Homeownership comes with a long list of “excellent” chores such as cleaning gutters from an insanely tall ladder, cutting the grass from the comfort of my sit-on lawnmower, removing weeds from various flowerbeds in my tank top, or for my latest adventure, pretending that I’m a lumberjack cutting down large trees on our property.
Once you step into the world of owning a house or apartment, you quickly realize that the local hardware store (Home Depot, Lowe’s, Ace, etc.) has become your new best friend. Suddenly you receive friend request messages from an unknown hardware store employee through your Facebook profile. It is a strange world!
A tumbling down experience
I prepared for my lumbering experience dressed in work pants, timberland boots, and my trusted Craftsman 16″ motorized chainsaw. Not this battery-driven girly stuff. No, we need something with power and fumes.
Within hours, I had cleared a small football field, allowing us to expand our garden and prepare the ground for a very cool summer project – more to come.
I was sweating buckets of Scandinavian bacon fat as the temperatures slowly increased to a sweltering 28C / 83F. Not too hot, but very hot for a middle-aged man doing physical labor.
16 x [(starting weight lbs) – (weight lbs after 1-hour exercise)] + [fluids consumed during in ounces] = sweat loss in ounces per hour
Simple Sweat Rate Calculator/Calculation
Despite trying my best to drink plenty of liquids, I don’t think I consumed enough water. I should probably drink water instead of beer! Either way, I lost weight. It was bloody hard work.
One thing is sure; I’m not going to pursue a tree service (arborist) career, especially after my interaction with a potential widowmaker as I attempted to down a large tree on my own.
The tree dropped”perfectly” until it got stuck when it fell on another tree. I started to cut the 2nd tree, but it was touch and go if both trees would snap and fall on me, only for both to “land” on a third tree. Finally, as I cut the third tree, the weight caused the tree to start snapping violently, and suddenly all three trees crashed with a lot of wood flying.
Needless to say, it was a silly attempt by a novice lumberjack.
A Knucklehead Firewords display
In true knucklehead spirit, one of the boys wanted to do something special for his kids for the 4th of July fireworks. Sure, he could’ve taken the kids to the village 4th of July fireworks, but his vision was spectacular and needed to be brought to fruition.
One might think, because I rarely buy fireworks, let’s buy some lovely sparklers and a few extra expensive rockets, and set the sky on fire for 1-2 minutes.
On the contrary, he constructed a sketchy paper drawing and some impressive Michaelangelo-themed images in his complex brain and attempted to realize it with the available materials.
The end goal was a fragile-looking contraption mounted on a dingy, with a self-made timed fuse, calmly clued to the already questionable integrity of the wood used.
On the day of liftoff, he calmly paddled the boat out to the middle of the lake, dropped the anchors, and lit the fuse when the evening light started to fade.
We witnessed a well-choreographed fireworks display, lasting 8-9 minutes, impressing all the onlookers, and the kids were overly captivated by this incredible fire display.
Mission completed with high marks!
Camp and Extended School
Another week of camp and extended school year activities are scheduled for the week.
I have to prepare lunches that can be consumed next to the firepit at camp, on a canoe, out trekking in the wilderness or sitting on the lawn. Not too messy, but yet filling.
This week, I’m also trying to create a meal plan that can be used for school/camp lunches, attempting to minimize left-overs and shop for fewer products as the variety of meals is less.
Inflation is screwing up grocery shopping, resulting in higher weekly expenditure on food. As a result, it is becoming difficult for some families to eat healthy as everything goes up, and we have to shop within our means.
It means more homemade bread, pickled vegetables, and less expensive meat cuts. However, you can find great prices at local butchers and farmer markets. Support your local businesses where possible.
I highly recommend investing in Dennis the Prescott’s cookbook, “125 Recipes for your daily dose of awesome“. It has a lot of excellent meals that you quickly make at home, and they taste fantastic—excellent instructions and pictures.
Fire up the Traeger. Ready your Dutch oven. Go shopping, and let’s start cooking—another Sunday in the Kitchen with music on the magical Demerbox and wonderful aromas filling the room.
| Lunch | Dinner | |
| Monday | Brunch stomach filler; homemade English muffins with beef patty, green stuff, provolone, bacon, tomato, and a fried egg | Spaghetti bolognese – simple and filling |
| Tuesday | Homemade pizza with pepperonis, grated cheese, basil, tomato, and mozzarella | Homemade falafel with grilled chicken, tomato and cucumber salad, and hummus. |
| Wednesday | Deep-fried spicy chicken thigh sandwich served on a homemade bun, spicy mayo, and lettuce. | Deep-fried grilled chicken thighs, one spicy and one with spicy nacho crust – served on nice homemade buns. |
| Thursday | Homemade falafels with tomato and cucumber and a boiled egg | Shrimp pad Thai noodles – thanks to Dennis the Prescott |
| Friday | Viking monster sandwich with salami, lettuce, tomato, roast beef, and mozzarella – of course on a homemade bun | BBQ; fish and poultry |
One day, I might get so organized that I will link the meals below to my recipes. We can only live in hope!
Have a fantastic week, my friends. I hope you enjoy these meal plans. It is much easier to make food in advance, although you must invest several hours preparing meals during the weekend.
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