The family celebrated Kyle’s 32nd birthday at his place this evening. Jeanine made an ice cream cake that was insanely good. I have requested an identical copy for my birthday next month. Kyle prepared pulled pork in his smoker and it too was extremely yummy. His actual birthday was several weeks ago but this was the first time we could all get together for the party. The family got a tour of Kyle’s very nearly completed patio project which has turned out really well. It is also the first time we have seen his property since he had the chain link fence surrounding it removed. What an improvement!

Often identified as giant mosquitoes, these gentle giants are not mosquitoes at all. They are crane flies and are harmless. Measuring 3 inches in length and width it is unclear how it managed to sneak into the house. I am guessing it was unrelated to Jeanine’s penchant for leaving the front door ajar while going outside for short periods 😉

After much research, I purchased a new flat-screen TV today for our 2-person home theater. It will replace a 21-year-old Sony that is starting to show its age. It will be delivered next week. Rather than try to sell a set of this vintage, I will probably move it to the basement and use it as the monitor for our video surveillance system.

For years, I have noticed an interesting house located high above the Cambridge Reservoir. Although there are several houses in the area, this is the only one visible from Rt 2. I decided to put the drone up for a closer look and was impressed with many of the architectural features that I observed. The two-story quarter-round, window-faced rooms are particularly interesting. Also very cool is the observation deck that extends well over the hillside. Whenever I take such a photo, I am careful to keep my distance so as not to encroach on anyone’s privacy.

When building my router table, I purchased this dust collection cabinet for the underside. It arrived slightly damaged. Two of the corners were bent during shipping. I contacted the company and they immediately sent me a replacement (great customer service). This morning, I bent the corners back into shape. It is not perfect and the paint flaked off but it sold in no time when I listed it on Facebook Market for a highly discounted price.

Funkademic is a Rhode Island-based band playing funk, soul, pop, and R&B on period-correct instruments. Founded at Brown University in 2019 by professors and members of staff. Jeanine and I traveled to Providence, Rhode Island for an outdoor concert on the grounds of the John Brown House Museum. We enjoyed a picnic dinner with our good friends Alex and Lou Ann ending the evening with a visit to Prospect Terrace which offers a commanding view of the downtown area. The illuminated spires belong to the very first Baptist church built in America.

When selling a house in Massachusetts, you must obtain a Certificate of Compliance from the fire department confirming that all smoke and CO alarms are less than ten years old, in working order, and interconnected with each other. When the inspector arrived at the Road House, he identified two units that were not compliant. Fortunately, he offered to come back in an hour and retest giving me enough time to drive to Home Depot, pick up replacements, return, and install them. Had he not been so accommodating, I would have had to schedule a second visit (minimum two-week booking delay) and pay an additional $50 inspection fee. Given that the fire department forced me to locate our backup batteries in the garage despite evidence demonstrating that they would be safer in the basement where I originally planned to install them, I was not expecting much lenience and was very thankful for it.

Of all the decisions required when building a new house, the choice of a light fixture for the dining table was the most difficult for Jeanine and I to agree on. I insisted on certain functional requirements; LED based, CRI > 95, sufficiently bright diffused light, and compatible with our dimmers. Jeanine wanted something unique and in keeping with the serene theme of the great room. I wanted a fixture that would not compete with or block views of the river. Jeanine wanted enough interest to be a focal point when it was dark outside. We finally settled on the pictured light. In addition to meeting our combined requirements it scored several bonus points. The shade is made of felt which helps dampen the otherwise very bright sound in the room, it has an organic form which matches the furnishings in our living area and the color is a match for our sofa.

Maya and I shared a bittersweet moment as we bid farewell to the Tiny House we built together during the summer after she graduated from high school. It is a project and time together we will never forget. She imagined she would one day live in the tiny house but as is often the case, life happened. After college, she started a great job in Sommerville sharing an apartment with three of her high school friends. Within walking distance of work and in the heart of Davis Square, it is hard to imagine a more ideal place to live for a young person. She and Kyle briefly considered buying some land and setting the tiny house up as an AirB&B. In the end, however, I think Maya choose wisely to sell it. The prodeeds of the sale represent the sweat equity she invested in the project and will no doubt contribute to the purchase of a future home.

