I don't run out of things to do
Jun. 12th, 2020 10:47 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
eorI haven't posted about the accomplishments of the last couple weekends, but they have been busy. Two weekends ago we finished up the final part of the area I'd designated as the Big Rose Clearing project. There are still a few places on the property with rose, but we cleared a huge chunk over forest over the course of a couple of months. We also almost finished clearing out the honeysuckle, Japanese barberry, and rose from the area I'd designated beyond the stone wall. There is still just a little of that to do. That was a good finish to May.
I had mentally set aside May to yard projects and said to myself, "I'll work on the van in June." Last weekend the big accomplishment was finally finishing installing the new axles and CV joints in the van. Now that I know what the new axles feel like and look like, I know the old ones definitely needed changing. I could probably do the job a whole lot quicker the next time, but I hope the next time is a long time from now. A smaller project finished was replacing the fuel filter, fuel pump, removing the problematic pre-filter, and changing all the fuel hoses in that area. I also mostly got the new stereo wired (still two wires to run from the rear speakers to the dash). Somewhere along the line I also got the turn signal indicator on the dash working, so now the only things in the dash that are not working are the tachometer and the clock. I did discover that the defroster cable is broken, but the replacement part is backordered so I can't fix that yet. While I was working on that stuff I discovered lots of nightmare wiring in the dash (things spliced together then wrapped in loose electrical tape, electrical tape falls off after a while in the heat of a car, never use it on car wiring). So I spent a lot of time figuring out where various bits were going then replacing, rerouting, and insulating connections more permanent ways. There was also a lot of time spent cleaning things and there needs to be a whole lot more time spent cleaning things. But the van is starting to feel a little more "ours" and is starting to smell a little less funky.
It is also lawn mowing season, so a good bit of effort goes to keeping up with that perpetual task. It might be theoretically possible to finish the lawn in one day, but it normally takes me 4 good long sessions. It's one of those jobs where if you don't go after it hard, you don't finish before you have to start again.
Today it has been a lot of little things: changing the blade on the lawnmower, fixing the leaks in the garden hoses, backplanting bean rows, planting radish rows where we already harvested. I did extract 3 iceberg rocks out of the lower lawn. I kept hitting the tops of them with the lawn mower and wanted to stop bashing the blade. I had previously moved all the easily moved rocks. These were really difficult to dig out and drag across the lawn. There are four more to go, but at least a couple of them I probably won't get moved. They are just too big. I also surprised a woodchuck in the garden. That is who has been trimming the lettuce, I blamed deer! All I had to confront him with was a piece of broken pallet board. He got away, but I don't know if he'll be inclined to come back because he exited at a run faster than I've ever seen a woodchuck move before.
To finish up the day we burned brush for about 3 hours. Still have a significant pile by the burn area and lots of significant piles to move to the burn area.
I had mentally set aside May to yard projects and said to myself, "I'll work on the van in June." Last weekend the big accomplishment was finally finishing installing the new axles and CV joints in the van. Now that I know what the new axles feel like and look like, I know the old ones definitely needed changing. I could probably do the job a whole lot quicker the next time, but I hope the next time is a long time from now. A smaller project finished was replacing the fuel filter, fuel pump, removing the problematic pre-filter, and changing all the fuel hoses in that area. I also mostly got the new stereo wired (still two wires to run from the rear speakers to the dash). Somewhere along the line I also got the turn signal indicator on the dash working, so now the only things in the dash that are not working are the tachometer and the clock. I did discover that the defroster cable is broken, but the replacement part is backordered so I can't fix that yet. While I was working on that stuff I discovered lots of nightmare wiring in the dash (things spliced together then wrapped in loose electrical tape, electrical tape falls off after a while in the heat of a car, never use it on car wiring). So I spent a lot of time figuring out where various bits were going then replacing, rerouting, and insulating connections more permanent ways. There was also a lot of time spent cleaning things and there needs to be a whole lot more time spent cleaning things. But the van is starting to feel a little more "ours" and is starting to smell a little less funky.
It is also lawn mowing season, so a good bit of effort goes to keeping up with that perpetual task. It might be theoretically possible to finish the lawn in one day, but it normally takes me 4 good long sessions. It's one of those jobs where if you don't go after it hard, you don't finish before you have to start again.
Today it has been a lot of little things: changing the blade on the lawnmower, fixing the leaks in the garden hoses, backplanting bean rows, planting radish rows where we already harvested. I did extract 3 iceberg rocks out of the lower lawn. I kept hitting the tops of them with the lawn mower and wanted to stop bashing the blade. I had previously moved all the easily moved rocks. These were really difficult to dig out and drag across the lawn. There are four more to go, but at least a couple of them I probably won't get moved. They are just too big. I also surprised a woodchuck in the garden. That is who has been trimming the lettuce, I blamed deer! All I had to confront him with was a piece of broken pallet board. He got away, but I don't know if he'll be inclined to come back because he exited at a run faster than I've ever seen a woodchuck move before.
To finish up the day we burned brush for about 3 hours. Still have a significant pile by the burn area and lots of significant piles to move to the burn area.
