Some Jobs Are Worth Paying For

Last night I knew today was going to start earlier than usual.

I had a few things scheduled for the morning and didn't trust myself to wake up naturally, so I set an alarm for 8:30 AM.

When that alarm went off, I was in a deep sleep.

I rolled over, turned it off, opened the shades, and immediately looked toward the hummingbird feeders.

Lately I've become a little spoiled by seeing them every morning.

Unfortunately, this morning they were nowhere to be found.

My first appointment was supposed to arrive at 8:30, but nobody was there yet, so I stayed in bed watching the feeders and waiting.

By 8:55, still no hummingbirds.

I was beginning to think they had all decided to sleep in too.

Then the mower repair guy showed up.

That got me moving.

Wyatt immediately sprang into action and started barking at the stranger who had just invaded his kingdom.

I stuck my head out the door, pointed Jason toward the workshop, and told him I'd meet him there as soon as I got dressed.

A few minutes later Wyatt and I headed over.

Jason got right to work.

I hung around for about half an hour before deciding there wasn't much point in watching someone who clearly knew what he was doing.

While he was working, I wandered around the workshop area for a few minutes and noticed a beautiful butterfly working its way through the flowers growing nearby. It's funny how often I get distracted by the little things around here. What started as a trip to get the mower repaired turned into a few quiet minutes just watching a butterfly move from flower to flower. Moments like that are easy to overlook, but they're part of what makes this place special.

After that, I left him to it and headed back to camp.

Before leaving, I grabbed a hose sprayer from the workshop.

Back at the motorhome I watered the garden, checked on the plants, and handled a few business calls.

Everything in the garden still looks great.

The plants continue to grow, and things are finally starting to look organized.

While I was on one of those business calls, another truck pulled into camp.

It turned out to be my 8:30 appointment.

Better late than never.

Thankfully he was only there to pick up a few personal items, so after a short conversation he loaded up and headed out.

Once that was done, I returned to the workshop to check on Jason's progress.

He was already wrapping up.

The entire repair took him less than two hours.

What would have taken me a week of crawling around, watching YouTube videos, second guessing myself, ordering the wrong parts, and probably inventing new curse words, he handled in one morning.

Sometimes that's the lesson.

There are jobs you should do yourself.

And there are jobs you should happily pay someone else to do.

This was definitely one of those jobs.

By the time I got back to camp I was expecting rain.

The forecast kept insisting it was coming.

Since I had already spread bifenthrin around the property yesterday, I wanted the rain to activate it.

So I waited.

And waited.

And waited.

Eventually I got hungry and heated up some chicken enchiladas my partner had made and left for me.

They were excellent.

The rain, however, was not.

A few drops.

Maybe a sprinkle.

Certainly not enough to activate anything.

At that point I decided I wasn't going to waste an entire afternoon sitting around waiting for weather that wasn't showing up.

I had a freshly repaired mower.

It was time to put it to work.

I pulled the mower out and headed down Memory Lane.

One pass.

Then the field near camp.

Then around the bunkhouse.

Back up Memory Lane.

A few passes through the orchard.

A few more around the playground.

Then back down Memory Lane again.

I was making up for lost time.

From there I headed toward the barn and Quonset hut, cleaning up around both buildings before returning to the workshop to refill the fuel tank.

Then it was back down Memory Lane for another round.

This time I cut through a field I had never mowed before.

Then over to the field near the garden.

Then toward the pavilion.

At this point I was on a mission.

It's funny how satisfying mowing can be.

There's something rewarding about looking behind you and seeing immediate results.

Then reality struck.

A business call.

What should have been a quick stop turned into nearly an hour.

The mower sat quietly while I handled work.

Eventually the call ended and I climbed back on.

Not long after, the mower started sputtering.

Almost out of fuel.

I raced back to the workshop, filled the tank, and headed back toward the pavilion for a few more passes.

By then the sky was darkening again and it finally looked like the rain might actually arrive.

I parked the mower in the pavilion and walked back to camp.

At that point I was filthy.

Covered in dust.

Covered in grass.

Covered in everything the mower had stirred up all afternoon.

Forget the campfire.

Forget sitting outside.

I wanted a shower.

So that's exactly what I did.

After cleaning up and changing clothes, I started dinner.

Once dinner was finished, Wyatt and I headed out for our evening patrol.

Near Easy Street we spotted a deer laying quietly along one of the stone walls.

It watched us.

We watched it.

Nobody seemed particularly concerned.

From there we continued up to the workshop where I grabbed a few things I'll need tomorrow.

On the way back, I stopped by the bunkhouse to check on the plumbing.

Unfortunately, I discovered another leak.

This one appeared near the master bathroom toilet.

The toilet itself is already cracked and scheduled for replacement, so it's impossible to say whether the leak is coming from the fixture or from the polybutylene pipe connected to it.

Honestly, it doesn't matter.

Both are coming out.

I shut off the water to the house, reconnected everything back to the motorhome, and called it a night.

The next phase is becoming pretty clear.

The old plumbing has reached the point where repairing individual problems no longer makes much sense.

The future is PEX.

After spending time researching the options, I think I've settled on PEX A instead of PEX B.

PEX A is more forgiving, especially in colder climates and situations where freezing could occur.

Considering where Memory Lane is located, that extra flexibility seems like a smart investment.

So while today's victory was getting the mower back in service, tomorrow's focus may very well be planning the next stage of the plumbing project.

The hummingbirds never showed up this morning.

The rain never really showed up either.

But the mower runs.

The grass is cut.

The deer are still wandering the property.

And another project is waiting just around the corner.

~ Making Memories.