It's always something...

There's always some little thing that tries to ruin a perfectly good day.

******

We had a good morning birding at Hills Creek State Park today. First we had two new couples and a long lost couple show up thanks to an article that ran in a local free magazine called Mountain Home. It contained information about our walks and several of Gary's excellent bird photographs. Then we had perfect conditions for an enjoyable walk as the temperatures ranged from the upper 40s to the low 60s under clear, blue skies. And there wasn't much of a breeze either.  Finally, the birds cooperated and we spotted some 38 species including a few I don't believe we've seen before..they were certainly new to this year's walks. I'll be posting the complete list probably tomorrow.

******

After our bird walk, we had our end of the year picnic for the Tiadaghton Audubon Society. Even that was well attended with the core group of a dozen or so showing up. Even our east-west snow birds made their return from California in time to join in. We had a good time talking birds, travel, gizmos and what-not.

******

Around 1:30 PM our picnic broke up and Terry headed to New Jersey for Mother's Day and I headed north to the Bolt Hole to see what needed to be done in and around the cabin and to start getting the trailer in shape for our trip to Cape Cod.

My trip went well with no traffic delays or snarls and I even got to listen to the last two innings of the Mets game against the Marlins. (Mets won 9-3.) I arrived at the Bolt Hole around 5:30 PM. I got a few things out of the truck, turned on the phone and refrigerator and went down into the basement to turn the water on and that's when things got wonky.

Oh, the pump turned on just fine, but for the first time since I bought the place, one of the PVC pipe sprung a leak and water started to spray all along the 3-foot section of pipe. Needless to say, I was not pleased.

I started to rummage around and found the pipe cutter, a length of pipe, properly sized joints, primer and glue for repairs. Unfortunately, the glue had congealed over the winter and was worthless. Soooo...off to the nearest Lowes to get more. (The local hardware store closes around 5 PM on Saturdays and doesn't open on Sunday so the 60+ mile round trip was necessary.) I needed to pick up some gasoline for the lawn mower anyway.

Back at the Bolt Hole it took me about half an hour to cut out the old, split section of pipe, cut a new length, prime and glue the joints to the replacement and then clean, prime and glue the new piece to the old ends. Now I wait while it cures before turning the water on again. Hope the patch works!

******

Tomorrow, if the plumbing repair worked, I can get on to the other things I need to do. I'll crank up the lawn mower and get those sections of the yard that Mark has not been maintaining. He's gotten the bulk of the yard done in an effort to make the place lok lived in so that leaves the pieces out of sight from the road.

Then I'll check the tire pressure on the trailer (I brought the air compressor with me--just in case--but left the tool box witht he spare gauges back at the Aerie. Sure home there's one in the truck!) and see what's going on inside. I brought the fully charged battery up to put that in place and will get the propane tanks out of the garage and put them in their cradle.