Name That Tool

by capper

While cleaning out the garage up north, I came across many old tools of my grandfather's, that I have no idea what they are. I will ask you, the reader, to see if anyone can identify them, as I get their pictures up.

This is the first one, pictured closed:



And here it is opened:




When opened, the metal part can be put in any position and held by tightening the wing nut. The angled edge is flat, so it is not a cutting tool. Given my late grandfather's skill at woodworking, I would presume it has something to do with that, but that is just a guess. The entire length of the tool when closed is about six inches.

Does anyone have any ideas on what this might be?


PS: Yes, I found it very difficult to write this post, referring to tools and wing nuts, and not make some crack about Charlie Sykes or Patrick McIlheran.

We're Grandparents!

by capper

OK, not really grandparents. But my wife and I have spent more than a few days up north over the last couple of weeks to get things cleaned up from the winter season. We finally found and signed up a contractor to repair the roof of the house and the garage, and needed to get things prepared before they could start work.

During that time, we had some "additions to the family":

Baby Phoebe

Baby Robin:

The bad part about the robin is where its parents decided to build their nest-right in the wreckage of the garage:

The good news is that the baby should be all grown and out of their by the time the contractors are ready to start.

More Progress Up North

by capper

First, thanks to everyone who has asked about my place up north. Things are getting better, albeit at a snail's pace.

The good news is that the Lambeauni rides (and mows) again. If you remember, it was buried under snow and debris:



After the snow finally melted, I was able to physically pull it out of the garage. Once outside, I got the key and tried it and with a big belch of smoke it started like nothing happened to it. The only serious problem was that the steering wheel was shattered. I was able to order a replacement wheel and put it on this past weekend:



There are a couple of scuffs and scratches on the hood, but nothing that probably wouldn't have happened just from use.

The garage is still a wreck, and I am having bad luck finding a contractor that isn't either swamped in work, charging through the nose, has a bad reputation, or any combination thereof.

Over the Memorial Day weekend, we are planning on cleaning out the rest of the contents and start on the take down of what's left of the roof:

If anyone is interested in buying some old tools, like planes and a hand drill, let me know.

Two Steps Forward, One Step Back

by capper

Just wanted to provide an update on my ongoing saga regarding the mutant winter we have had.
You may remember, I had a really bad weekend five weeks ago, when this happened:




Well, at long last, things are starting to look up, and I finally got my vehicle back. I was a bit concerned as that I didn't really have much of a choice in body shops up there, but the guy did a really good job. He paid enough attention to detail that he even hung up my Packer stuff up the same way I had it:

We also had the first contractor in to give us an estimate. To do the garage, including the door, the roof and repairing and reinforcing the roof over the trailer, should be within our range, with the money that we got from the insurance company, and some bucks we had squirreled away from my grandfather's estate.

I also learned some things that will help us save some bucks. I learned how I can get the roof down safely without risking life and limb. I also learned how to fix the roof, but I don't have the right equipment. To buy the lumber, the hardware and the tools would cost about as much as having someone do the job. Plus having someone else do it means I have someone to yell at if it goes wrong.

The only real negative to the weekend, was that the western side of the roof has totally caved in now. The Lambeauni went from this:



to this:



The snow is slowly melting, but only to refreeze every night and form a miniglacier in the middle of the garage. Hopefully, we'll be able to get in there in two or three weeks.

As far as my progress at being the next St. Francis of Assisi...well, they're not feeding out my hands yet, but the flying squirrels did let me get close enough to them for this shot:


The little buggers are fun to watch. They zip around like they've stumbled on someone's meth lab just before coming to eat their dinner.

One Bright Side To The Winter

by capper

As I mentioned before, the past month has been pretty rough on the capper family.

There was one shining moment. Although it may seem trivial, I'm sure even Patrick at Badger Blogger would admit it was special. Like Patrick, my wife and I enjoy feeding and watching the birds, squirrels, deer and other critters that inhabit our neck of the woods.

After seeing the garage, and feeling sorry for myself for a couple of hours, I made myself get up and go out to fill all the feeders. SIDENOTE: To show how crazy we are, we have a squirrel feeder, three feeders just for the goldfinches (they love their thistle seed), a suet feeder, a bell feeder, three feeders for mixed seed and three feeders for sunflower seeds. We also have a ground feeder and a small trough for corn to keep the deer, raccoons and turkeys from the other feeders. In the spring we will put out our oriole feeder, our hummingbird feeder, and two other feeders that Santa gave us.

Anywho, as I was filling the feeders, the birds, who we hadn't been able to feed for three weeks, were rather hungry, and became quite noisy and active, encouraging me to move faster. As I was doing the sunflower seed feeders, two chickadees were bouncing from branch to branch just a few feet above me, chiding me that I still wasn't going fast enough. Kiddingly, I grabbed a handful of sunflower seeds and held my hand out saying, "OK, if you're than hungry, come and get it."

To my surprise, one of them made several passes at my hand, but veered off at the last moment. It got so close I could feel the wind from its wings. The second one was a bit braver. It took one pass before coming back and settling on my index finger. It looked at me for about ten seconds, gave out a series of chirps, took a seed and flew back up to the tree to eat.

Like I said, it was a trivial moment in the grand scheme of things, but it was enough to bring a smile to my face and give me enough strength to carry on. To have such a small creature put enough faith in me to trust me to eat out of my hand, well, that did a lot to help me pick myself up, emotionally speaking.

Next, I'm going to work on the flying squirrels we got up there...