Mow, Mow, Mow Your Butt

Well, we picked up a couple free lawn mowers a bit over a week ago, and the parts I ordered to fix one of them didn't arrive on time before I went back up to the land, so I thought I would see if I could find a place to get parts up there. I did. For $3.20. And I bought a quart of oil, which was actually more expensive than the parts.

I installed the parts - which included a diaphragm and a gasket for the carburetor - and the mower fired right up.

So I started mowing. And like Forrest Gump, when he started running, I just kept mowing. I mowed and mowed and mowed and mowed and mowed, taking short breaks only to keep from passing out. I drank about a gallon of water, and after I mowed about two acres with this tiny little 3.75 HP grass-eating machine (with the blade mounted backward), I said to my wife, "could we have been happy with 2-1/2 acres?"

She said no.

The mower lost some power a couple of times (I think I've wounded it), so I stopped a couple of times to let it cool off and to clean it up good. Unfortunately, the parts store didn't have any air filters in stock, but fortunately it is a foam type filter so was not difficult to clean up (to some degree, anyway) and re-use.
But after mowing about an acre and a half, I noticed the cutting blade was mounted upside down and that the grass was being "cut" by the back side of the blade. And it wasn't doing a half bad job, either (although, the grass is DEAD). So, I removed the blade and re-installed it properly and it worked a little bit better after that. But it is still a bit sluggish. But I'm not complaining - the thing was free! But now I know why people have tractors.

The view in the picture, above, is from about where the house will sit (actually just it tad bit in front of the house) and you can see some of the lines where I mowed.

This picture here is from a vantage point further down the hill on the property. That little green area up on the hill in among the trees is where the house is going to be. We have had the irrigation water running up there to soften up the ground to make it easy to grate (grade?) when the time comes. HOPEFULLY VERY SOON! We're getting the plans back to the county this Friday.

Keep your fingers crossed! We need those building permits!

All My Soup, Part II

A while back, I posted some lyrics I made up to go with the song Auld Lang Syne. For some reason, this popped back into my head the other day, and I added a new verse.

Here's the whole thing so far...

I have a way of eating soup
that offends the nicest folks.
They don't like it when I suck it
through the nostrils of my nose.

My wife is embarrassed by me
whenever we eat out.
She hates it when I'm sitting there
stuffing noodles in my snout.

My friends they all say I need help,
they just make fun of me.
But I just smile and I say,
"have you tried Chef Boyardee?"

Oh, I've got to find some balance in my life.

Cold Days of Summer. Joy

I am SO IRRITATED with the weather here in the bay area. This is supposed to be summer. You know, warm weather and sunshine and all that.

What's the deal?

It was nice out during the day today - somewhere in the low to mid 70s - when I went for my walk. But I came home and now it feels like it's in the 50s. I can't WAIT to get off this freaking peninsula!

It is so much warmer and nicer up on our land. We've got the driveway and the perimeter of the house marked out, and we're waiting on the last corrections to the plans to be done so we can re-submit them to the county, and soon the ground-breaking will begin.

I was up there last weekend, and it is beginning to cool off a little bit already. It's maybe in the 90s during the day, and it got down probably into the 60s at night just before dawn. A bit annoying, but tolerable. It seems like it is ALWAYS in the 60s (or lower) where I currently live, so I get annoyed when I go somewhere to get warm and it drops into the 60s.

Argh!

But I got the chance to just sit out on the land at night a couple of nights in a row, and just look at the stars. You can see all of them out there - the band of the Milky Way that I haven't seen in ever so long. I saw a few really spectacular meteors. Then I found out there was a meteor shower on Sunday night, but I couldn't see it, because I was driving home at that time. But I got a good view while I was there, anyway. I saw a couple satellites go by - I saw one the week earlier, too - one of them might have even been the space shuttle or the space station. I don't really know, but it was cool.

Anyway, I have had some fun swimming in the Yuba River and just taking care of things on the property. I bought a Stihl FS-55 weed eater a while back, so I have been spending a lot of time cutting back the grass and brush (trying to avoid the poison oak so we can deal with that separately). Five acres is a lot of land!

There is a radio program up there called Swap Shop, and people call in to announce what they have for sale or what they are looking for. It's a trip to listen to - I'm not used to the small community country living lifestyle. But my wife happened to turn on the radio and heard someone giving away two free lawn mowers - we were actually looking for one and even talked about turning on the program just minutes before! So, she picked them up and brought them back to the trailer and I spent the entire next day fiddling with them to get them to run.

The short story is, neither of them is quite working at the moment, but I have some parts on order (for less than $10!) and one mower should be up and running real soon - but only if the part gets here before I leave again tomorrow night! $10 is not bad for a working lawn mower. It's got a Briggs & Stratton engine on it that runs great - it just isn't getting any fuel (the carburetor isn't working quite right). Once I get it up and running, I'll have to be careful not to hit any rocks and set off a brush fire. There's lots of dry grass out there!

Maybe I'll make a Battle Bot out of the other one. ;)


We took the trailer to the dumping station at the fair grounds and emptied the holding tank - FINALLY - and moved the trailer down the hill and parked it under some trees. The nose faces West, now, instead of the side, so it stays a bit cooler in the afternoon sun when it blazes in. I admit, it gets a little too warm inside at times. But outside, it's perfect.

The trailer looks like it is adversely jacked up the way it is situated on the hill - like it is popping a wheelie. But in reality, it still leans just a tiny bit downhill, believe it or not. Next, we have to move the shed somewhere so the driveway can be grated.

I finally figured out the starter problem with my truck, so that was an awesome day! I should have marked it on my calendar. It turned out to be a connector. The truck is a 1981 Toyota Pickup, and after putting all the pieces together, it came down to "the starter is not getting enough power from the battery." I traced the wires (thanks to a mechanics book my wife found at a yard sale!) and came across a connector. To make the story short, simply disconnecting and reconnecting the connector fixed the problem. There was just enough corrosion (tarnish?) in the connection that it was making enough of a connection to allow the solenoid to click, but not allowing enough current through to crank it over.

I had realized that it would sometimes start on a hot day - and it mostly started when we were up at the land - but here on the freakin' peninsula, the damn thing didn't have a chance of starting - it was too cold. The cold was enough for the metal in the connector to contract enough to break the connection. Anyway, now it fires right up every time. And I fixed the horn, too.

Beep, beep!

We set up some sprinklers a few weeks ago, since we have irrigation water, and just let it run 24x7 for a few weeks to get the ground softened up and ready for grating. It has started to turn the area green again - and the birds are loving it. There's also wild turkeys that wander around the area from time to time, too. Nine of them.

It's getting close to time to build, and I am just not feeling right. I seem to have no strength lately, and no stamina. This has to change if I am going to start pounding nails and carrying heavy things. I don't know what's wrong with me - maybe I'm just not eating right (no surprise there) or getting enough sleep or enough exercise (what's that?). I think I'm going to see a doctor just to make sure it's nothing serious.

Anyway, no downer talk here. It has been a harried ride thus far, but I think we're going to get there. Speaking of rides, I went to the Nevada County fair last weekend and rode on the Fire Ball. I love that ride! I didn't have the guts to get on Vortex, though, and didn't feel like spending another $5 (one was enough. Well, not really, but it was within budget). If I wasn't building a house, I would have spent the $27 for unlimited rides and gone crazy.

I'll always be a kid at heart.

Ugh - so much to talk about, and no time. It has been too long since I have written. My acting classes are over for a while - I had a couple very profound experiences in the last two sessions - and I think it has changed me in a positive way. At least for the time being.

I feel joy - despite the cold weather.

How magnificent is that?