Thursday and Friday I was out for the evenings, so I missed those two scorchers, but when I woke up Saturday it was still 76 inside despite having the windows open and fans on all night. It is crazy to think that Monday I was debating turning the heat on, and by Thursday we were in the 80's, even in Sullivan.
So the first thing I did Saturday was clean out my AC filter. All things considered, it wasn't as bad as it has been in the past, though that month where it was frozen and didn't run the heat probably helped.
And turn it on. My unit struggles to pull down the house a little, so I wanted to get it turned on before it got too hot.
Next up was washing the truck. It is all nice and shiny. Despite being a cheaper Turtle Wax cleaner, it did a decent job on the bug splats, and while it is odd to say, I really liked the smell.
While the truck was drying I sprayed the knotweed again. The stuff I sprayed before had slowed in its growth and killed a handful of leaves, but it didn't kill it. So it got another dose. With how expensive the weed killer is, it will be expensive to spray it every weekend, but if it gets rid of it it is worth it.
Since I apparently forgot to hit the bypass on my water filter, the washing and spraying of weeds apparently used around 65 gallons of water.
Next up was painting the truck. The color was almost a perfect match. From a distance you can't really see the touchup. Even knowing it is there.
I was originally intending to only do the egregious scratches, since minor scrapes and stuff would be expected on an 11 year old truck.
In the end I ended up doing pretty much all of them since the paint pens had a lot more coverage than I expected. The drivers side cleaned up really nicely. It had a ton of minor scrapes and whatnot from driving through thick brush.
The worst part of the truck was the tailgate. This got beat to hell by the guys at the quarry. While some of the guys knew to only fill a side of the bucket of the loader, some didn't and just let whatever was past the end of my truck drop onto the ground. Since the back of my truck is angled outward though, every rock that was a near miss on the bed scratched/chipped the paint on its way down. This is what the side of it looked like.
Above the handle was also really bad. This is a before (left) and after (right) picture taken while doing it.
The tailgate alone took me almost two hours to do, but it looks much better. I didn't do the very bottom since that is rusted and the paint is bubbling anyways.
After finishing up the painting I started mowing. As I went over to start, I noticed that I appear to have a leak in my plumbing. The slab should not have been wet here. I think it is related to the hose. I turned the hose back off on the inside and we will see if it dries up. If it does, I think I might not care and just turn the hose on when I need it.
Because I historically use the pushmower for more obnoxious stuff, I had the deck set to maximum. It did cut quite a bit, but it kind of looks the same. I might have to lower the deck on the pushmower a bit. It is a quick adjust, so it isn't a big deal. I only did about 3/4 of the front before I was getting eaten alive. We are in the heart of black fly season.
Anx also came up to get a board ripped so he could install his AC, so I put him to work. The cap from my truck has been removed. I intend to sell it separately since it looks rough and I don't think it will increase the value of the truck especially since the back window is in rough shape and the back locks are clogged with salt from the winter.
I have had the cap on there so long that the truck looks kind of odd without the cap on it now.
Sunday I didn't do much, dodging storms most of the day. We got a couple of good ones. I did get my bug zapper out and get it set up.
This is what the previous night looked like. Look at the drip edge if it isn't clear. Part of me wonders if this is because I wasn't able to put the dunks out this year (the chemical warfare I have done the last few years). I didn't do that this year because where I used to put most of them wasn't on my property. I would walk a quarter mile or so past the edge of my property before the creek split, and put them there, and let the current wash the chemicals downstream. But that was all in clear view of the house next door, and is really close to where the person behind me is going to build.
I also went out for a bit between rain in the afternoon looking at path for the power lines so I can get started on that, and I just happened to see the fiber box on the pole. The path for the power lines is a trainwreck, and will require massive amounts of tree removal just to run new lines. This isn't counting the poles that they will have to drill through rock to put in. They claim they will run it though, we shall see.
Prepping the truck is well underway at this point. I will need to put a second layer of paint and a layer of clearcoat on the repairs, and I still need to work on the interior. I ran a couple of armor all wipes across the dash last week, but that is pretty much all I have done on the interior. While I started looking at the power lines, I haven't really done anything with it yet.
Summer projects:
- Prep truck for trade in
- Determine house plans (modular vs mobile vs stick)
- Get my power service upgraded
- Shed floor
- Shed doors
- Concrete shed supports
- Anti-mouse the shed (seal it, maybe spray with pepper spray or something)
- Eliminate pile of crap in the back yard.
- Level the side yard.
- Investigate retaining wall construction.
- Install windows in the shed.
- Fix/sell the utility trailer.
- Driveway round 5
- Get building permit
- Determine the future method of travel. Build prototype?
- Come up with garage plans
- Clear walking trails on lot.
- Build a bridge over the creek
