stump island

For over a week now the temp has been 100F or above and all my evening walks, except the one aforementioned morning, have been after sundown. These walks have revealed that “stump island” out in the pond is gradually growing larger. Because of the drought, the water level of the pond had slowly dropped and several small islands appeared. As the level receded further, these pieces of land have slowly merged until there are only two left with a small separation of water between them.

From the pond bank, a small peninsula is reaching out to join with the islands as the water continues to get lower and when that happens it will have to become “stump peninsula” – or maybe little Florida. I could have called this small bit of land “goose island”, since this is one of their favorite hang-outs but they are in and out and the stump stays right there, doesn’t get to move, fly or anything – I just felt sorry for it. If the water level continues to drop, the fish will soon have to learn to breathe air.

One afternoon found me finally getting smart by working on the east side of the house while the sun was on the west side – basically I was in the shade. Now if I can get my body cranked up early enough, I can work in the west side shade while the sun is still in the east – but this is doubtful. Much outside work needs to be done but some of it will have to wait until the temp drops a bit.

Inside work is a different story and I can find no particular excuse not to do this. One job that I was in heavy procrastination about was finishing up the carpet at the entrance to the bathroom from the two guest bedrooms. This had been loose since the tile had been installed in the bath. My excuse was that I didn’t have a carpet stapler – mostly used to attach carpet to stairs and such. BIL had one but it was broken. He was able to borrow one from a friend and I became without excuse.

Next problem was that I had some carpet wrinkles near the doorway in each bedroom. This would require a carpet stretcher but I didn’t have one of those either. Speaking of this problem with BIL, who used to run the family’s carpet business, he suggested that I could make one using nails in a board. With my drill press I drilled 6 rows of holes, 7 across, at an angle in a short section of wood. Then I drove the nails in the holes and let the point of the nails protrude about a half of an inch.

This made up the gripper end and I attached a section of 2X4 to that. Another section was attached to that to make the gripper parallel to the floor. This business end was placed near the doorway, the Spice stood on the back of the gripper and I forced and wedged a piece of wood against the opposite wall and the stretching caused the wrinkles to come right out of the carpet. With this still in place, I trimmed and stapled the carpet at the doorway. Then the same thing was done in the other room and both turned out well. Wonder if that would get wrinkles out of a face – probably be slightly painful.

In my possession is a small portable audio recorder and it is evidently a very tough one because it has suffered many bumps and drops and still works. I ‘jot’ down my thoughts and events of the day on this and later write and send them out to you – works much better than depending on my memory. Clint Eastwood once said in an old movie, “A man has got to know his limitations”. Though I have physical and maybe mental limitations, the spiritual ones have been solved by Jesus Christ – if I will only choose to avail myself of His solutions. ec