Shopping

Terry and I drove up to Horseheads and the Arnot Mall area this morning after we dropped her car at the garage for a check-up. (Terry's leaving for Louisville, KY and an EGA convention this Friday and we wanted to make sure her little yellow Aveo was in tip top shape. Especially since it will be carrying her to Atlanta in early October for SAGA's national convention.)

She had some stuff to get at Michael's (a 8 1/2'" x 11" frame) and Staples (a shipping box) neither of which was available in the proper size at Wal-Mart. I wanted to see about getting some landscape timbers at Lowe's. I'll need about 30 of them for two projects I've got planned. One is an 8' x 16' raised bed and the other is a border for the stone under the deck and by the walk out of the basement.

She got the stuff she needed but I didn't get the timbers. Lowe's usually has excellent quality lumber but the three pallets of landscape timbers they had in stock looked like sh*t. If they weren't bent and warped enough to be used as skis, then they were under-sized and almost round poles instead of the flat-faced timbers I expected.

I didn't come away empty handed, however. Not with all those man toys around. I did get three heavy duty extension cords/power strips for the workshop. Right now I have to unplug one power tool to use another. Placed conveniently around the room, I'll be able to leave the tools plugged in so if I go from the chop saw to the table saw to the drill press, I won't have to be constantly plugging and unplugging the tools from the single outlet extension cord. Then I'll be able to build a real work bench and several stations for the mortiser, belt/disk sander and get down to some serious wood working right after hunting season ends.

I also picked up some 10' ratchet type cargo straps so I can stop using rope to tie things down in the bed of the truck. (I know, I know...I should have down that a long time ago while we were moving all sorts of furniture from NJ to NY to PA.)

We got the latest Old Farmer's Almanac and, having read the headlines on the cover about global cooling, picked up three boxes of fire starter sticks (the fat wood from the center of yellow pine). I bought two boxes for up in the Bolt Hole last year and they beat using twigs and newspaper to start a fire 10 ways from Sunday. I sent Terry to get some for the Aerie in November and she couldn't find them anywhere.

Finally, I got another pair of heavy duty gloves. Almost every pair I've got now has holes in the fingers from picking up and tossing rocks all summer. If I have any left hand gloves that are still intact, I'll save them for raspberry and blackberry picking next summer. I use the gloved hand to lift and move the thorny canes before I c-a-r-e-f-u-l-l-y reach in to harvest a ripe berry. I still get scratched forearms but at least I can reach those berries hidden in the center of the thicket.

I'll check the price and quality of the timbers at the local hardware store in Mansfield tomorrow. I bought the last batch there and they were in pretty good condition. If they aren't too expensive, I'll go for 30 or so.