Over the past two weekends I’ve planted three new trees around our yard: a red maple, a plum, and a kwanza cherry. All three were about 11 - 12 feet in height. You don’t realize how heavy those root balls can be until you’ve had to deal with one. To move the two into our backyard ot took me and my neighbor’s son, literally running the wheel barrel up the backyard to get enough momentum to get them up on our hill. My father helped me with the cherry - that one wasn’t too bad because it had a short trip from the back of my truck to our front yard. We replaced a dying blue spruce that we had transplanted to this particular spot three years ago when we moved here. After cutting it down we had to use a 2×4 to give us enough leverage to pry it out of the ground. Even then it was a bear to roll out of the hole and onto the grass.

A while ago I received an email from the folks at Keystome Homebrew saying that they were taking orders for fresh Chilean grapes and juice. Chile has a different growing season over there so around this time of year is when their fresh stuff comes in. I placed an order for a six gallon bucket of Merlot and got a message yesterday saying the shipment arrived. This afternoon I picked up my order along with a few other things and brought this home:

This evening I didn’t waste any time and got things cleaned up and started right away. I have another container that I’ve used as a primary fermenter but the bucket the juice came in will do just fine. My initial hydrometer reading is apx. 1.090 and the temperature in that back room of my basement is about 68 degrees.

Everything sealed back up after adding the yeast:

This evening I spent some time trying to figure out one of the issues I have with my flash. I seem to have fixed the firing problem where the two contacts weren’t touching - I cut a short piece of a paper clip and more or less just wedged it into the hynge opening of the flash housing, making sure it stuck out just enough to catch the end of the long contact. Wedging it in there like I did was enough to hold it in place, even while the flash was up, but I thought perhaps a little something extra might be helpful… so I mixed up some two part epoxy and added it in around the paperclip and inside the hinge area, making sure not to get it on any moving parts. It seems to have done the trick.

Flash down. Arrows pointing to the longer of the two contacts, the end of the paper clip, and the point at which the two contacts meet.

Flash up. Arrow pointing to the two contacts now touching, due to the paperclip pulling on the longer of the two contacts.

As for the issue I’m having with the flash not able to close anymore, I’ll probably just end up using some tape to hold it down until I can figure out a better way to engage the latching mechanism on the other side of the housing.

Last week I got into my truck and attempted to lower my window. As I did, I heard a loud noise and the window subsequently stopped moving. I took off the inside door panel later that night to take a look around and it turned out the wire that’s part of the window regulator just tore in two. I ordered a replacement regulator from car-stuff.com and it came this week. Removal and installation this evening went without a hitch. Once of my colleagues needs to do the same thing on his car so I thought I would help by documenting the process…

Driver side window regulator replacement on a 2002 Chevy Avalanche.

1. Remove the door panel. There’s a 7mm bolt that’s exposed just under the door handle and another one that’s behind the control switches. You’ll want to remove the triangle shaped trim to the right of the window as well as the trim cover behind the door lever. Disconnect the wires from the control switches and slowly lift the door panel. There’s another connection to the speaker you have to remove, and then also the door light bulb and wire located towards the bottom of the door.

2. Next you’ll need to remove the water deflector. I’ve done this a couple times so mine came off pretty easy, but make sure you don’t rip it because you’ll need to replace it. I removed the bolt that holds the door lever. It slides off and I just let it hang there. I did end up having to cut a slit through the plastic in order to get the deflector over the door lever.

3. At this point you’ll need to raise the window all the way up. If your wire has broken like mine it should be pretty easy to do. I secured the window with blue painter’s tape. Use a lot of it and you’ll get the same strength as duct tape, but without the residue.

4. Remove the wire harness that’s connected to the window motor.

5. Loosen the two bolts on the clamps that hold the window.

6. On the Avalanche, there are a total of six bolts that hold the window regulator in place. Remove all six.

6. Once the bolts are removed you should be able to jiggle the clamps loose, collapse the window regulator in on itself, and rotate it 90 degrees in order to be able get it out from inside the door.

The failed regulator:

The new regulator:

7. Now to install the new regulator simply do everything in reverse. Before I placed it inside the door I loosened the two bolts on the window clamps. After getting it in the door, I added all six bolts back in place, and once was happy with the way everything was situated, tightened them down. At this point I also reconnected the motor’s wire harness. The window clamps were just a few inches lower than I needed them to be so I temporarily reconnected the wire harnesses back to the control switches and raised the regulator up. This was also a quick way of testing to make sure the new motor and regulator were working properly.

8. Once raised, tighten the two bolts on the window clamps.

9. Remove the tape, and test the window.

10. Replace the water deflector. I used a weather-proof plastic tape to help the membrane stick back onto the door. You should double check exactly where your door panel will go back on to make sure no tape is revealed behind it.

11. Replace the door panel.

12. Celebrate the fact that you’ve got yourself a working window again.

I did something really stupid on Sunday while up in Jim Thorpe: I dropped my camera. I brought it with me to take on the trails and as I was taking it out of the car, the strap got caught on something and it pulled the camera right out of my hands. It fell upside down on top of the flash housing.

