"All the people like us are we, and everyone else is they." - Rudyard Kipling

Note the wording on the side of the building.

A mixed day on Baker Rd. I started cutting wood and decided the chain on my saw had no life left in it, despite sharpening it twice. So I put on the new chain I had in reserve, but apparently didn't tighten one of the lockdown nuts sufficiently, and it disappeared into the mess that is the log pile. The Stihl dealership was closed for the holiday, so no more cutting wood.

Pam had to go into Walmart ("the wrong place to be on Labor Day!") so I worked on the goat pen, cutting the run of fence that will run along the west side and tacking it to the far post. 74' of field fence is heavy. Once the slash pile is burned I can put in the T-posts, unroll the fence and slip it in place.

I climbed the slash pile - that was exciting - and put a tarp over about 25% of it, all that I could cover with the biggest tarp they sell. It's supposed to rain tonight and tomorrow. I was told that if I keep even a portion of the pile dry it will burn so hot that the rest of the pile will go up without a problem.

Then I build a gate for the pen. I allowed for a 1/2" gap along the side so it would open and close easily. Something between measuring and construction went wrong and it binds in the opening. I haven't put the hinges on yet; will do that tomorrow if there's a break in the weather. There may be a belt sander in this gate's future. Drat!

For over a year the Kia's audio has been almost unusable. It's OK if the car isn't running, but start up the engine and there's a bad electronic whine that increases in pitch as the engine speeds up. That's typically a sign of a bad ground wire. With 36 hours on the road coming up, 18 hours each way, it would sure be nice to have a working audio system. There are long stretches down the CA central valley and across the AZ desert where the only radio stations are either Spanish language or Country music, but I've got a book on CD, that would also be impossible with that very loud whine. It seriously drives you bonkers inside of two minutes. I think they use something similar at Guantanamo.

Today I took some of the dash pieces off and found a loose connection. One of those clips that has a dozen small wires going into a plastic connector wasn't fully snapped into its mate. As soon as I pushed the two connectors together and got that "snap" that indicates they're locked in place...problem solved. Put the dash pieces back on with only one screw left over.
So...we've been without a car audio system for over a year because of a problem it took me all of 20 minutes to fix.
doh!

Coffee and chocolate chip cookies. I've earned it.