Posts Tagged ‘ladder work’
Minor Victories
I monkeyed around with a lot of little issues yesterday, most of them related to tweaking the mounting points in the barn for my shade sail. Very few of the things I tried to accomplish were easy victories. When nothing is going smoothly, I am tempted to give up and try again some other time. I ended up doing just that.
The day started with my left foot giving me a weird feeling as I walked. It almost felt like one of the toes was missing, though I knew it wasn’t. By the end of the day, after standing on a ladder for much of the afternoon, I figured out that my foot was complaining about standing on the rung of a ladder. Maybe my foot was unhappy with my recent addition of extra weight around my middle. I had my annual physical on Tuesday and learned the actual number for my weight. We don’t have a scale at home.
I also received fresh readings for my fasting glucose and cholesterol numbers, which were both elevated compared to a year ago. It wasn’t an increase into scary territory, but since my numbers regularly fall just outside (above) the desired healthy range, they tend to get noticed by my doctor. This time, I was meeting a new doctor who agreed to take me on as a patient after my previous doctor retired. Luckily, they share very similar opinions and styles, and my elevated numbers didn’t cause him grave concern.
However, they do bother me a little bit. With Cyndie’s support, since she prepares our breakfasts and dinners, I am renewing an effort to control my blood test results by diet and exercise. We are targeting a cholesterol-lowering, heart-healthy menu. The challenge will be, as it has always been, maintaining this effort for longer than a week or two.
It is way too easy to fall back into old eating patterns.
For all the issues that put up a struggle the whole day through yesterday, there were a few others that went my way. For some reason, I couldn’t get a picture from our surveillance camera down at the barn. Simply cycling power to the camera was all that it took to remedy that situation. Also, while I was up on a ladder in the barn, I found myself in reach of an LED lightbulb that was failing.
During a trip to the house, I asked Cyndie if she remembered where we stowed the box of spare bulbs. She found it on the first try, and soon I had a good bulb installed in place of the old one.
Minor victories.
Taxing Effort
It took a toll on our patience and stamina but yesterday, we finished installing barriers to all the rafters under the overhang to stop pigeons from roosting there. Our hands took a lot of abuse from the stabbing ends of hardware cloth we cut into short pieces we attached to the beams.
Amid the clatter of banging aluminum ladders, two cursing adults, and my noisy power driver, the horses accepted all the racket as white noise to help them nap.
I quickly realized how much of a total body workout it is to work overhead while standing on a fully extended ladder. I had switched from a staple gun to driving screws to secure the pieces of metal mesh. Reaching above my head meant I barely had enough leverage to put sufficient pressure against the head of the screws. That forced me to flex every muscle in my body to stiffen up enough to keep the driver engaged with the screw head.
Meanwhile, the bottoms of my feet on the ladder rungs kept getting increasingly irritated from needing to hold all my weight on such a narrow portion of my sole. When I climbed back down to solid ground, my right knee let me know it was unhappy with the stress of standing on the ladder.
All that abuse sure better produce the result we are seeking. We’ll soon find out if the pigeons will get the message we are sending. I’m looking forward to working on our next project with my feet on the ground.
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Tolerance Reached
We have tolerated the ever-increasing number of pigeons roosting in the eaves of the barn overhang for the last few years but we’ve reached our limit. Their panicky flapping of departure and arrival each time they come and go gets incredibly annoying but the constant build-up of their shit coating every surface is the worst.
Short of resorting to methods of lethal force, we decided to put up barriers to close off their access to the eaves. Before covering the open areas, we decided to clean out the accumulation blocking the slots in the soffits.
That ended up being more nasty than we suspected it would be. If we don’t end up getting some form of bird flu or other illness from exposure to everything we found up there, it will be a shock.
In addition to the slabs of petrified pigeon droppings, there was a surprising amount of dismembered wings and other pigeon parts, including one entire body. We succeeded in doing some population control by removing several eggs. I was startled several times when a pigeon I didn’t know was still in there suddenly felt the time had come to escape, blasting past my face and almost knocking me off the ladder.
Now when they show up to roost, there is a lot of fluttering like a hummingbird as they struggle to figure out that their favorite spot is no longer available. Cyndie found a whole bunch had chosen to make do by perching on the 2-by-4 rafters for lack of other options.
If they persist there, we will need to add some disincentives to those spaces, as well.
I’d rather not spend any more time on a ladder for a long while. It was exhausting work to wrestle the hardware cloth into position and operate the staple gun at imperfect angles with my back and legs aching and my feet growing more tired of the rungs on the ladder by the minute.
The dang DeWalt heavy-duty stapler I have is supposed to have an “anti-jam magazine to prevent jams and misfires” as well as “easy squeeze technology.” Not on my model. I struggled mightily with both problems. It made for a frustrating combination up on the ladder where leverage is greatly compromised at extended reaches.
The horses were surprisingly calm tolerating our intrusion on their space and showed reasonable patience while we made them wait longer than usual for their afternoon feeding. They may understand what we were up to and appreciate the effort, although they will end up suffering some increase in frustrated pigeon wing-flapping for a little while.
I think they have tolerated the pigeon population explosion about as well as could be expected, but won’t be disappointed if the birds find other places to roost.
If this works as we hope, I will be overjoyed.
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Ladder Work
Yesterday was a day on the ladder for me as we completed the job of applying a new coat of sealer on the wood siding of the shop garage. Climbing up and down all day is a fair amount of work, but I think the more intense exercise causing my residual stiffness today is from the unconscious-nervous-flexed-muscle tension while I was balancing on the precarious perch.
I’m not all that thrilled by heights.
It was worth the discomfort though, because what does thrill me is having the flaky siding now freshly sealed against the elements.
I wish that was all the sealing that needed to be done. The house really should receive a fresh coat, as well.
Will we have enough dry days for that to happen before cold weather sets in?
Time will tell. I have that pesky nuisance of a day-job that tends to get in the way of finishing projects at home.
Oh, and sometimes other distractions pop up on the weekends, like a fabulous barbecue event hosted by a special friend, followed by a trip to downtown Minneapolis to see Brian Wilson perform the classic Beach Boys’ Pet Sounds album in its entirety.
Not a lot of work going to happen this dry sunny day. Tired muscles get a break.
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Relative Something 