Jeanine returned from Maine after enjoying a two-day visit and dodging the near-continuous rain we have had here while she was away. I have been disinclined to take any trips until the Tiny House is picked up, the Road House sale is wrapped up, and we get our Letter of Compliance from the Natural Resource Commission. With any luck, this may all be done by early September.

Having recently completed a trapezoidal base for the coffee table to match a side table in the living room, I used scrap bamboo lumber to build an additional three boxes. Making the first one of something new is always the most difficult. You have to figure out how to machine the pieces and often need to build jigs to facilitate the work. With two already under my belt, I made short work of these three. Not sure exactly how they will be used so I made them of varying sizes. The larger one would make for a nice footrest while the two smaller ones might make nice plant stands. Next on my list of woodworking projects are side tables for the seating in our two-person home theater. I am still working out the design details and have yet to settle on one which I like.

Jeanine traveled to Maine today to spend a few days with a friend and shared this photo of the local seals. It sounds like she is having a great time. On the home front, Maya and I wrapped up the sale of the Tiny House and prepared it to be towed to its new home in Rhode Island. Regrettably, the company hired to tow it to its new destination reported that their truck was experiencing a mechanical issue and had to reschedule pickup for Sunday. While I am sure Maya is relieved to have sold the Tiny House, I can only imagine that she also feels a sense of sadness having spent so much time planning and working on it. Although I share in that sadness, my attachment to the Tiny House was never about what we built but rather the time I spent with Maya while doing the work. Over the course of that summer, I watched her grow from a youngster with big “tiny” ideas, into a highly capable home builder. I felt so connected to her as we simultaneously arrived at the same solutions to. the challenges we encountered. I felt such pride and joy each time she mastered a new skill relegating me from teacher to assistant.

Several months ago, I built the legs for a glass oval coffee table top. Neither Jeanine nor I were fans of the proportions. Today, I built a second version based on a suggestion from Jeanine to mimic the style of a side table I had built using bamboo. Although I have been generally glued to coverage of the Paris Olympics this week, I have little interest in watching basketball and used those intervals to complete the new base.

Today, proved to be quite eventful. Due to heavy rain throughout the day, the pickup of the Tiny House was postponed. Weather permitting we are now scheduled for Thursday.

Just ahead of a dinner party with my oldest friend, Tom Metzold and his lovely wife Karen, we received and accepted an offer on the Road House. We purchased the house almost three years ago as a base of operations while building the River House. It proved to be a much better decision than renting during that construction period both financially and from a comfort point of view.

The prospective new owners lived in a house just 500 feet away for 13 years and we are pleased that they will be returning to the neighborhood. The closing is scheduled for September 9th.

This Common Sandpiper has been feeding near the shoreline in front of our house for several weeks. The level of the Sudbury River has been getting lower throughout the summer months exposing more of the river bank and creating a larger buffet area for our little visitor.

We received an offer on the River House today from a local couple and expect another from a family relocating from Piscataway, NJ. We have set a deadline of 6 PM tomorrow for “best and final” offers and will make our decision once we have all the paperwork in hand. Fingers crossed.

Jeanine and I did a little yard work today before tuning in to the Olympics. The Open House hosted yesterday by Jeanine has produced two interested parties that have expressed interest in making offers. The timing could not be better with the Tiny House being picked up on Tuesday by its new owner. We are also expecting a visit from a Concord Natural Resource Commission representative this week to confirm that we have satisfied the requirements to secure our Certificate of Compliance on the River House.

