Steamed At Us

We went to the Oregon Steam-Up yesterday, and we had a good time, especially before the heavy overcast burned off. I sort of wish we'd gone earlier in the day and had breakfast there, since they opened at 7. Once the clouds burned off and the sun came out, it got very hot. One fault of the site is that there aren't a lot of places where you can sit in the shade.

( Bear is Sore At Us )

( Clang, Clang, Clang Goes the Trolley )

It was a pretty good day, all in all. I enjoy coming to this event. Lisa said that the Steampunk types should come and look at real steam in action: steam-powered tractors, sawmill, a railroad crane, and other examples of good old fashioned Steam Power.

Brush Patrol

After we got back from Steam-Up, we were all very tired. Lisa sort of collapsed into bed with Kuma Bear. I had a snack, but I wasn't so tired as to need to take a nap. It was getting on about 6 PM, which means it had cooled off sufficiently to get some outdoor work done. I retrieved my coveralls and kitted up for work.

In this photo, you can see to the left of the ladder a large tree/brush, part of which is a big rose bush. Lisa had said that we needed to substantially trim this thing back to make room for a ladder, because eventually she must go up to the edge of the roof there and trim off the loose bits. To do that, we'll need room to put the ladder.

I have not been able to work on that bush while she's on the roof because it's in the line of fire. Anything dropped or dripped from the roof lands there. However, with Lisa asleep, I had a good opportunity to tackle the bush. I plied the clippers and shears and discovered what a mess it was. A fair bit of the bush was actually a couple of runaway branches from another nearby tree. After about 90 minutes, I had managed to reduce the growth to this:
( The Nub of the Matter )

I left the pile of debris in place because it was nearly dark when I quit for the night and put the tools away. This morning, it was cool and overcast again, and instead of hauling brush, I got out the splitting maul and broke up three pieces of the poplar tree into more-easily transported pieces. At 11 AM, I had an SFSFC Board of Directors meeting, which I took by conference call from Lisa's father's house in my "office" there. Lisa came over just after I'd finished up. She had hauled all of the debris to the "coal seam," which is a pretty big task by itself.

In the mid-day, it's too hot to work outside, so we went back inside and dealt with computer stuff. We'll work some more when it cools off again.