Day 3240 Why all these keys John?

30th June 2026

I had high hope today, although stonkingly hot, of finishing the repairs to John’s sawmill.

I needed to confirm that I could rotate the motor so that the power tab was on the top. I called Wood Mizer and they confirmed that I could do that. I was anticipating maybe an hours work at the most.

Anyway, I’m getting a little head of myself.

When we both got to John’s barn the thing I dreaded the most happened, he couldn’t find to the key to unlock the door. He fumbled in his pockets and pulled out about twenty keys. On one of them was stamped the words “ Barn” a good indication that this was the one to unlock the door, but no, it didn’t. I was getting a little frustrated. I started to go through every key, whilst John was mumbling to himself. He called his son, asking him to come over, but that couldn’t happen immediately. After about an hour, he turned up. Of course he had a key, but that wasn’t the point, we needed to find where John’s key was. After comparing all the keys we finally found one that would work with a little wiggling. This I kept separate from all the other ones in John’s pocket. Now we could finally do some jobs.

Now back to the saw mill.

I was able to rotate the motor into the correct position, and connected the power tab cable to it, but I wasn’t clear where the ground cable went. Another call to Doug at Wood Mizer left me more confused. He talked about a solenoid, how that had to be fitted and wired up, but I didn’t have a solenoid.

I called to John, I did remember seeing something in a poly bag on the floor, instructing him to go and find it. 

All the time the sun was beating down, I thought I would have finished by now.

Eventually he turned up with the poly bag and solenoid, but no instructions, I expect they were removed and lost among the crap piled up in the office. Another call to Doug, and instructions on how the wiring should go. This I managed to do.

We were unable to test it because all the hydraulic fluid gushed out last week, and the battery was dead, so maybe next week there will be another frantic call to Doug.

By now it was 4.00pm, just enough time to wash the grime from my hands and finish the coffee in the flask.

With my shirt soaked and my eyes stinging I drove back to Holland.