Posts Tagged ‘errands’
Mostly Minutiae
What if one day I completely ran out of ideas? Would I write about that? Probably. Good thing I can fall back on simply describing the minutiae of my days. Like how I started the already too-hot day early in the morning yesterday, trying to get manure management back to my high standards after our long weekend away at the lake.
After breakfast, I wanted to use the riding mower to harvest our crop of too-tall grass, but the overtemp error code came on the instant I turned the key. The blade motor had worked a week ago when I mowed the backyard, but now, after sitting dormant while we were away, it tripped before even starting. Doesn’t make much sense, unless it’s reacting to air temperature.
Thankfully, I picked up the replacement motor yesterday, although not until after I pushed the hand mower for a few hours to completely exhaust myself first. The afternoon became a precision-planned exercise of errands I stacked together for maximum efficiency. A stop at our eyeglass place to have them snug up the fit on my new prescription safety glasses. The trip up to North St. Paul to pick up the motor from a repair shop certified to work on Greenworks mowers. A run to my bike shop to get a front light for my bike. A stop at a taphouse in Woodbury for a kick-off meeting for planning my class’s 50th reunion next summer. And finally, a stop to pay over $4/Gallon for gas on the way home.
The timing worked perfectly. Had time to spare, actually.
I’m hoping today will end up just as smooth. We have HVAC installers coming to add ductwork and a dehumidifier in our furnace room. I want to make the motor swap first thing in the morning, in case I can get some additional mowing done before our new Swedish friends stop by to see our place.
I truly hope the dehumidifier installation can be completed in one day. Cyndie has company coming tomorrow, too. I need to get the labyrinth mowed before then. I wish I were better acclimated to 80° F days already. Working outside in the hot sun felt brutal yesterday. Last night, when I checked the 10-day forecast, there wasn’t a day when the high was less than 80.
That gives me an idea. We should just stay at the lake all summer long.
What a wonderful thought. Since that is just a fantasy, I don’t have to bother figuring out how the grass would get mowed, and the animals cared for at home. I can just focus on how that massive air-conditioning body of water beats the heat.
I think I’ll dream about that today while sweating on the riding mower or trudging behind the push mower.
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Objective Achieved
Obviously, we have many objectives, and quite frankly –due in many ways to my lack of bringing projects to fruition– we have not achieved a great majority of them. However, if we were to focus on the dream of having chickens to scratch and spread piles of manure while eating bugs to help control pests… Objective achieved!
After dinner last night, Cyndie and I made a hay run to haul another pickup-load of bales from our latest supplier. We marveled over the phenomena of cultivating social capital to foster good will with the many service providers we have come to know in the area.
We are both intent on making the most of our limited time and work to maximize productiveness of the short hours available when I get home from the day-job. I squeezed in a couple of errands on the way home, including a stop at the repair shop that couldn’t identify any problem with the Kohler engine in my riding mower [grumble, grumble].
We settled on focusing his attention on the carburetor.
After squeezing in a very quick meal, we hustled to reach the hay farm at the appointed hour. Our new friend, Scott, entertained us with story after story while rolling bales perfectly into place for me to load. As I attached straps to hold down the bales, Scott tried a quick-fix to screw the rusted step-bar on the passenger side back onto the rusted frame, alas to no avail.
Then we chatted some more while half of me wanted to hustle home. The other half of me wanted to stay as long as he offered to visit. There have been very few, if any, interactions with folks that don’t involve some extended chatting. It’s really pretty precious.
It generates a social capital that we highly value. Projects can grow to take a fair amount of additional time, but the benefits of our interactions are always worth it.
The other errand I ran on the way home from work was to the implement dealer to see if they had any advice regarding the leaky gear box on our brush cutter. The last time I added gear oil, it seemed like it disappeared surprisingly fast. Then I spotted the dark wetness on the flywheel below and concluded the seals were bad.
An internet search on the subject was very entertaining. In classic form, I found multiple discussions where opposing views alternated with every other comment on discussion boards.
Corn Head Grease seemed to be a common recommendation. There were farmers who switched to grease over oil and hadn’t had a problem in 40 years. There were as many advisors who said absolutely don’t use grease, as it will move away from the friction points by the force of the spin.
Some wrote that they mixed oil with the grease to get the best of both worlds. The lubrication manufacturers strongly state one should never mix the two.
After twice scanning the offerings at the implement dealer, the clerk at the parts desk asked if he could help me find anything. At that same moment, my eyes landed on the answer to the question I was about to ask.
Farm oyl makes the very product I was hoping existed.
That’s one of those mini objectives, achieved.
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Relative Something 