Culinary Adventures At Vaclav's Hovel

Jennifer and I canned some of the bounty from the garden (just about all you see in these jars - even the dill - came from the garden). The summer squash and zucchini on the left were canned in a water bath, the dill pickles on the right are closed by hand and reefered.

Cara made fried green tomatoes, which we all enjoyed at dinner that night. I had never eaten one but I will gladly pester her to make them again.

Living Room Floor Is Done

We started putting some trim in, as shown in the next two photos.


Here is specific info on the floor.

The Living Room Floor

Jennifer tacks the felt down. We chose felt over paper for because we think it keeps the noise down.


Jennifer asked if we could do it diagonally; I hemmed and hawed and finally said, "what the hey."

Jennifer whacking the flooring nailer. Her shoes are called "Chacos" by the way. She loves them.

Using a basher block and hammer to set a new board.

Looking back at what's done

Looking at what's left to be done.


We had a rainbow today.
We'll finish the floor tomorrow. We were going to go to the beach, but I think we gotta put that aside. Even if we go for an hour, it's a five-hour excursion, easily (1.5 to 2 hour drive to Long Beach, NY).

Hole Gone

' nuff said.

Getting Rid Of the Hole In the Floor

With the grate up and against the wall, you can see the duct here is old and collects a lot of crap. I found $.50, a few pieces of Lego, a spoon, an old battery, and a lot of dust, cat hair, and feathers.

Ductwork is now removed.

The plenum is easily visible now.

Looking up from the basement. The box that surrounded the hole is now gone.

Getting the old, short joist out was a bitch.

It's gone now. You can see where it used to be because the wood is lighter, and you can see that some subfloor planks ended on that joist. Great, so I decide to put in two joists because the ends of those planks are all shredded.

First joist goes in. I cut them to 12' where the distance from sill to beam was about 10'. I beveled the ends that went on the sill and the beam to make them easier to pop in, then used a screw jack to push them in place.

Second joist in place. Notice long afternoon shadows....
Tomorrow I will cover the hole and we'll put in the LR floor.

Oh yeah - I had to swing these replacement joists around without disrupting a gas line, a fridge, ductwork, water pipes, and all within less space than was ideal.

The "Paul, are you crazy?" project is almost over.

Saw Gets a New Shoe

I replaced the shoe on the Skilsaw, finally. The old one is in the foreground. For some reason I can hear Laura chuckling as she reads this.
My brother tells me there is an archetype or a story called My Grandfather's Axe. "This is my grandfather's axe; I replaced the handle twice and the head once, but it is still my grandfather's axe."

I am uncertain of the origin of the story or the meaning (is it about thrift? rememberance?). If anyone does, holler.

I just found out that this is the Paradox of Theseus. Go live it up with ontological paradoxes if you like.

this is the saw my brother gave me. i replaced the shoe once and the blade many times, but this is still the saw my brother gave me.

Why did I change the shoe? The old one, pointed to by the arrow on the left in the photo below, has a hole to hold a thumbscrew, which pressed down on a rip guide that goes through the adjacent channel. The threads in the thumbscrew hole were stripped. The new shoe, pointed to by the arrow on the right, has an additional guide for the rip guide, and the hardware for tilting the saw and adjusting the depth is a little better than the original.

Pictures of Beacon

1) From the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge, looking south toward Long Dock .
2)Also from the bridge, looking down the railroad. That's an MTA train headed to New Hamburgh, then ultimately, Poughkeepsie. Those are water chestnuts growing along the shore.

3)Two cormorants are facing each other on pilings. They, and loons, are my favorite birds.

4)Water chestnuts, also known as water caltrops.

5)The view to the south from the tip of Denning's point.