Another fun day at the Bolt Hole! Woke up to chilly air and the pitter-patter of rain drops on the roof at 5 AM so I knew I'd have to put off doing anything outdoorsy for the time being.
That was okay. After having some breakfast and brewing a pot of coffee, I slapped on another layer of spackle on the patches. They're looking pretty good right now. Strangely, the largest patch (some 4" wide by 8" long) looks the best. The two that are about 3-1/2" square are still a wee bit sunken in and may need one more coat before sanding begins.
I then went and straightened up the storage room. It was a complete mess and needed some organizing. First I dragged all the big items (a double bed's head and foot, the springs for that bed, two large storage bins holding camping sleeping pads, a ton of fishing gear, etc.) out into the open. Then I put a shelf that once held my TV and VCR way back when in the rear of the room. Into that went all the stuff I had pulled out (except for the fishing poles and bed) and more. The fishing rods were placed upright in a 5 gallon bucket. The bed was more neatly stashed--on end--next to the shelves. All the boxes of screws and nails were neatly stacked on the desk in there, and all the left over electrical stuff (wire, junction boxes, plugs, etc.) got sorted, stashed and labeled in old Cub Scout popcorn tins. Lots of really useless stuff got chucked. The place looks much better now. Still not perfect, but better.
Around 10 AM the rain stopped and I thought I'd go see if I could get the lawn mower started. Took the can of high octane gasoline out the garage and filled the tank. Pumped the primer half a dozen times and pulled the cord. VROOM! Started on the first pull. Love it!
Mark has been unable to capture any game camera photos of deer and a few locals say they haven't seen any around here at all. (Mark has gotten pictures of a sow bear with her triplets from last year and two boars including our friend Dufus who looks positively HUGE!) I mention this here because while I was in the garage filling the lawn mower's gas tank, I heard a snort from somewhere behind the barn. I waded through the nearly knee high grass and spotted a deer in on the edge of the woods looking over its shoulder at me. It gave another wheeze/snort and trotted off into the woods. Maybe the bugs (black flies and deer flies) have got the deer in hiding, too.
When the rain held off, I went out to cut the grass at 3PM. I set the mower on the next to highest setting knowing that the wet and deep grass would be a problem. Except for a few passes I tried to stay in the area Mark had cut a week ago. Even that was still a good 5 or 6 inches high and damp enough that it frequently clogged the chute when I cut it. The area Mark left uncut is closer to 12-18 inches high and could only be cut by taking tiny little widths. Even then it clogged the chute every couple of feet. Definitely wasn't worth trying to force the issue when there's a brush hog sitting in the garage.
Finished mowing what I could and went to get the brush hog. First order of business was to drain out the old gas that was sitting and separating in the tank all winter. I then put half a tank of high octane fuel in the tank, adjusted the throttle and choke and gave the cord a pull. No go. Pulled some more and it wouldn't turn over. So I took the air filter off. Pulled and the engine coughed and sputtered. Pulled again and it roared to life. I adjusted the choke and put the air filter back on. The engine would run but stalled often. Still I got to use it for a half hour or so. Constantly restarting and fiddling with the choke to keep it running was a pain, however. Finally, around 3:30 PM it stalled and in the ensuing quiet I could hear thunder. I pushed the brush hog back to the garage just as the sky opened up and it started pouring. I had to wait 20 minutes as the storm moved over before I could get back to the cabin. hasn't really stopped raining since, though the thunder and lightning has stopped--for now. Well, I didn't really want to do any more outdoor work anyway. I'll go out and play with the brush hog some more tomorrow. I'll have to see if I can't get it to run a wee bit more consistently.
So that was my exciting day. I got lots of things accomplished although there's plenty more to do inside and out. But they will have to wait until manana.
2 comments:
Trying to mow all that wet grass can be a real pain ... and it almost sounds like the brush hog's air filter is clogged.
Deer all seem to be running into the road down this way. We've been speculating that they may be trying to get away from the bugs. Liz saw a doe have twin fawns on the Canajoharie Country Club golf course when she was out working with her boss this week. They stopped to use their phones and she came out of the woods and had her babies right on the hill above them..and Liz's boss just happened to have binoculars handy.
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