Well we had a little bit of a wind storm on Wednesday afternoon. A strong gust front came across the river and hit little Croton with 60+ mph winds. Everyone in the nieghborhood was talking about it being a tornado. It was not. But, it still ruined a lot of peoples day.


Womble out in the thick of it.

I'm not sure what tree that came from but I saw it bounce off the power lines. That was fun.

This was at the end of the street.

And this was at the other end of the street. Ouch.

All we got was a silver dollar sized dent in Womble that should be able to pop out.

Swedish Stump Puller

Part of the process of turning 7 Hamilton into a pleasant home and increasing the curb appeal was the removal of 9 rather natty and over grown bushes. The first 5, while ratty and nasty looking, were still small enough to allow for easy removal. The second 2, which flanked the front path where it met the sidewalk needed the chainsaw to cut down and then a goodly portion of elbow grease and a maddox style pickaxe. It took a few days eating away bit by bit but I got them out.

Now the last two, which flanked the stairs to the front porch, were monsters. I stared with the smaller of the two and after hours of work, spread liberally over several days of course, I had only got the damn thing loose enough to wiggle, a bit. Enter the Swedish Stump Puller.

I have always thought it rather silly for a Saab 900 to have a "Reese" style receiver hitch but I'm sure glad some ninny put it on there. After hooking the chain up I leaned Mila into the job slowly, taking up the slack and once taught started to lay the power down. What happened? Nothing. The stump, with multiple roots cut free and able to wiggle - a bit - by hand, held firm against Mila's pull. So I leaned in a second time and really brought the power up, right up until the wheels began to lose traction. The stump still held. Getting a little pissed I backed up till there was a good amount of slack in the chain and then dropped the hammer down, surging forward to give that bastard stump a jolt it wouldn't soon forget. Slam! The stump held. Again, slam! The stump still held. For the next try I power dropped the clutch as much as I thought I could without ripping up the grass, which isn't much. Slam! Crack! The stump is now only half in the ground and listing sickingly. I get back in Mila and pull forward slowly enjoying splintering sound of wood failing to resist applied power like a cat with a cornered mouse.


The second and largest of the 9, was near the driveway meaning that Mila would be able to gather some great traction to rip the bloodsucker out of the earth. Too bad the gas line ran directly underneath. Thanks to my fear of blowing myself to kingdom come I was reduced to a shovel and a small hand saw to keep from damaging the gas line. About half way through the process of digging the bugger up I discovered a great reason to go and buy a new shovel, when I broke mine. Not to be deterred I ran to the hardware store and got back to work. It took about 5 hours of digging, sawing and tugging but I did finally tear the stump free by hand. I now had 250+ lbs ball of stump roots and earth at the bottom of a 3 foot deep hole. Now where did I put that Swedish Stump Puller? I had it out earlier...


I guess it just goes to show that you can take the boy out of Ohio but you can't take the Ohio out of the boy... which I am sure just has my neighbors thrilled as they are all born and raised down in "the City" and only moved to Croton-On-Hudson later in life.

Cold Spring

This weekend we had one of Helen's friends up from The City so on Sunday they wanted to have a brunch. Helen was opened to ideas so I suggested we check out Cold Spring, about 25 miles up river from Croton-On-Hudson.



Main Street in Cold Spring, consisting of cafes, bookshops, art galleries and antique stores, which are the primary industry of all the Hudson river towns it seems.



Looking up river from Cold Spring's water front park.



Helen enjoying her lobster Benedict as the 12:42 to Poughkeepsie rolls past. The place we ate at is located at the old 1890's train depot which as been converted to a cafe and beer garden. The modern train station is about 100 yards down track from the cafe. The commuter line pulling out of the station is quaint. The Amtrak express, which neither stops or slows down, flying past at 115mph is an experience. The food at the Depot, as they have so cleverly named the cafe, was pleasant enough but it's the atmosphere that top shelf.



There's even a few model train shops... Michael.

All in all a nice place to spend a sunny Sunday afternoon.

More progess made this weekend.

So the kitchen guys did not come this weekend but guess who did! The painters. They showed up on Saturday morning to start was what paid for 3 weeks ago and if that delay can be rationalized with concerns over the weather what about them bringing the wrong paint? Yes. I looked out to see them painting the house almost the exact same baby poop brown it was when we bought it. The crew understood enough English to stop painting but had to get the "boss" on the phone to discuss the issue.

The boss informed me that it was the correct color as we had requested to have the house repainted the color it already was. BS! I got livid with him explaining that the house was being painted because we hated the color it was and wanted a different one. WE had requested Cromwell Grey and that poop stain color was most certainly not Cromwell Grey. He then asked to speak to Helen, I assume thinking that it might be easier to get by with the wifey, not realising that a few weeks ago Helen had made some lady shit cabinets. So, 30 minutes later, and with the right color, the guys were back at the job.


Here are some SPLers that are most certainly not celebrating the Sinco de Mayo.


Helen relaxing under the Dogwood while the house gets painted

Oh, and isn't it funny that of all the colors available from all the paint manufactures in the US Helen finally landed on "Cromwell" Grey?

And more on the kitchen

Here is the kitchen as of May 5th. As you can see the cabinets are starting to go in. The plan has the counter template being made this Thursday and then getting installed on Friday the 18th, which means the project should be done the week after leaving us all summer to enjoy.