One Project Leads to Another

Today I woke up around 9:00 and didn't stay in bed long.

Yesterday I felt tired, but today I was up and ready to go.

I was outside within a few minutes, taking in the beautiful morning. It was about 55 degrees, and temperatures were expected to stay in the low 60s today, so I wanted to take advantage of as much of the day as possible.

I headed over to the pavilion and messed around with the equipment that came in yesterday.

I'm getting a good signal without even spending much time adjusting anything.

If you're wondering what I'm working on, I'm setting up a wireless bridge so we can have security cameras on both sides of the property. I still need to wait for a few additional pieces to arrive before I can complete the installation.

Since I couldn't do much more with that, I started cleaning up around the pavilion.

I loaded the tractor bucket with things that needed to go to the workshop, burn pile, and scrap pile.

As I headed toward the other side of the property on the tractor, I noticed it was on empty.

So before doing anything else, I had to refuel.

Once that was done, I remembered there was something behind the Quonset hut that I'm always worried about hitting with the mower. I figured I might as well push it out with the tractor and clean up that area.

Yep.

This is that ADD kicking in again.

Well, actually, this is...

Before I tackled the stuff behind the Quonset hut, I remembered there was some trash behind the workshop.

So naturally, I decided to do that instead.

I started pushing and realized most of what I was moving was logs.

Great.

I can deal with logs later.

I pushed them into a pile so I could continue working around them.

But I knew there was trash back there. I remembered seeing it while mowing.

So I went around to the other side and pushed again.

Unbelievable.

I pushed out an entire garbage dump.

There was so much garbage that I was honestly disappointed.

I didn't even want to deal with it at that moment, so I pushed everything from different directions, exposing as much of it as possible and creating its own pile.

As I was doing that, I noticed what looked like an old dresser behind the workshop.

It was already in pieces, so I figured I'd just pick up the wood and get it out of the way.

I loaded the wood into the tractor bucket and...

Wouldn't you know it?

More garbage underneath.

I made a few passes with the tractor and scraped all of that into the larger garbage pile too.

Then, finally, I headed behind the Quonset hut to deal with the thing I originally planned to deal with.

Turns out that wasn't much of anything.

Just some wood and a barrel of glass.

I pushed everything out and loaded the wood into the tractor. Some went to the burn pile and some went to the reuse pile.

Then I moved the barrel in front of the workshop with the rest of the garbage barrels.

Listen, I understand why people don't burn trash.

Really, I get it.

But dumping it on the ground and leaving it there for a decade or more isn't exactly environmentally friendly either.

We're sending all of the garbage to the dump, but we are burning the wood, paper, and cardboard.

Frankly, I wouldn't have been upset if the previous owners had just dug a hole and burned all of this trash.

It is everywhere.

And, of course, I wasn't done.

I decided to push the old tarps from behind the barn into the small trash pile I've been making.

Not to be confused with the BIG trash pile I discovered today.

Then I headed over to the main house and pushed the big, heavy tarp from over there to the same smaller trash pile.

Honestly, that tarp is big and heavy, but if I can save it, I will.

I don't think it's ripped.

Guess what time it was?

11:15.

So much more day to go...

Wyatt and I headed back to camp for a break.

He is such a farm dog now.

I do wonder how he's going to feel about spending the winter in Florida after having the run of this place every day.

While we were back at camp, I shucked the corn I picked yesterday and went inside to take care of some work for my regular job.

Before heading back outside, I ordered another part we need to get our fruit trees planted before winter.

Then it was time to tackle the big job.

The garage door.

I headed to the pavilion and opened the box.

I started following the instructions and even got the first panel into place.

Then I decided I wanted to use the existing track, so I headed back to the pavilion to get all of the pieces I needed.

And...

My ADD kicked in again.

Detour.

I decided I wanted to see if I could figure out the electrical problem with the garage.

So I headed back to the electrical panel and opened it up.

I'm about 90% sure the BX wire, the metal-clad wire coming into the box from the lower right, is the garage feed.

A quick internet search will tell you that BX isn't rated for underground burial.

It's likely that the metal has rotted somewhere underground and the wire inside has been damaged.

If you recall, a few weeks ago I found another wire in the yard.

Well, technically, the mower found it.

That circuit is connected to the top-left breaker, which I've kept turned off ever since.

Further investigation showed that wire is Romex.

Also not rated for underground applications.

So next season, I'll be pulling both wires out and replacing them properly.

If you've been paying attention to this project, you've probably noticed that the previous owners were somewhat handy.

But they certainly did things their own way.

And not usually the right way.

We still have wires strewn through the trees that once fed individual campsites.

Eventually, I remembered that I was supposed to be installing a garage door.

I gathered all of the pieces and headed back to the garage.

I removed what I had already installed and started over, methodically installing three of the four panels.

Then I discovered something else.

The entire garage is out of plumb by about four degrees.

And so is the existing track.

Of course it is.

So tomorrow, I'm probably going to disassemble everything again and start over, following the instructions to a T and replacing all the track too.

Oh, and somewhere in the middle of all of this, I removed the side door from the garage so I could get in and out easier.

And for the record...

I think whoever invented the slotted screw head did it as a form of torture.

The entire time I was working on the garage, Wyatt was supervising.

First from his truck.

Then up close and personal.

Probably laughing at me the entire time.

By this point, it was around 4:30, and I decided I was ready for another break.

I started a campfire and began burning the branches I picked up yesterday.

I threw the ball for Wyatt.

Eventually, even he had enough.

He laid down and took a hard nap.

I stayed outside until after dark before eventually heading inside to take a shower.

I started this morning with one project.

Then another project led to another pile.

The pile led to another pile.

That led to a garbage dump.

The garbage dump eventually led me back to the original project.

Then the garage door led to an electrical investigation.

And somehow, in the middle of all of that, quite a bit actually got accomplished.

Maybe that's just how things work around here.

You don't always finish the project you planned to do.

But somehow, every day, Memory Lane gets a little better than it was the day before.

~ Making Memories