The past few days I've been digging a shallow trench from the fence row to the trailer to run an electric cable underground. I have 1.5" Sch.40 PVC pipe down about six inches with a heavy duty electric cord through it. Along the way I discovered an old concrete fencepost hole. The post has long since rotted away, but there was the concrete "plug" right smack in my path. I bit the bullet and dug around it and got it out of there but it put a bit of strain on my back I'm afraid. Nice to have reliable power to the trailer though. I ran the battery charger today, then played the radio and plugged in some lights as I finished up the job. Felt good to have my hands in the dirt as I "re-sodded" the trench and blended it into the lawn around it. In a week or so I'll scatter some seed and some grass clippings over the area and it'll be hard to tell what's where. It was hard digging since there were several trees nearby and their roots were in the way, but it'll make mowing a breeze and there's no way to damage the electrical cable now. Before it ran across the grass and you had to disconnect the trailer and roll up the wire each time you passed through that area.
Speaking of mowing, since I last wrote I've discovered that Eloise needs a trip to the repair shop to get some freeze plugs replaced. Apparently I didn't add enough antifreeze to her in the fall and they popped out sometime this winter. :( Of course, they're on the back of the block, facing the front of the transmission housing. Why not put them on the outside where they could be replaced easily?? Darned if I know. But getting to them basically means splitting the tractor in two and that's more work than I have time for right now. So hopefully next week I can borrow a trailer and haul her over there. The grass is going nuts with this warm weather and sunshine we've had lately.
The past few days I've done a bit of few hours of mowing with the walk behind mower each day, just so things don't get too far ahead of me. I used the bag for the clippings so I could spread them on some bare dirt areas around the place. Hoping they'll "rot in" and provide the medium to let the grass fill in those areas. At least my boots won't get so muddy walking over those areas now. At the rate things grow around here I'm sure that as soon as we start gardening in earnest we'll never starve. :)
Speaking of gardening, I have been reading about stray bale gardening and decided to try it since I had eight straw bales left over from a "hay ride" a few years ago. You're supposed to water them for three days straight so they get soaked with moisture. The last few days. I'd been doing it the hard way, with a spray nozzle and the pressure turned down so it soaks in. Today I took some time and hooked up a length of soaker hose that my brother-in-law gave me out of his garden. (They're moving to a retirement apartment so I got a few helpful things out of his garage before the new folks took possession. :) The soaker hose at full pressure probably draws more water than my shallow well can sustain for long, so I reduced the pressure to about half and feel better about letting the hose run for an hour or two now. A new well is in the plan for the future but for now I want to be careful not to run the present one dry. The straw bales are almost ready for their first dose of fertilizer, so I have to remember to pick some of that up early next week. I've only got about eight bales started so far, but later I'll add four more. It's fun to anticipate growing some veggies. Yeah, I actually said that. :)
The remaining barn electrical circuits are substantially ready to be hooked up at the electrical panel in the house. Plenty of "open slots" on the panel that have been disconnected from former circuits in the house that are no longer functional. At some point down the line the barn will need a new cable strung to it and it's own sub-panel but that will come later. We'll settle for functional in the short term and worry about optimal later. :)
Framing the barn office area hasn't happened, for a variety of reasons, so I'm a little shy of storage space as we move out of the house. :( However, I remain hopeful that -most- of our stuff will not end up in the yard under a tarp. :)
We're planning on moving big pieces of furniture out on Monday or Tuesday, then the rest to be done by Thursday. I'll be away for three days this weekend with various activities so what's not done by Thursday evening gets left for the new tenants.
Well, that's about it for today/tonight. Time for dinner, shower and sleep in short order.
Hope your weekend is going well,
Doug
1 comment:
Hope the move goes well!
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