Slab cleaned off, damage assessment complete.

So I went and disassembled the two carports.  I should be able to make one out of the remains next year if I want to put one up.  This is the remains of the one that blew over into the back yard.  This one just had a few bent poles, the canopy survived.  The other one the canopy got shredded and was dragged up to my tarp graveyard by the shed, but most of the poles survived.  This is the first one, I apparently didn't take a picture of the pile with them both on there.


I also went to install the lights on the plow blade.  Looks like I might have to make a bracket for it.  These are both adjusted to their extremes, one in each direction of the mounting plate it came with.


I also went and tested all the power tools today.  The circular saw ran a little sluggish spinning up, but seemed to be fine.  The jig saw started up, but there is something wrong with the motor, it is all but worthless now, though to be fair it was a POS before it got rained on.  The chop saw squeals and makes other unsavory noises, but seems to cut ok. 


There is a piece missing on the chop saw, the clamp.  I will get over it.


The air compressor doesn't run right, but it runs.  It shakes like hell now though, which it never used to and the tank drain plug is seized up (I almost never used it anyways).  The nailer jams a lot more often now, but still works fine.  It has a lot of rust on the springs and the loading mechanisms though, so I will have to monitor it.  Heather's brad nailer and stapler works great.  It has a little rust on it, but nothing serious.  In short, everything still functions, but they all probably had their lives shortened a bit.  That is a major relief. 


I came across another couple of mice nests today.  One was in the push mower.  I never got around to fixing it, so it has sat all summer, and there was a nest with 4 mice in it.  I got three of them, the last one ran away too quick.  I also found another one in the wood scraps pile.  It has been eliminated.  When I was installing the lights on the plow blade though, I smelled a mouse nest (they are very dirty animals and their nests stink) and found that they decided to build in the engine of my lawn tractor. 


I think it is time to rectify the problem.  They ate all the gloves I had out the last few days, but the tractor is the last straw.  This means war.  I couldn't find the little pellet mouse poison, this was all Home Depot had.  All of them will be out tomorrow.


I finished cleaning off the slab.  I am not going to bother putting up another carport this year.  It is November in a few days and I would have to take it down once it started to snow anyways.  Everything still out is waterproof, since we are supposed to get another round tomorrow. 


In all, I think the damage is limited to maybe a couple hundred dollars, which isn't too bad, all things considered.  There were a few things I couldn't find in the dark, like my carpenter square and all my spade bits.  Those are not salvageable.  The regular square isn't really usable anymore either.  It is hard to read with the rust on it.  I lost a lot of fasteners, all the bolts and everything I had are rusted up, but thankfully the screws and nails I bought in bulk all survived (the screws come in 25 lb boxes, which run around 75-80 dollars a piece). All of my bits and quick release magnetic bit holders are toast.  Even today I couldn't locate most of the bits.  Mice ate all my gloves (except for the one glove that had a mouse in it). 

I also started to prepare for winter in my apartment when I got home.  I finally got around to taking out my air conditioners, since I cracked and turned on the heat a couple nights ago when my apartment hadn't gone above 53 all day. 

Regarding the loan dilemma, I still haven't heard back from Tim on his loan guy.  Glenn, the investor I mentioned, is out.  He is thinking of buying a house, so he doesn't have the cash to spare.  I spoke with Matt briefly (he actually reads my blog and talked to me :) ), he is a possibility, though I haven't heard anything definitive. 

I did some thinking while I was up there cleaning today, and I think the probability of me having the place livable in less than a month with no time off is around 10% at this point, so I think the loan stuff might be put on hold until spring.  While I can't save up enough to cover the septic, I can easily cover the well that way.  It also means that I need to get started on winterizing the place, and things like fix the driveway need to be done because it can't be cleared in its current state, the ruts will swallow a snowblower or the front of the tractor.