It Sucks

I finally emptied and took down the wood storage rack that has been in use for about 20 years. In its place I installed this air cleaner, which I hope will save my lungs from fine shop dust. This is before I rotated it 180 degrees--it seemed better to have it sucking from the chop saw than blowing towards it!

Sky

 The snow has retreated, but has not gone. The days are often bright, but not warm. We still have woodfires, front and back. Still--lovely sky! 

Winter Light

This picture shows that there is still lots of snow to plow, but the real point is that gleam of light under the red pines. We have a lot of winter ahead, but there is a bright line of orange hope low amongst the trees.

The Beast

It was quite a wait--about a month--but the little beast has arrived, and there is still snow to plow. Later, we'll find a trailer for it so that it can replace the lawn tractor in hauling tasks, but for now...it's a plow!

Gleaming Winter

This is a winter of resurgence: as we inch toward Spring, we keep backsliding into hard winter. I suspect that when our little plow finally arrives, there will still be plenty of white stuff to push around. 

Best Brake Job Ever

Many factors made this a good brake job. First, the old rotors came off with a light tap; the "copper" no-seize did its work well. Next, I FILED the notches in the mounting bracket for the pad clips, right down to bright metal. Then the clips seated very nicely, and I inserted the pads with light hand pressure--no hammer work! This is partly because they were premium ceramic pads, and the backing plates were either machined or so well stamped they seemed so. No filing there! Although it was as cold as -25C outside, the garage was between -6C and -8C, so that was reasonably comfortable. The result was dramatic: smooth, progressive braking, even at high speed down Graveyard Hill, and not a hint of a shudder. Oh, and I used the coated rotors. Why not, eh? The culprit appeared to be the outer pad on the driver's side: it was firmly jammed in place. I also made use of my new piston compressor--very nice.

We're in for a few weeks of this. Never mind. We've made it this far and it can't last much longer.