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.

Earlier this week, I was asked by the Managing Editor of the Concord Bridge if I would take aerial photographs of various places in town for the paper. I agreed, starting with the Concord-MCI prison for an upcoming article on the future of the now-decommissioned facility. Other locations on the list included Walden Pond and Warner Pond. Tragically, there was a drowning at Walden yesterday, and I was asked to provide the images I had shot the day before, one of which appears above.

Moments after sharing my photos I found two of them included in this posting on the Concord Bridge website.

Eventually, I will come to grips with the fact that I am no longer a spring chicken and probably do not belong on a 24-foot ladder with a 15-foot pole saw. Today was not that day, as I up-limbed several trees needing pruning. The work was not made easier by the extreme heat combined with my choice of a long-sleeved shirt and long pants to protect my skin from the limbs falling past me. When I completed the work, I was as physically spent and left with the realization that I really should not be doing this kind of work any more. Getting old sucks. Falling off a ladder with a mini-chain saw probably sucks more.

Due to the amount of mud present, I have been reluctant to do any yard work near the river banks on our property. Today, that excuse evaporated with the arrival of the pictured muck boots. I was relieved when I slipped them on and found the fit to be good, a concern I have whenever purchasing footwear online. Unlike other new purchases, I am not looking forward to using my new boots.

Despite above-average rainfall over the past months, the level of the Sudbury River has returned to a normal level. During parts of the winter, water was present from tree line to tree line. This afternoon, I flew my drone from our patio up to Fairhaven Bay to survey the waterline. Note to self: I think it would be very cool to record my altitude and geolocation so that I can return to this same vantage point for future photos illustrating the changing look of the river through the seasons. I ended the flight with an aerial selfie.

Something I have been meaning to do for some time now is to replace our mailbox with a more substantial one and to replace the cross members on the post we share with neighbors. The old ones were rotting and not level. The new box is more in keeping with the modern design of our house and I like the way the large numbers appear on the door.

During one of my many trips from the mailbox to my shop for a forgotten tool or needed fastener, I encountered this Eastern Milk Snake crossing the driveway. These snakes are non-poisonous, non-venomous, have tiny teeth, and are docile unless provoked. It was odd to encounter one during the day as they are primarily nocturnal hunters. They are a welcome member of our local ecosystem feeding primarily on mice, other small mammals, snakes, birds, bird eggs, slugs, and other invertebrates.

We hosted a Euro Cup finals viewing party in the afternoon with the kids. Maya came with her boyfriend, Owen, and flatmate Zoe. Nicolai arrived with amp soccer teammate Musa, and Kyle was solo. Jeanine was only slightly interested in the match but did think to take a picture of the assembled group. While studying the image, I have tried with no success to locate Owen’s head. His left foot can be seen in a black sock.

Discovered in early 2023, pictured above are three of five musket balls that were unearthed in Minute Man National Park. These musket balls were found near the Old North Bridge on the eastern side of the Concord River where British soldiers formed up to resist the colonial militia when the “shot heard round the world” was fired. The British used standardized musket ball sizes while the colonists cast their own to match their specific rifles (40 to 70 caliber). Only later in the war did the Colonial army begin to standardize as well. This difference and where they were found offer compelling evidence that they were fired at the British by the Minutemen. Striations on the musket balls confirmed they were fired rather than dropped.

Today, for the first time, they went on public display at Minute Man National Park where Jeanine and I were first in line to see them this morning. It is fascinating to live in a place with such a rich history of our nation.

Mulching was the order of business this morning. Jeanine had 4 cubic yards of finely chopped leaf mulch delivered earlier this week and we have been installing it in 2 hour shifts. Today it was my turn as she prepared food for an evening gathering we hosted. Nicolai joined us for the party and chipped in as our expert “Tangerita” maker and guacamole chef.

At Formlabs, where Maya works, you know you have “arrived” when you get “photochopped”. A picture taken of you at work is distributed to the photochop group and is edited into several outrageous and funny versions that are then circulated within the team. The original image shows Maya and a colleague presenting a soon-to-be-released new product. Regrettably, I am not at liberty to show that photo. The chopped version, however, requires no explanation. Go Maya!

Jeanine borrowed a page from Maya’s playbook and offered to puppy-sit for a friend so she could get a dog fix. I was invited to join the fun but was busy with several projects. One was to build a simple open box to hold small cloth hand towels. We use these to replace paper towels and wash them when soiled. They have been sitting on our kitchen counter in an undersized store-bought box for months and it irks me to see them stuffed inside. I used box joints for the new box and started the project by fabricating a simple jig to cut them. It still needs another finishing coat but I already like the appearance of the joints. Now that I have the box joint jig, I can see knocking out several other storage boxes for the kitchen.

It is hard to believe but this is my 9000th post. That works out to one per day for nearly 25 years. In fact, it has only been 19 years and a couple of months. In the early years of the blog, I posted each picture as a standalone post, sometimes several in one day. Later, I switched to a single post per day which explains the discrepancy.

Jeanine and I spent a good portion of the morning weeding and mulching our newly planted yard. It is tedious work and the key is to do a little bit every day rather than trying to get it all done at once. This is especially true on really hot days like we have been experiencing for the past week. So far, most of our plants are doing very well, the one exception being our elephant ear hostas which have succumbed to the nourishment of our local deer population. Fortunately, our smaller hostas do not appear to be on their dining menu.

Over the years, I have been adding only cordless handheld power tools to my shop. It is hard to quantify just how much easier and more pleasurable they are to use without having to worry about cord management. Today, I put several corded tools up for sale for which I now have cordless equivalents or no longer use. I was motivated by the discovery that several companies now make tools that are compatible with the DeWALT battery system in which I am heavily invested. To justify a new tool purchase, I feel the need to sell tools that I use infrequently. New tools arriving shortly include a cordless soldering iron, cordless hot melt glue gun, and cordless plastic welding gun.

