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floor outlet in the great room
Saturday, June 7 2025
location: 940 feet west of Woodworth Lake, Fulton County, NY
It was raining this morning, so I didn't get around to walking the dogs until the early afternoon. Seeking to avoid an encounter with that porcupine Charlotte had found yesterday, I took them down the Lake Edward Trail to Halfway Brook, just beyond the Big Split Rock, and I followed it downstream just a little until I found Quarter Way Brook cascading down from the east to join it. I followed it upstream back to the Lake Edward Trail and then back to the cabin, trying to avoid a more strenuous hike. (Even this one had its problems, given the limitations of my back; Off-trail, I'd have to stoop to avoid branches or jump from stone to stone to cross a brook, and sometimes this would trigger a pain in my left lower back.) I'd brought a beer with me to take the edge off my hangover, though mostly all it did was drain away my motivation.
I wanted to do some electrical work but had realized that I was missing some necessary supplies, so I decided to drive to the TrueValue hardware store in Gloversville. I tried to get the dogs to come with me, but they weren't interested. The sun had come out and they just wanted to lie around on the cabin's front entrance deck.
Once I had my electrical supplies, I could turn my attention to the project I had in mind: installing an electrical outlet in the floor beneath the north end of the couch in the great room. This would solve a number of problems, particularly the need for easily-controlled area lighting for when Gretchen is reading. It would also make it easier to keep my various laptops charged as I use them. So I took a bunch of measurements and then used rare-earth magnets to confirm that the place atop the floor was in the correct spot with respect to the joists and other structures in the floor. This technique worked okay, though it was important to confirm that the object being attracted by a magnet from below or above was my magnet and not, say, a nail in the floor. So I would move a magnet on one side and confirm that the other magnet had also moved.
With the location figured out, I could start drilling pilot holes and then use spade bits to drill holes big enough to fit the blade of a reciprocating saw in. After I'd cut out a rectangular hole for a metal electrical box, I then had to rasp it aggressively to make it large enough for that box and accommodate a few bumps and screw heads for the hardware holding it together. Once I had all that done, I used a hammer to drive the box tightly into the hole. With that in place, I could wire it to an existing circuit in the basement. I had a box to which I already planned to add an outdoor circuit for monitoring fuel levels in the propane tank, and I could add it to that. First, though, I had to migrate all the cables in it to a box large enough to contain all the wirenut splices.
Before going to bed, I took a bath, though the water in the hot water tank had already dropped to a temperature that was just a smidge too cool. By then a 150 mg dose of diphenhydramine was kicking in, so off I went to bed.
Quarterway Brook as it cascades down to Halfway Brook. Click to enlarge.
A nice den tree I saw on the walk this afternoon. Click to enlarge.
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