For the first time in my life, I encountered an entirely yellow spider. You would think that identification would be easy. My best guess is that it is a Yellow Crab Spider. Most odd is that I found it affixed to the driver’s side door of my car, a highly questionable location to be setting up shop.
The Yellow Crab Spider, scientifically known as Misumena vatia, is a species of crab spider found in North America and Europe. It is notable for its ability to change color to match its surroundings, primarily yellow or white, allowing it to camouflage effectively on flowers such as daisies and goldenrods. This spider’s front legs are longer and extend sideways, resembling a crab, which helps it ambush prey, typically pollinating insects like bees and butterflies. Females are larger than males, and after mating, they lay eggs and guard them until they hatch. The Yellow Crab Spider does not spin webs to catch prey but instead relies on its camouflage and agility to capture insects.

My cousin Heather arrived for an overnight visit this afternoon. The last time she was here, she said there was nothing more than a hole in the ground, so she witnessed the full transformation. She has recently taken up watercolor painting and we thoroughly enjoyed seeing her artwork. I not so subtly put in a request for one of her pieces. It was wonderful catching up on family news and comparing notes on retirement planning. We are scheduling an east coast seaboard road trip in late October and will visit with her again as we pass through North Carolina where she lives with her husband Burton.

After countless hours trying to locate a suitable wooden or stone top for our patio bistro table, I created a temporary solution using bluestone I salvaged from the foyer floor in the original River House. I took the square slab and cut it into an octagon. The results proved better than expected and might become our permanent solution. I still need to level the base and attach the stone, a project for a less uncomfortably humid day. Jeanine has been waiting patiently for a table on the patio where she can enjoy her morning coffee and do her daily writing. I suspect I will receive the final verdict tomorrow morning.

Missing from our patio is a small table where one might enjoy a morning coffee, dining with a friend, or working on a laptop. Jeanine and I selected the pictured metal base which arrived yesterday. We are still deciding on a natural stone or live-edge wood top. Our plan was for a 28″ diameter top but after making a cardboard mockup at that dimension we have decided that a 30″ or 32″ top will work better. Thus far, however, we have had little success locating a suitable candidate.

It never ceases to amaze me how many varieties of mushrooms there are. Pictured above is one I discovered at the Road House. The top half looks like a pie you might find in a fancy restaurant.

I have a low tolerance for tools that irritate me. When it comes to sucking up dust, my shop vac is among the best available. Even so, I hate using it because the power cord is a pain in the ass. There is no place to stow it on the machine and it is very inflexible. This morning, I decided to address both shortcomings. I replaced the power cord with a very pliable one and fixed a cord caddy to the side of the vacuum. One hour of work transformed this machine into one I will enjoy using for the rest of my life. While I was at it, I decided to upgrade the mobility base for my combination sanding machine. When I originally built it, I decided on two fixed caster and one pivoting caster. The arrangement worked but the base was not as stable as I would like. I decided to add an additional pivoting caster and to reposition the exisitng one. Another good investment of an hour.

Since completing her book, Jeanine no longer participates in the writer’s group of which she was a member for many years. She was thrilled to be invited to a party to celebrate the 90th birthday of one member and the 70th of another. To resolve a scheduling conflict, she offered to have the party at our house. I was evicted for the evening and decided to have dinner at a sports bar where I watched coverage of the Olympics.

Pictured below is the same group celebrating a birthday in our Mattison Dr. home back in 2017.

Kyle hosted a barbecue for Erica and Lily on the last day of their visit to Massachusetts. We enjoyed several rounds of bocce, the newly introduced Olympic sport of boyfriend lifting, and a tour of his patio project that is rapidly approaching completion. Tomorrow, they leave for Vermont where they will spend several days visiting with Jeanine’s sister, Susan.

With Maya as her coach, Lily made her first kayak excursion this evening. Within a few minutes, she looked like a duck in water. Earlier in the day, Lily and her mom were the guests of our neighbor Dave who gave them a floating tour of Fairhaven Bay aboard his small electric-powered boat. Unfortunately, the battery died and he had to row back to shore. Despite the setback, the group got to see two bald eagles during their outing.

