We found ourselves at the intersection of “slight” and “marginal” Friday morning, according to the NWS Storm Prediction Center. Threatening weather wasn’t supposed to arrive ’til after nightfall, however, so it wouldn’t interfere with whatever plans I had.
I had no plans.
For the most part, I let the day come to me. Noticing that early morning winds were nearly calm, for example, I did a quick burn in the barrel.
I engaged in a bit of light weedwhacking. Then I brought out my loppers.
My penchant for tidiness, combined with a tendency to absorb my surroundings every time I’m outside, means that I can always find something (else) in need of pruning. When I don’t have tools in-hand, I make mental notes and come back to it later.
So those loppers rarely rest. It shows.
Most of the chips and rolls in that edge are the result of cutting dead cedar branches, I’m sure of that, as well as tackling limbs bigger than these loppers were ever meant for. But they still work, and it is what it is. I’ll re-sharpen the blade here soon.
Later in the day, I returned to my old cleaver. I didn’t intend to get too deep into it yesterday — I simply wanted to make a little progress.
Scrubbing the handle slabs seemed like the right choice. This is what they looked like before I started:
I used Murphy’s Oil Soap, warm water and two stiff brushes (plastic, then brass). Careful scraping with the spine of a utility knife got rid of glue residue caked on the back side of one of the slabs.
After 30 minutes’ work, they looked like this:
There’s more still to do, of course. I’ll clean up around the holes where the rivets seat. Then comes sanding and sealing. Maybe beeswax.
What’s cool, though, at least to me, is that I managed to strip away generations of dirt and grime while preserving the wood’s character. I made it look better without making it look new.
That’ll be my objective for the blade, too.
. . .
“[Progressivism] has coexisted uneasily with the principles of the Declaration [of Independence] because it is opposed to those principles. It is not possible for the two to coexist forever.”
“Progressivism seeks to replace the basic premises of the Declaration of Independence and hence our form of government. It holds that our rights and our dignities come not from God, but from government.”
“In my view, we must find in ourselves that same level of courage that the signers of the Declaration have so that we can do for our future what they did for theirs.”
“I think if we don’t stand up and take ownership of our country, and take responsibility for it, we are slowly letting others control how we think and what we think.”
— Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas, speaking Thursday at the University of Texas at Austin School of Law
. . .
Take care of yourselves, Patriots. Stay calm. Stay sharp. Stay free.
#WiseUp #LibertyOrDeath #Ungovernable