Friday I went over to Bob's. I have been having problems with the windows in my truck not going up properly. It goes up, but as soon as it closes it immediately went back down as if it detected that your hand was caught in the window. Turns out that it isn't a separate sensor in this truck though, so Bob's recalibrated it on the spot for me. Apparently they had just done a bunch of them in the previous week and he just went out and fixed it for me, and didn't even charge me for it. It was just recalibrating the window motors, which only took a minute. The window works again though.
Friday night I went out to see if there were any single cab trucks. The last gasp for a truck house as opposed to a van is if a standard cab meets my comfort requirements. I was curious about the wheelbase on the truck, and wanted to measure from the seat to the steering wheel. I would have liked to sit in it, but as expected nothing was unlocked. I only found a GMC on the various lots; no Chevy, Dodge or Ford. The wheelbase on the truck was surprisingly long, 144" (my truck is 164"), and while it was as very crude measurement, It looked to be roughly 28" from the seat to the steering wheel. My truck is 29", so there is at least hope. The biggest worry is whether or not the seat goes far enough back to be comfortable. The truck is preferable to a van in my opinion: the house is more separable from the truck, trucks are cheaper than vans, are more capable off-road, and I don't have to reconstruct the living quarters every time I replace the underlying vehicle.
Saturday I wasn't feeling too great and slept in really late, but I still dragged myself out for a few hours. I got the hose all coiled up.
I also spent some time on the excavator. I another chunk of the trench dug.
The ground around the excavator is getting pretty rough. The front isn't even on the ground, and you can see the middle is sitting on a sizable bump.
Sunday I felt better and decided to fix the rough ground around the excavator to make it easier to dig in a reasonably straight line, since I noticed the trench was starting to curve a little. Flattening ground is really really easy with an excavator, far easier than the tractor.
I also went and double checked to make sure that I was putting enough slope in. So far it was perfect, and was sloped correctly all the way down.
I then went and dug some more. If you look at the dirt, the white is frost. The excavator however didn't care in the slightest. I basically went and ran it until it ran out of gas.
When I went into the shed to grab the gas can, I had a realization: if I finished the trench on Sunday, I would have no way to get the mower back to mulch the leaves until everything was 100% complete. Since my leaves are all down at this point, I decided perhaps I should finish that up first, since I need to winterize the mowers and stuff anyways. That went poorly. The lawn tractor didn't start. Turns out it is peeing gas all over the place.
I knew the tractor leaked a little bit of fuel, but the volumes leaking were a bit of a surprise. I went and pulled it apart while the battery was recharging from me sitting on the starter, and didn't immediately see anything wrong.
I got it put back together, and the battery was done recharging at this point, so I gave it a crank and it started right up. I checked, and it doesn't leak when it is running.
I went and tried to mow with it to chew up the leaves, and it was definitely not running right, so I decided to just park it and deal with it next year, and let it run itself out of gas. There was practically none left in it anyways, it leaked most of it out onto my driveway.
I have a theory that I will run past Barry at some point. It looks like it has a solenoid on the bottom of the bowl. I think that solenoid is not working correctly (it should be NC - normally closed), allowing fuel to just pour in. I have been using the inline shutoff, but that shutoff isn't original. I think if you get the mower started before it gets completely and utterly flooded, it will start. And I think the lack of control over the solenoid is why it runs poorly, it is not able to properly regulate the fuel coming in, and as soon as something bogs or isn't perfect, the butterfly valve on the carburetor isn't compensating properly perpetuating the problem.
While it was running itself dry, I pulled out the chipper to do the same with that. It wouldn't start either.
Already frustrated with the lawn tractor, I decided to just drain it and deal with it next year. I dropped the bowl, and there was nothing draining out of it. I dropped the bottom of the fuel shutoff too, and still nothing ran out. I think it is safe to say that the reason that it wouldn't start is that it isn't getting fuel, and of course the fuel line is underneath the gas tank. Ugh. It only had maybe a quarter of cup of fuel left in the tank, and with the bowl drained I am not too worried about it gumming up the carburetor. So I just rolled it up the hill. It looks like next spring will be Allen's Repair Service Grand Opening.
While I was up there I also disconnected the battery on the lawn tractor, it had run itself out of gas by this point. This way there is hopefully at least a chance the battery will survive more than one season (a rarity for me).
I at least covered the chipper, just in case. I have a big thick tarp to cover everything but I need to move the snowblowers and stuff first. And with the luck I was having at this point, I didn't want to tempt it. The sun was nearly behind the trees at this point anyways.
This was as far as I got with the excavator. I am within a few feet of where I will need to dig it manually, my water line is right behind the excavator in this picture. I am hopeful it is buried deep enough that I won't hit it, but I think I will only dig down to the frost line and do the rest by hand.
I forgot to grab a picture, but I did get the next couple shelves installed in the shelving unit. At this point though, unless there is a freak heat wave (there is one day this week actually warm enough) it won't be getting stained.
With clocks turning back, it is dark even if I leave early now, so my only option is to go home at lunch, which only gets me maybe 20 minutes to work before my lunch break is over (and I have to eat lunch during that period), but I am still hopeful that I can get the drainage in. I am running out of weekends though, since at this point all my weekends are accounted for before December. I am going to the LAN this weekend, there is a Friendsgiving the following weekend, and then the week after I will be driving to KY for Thanksgiving. Certainly something to think about, since I haven't even pulled out my snowblowers yet. I am not too worried about the tractor mounted one, but I do still need to grease it up and all that. I guess the end of the working season kind of crept up on me this year; I was overall less worried about it because my vacation was earlier, so I wasn't trying to fit things in before the trip, but then never realized that "hey, the season has changed".
Before Winter:
- Back yard drainage.
- Close up tiny home. Seal up plumbing.
- Clean off driveway at top.
Smooth driveway enough to not catch the snowblower.- Winterize equipment
Unlikely to happen at this point until next year:
- Build shelving for second room
- Insulate the water lines
- Take scrap metal to Buffum. Clean up trash.
- Storm doors
- Gravel the driveway
- Side yard drainage
- Eliminate cap.
Winter Projects:
- Design deck
- Install whole house filter.
- Access panel upgrades in master closet
- Cut trails, or at least mark paths.
