Feb 12 – March 11
Yes, I am still alive.
No visits with on-duty law enforcement.
No, I have not been held captive or otherwise fallen pray to my clumsiness to require medical attention (yet). If I ever get video’s from today online – oh boy, you’d get to see that I was trying to meet the local EMT’s in not a good way on multiple occasions. I’m thinking I’ll have a YouTube playlist just for near and not so near misses that I get caught on video for everyone to get a laugh at. Okay, maybe mom shouldn’t watch those. They would have to be without sound because I wouldn’t want to spend that much time bleeping out the profane and obscene language. Then again, all the bleeps might add some to the laugh factor so maybe it would be worth it if it isn’t too difficult and I have time.
So what have I been doing for the last month you ask? Excellent question… Won’t bore you with the day to day details not to mention I wouldn’t get any sleep tonight if I tried that approach to this blog entry. So, summary it is.
I don’t remember.
How is that for a short and sweet summary.
Luckily, because two weeks is a long stint between blog posts (ya, ya, it has been a month this time) and I know my memory is abysmal, I have taken to making high level daily notes as to what I did each day and noting anything of interest. Sooo… Looking back at my notes….
Okay. So the first entry is worth mentioning for a laugh… Feb 12 was low on fuel for the generator so drove to Douglas specifically to get gas but with the intent of doing other shopping while I was there. Given my record of forgetting my wallet when going to Douglas, I remember checking my pocket 2-3 times during the drive to make sure my wallet was there. Got to the hardware store, looked in the back of the truck and realized I forgot the gas cans. OMG!!! REALLY Cary??? Luckily, I had my wallet. I bought yet another 5 gallon gas can (bringing the total to 5 now) to get me by for a few days.
The evenings for the rest of the week through Friday night there was no progress on projects around the property as either the weather was unsuitable for working outside (by my wimpy standards), I was working for work, I was running errands (such as to the gas station to get more gas – duh), visiting with friends, etc.
Saturday Feb 17 was another shopping run to Douglas in the morning, then setting post 7 of 10 for the solar system supports into position. Notes say I learned many ways not to do it. I’m sure that is a positive way of saying I tried, and tried, and tried again. Another example where persistence will make up for lack of experience and intelligence. By the time I finished getting the post into position and ready to be cemented, I was drained even though there was plenty of daylight left. I decided to listen to my body and took the rest of the afternoon off for some R&R and watched movies in the trailer.
Sunday, rested and ready to go, I cemented in the post that I set into position on Saturday followed by getting my video cameras and video recorder up and running.
Geeze, this seems to be devolving into a day by day… maybe I’ll summarize the weekdays and do day by day for the weekends…
Moving on… Monday – Friday (Feb 19 – 23), I spent the evenings setting up VPN into my network, tuning camera angles, prepared 2 more posts for getting cemented into position, ran errands, and visited a bit with a friend. No notes to the negative on the errand running so I must not have gotten pulled over, remembered my wallet, remembered the gas cans, etc.
Saturday Feb 24 I set one of the two pipes readied during the week in concrete. Okay, so in truth, I undid what I did during the week (big surprise) so I could make some modifications. Specifically, thinking over the installation during the week, I became less confident in it’s resistance to sinking in time. After numerous iterations, I arrived at a solution to provide resistance to sinking in time with the benefit of also adding uplift resistance as well. Okay, truth be told, it has continued to evolve over the weeks as I continue to mentally explore options and will likely continue to do so until the day I get everything completely buried. I guess that is one thing good about taking forever for a project, you continue to think of ways to improve the design and or execution. Regardless, got that post completed with uplift and sinking resistance in place. Need to revisit the other 6 posts that have already been concreted to a level a few inches below the surface to implement the final solution on them as well albeit not as deep as was done on the freshly cemented one. Moving on. That evening was about socialization. I treated my neighbor Boyd out to dinner in Portal and drinks in Rodeo. At the Tavern we met up with Rick, his wife Laura and were eventually joined by a number of Rusty’s guests. It was a great evening of socialization. I got a laugh. I drove Boyd and I that evening. It was the first Boyd had ridden with me. I know I travel up and down our dirt road faster than most. Boyd mentioned at dinner that he had never traveled down that road that fast before (he has been here since 1995). Then he added – not even remotely close to that fast. Funnier still, I was going slower than I usually do because he was with me. Hmmm… Guessing I need to slow down… Its just a smoother ride in the truck if you go faster over all the rocks. Oh well. Moving on.
