Grass and wildlife

Saturday I finished up the beam for the shed.  It is long.  That goes all way to the bookshelf in the back corner of the shed.  It is 20' long, so it is 4' longer than the shed.

I stopped into Harbor Freight for a single use jack, but apparently they are all out.  I got a hold of Tim and he has a small floor jack that I can use.  

I also pulled out my weedwhacker.  Much to my surprise I put the TruFuel in it and it fired right up third pull.  It was running very poorly last time I used it (it would often overheat, but wouldn't run without the choke on), and that was 2 years ago.  It stuttered a bit at first, but I ran a tank and a half through it and it was running great by the end.

I have the brushcutter head on my weedwhacker, and I abused it today cutting stuff like this, which I really should have pulled out my shears for.  

That tree in the middle was about an inch and a half in diameter.

It didn't like it.  Looks like I need to sharpen it now and get that chunk ground out.  Oops.  I have a chainsaw, I should try using it.

One of the main things I wanted to clear was out by the road.  The knotweed has taken over, and it was at the point where I couldn't see before I pulled out.  In past years the town has cut it down when it gets bad, but with lots of flooding and washouts this year, they have been rather busy keeping the roads passable.

I also pushed back the encroachment of knotweed down by the road.  I am tired it whacking me when I mow.  

I also trimmed (yes, with the weedwhacker) the branches that were hitting my truck when I drove up my driveway.  I have a chainsaw and really should use it.  

While I was trimming the beech down by the parking spot/destroying the blade on my weedwhacker, I was wondering if I should remove that tree.  It was one of the trees slated for elimination, since I wanted to keep the maples and the beech is too close to the driveway.  My lot has a dearth of color in the fall because there isn't a good variety of trees, but the maples have already lost most of their leaves and haven't contributed any fall color.  My maples aren't the only ones doing that this year though, driving around you can see many that have behaved the same.

I also did some clearing over by the carport and by the pile of junk in the back before the weedwhacker was done for the day.

I also noticed while I was clearing that I have a bunch of holes in my yard.  They look like mole holes, but usually with moles you can see the track of where they dug since they stay shallow, but these almost look like something started to dig and stopped.   Not sure what to make of those.  They aren't big enough to impact mowing though, so I might just simply not care.

I had a little of daylight left on Saturday, so I also moved some stuff into the carport.  I got most of the loose stuff on the left (stable) wall cleared out.  The back corner will be the challenging part though.  

There are a bunch of things I came across that I might just get rid of too, like I have most of a roll of tar paper, a giant roll of CAT6 cable that I got from Matt and have never used, stuff like that.  

After dark, I finally got around to cleaning my big fan too.  It was bad.  Here is a before and after.  It works much better now.

As I was cleaning up the dust from cleaning the fan, I noticed that my supposed OEM replacement filters from Black and Decker for my hand vac don't fit.  Grrr.  I will have to check, but I think I am past the return window on them too.  The filter on the left is the one that is in it.

Sunday was all about destruction of vegetation.  I mixed up the rest of my glyphosate and sprayed around the pile of junk.  

I also noticed that my well was leaking around the top, so I need to go clean the filter on the daylight pipe.  So I sprayed a bunch of the knotweed over in that general area.  I was surprised that when I sprayed it, I apparently have a very large number of honeybees that I irritated.  I didn't think I had any honey bees, but they weren't the yellow jackets or wasps I normally see.  They apparently don't like getting sprayed with Glyphosate either.  

I also sprayed down the side over by the carport so that it will hopefully stay dead.  

After I ran out of glyphosate, I mixed up a batch of the other stuff I picked up at Home Depot, who doesn't carry glyphosate anymore.  In case the sticker isn't readable, this stuff is Glufosinate-Ammonium.

It certainly doesn't mix as nicely, it foamed real bad, and the foam didn't settle down very fast.  My hose still leaks like a strainer too.  I sprayed the rest of the knotweed in the front that I had pushed back, we shall see if this stuff works better or worse.  The glyphosate historically wilts the knotweed, but doesn't kill it, it just grows a new stalk.  

At that point I decided to go make lunch (mmm, popcorn shrimp).  Apparently my wildlife had the same thought.  There was a pack of turkeys that came out.  They came from the front, and worked their way back.  They basically made a loop around the house.  

The picture sucks because I didn't really want to go outside and disturb them, but they really really loved the pile of mulch.  They were digging and picking at it for almost 20 minutes.  

My porky woodchuck even came out for lunch too.  

They made a couple of stops around my septic system, both around the tank and the leech field, on their way out.  

After they left, I went and looked at the damage.  Most of them shook off (turkeys shake like a dog apparently) on the slab.  They made a mess.  

They dug several holes in the mulch too.  

After that it was mowing time.  I got most of the mowing done, at least enough to move the boat and the front.  While I was mowing the back yard, I noticed the lawn tractor had a weird issue, something was preventing the front tire from spinning.  

I brought it to the slab, and it quickly became clear what the problem was.  I knew the deck was worn out when I got it, but this is pretty fatal.  I will take a look around to see if I can find a used deck for it, since the Cub still runs great, but I know Dad looked in KY before I got it and didn't have much luck.  If I can't find one, this might be the end of the line for it.

I also went to move the boat.  My TPMS has been complaining for a while, and since I had the compressor out already (the Cub's right rear tire needs filling every time I mow) I checked them.  It turns out one of my rear tires has started leaking too, though it is still very slow.  I filled it up, but the light didn't go off, confirming my suspicion that one my sensors has just gone bad.  

I got the boat moved.  This is so that I can get the dumpster put in the back yard, which was inaccessible with the boat there.  And while I didn't get a picture of it, I finished mowing the back yard with the push mower and picked up the acrylic that blew out of the carport from last winter (I hadn't picked all of it up yet, only where I normally mow).  

At least the front was mowed before the deck gave up.  I will probably only mow once or maybe twice more for the year.  I can use the Craftsman if it comes to it (which is operable, though the deck is still screwed up on it; the deck brakes aren't disengaging, but the deck mows) or just use my push mower.  

I also peeled up the vinyl tape.  The vinyl tape apparently isn't nearly as waterproof as I had expected.  I had intended to clean the floor in the bathroom and reseal it, but couldn't find the sealer (I guess I put it in the shed somewhere?) and my can of scrubbing bubbles didn't have any air left in it, so I will probably work on that tonight.  Most of the floor was wet too even with a fan blowing in there and having not used the shower in several days (I have been showering at the gym).  I still don't understand what causes fiberglass to do this.  It looks like I wore the resin out of the glass, but I don't know that is possible.

While this completes several sub-tasks on that pre-work week checklist, it didn't complete any of the projects.  I am still on track for a work weekend, and the preliminary forecasts look pretty good for this weekend (it is supposed to rain all week, but not Saturday and Sunday), so I might start putting out feelers.  

2021 Projects:

• Shed supports
• Table
• South wall siding
• Review options for house (mobile home vs stick built vs modular)
• Level back yard
• Level front yard 
• Remove dead/dying beech trees
• Eliminate pile of crap in back
• Camper Power Center (portable AC power source and generator)
• Baffle box
• Driveway round three
• Fix shed floor.