Some days are more interesting than others, and this was one of them.
I made good progress at the coffee shop and had interesting conversations on the way in and the way out. (In between I'm over in the corner, often with my ear buds in, focused on my writing.) George is the classic old guy coming up on 80 who's lived here his whole life, went as far as graduating from H.S., and can build just about anything mechanical. He's having a "yard sale" Saturday that I'll go to, but I've been warned that if I'm not careful I'm likely to come away with tetanus. Apparently there is metal junk everywhere and just walking through the place is difficult. George is something of a hoarder.
I left for a 3-mile run at about 11:30 and got home at 1:15. I felt surprisingly strong and ran at a good clip...until I got to a place on Sheffler just before Baker Rd. It's a rental property owned by our friends David & Marta (she's our goat mentor) and I could hear him working up there so I walked up the steep drive to talk with him.
David is a rare breed. With only a H.S. education David, in his mid-50's, has mad skills at almost anything physical. They have 300 acres, most of it thickly wooded. David cuts trees, mills the logs, and makes his own lumber with which he builds anything imaginable, from homes to barns. He has everything from bulldozers, to harvesters and balers, to boom trucks, to.... most of which he bought on the cheap because they didn't run/work until he got his hands on them.
We talked for about an hour and I learned more in that 60 minutes than I have in most weeks. David took a piece of cardboard and sketched out the trusses I'll use for MoHo's new roof, including all the specs for span and spacing. He said I can probably have them made for less money than making them myself because they can use hemlock (cheaper) which I can't buy at Home Depot and the like.
I also learned that tanning Itzhak's hide isn't worth the time and money in chemicals. If I really wanted it tanned I'd do better to send it off to a commercial outfit. (I don't)
We talked about thoroughbred horses (he's a legit expert), and their church here in Veneta where Pam and I went last Sunday.
Good guy! Knowledgable and humble, a rare combination.
This afternoon I went to Napa's and picked up the pads and rotors to do the front brakes on the Kia. What are the chances that the screws holding on the rotors for the last 8 years aren't rusted in place? I'll let you know tomorrow night because I'll be out there first thing in the morning laying in the gravel, hoping to get this job done before temps hit the mid-80's.
If I do finish it before lunch we'll go into town to pick out a chest freezer we'll need for the goat meat I'll soon have and the fruits and veggies we'll have especially next year when we know more about our gardening efforts. We *might* even have some fruit from our trees next year. Plus, I can make and freeze pie crusts and/or complete pies for baking later.
Life is good on Baker Rd.
T'ank you, Fadder.
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