Sunday, I set that reconfigured second post of the week in concrete then cleaned up and had a great evening at Tom and Alicia’s with Tom, Alicia, Pete, and Judy. Pete and Judy are friends from Michigan that were out visiting. I recommended they stay at Tom and Alicia’s B&B. I think they enjoyed their stay there even though it was only for one night.
That following Monday I took a vacation day to be able to spend more time with Pete and Judy. Because they enjoy birding and this area is very popular with birders as it is in the migration path for a number of species, upon my recommendation they arranged for a local birding guide to take us out Monday morning after breakfast. Although I’m not into birding, that was a really enjoyable outing and I got to see a few birds compliments of the binoculars that Tom was kind enough to loan me. We followed it up with lunch at the Portal Cafe and then back to Tom and Alicia’s for Pete and Judy to pack up and leave. They swung by the property on the way out to check out the digs. After they left, I had a real hard time getting motivated to be productive for the remaining 5+ hours of daylight I had left. I sat in the lawn chair thinking about the projects and timelines I have ahead of me. Cattle have to be out of the canyon by May 1. Not sure when they will start driving them out, but I’m guessing I need to have the fence done by April 15, preferably April 1. It is a an inconvenience dealing with the generator for power and it costs me money daily for gasoline. I don’t know enough about the “windy” season here which should be kicking into full swing anytime and lasts 2 months to know if I will be able to manage handling the solar panels to install them during the windy season. The generator has started leaking oil. It is inconvenient hauling water from the water tank to where I need it and that inconvenience costs time and energy. So what did I decide? With all the issues / concerns around continuing to run the generator to charge the batteries on a daily basis, it is a solution. Hauling water 200′ isn’t convenient, but it is a solution. I have no solution in place to keep the cattle away from my belongings. I hear they are really destructive. Fencing now has priority. That’s not to say I won’t work on the other projects when I’m paused on fencing for what ever reason. Along with the decision to prioritize the fence installation, I considered what I could do to speed up the fence installation. One obvious option was to reduce the size of the area being fenced. While I want to really limit the number of “temporary” solutions I spent time and money installing, I am happy with the reduced area I settled on. It encloses all my foreseeable projects for the next 5 years that need protection except one. I’m sure I can figure out how to deal with that. I finished off that Monday evening marking the new four corners for the fence line. It is approximately a 460’x360′ area. In case you were wondering, North-South is the longer dimension.
The rest of the week was spent resting, running errands, and beginning to clear the NE-NW fence line of mesquite. Clearing an area of mesquite entails digging it out with the back hoe. If it is a relatively young shrub, it is pretty quick – one scoop with the back hoe and out comes the shrub and it’s tap root. However, if it has been there for a while, not only does it have a sizable tap root, but it also has sizable lateral roots which often go to other mesquite shrubs. They have their own underground network. It has taken me up to an hour to dig out some of the older shrubs just nipping away at their support structure bit by bit with the backhoe, then having to back fill the big hole I dug in the process of getting it out.
That brings us to Saturday March 3 which I used to make an early morning shopping run to Douglas, then finished clearing the NE – NW fence line and completely cleared the NW – SW fence line.
That Sunday, I set the last post for the solar system in concrete. I also noted that my auxilary battery in the truck was not properly seated. Further investigation showed that it’s support tray had rusted out. So I ordered a replacement online.
Monday – Friday March 5 – 9, I cleared the SW – SE fence line of very mature mesquite, got some social time in at the Tavern with Rick and Rusty, and made a shopping run to Douglas.
