Hard work deserves a cold beer

Well, it was one of those Sundays where I had some time and decided to finish up a few projects that I had started and never got back to. So the first was the floor in the wood stove room. Originally it had some carpeting that left a lot to be desired, plus we have a relatively new puppy, Opie:
Now he looks sweet and innocent, but he has been a really pain in the ass to housebreak. So we needed a floor that could be easily cleaned up and wouldn’t soak up the dog pee and or spills. So we decided that we would go vinyl tiles, they are easy to install and if you ruin one, you can pull it up and replace it. So I started this project probably 3 weeks, maybe 4 weeks ago and was 95% finished. I just had to do all of the trim and cutting pieces around the mantle. Now I knew that it would be a tedious project and that’s probably why I put it off. But this morning, I just had had enough and decided to finish it, so I could start on putting up the trim molding. So here is a finished picture.

Not bad right, so feeling pretty good about myself, I decided to conquer my next project. FRANKENBLOWER:

Now Frankenblower is a 1970 Ariens Sno-Thro 10962 snowblower that was handed down to me from Dinker, who had it handed down to him from his Pop. A gift this special has to be cherished and babied, you need to learn the ins and outs of it and really treat him right. Now because Frankenblower is so old, its hard to find the correct parts when he needs something replaced, so what happens most times is that you find a part that is close enough or good enough that you can jerry-rig it to work. See Muffler, lol. Hence, because of his mix and matched parts, he is Frankenblower.
So the story is, we got hit with a ton of snow and we have drifts that are chest high. I went out and fired up Frankenblower, got him all warmed up turned on the auger, put him into drive and then NOTHING. He was still running like a champ, just not going anywhere. Great. So now I am thinking that when I engaged the drive that I snapped the belt, because that happed in the past and the replacement belt, well, lets just say its not a Ariens’ replacement part. So I shut him all down and tip him up and undo the guard on the bottom, and see that the belts are all still in great shape. Huh, what the hell is Frankenblower up to? I’m muttering to myself, but not too loud because I don’t want him to hear me. That old bastard can be finicky. So I lower him down and fire him up again without the guard to take a peek at his bits while “he’s on the job” so to speak. Ahhhhhhh, there it is. With all of the blowing and drifting snow, snow had gotten up into the gear case and frozen the brake in the on position. So I shut him down again, crammed my monster hand up into the gear case, cleaned out the snow, gave Frankenblower a little “How’s your father?” and reattached the guard. So now I fire Frankenblower up for the fourth time and VICTORY!!!!


After about a half hour, I had the driveway all cleaned up and Frankenblower put back to rest for the night.
By the time all of this was finished it was time for dinner and then a hot shower and man did I need both. So with a full belly and smelling so fresh and so clean I decided that all of that hard work deserved to be rewarded with an icy cold beer. The beer that rewarded my efforts was:

Yep, that’s right and ice cold Old Milwaukee, and I have to say that it was quite refreshing and damn delicious. So I know that I tend towards the higher end beers, but you really have to hand it to the Jos. Schlitz Brewing Company, they brew one damn good beer. If you don’t believe me, pick up a twelve pack and give a shot. Enjoy!!