Peggy and I have been generally doing well these past weeks as the weather has slowly improved and turned down right warm these past few days. We are in that stretch of early summer where the lawn needs mowing at least once a week, it is best to get any outdoor work done by 10 AM or after 4 PM, and the roads are full of “Summer People.” All that is true except the last part! With all of the COVID restrictions in place ... the summer tourist season here in Maine is a real bust! The traffic is still busy out there but tourism is way down. I hope these businesses that rely on our summer tourists can survive but I fear many will not.
I have managed to stay busy on my various “projects.” I have continued to tinker on my 1965ish Honda 305 Superhawk. It runs more reliably now and I have done a lot of cleaning of 50+ years of grime and yuk off just about every piece. This is the not-so-fun part of restoring these old machines ... but necessary. Necessary just to improve it’s look and necessary because you tend to find problems that really do need repair under all that yuk! Lately I have been working on the wheels and suspension. A bunch of cleaning, a little polishing, a few new parts here and there and she is beginning to clean up quite nicely!
A related project was to tackle my storage space problem. I thought I had solved that problem back in 2104 when I build my shed out back ... but that was before I bought a Lawn Tractor and before I started on my motorcycle restoration hobby. Having gained up to two lawn tractors and up to 5 motorcycles I created a whole new problem. Where do I store them in the winter, where do I put them in the summer, and most importantly ... where do I work on my next project!
Last year I sold two motorcycles to help with the problem ... but then bought another one this spring ... and then of course there was the whole lawn tractor debacle last fall which found me owning not one but two LTs! As soon as I could after we returned home from our winter travels I advertised and got the Craftsman LT sold so that helped a bit. But I still had two motorcycles that I had to get out of winter storage and two here at home!
The home storage plan included selling another two bikes but I needed to get them out of winter storage and put somewhere first ... so a “temporary” storage solution was required. After some time on the internet and some time convincing Peggy that my solution was “temporary” ... I purchased a 6’ by 10’ “Shed-In-A-Box” ... built a platform to put it on ... and installed the new SIAB next to my other shed. Viola! Now I could bring those other two bikes home and get them advertised for sale.
It didn’t take long to sell the first one ... my 1974 CB350F. This one was restored back in the winter of 2015/2016 and was one of my favorites to ride ... but it was time to move on to it’s new owner.
The 1964 Yamaha YA-6, my first restoration project from back in 2014/2015 is still up for sale and I have had a little interest ... so we’ll see how that works out. But until then she has a home in “temporary” storage.
Then there are the house projects! Back in 2015/2016 I painted our house. I should say Bailey, Kyla, and I painted our house. Nonetheless - it is time for it to be done again ... and I said last time that that was to be the very last time! So over the past few months we have been talking to contractors and have recently decided to have our house resided with vinyl siding. The siding will sorta look like the cedar shakes that we have now, will still be red and white as it is now, and the job will include all new trim, soffits, and gutters. So we are looking forward to getting that job done next month.
But before that work gets done I did want to repaint/re-glaze the daylight basement window frames and repaint the cement foundation and entry steps ... so I did. And then the deck was due for a re-staining ... so Peggy and I did!
I know I can’t eliminate all my homeowner maintenance chores but my plan is to severely decrease any that take a lot of work!
Now that summer is really here it’s time for “soda and pretzels and beer“ as that song goes. I’m ready ... are you!