Saturday March 10 was spent mostly on maintenance tasks. Dog poo doesn’t magically disappear into the grass in time here like it did in Michigan. Gotta pick it all up from time to time. Just thought you would like to know that bit of trivia. Unloaded Thursday’s purchases from the truck which included a used harbor freight CCC cement mixer and 4 more 90# bags of cement. Went to replace the battery tray in the truck that arrived during the week only to realize that I ordered the one for the drivers side battery, not the one for the passenger side battery. Ugh. Ordered the right one. Will replace it next weekend. Moving onto the tractor, I spent a number of hours reading the manual and performing the scheduled maintenance on it. I realized that I need filters for some of the scheduled maintenance tasks, so will order those Monday and will do those next Saturday as well. Once I was done with the maintenance on the tractor, there was enough time to start clearing the SE to NE fence line. The last fence line to be cleared of mesquite.
That brings us to today. Oh what a day it was. Started out good with coffee and breakfast, then went down hill. After breakfast, started attacking the mesquite once again. To-date, I had never lost a battle with the mesquite. Patience and persistence with my trusty tractor (it is trusty once it has been started) always overcame their defiance to be uprooted. Today, I finally suffered a casualty in the battle. My trusty tractor’s backhoe blew a hole in one of it’s hydraulic lines less than an hour into the day’s work with only two more large foes to vanquish and some minor minions to rip up like popping heads off a dandelion. Oh well. Se-la-vi. Make note of the part number and add it to the list of things to order from the tractor dealer Monday, then move onto the solar panel posts.
At this point, all posts have been cemented in to some degree. Some holes have been back-filled, around the concrete, but most have not. While I could simply push dirt and rock back into the holes to back fill as I started to with some of the posts, it occurred to me a week or two ago that by back filling in that manner, material would not be well packed and would be prone to settling and shifting. Not something I want around these posts. I want that material packed tightly. As such, I have switched to screening the dirt and mixing in water to make mud. I apply in the same fashion as I do the cement stabilized earth and it fills in all the nooks and crannies very nicely. It may be a ton more work than is necessary, but I am more confident that the end result will be worth it. I am not sure what is in this soil (I don’t think it is clay), but when it dries after mixing with water like that and being packed, the end result seems very solid to me. Not sure what it will become after a few years of AZ weather, but right now, I am pleased with the results from the holes I’ve done to date. All that said, until now, I’ve been doing all the cement mixing and mud mixing in a wheel barrel. Very time consuming and physically exhausting work when each hole takes over 20 wheel barrels between the mud and cement mix. Today was the first time using the used cement mixer I picked up earlier in the week. Disclaimer, I may get some of the finer details wrong here due to poor memory, but will do my best to be accurate… First load went okay but I had trouble unloading it because the wheel barrel wouldn’t fit under the cement mixer. So, I put on my problem solving hat. Could dig out under the cement mixer or could raise the cement mixer off the ground a bit. I have concrete blocks that would raise it up nicely. Let’s do that. Get it up on blocks (it is like a tripod – two wheels and one leg) and intelligently put some wood into place to keep it’s one leg from vibrating forward or backward off the block. Satisfied with the solution, I load it up with dirt and water. It seems to be working as desired. The load is mixed. Because I positioned it so close to the tractor, I have to walk around behind it to get to the handle to dump the load. As I’m walking around behind it, my eye catches that it is tipping over in my direction. Hey, I’m right there. I can catch it, right? DUMBASS! That is a 100 pound cement mixer with another 30-50 pounds of mud in it all with a very high center of gravity and falling momentum. Fortunately, I came to my senses somewhat quickly and let it finish it’s journey to the ground. Sadly, my right thumb and left leg were victims of my momentary lapse of stupidity. I jammed my thumb pretty hard, might be slightly sprained, and although I haven’t checked my leg I’m expecting to see a few bruises that weren’t there this morning. After I walked off and cursed through the worst of the initial pain, I turn off the mixer and walk around a bit more continuing to walk off the pain. After a few