At the request of a neighbor, I have joined a project to map the location of water chestnuts along our stretch of the river. Water chestnuts are an invasive species that grows among the water lilies that line the river banks. The originator of the project hopes to use AI to analyze aerial photos to delineate where the water chestnuts are. I offered to provide the aerial photographs. Pictured below is a low-resolution panorama of a partial segment of the river that I stitched together from several images. The map below identifies the path of my drone flight and the location where the images were captured. It remains to be seen if the goals of the project can be achieved and I will certainly report on the outcome in a future post.

Our visit to the Museum of Science today started with a showdown between Erica and one of the resident felines. I enjoyed resting in a perfect-sized chair while exploring an exhibit on perspective. The Electricity Theater was a big hit with Lily as were the interactive exhibits. I have been to the MoS many times and always look forward to discovering what’s new. On this visit, I was pleased to see an iRobot Roomba within the artificial intelligence exhibit as well as a robotic dog created by Boston Dynamics.

Erica, Jeanine’s niece, and her daughter Lily are visiting us for the next few days. Lily (just turned eleven) enjoys building things and making jewelry. I thought building a jewelry box would be fun for us to do together. Like Maya, she has an engineering-oriented brain and was quick to learn how to safely use the miter saw and table saw. Over the course of an hour, she was able to complete the box sides and apply a water-based finish to the top. We will be ready to begin assembly during our next work session.

This pair of damselflies elected to use the outside of my office window as a mating site. If not for the yummy dinner waiting for me, I would have set up my tripod and done a better job of lighting the backlit scene. I have a feeling, that this will not be the last time I get such an opportunity.

It is always exciting when we get a new first time visitor at the River House. The Muscovy duck is a large, domesticated waterfowl native to Central and South America. It is known for its distinctive red facial caruncles (fleshy protuberances), which are more pronounced in males. Muscovy ducks have a unique appearance, with glossy black plumage that can exhibit iridescent green and purple hues. They are generally quieter than other duck species, producing a soft hiss instead of quacking. Muscovy ducks are hardy birds, well-adapted to a variety of environments, and are often kept for their meat, eggs, and as pest controllers in gardens and farms. This morning one was perched on a log right in front of the house and was most cooperative as I moved down to the bank to photograph him.

Noddle’s Island was historically one of the Boston Harbor Islands. Most of the original land of Noddle’s Island now makes up the southern part of the neighborhood of East Boston; it is now part of the mainland since the strait connecting Noddle’s Island to Hog Island and that connecting Hog Island to the mainland city of Revere was filled in the early 20th century. The original contours of Noddle’s Island were also greatly obscured by the 20th-century construction of Logan International Airport, which filled the tidal flats between Noddle’s Island and Governor’s, Bird, and Apple islands to its east.

After another morning spent spreading wood chips, Jeanine and I scouted the Sailing Center at Pier’s Point where we encountered the above-pictured pavillion. When we walked out to the end of the pier we were treated to a commanding view of the Boston skyline which now includes the 600 foot tall One Congress Street building, the new global headquarters for State Street.

During the construction of our new house, I needed a way to shuttle my tools and parts to and from the job site. The pictured stack of portable toolboxes and parts organizers was the perfect solution and served me well. Now that I am fully ensconced in my new shop, these have just been collecting dust and I listed them for sale this afternoon.

For the second day, Jeanine and I worked on spreading wood chips around the house. Although not very glamorous work, it is a good exercise. Despite hours at the task, the pile of chips does not seem to be shrinking and we have two others just like it elsewhere on our property, the donated remnants of tree work done by our neighbors.

For the second time in as many days, the Concord Bridge used one of my aerial photos in their reporting. Pictured above is the Massachusetts Correctional Institute at Concord. Earlier this year the last inmates were transferred out making way for the sale of the complex by the state. The future use of the site is up in the air and will no doubt be the source of much debate within the town.