Wednesday, 01MAY, Dan continued making repairs to the old Sears ride’m lawn mower that we got for “free” several years ago. With the money we have spent on parts & the time Dan has spent fixing it, free is turning out to be pretty expensive. Dan is still working on rebuilding the mower deck with the new parts he got last year before our departure (see our 16-31AUG12 BLOG about the original start of renewing the rusted out mower deck). Unfortunately last year there was one part left over & Dan can’t figure where it goes, even with the downloaded repair manual? To test out the Sears mower Dan needed to move the tractor out of the barn, so the mower could be moved. Unluckily the tractor wouldn’t start – possible a dead battery? This forced Dan to get his hydraulic car jack & manually jack the dump bucket up on the tractor, blocking it up with wood as he went.
Eventually Dan got the Sears mower out of the barn & running; the repairs appear ok even with a part left over. So for next two hours Corrie used the “new” mower & Dan was on the Sears mower as we tried to mow three acres of grass! Dan also got the tractor battery tested & charged, so now the tractor runs. 02-04MAY was fantastic weather so there was more mowing, yard work, & even some bush hogging with the tractor.
05MAY (cinco de mayo) we headed to the Fremont neighborhood of Seattle for a food truck festival – aka “Mobile Food Rodeo”. Turns out it was the same day as weekly neighborhood market. The Rodeo featured over 30 food trucks, with six trucks competing for the best taco. Since it was Cinco de Mayo most of other Food Trucks had changed their menus to feature at least one taco item. We shared a shawarma, a fish taco, & a tequila/wild boar crepe from different food trucks that caught our eye. In honor of Cinco de Mayo we were even entertained by a Dairiachi Band sponsored by Darigold Dairies. On the way home we stopped at Costco & had many tasty free samples that they give out on Saturdays & Sundays. Between the food trucks & Costco no one felt like dinner at home that night!
Monday our DISH satellite went down & we needed a service call. Some how the roof dish had mysteriously moved & had to be re-aligned? Re-alignment is not a warranty issue so we were charged for the service call! Once again the tractor battery went dead & we needed to call Marty our tractor guy; he suspects a bad generator.
Tuesday, 07MAY, Dan’s newest BBQ toy arrived from overstock .com. Those of you we have visited us in our RV know we carry a small electric smoker to BBQ ribs or smoke pulled pork in. For RV use where you are limited by storage space it is ok; but it does take constant tending to control the temperature & constantly adding wood chips. Dan’s new state of the art system has digital controls for the smoke & the temperature. It also has a self loading wood system that can go almost ten hours before reloading. Thankfully the next four days of May were more good weather to make up for April?
Sunday, 12MAY, we headed into Seattle for a Mother’s Day brunch at Teatro ZinZanni & to watch “Dinner at Wotan’s”. See below BLOG link for our first visit to Teatro ZinZanni & the craziness that occurs there. “Dinner at Wotan’s” is mostly Wagner’s “Der Ring des Nibelungen” (aka The Ring) with a little of Ibsen’s “Peer Gynt” & Monty Python’s “Life of Brian” thrown-in; with Thor (its hammer time) added in for good measure. For those don’t know The Ring is an opera “cycle” that occurs on four straight evenings taking about 15 hours for the entire opera to be viewed! The Seattle Opera is one of a few USA companies that will perform the entire cycle in the years they decide to present The Ring. The inside joke at ZinZanni is that we were getting the entire cycle in less than three hours. Another inside joke is that Valhalla in this play is located in Ballard a historically Norwegian/Swedish neighborhood of Seattle.
Thrown in was a rap number by Wotan father of the Norse Gods; another number called “With Every Bath You Take” sung to the Police’s “With Every Breath You Take” sung by Brunnhilde; ABBA’s “Fernando”; & an excellent classic Spanish Flamingo Dance not performed on a stage but on a 25 foot vertical pole! During this hilarious presentation our meal was served & Corrie went with the Beef Wellington, Dan went with the Dungeness Crab & Wild Prawn Frittata.
Trivia – what is Ragnarok (hint – party like it’s Ragnarok!)?
http://dreams.zinzanni.org/
http://theryanrvexpress.blogspot.com/2012/08/16-31aug12-sultan-wa-wheres-rain.html
Monday we started prep work for a garden shed, & RV garage/shop building, plus pads for five sets of deck stairs that Dan didn’t get installed last summer. Tuesday, 14MAY, cement was poured for the garden shed & five sets of stairs for the two decks. Immediately after that Corrie starts cleaning up the mess created by construction vehicles, while Dan starts building the first set of deck stairs. Wednesday, Dan finishes all the stairs (3) for the large front deck, & Corrie continued cleaning up the contractor mess on the lawn until the rains returned. Marty the tractor guy installed a rebuilt generator & a new voltage regulator on the tractor & it seems to have solved the problem. The next day all the stairs for both decks are finally done.
For the last half of May between intermittent rain falls; Corrie continued to beautify the yard by adding many plants & shrubs, while arranging & mulching the various garden plots. Meanwhile Dan tried to finish the garden shed for her by:
---Saturday/Sunday, 18/19MAY, started building walls for garden shed.
---Monday/Tuesday/Wednesday start to erect walls & buy windows.
---Thursday start on trusses for shed roof.
---Saturday, 25MAY, nice weather returns & Dan gets half roof trusses built & mounted with Corrie’s assistance.
---Sunday & Monday of Memorial Day weekend we dealt with on again/off again rain showers, but Dan managed to get all the roof truss built & mounted with Corrie’s assistance.
---Tuesday, 28MAY, roof sheathing installed & no one fell off a ladder or the roof:)
---Thursday/Friday Dan finished the month of May by buying exterior wall paneling & installing them along with the two windows.
Hopefully June will bring better & more consistent weather so Dan can quickly wrap-up this project!