minutes, I recomposed myself and assessed how I’m going to get this damn think back on it’s legs so I can dump the load. I decide on brute strength. Good enough approach to get it up. At this point, it is now off it’s concrete blocks (shocking I know), and I’m once again challenged at getting it unloaded without being able to get the wheel barrel under it. While working on preparing to unload it, it never occurred to me why it tipped to start with (besides not sitting on the greatest platform). It was unbalanced… The mud was stuck to the back of it instead of sloshing around vertically causing it want to tip backwards. A realization that didn’t come to mind until a while after it once again started heading for the ground. Would I repeat the same mistake? Well, I started to. When I saw it start to go the second time I started once again to rush forward to try to catch it (instinct I guess). Luckily I was able to stop myself this time and managed to stay clear of it’s path to the ground for the second time still with a full load. Ugh… At this point I was questioning whether I should quit for the day else risk needing to take a chopper ride to the hospital should something even worse happen on this seemingly bad luck/decision day. I pushed that thought aside and again went about assessing how I wanted to get this thing stood back up. After a feeble attempt at brute force again, I thought better of it. While I knew I could fire up the tractor and move it around to lift it with the chains easily enough, I really wasn’t in the mood to deal with starting the tractor and wanted instead to be able to use my brain and a bit of muscle to get it done. I opted for leverage. I used a 8′ length of 2×10 in combination with the cement blocks I had to lever it up off the ground far enough that I felt comfortable muscling it the rest of the way up. As soon as I got it stood up I adjusted the load so it was balanced over the wheels. I was still left with figuring out how to get the load out of the mixer. Thinking, looking around at the resources I had to work with. Pallets. Why not? I built a shed and two compost bins out of them. Why not use them as platform shoes for my cement mixer? They would be a lot more stable base then some dinky cinder blocks. So, I selected four crappy good for not much else pallets and selected the better boards on them to support the cement mixer and got them in place. Next puzzle. How am I going to lift 150 pounds up about 10 inches onto these pallets? Leverage worked before, lets use it again. This time I used a 2×4 in conjunction with the 2×10 under the axle of the mixer to get the wheels up first. Once the wheels were up, I was able to lift the leg onto another set of pallets covered with a board so the leg didn’t fall between the pallet slats. Finally time to dump that damn load of mud. Turn on the mixer to help unload – motor is spinning but not the barrel. UGH. I broke it. Unplug it and take the service cover for the motor off. Easy fix, it is belt driven from the motor to pulley inside that drives the gear outside which in turn spins the drum. The belt popped off. Put the belt back on and put the service cover over the motor back on. After unloading and packing the mud in the hole, decision time. Call it a day and nurse my wounds or press on? Luckily, for the work that needed to be done, it was mostly finger work and didn’t involve the thumb much. I opted to press on. I am thankful I did. I lost count, but I did a number of loads after those initial set backs. I topped off 4 holes up to the level of the concrete for that hole. In the process, I even got some video that is sure to get a laugh as boot lace hooks on one of my boots hooked on my other boot. A somewhat frequent occurrence that until today I have been able to manage without falling. Luckily, no injuries from that spill which I’m sure was caught clear as day on video. I even gave the camera a thumbs up while still on the ground indicating I was okay. After that I started walking a bit bow legged and tried to be very conscious of not stepping one leg across the other as I was maneuvering around the work site. I was preparing to mix the last batch of mud for the day when I went to turn on the mixer and the on-off switch broke. WTF. What a day. Time to call it good. Need to add a replacement switch to my shopping list. I didn’t like that switch anyway. Now that I’m writing this, I think I will replace it with a weather proof switch rather than a like for like replacement.
That is it. You are up to date. While I have some pics to share, it is much too late to deal with trying to post them tonight. Maybe I will get to a posting sooner than two weeks to post mostly pics and maybe some links to videos.
I am thankful I am relatively uninjured.
I am looking forward to a better day tomorrow.
Nite all!
Cary
Seeking Simplicity 