Cool and damp, warming to hot and moist. Or just raining all day. Or is that tomorrow? We’ll see which liar is closer to the truth. Yesterday was not horrible. Overcast and muggy most of the day though. Sweaty.
So I did outdoor stuff. ‘natch. Cut the grass in the back. Because my life is fractally complicated, that meant fixing a string trimmer first. I brought a good runner home from the BOL because I’d dropped it and cracked the fuel tank. I knew I had a non-running one, same model, that I could steal the tank from. So I did. And the tank has a pinhole leak. Dang. So grab another non-runner, see what we can do… realize it’s a four stroke, put regular gas in it, and it starts. Doesn’t run well, but runs enough to use the string trimmer head (after a trip to Lowes for string, bar oil, and a chainsaw chain… which I forgot). Knocked down the stuff that would stop my mower, got the mower running and cut the back yard.
Blew a lot of leaves and mess to the yard, and mulched that. Then tackled a non-running pressure washer. Determined that it had spark, but no fuel. Cleaned the carb and it still wouldn’t fire up. The air cleaner housing is an integral part of the idle circuit, and once I figured that out, I got it to start and run. I can’t find the air filter and cover. They are here somewhere but I started poking at the washer a couple months ago, and can’t remember where I put them. Without the restriction of the air filter and housing, it won’t run properly… but it does run, hose and gun work fine. Shelf that for now.
Blew some of the debris off the canned goods shelves. Didn’t get all hazmat suited to tackle that yet…
Checked that my ham antenna wasn’t in danger of coming down. It’s not plumb, but I can’t get to the bolts to plumb it, and so it’ll be fine for now.
Put the backup weather station in place. Still getting the incorrect temp and humidity I was getting with the old one. Something must be interfering with the radio signal. Shelve that for now.
Hit two stores looking for the aloe gel I’ve used for decades to treat sunburn. Didn’t find it. Ordered it online. Tried to shop local… and they had the brand and the product, just in a juice not a gel. I don’t drink the stuff, I use it topically, so the gel (which is pretty watery anyway) is better. I tried. Amazon got their skim. Product manufacturer got the money, but the locals missed out. It should be here today.
One good thing from yesterday- my grapes are going nuts. The vine froze back to the ground, but has recovered to grow up the trellis this year. I didn’t expect any activity until next year, but I noticed that suddenly I have bunches of grapes all over the vines. This is the vine that has never produced, and didn’t really flourish. I had some limited fruit on the other vine a couple of years ago. This year I did nothing, and I will probably be getting fruit.
Peach tree is about half dead. Apple tree is thin but flowering. Blueberry bushes look weak and spindly this year. I’m not optimistic that I’ll get much fruit, not that I get much, but yield has been increasing every year, until now.
I have to get the sprinklers working again, so that will be today’s project. At least, I’ll begin replacing the vacuum breaker and see what that entails. Probably would be easy if all my plumbing stuff wasn’t at the BOL… I’ll probably have to shop. I didn’t bring the stuff home because I still have the sprinklers up there to get sorted. Maybe I’ll get lucky.
I’ve let stuff go for too long. Now I’m paying for it. Stay on top of maintenance projects. If TSHTF, you’d be wishing you had. Heck, if you need it for normal everyday life, you’ll be wishing it was working.
Things seem to be accelerating. We are definitely already past the point where we were predicting stuff would be, when it started heading south. Layoffs, bank failures, bankrupt retail, mass migrations, decreases in services, cities deteriorating farther, faster, it’s all actually happening. The violence and further schisms can’t be too far away.
Stack while you can. Get your stuff in order. Plant some food.
nick