The most obvious damage occurred to the built-in flash. The little plastic hook that releases the flash and allows it to pop up had broken off, so the flash doesn’t stay down anymore. After checking the camera over I realized there was other damage to the flash that was now keeping it from firing. Thankfully everything else seems ok.

This evening I took apart the flash housing to see what was going on and I realized that the flash is still functioning, but that another plastic component had broken off, keeping a connection from being made. There are two little metal contacts that look like they should be pulled together when the flash pops up. When I do this with a pair of tweezers it does what it’s supposed to and fires. If I want to get this working again I’ll have to figure out a way to get these two contacts touching.

The set of contacts are towards the bottom of the exposed flash housing:

The little rectangular hole here is where the plastic hook should be:

Photos courtesy of my old Nikon 990 that I took out of storage.

We spent this past weekend up in Jim Thorpe for our 6th anniversary. Believe it or not, it was the first time we had been alone for a night without the girls (4+ years). It was well worth it… Neither of us could remember the last time we woke up in bed without a child sprawled out between the two of us.

Saturday we spent our time walking around town, stepping in and out of the shops, and even took a tour of the Asa Packer mansion. - This place had some insane woodworking and carvings all throughout the house. Lunch was had at JT’s Steak & Ale and dinner at a place called Moya. - We recommend both.

That night we ended up staying in a B&B called the Minnie Victoria. Susan, the inn keeper, was such a pleasant host that it made our stay even that more enjoyable. Her house was gorgeous and she made us these delicious little heart-shaped waffles in the morning. How we ended up there was a bit comical… We had reservations at another B&B downtown, but when we got there to check in we were greeted by an individual that my wife uses the anology of Jack Nicholson in The Shining, as a way to describe him. This guy’s creepy factor was through the roof and the inn itself was something left to be desired. We couldn’t run out of that place any faster than we did.

On Sunday we went hiking up and down the rails to trails along the Lehigh River. Here was a small set of falls that we came across:

We also picked up a few loose railroad spikes that were strewn around the old tracks:

I like to fly a flag outside our house during the nicer months and for the past few years we’ve had one up, but it’s taken a beating through the elements. The sun had faded it and worst of all it was torn up beyond belief, because every once in a while the wind would be so bad that it would get itself caught on the roof gutter above it. I finally got around to buying a replacement for it a few weeks ago, but it didn’t seem right to just throw out the old one. I did some reading, and it turns out there’s a proper way to dispose of the American Flag - See Title 4, Chapter 1, Sec 8k of the US Code Colletion. So I did as this mentions; respectfully folded up the flag and burned it in a fire this evening.

Finished up a new painting last week. It’s been a while since I’ve painted, but it felt good to get back into it. This particular piece had been started last year - just never got around to finishing it. Not sure why, but I felt inspired the other night and decided to take a swing at it.

The two pieces of 2×4’s in the center came from a pile of wood my Dad gave me as part of his winemaking equipment. He would stack up these blocks of wood in his wine press as he crushed and pressed the grapes. Some of the red discoloring on them is probably from the grapes.

The painting measure 36″ H x 48″ W. I used a plastering technique I taught myself last summer over top of most of the surface. House paint was used for the colors along with roofing tar around the blocks of wood. Rusty nails protrude from the wood with some copper wire wrapped around a few of them. And the four things in the corners are carriage bolts.

A detail of one of the four carriage bolts:

A detail of the 2×4 blocks:

Another detail of the right side block and the “S” that was on it:

So this morning I thought about my yard’s to-do list, specifically with regards to our lawn. It needs to be aerated… badly. I tend to not bag my lawn clippings and so the thatch that accumulates is pretty thick. I’ve known about these silly shoes you can buy that will help you aerate your lawn but from what I’ve read they don’t have the best of reviews (in regards to their design as well as their use). Regardless, I thought to myself… hey, I think I can make those! And so for the next couple of hours I proceeded to do just that…

1. Grab a pair of old sneakers.
2. Trace the outline of the sneakers onto 1/2″ pressure treated lumber, and cut out the patterns.
3. Align the sneakers with the boards and drill two holes (one in front and one in back) through the bottoms of the shoes and into the wood.
4. Pre-drill a bunch of random holes in the wood, large enough to except 1 1/2″ decking screws.
5. Proceed to drive your screws through the boards.
6. Fasten the shoes to your iron-maiden-like platforms with carriage bolts.
7. Walk in circles around your lawn so that your neighbors think you’re crazy.

Yes, I know… it’s a bit ridiculous. But I laughed out loud at myself this afternoon when I tested them out and that was well worth it.

They seem to go into the ground only about half an inch or so - which hardly does any good - but I hacksawed off the protruding ends of the lag bolts so when I use them again they’ll hopefully go in a little further. I figure I’ll use them every once in a while when I mow the lawn - that way I’ll only sometimes look like nut job while I’m out there. :)