a wolverine.

I pulled over to take a picture, but I was too slow.  Almost as soon as I stopped, it went into the line of trees and into a clear cut area.  I really could see it among all the left-behind debris.  This was along Hwy. 44, probably between Pequaywan Inn and the North Star Fire Dept.

When I got home, I looked up wolverine and chose the Wikipedia site.  The picture at the top right of the page looks very much like what I saw.  Click on it for a bigger picture.

I misled myself yesterday because I scanned through the text without that picture registering in my mind.  Two later pictures show a couple of pelts and a wolverine in rocky terrain.  All three show lighter fur that I didn't see as the wolverine crossed my path.  When I noticed the picture today, it was an ah-ha moment.  It definitely was not a puddy tat!