Nico has been named to the U.S. Amputee Soccer Men’s Team that will travel to Honduras in September for the inaugural Gold Cup which will include the national teams from Panama, Costa Rica, Honduras, El Salvador, and Guatemala. Although it will likely conflict with my own soccer schedule, I think I would like to attend this tournament.

It is hard to believe but our second child will be thirty years old starting tomorrow. We celebrated today with an outdoor feast that included family and friends. Nico reminds us all how to live in the moment and to suck the marrow out of life. He is the Lead Educator for the Bionic Project, captain of the USA National Amputee Soccer Team, and all-time leading scorer for the US, a brand ambassador for Arc’teryx, a board member of the American Amputee Soccer Association, and assistant soccer coach for Regis College. He was the first to summit Mount Kilimanjaro on crutches, has been a guest on the Ellen Degeneres Show, and has received numerous awards, including a Heros Among Us from the Boston Celtics, and was named an Honorary Captain of the New England Revolution Soccer Team. We are very proud of him and can’t wait to see what he does next.

Jeanine and I had little trouble agreeing on the design of our new house since we share a common aesthetic for architecture. The same cannot be said for artwork. On this front we are off to a slow start, often finding it difficult to agree. That was not the case for the pictured sculpture that was created by my mother. We both love it. We also agreed that it needed a stand to elevate it from the floor. Today, I fashioned one by extending the contours of the sculpture’s base using a lamination of leftover LVL studs. I think my mother would have been very pleased with this solution.

The galette has its roots in French cuisine and dates back to ancient times. The term “galette” comes from the French word “galet,” meaning a flat, round stone, which reflects the flat and round shape of the pastry. Historically, galettes were simple, rustic cakes made from coarse grains, often served as a staple food.

In Brittany, a region in France, galettes made from buckwheat flour became popular, especially for savory versions filled with ingredients like cheese, meats, and vegetables. Over time, the concept of the galette evolved, and sweet versions with fruits and other fillings became common.

The modern galette, known for its free-form and rustic appearance, is celebrated for its versatility and ease of preparation. Pictured above is one of two galettes prepared by Jeanine for a dinner party we attended this evening. And yes, they were as delicious as they looked.

Jeanine and I traveled to Medford this afternoon for a 4th of July barbecue with Kyle. We lounged on his partially completed patio, enjoying burgers, salad, watermelon, and homemade strawberry and lemon sorbet that Jeanine prepared. Before dessert, we took a long stroll around the lake in nearby Fellsmere Park where waterfowl outnumbered people and the soothing sound of the fountains was in stark contrast to exploding firecrackers that peppered the tranquility. Nico joined us after dinner, having just flown back from his western states road trip, and regaled us with tales of his travels. Maya is on Nantucket staying with several of her high school girlfriends and we hope to see her on Sunday when we will be gathering again to celebrate Nico’s birthday.

After nearly two days of research, I pulled the trigger on purchasing the pictured wood chipper. What I learned is that size matters. A chipper rated at 3″ capacity is lucky to handle 2″ diameter branches. A unit specified at 4 inches is best used for 3″ and under. This knowledge was gained by watching at least 100 YouTube videos of chippers in action. I also discovered that designs featuring a combination chipper (fed through a narrow side-mounted tube) and shredder (fed through a large hopper on top) are sub-optimal at both tasks and limited to smaller size machines. I found one company that makes a battery-powered unit but its capacity and run time were both insufficient for the type of work I can anticipate. In the end, I settled on a Power King 5″ 14hp model with an electric starter. What impressed me about the company is that the founder demonstrated the machine successfully chipping a 6″ diameter log which is above its rated capacity. I liked the robust construction quality and ease of serviceability. I also contacted customer support in advance to make sure I could speak to a knowledgeable human, easily order replacement parts, and/or get help with a technical issue.

I am not happy to have purchased a machine that requires gasoline to run, especially after having purged my garage of all such tools and replacing them with battery-powered substitutes. As a consolation, rather than burning all of our downed trees and limbs, we will be converting them into wood chips to be used as mulch around the yard.

UPDATE: I decided to cancel this order before it shipped. I just could not get past owning a gas-powered tool again.

I often make morning coffee for Jeanine and serve it to her in bed. She really likes this treatment. Today, I opted to use a cat-inspired coffee cup I found at the back of the cupboard. It looked especially cute with the frothed milk hairdo. When I decided to photograph it, the shadow reminded me of the bat signal. Suffice it to say, Jeanine found this cup as humorous as I did.

One of my soccer teammates let me know that he saw a nice video of Nico’s amputee soccer team on AppleTV. I searched YouTube and found the video above. Not sure if it is the same one but interesting nonetheless.

This morning, my soccer team competed in the championship finals for the over-62 division in which we play. High temperature and humidity made for a brutally exhausting match. We faced our toughest opponent of the season and had to dig deep for the 2-0 victory. I played for 55 minutes of the match and was utterly spent by the end. I hope to increase my fitness level (i.e. drop some weight) over the summer so that I can be more competitive when our fall season begins in September. For the moment, however, I am just going to enjoy the win.

Kyle is making great progress on his patio project as shown in this recent photo he shared. Last week, I loaned him my laser leveling tools, and he has put them to great use. The result, unfortunately, is that he had to do substantially more grading than originally anticipated. Nevertheless, he has adapted the design nicely. I suspect he will be ready to start laying pavers in one or two weeks and then the “heavy ‘lifting” will be behind him. We can’t wait for his first family patio party.