who trains who?

The last two days I've found a mouse in one of the traps in the barn. Yesterday, instead of disposing of the corpse in the usual place in the forest (nicknamed the crow buffet), I set it belly up about six feet down hill from the bird feeders outside the house. In less than an hour it was gone. I put today's in the same spot, in less than a half hour it was gone. From my perspective the bluejays are handy waste disposals. From the bluejays perspective I'm put on the earth to provide them with a variety of food.

Yesterday was a lazy date. Got up late, didn't get moving very quickly, took a walk with a friend Wolfe's Neck State Park, and then it got dark shortly thereafter. I did get one lilac trimmed and dragged all the plum trimmings up for processing. Today I clipped up the plum limbs so they could either go in the barn for twig bundles or by the sawbuck for small rounds cutting. Also disposed of the lilac trimmings, trimmed another lilac, and cleaned up various things around the yard.

All this week the weather has been like September. One warm day in November is pretty much par for the course, but an entire week in the '60's and '70's does not feel right. The grass is green and growing still.

van again

So I had the van hauled off last weekend to get the alignment, coolant flush, brake fluid flush and inspection done. I got a call on Tuesday with the verdict. There was work that needed to be done, some of which was not surprising: rubber brake lines replaced, rubber clutch line replaced. The only surprise was the steering rack was bad. Well that isn't entirely surprising. With how much I had to replace on the front end, I wouldn't have been able to feel if the steering rack was also bad. And given how much it costs to replace one, what is on there is probably original. So that is getting done. It would have been cheaper to do it myself, but I really want to get it mobile before the snow, so I'll take the hit.

I hope to get it back this week. Then if I have time I'll take it up to Harpswell for an estimate on body work and engine. Then it goes into storage for the winter.

The driveway looks weird with nothing parked in that spot, but it will be much easier to clear the snow with nothing sitting in that corner.