Tuesday, August 02, 2011

Ouch!

So. I took the Tundra in to have them look at the brakes. Two hours latter I left with four new discs, calipers and pads and a much lighter bank account. (Okay. I'll be honest. Like Congress, I put it on the Cabela's charge card and I will have to pay it off somewhere down the road. At least I'll accumulate points with which to purchase slightly over priced stuff at Cabela's.)

They did give me a discount of 10% when I mentioned I had been there just a month earlier and they had told me everything was fine. Still, the total damages were just north of $900. Ouch!

******

Meanwhile, I'm back at the Aerie for the night. Early tomorrow, I'll hit the local Lowe's for more supplies (brushes, rubber refinishing gloves, and brush cleaner), get the utility trailer hitched to the Tundra and load the ATV on board, and then gas up the Tundra and head back north. The powers that be are forecasting some showers and T-storms during the day and along my route. I'll bring a tarp with me so when I get to the Bolt Hole I can at least cover up the ATV.

Those same powers say the weather is supposed to dry up for four or five days starting Thursday so I'll be back up on the roof hoping to get the south side of the kitchen finished. The kitchen roof is the oldest on the building and really looks it. From a distance, you'd swear it's nothing but rust. This south side gets the most sun even in winter when the large sugar maple drops its leaves. It also gets a lot of snow as the stuff drifts to the lee side of the roof and just sits there. I've never seen any snow slide off this particular side. (Snow doesn't slide off the north side either, but that's because the lower and less slanted wood shed roof holds it in place.) This should be a brief job of three hours or so.

Then it's on to the living room roof. The highest of all, this roof is about 25 years old but is already showing rust. The snow regularly slides off this roof...when I'm there and have a fire going inside. Last winter I wasn't there and Mark says the snow was two to three feet deep on this roof and, until he used a rake on it, wasn't going anywhere. The rust may help hold the snow in place so a new roof coating may get it to slide more easily. Or not. At least the coating will seal some small leaks around the roofing nails...I hope.

The living room roof is probably an 8 to 10 hour job because of the need to move the climbing and roof ladders frequently as I work my way down the roof's length. At approximately 20 feet, it's also one of the longest roofs on the building.

With persistence and luck, I should be finished with the roofs by Friday evening. Then it's wood hauling time.

2 comments:

Rev. Paul said...

Ugh - I hate surprises at the mechanic's. Just the same, good thing you got 'em fixed.

joated said...

With 67K miles on the odometer, the Tundra has given me no serious mechanical problems and for that I'm thankful. Still, I make the last of the 0% interest payments in November. If it could have waited just three months I wouldn't have minded so much.