Sunday June 9th Garage & Yard

Saturday I ended up just resting in bed, went out for a morning drive and coffee and by the time I got home was crying in pain from my knee, don't know what aggravated it.

After some rain in the morning, got out to the garage for a few hours in the afternoon and a little bit of yard work. Kind of fustrating because my stamina seems to be about the 3-4 hour range before I'm shot for the day, or two.

This $10 (if that) bulb holder for changing light bulbs worked out well. I already owned the extendable broom handle/paint brush holder. Now I don't have to wait a few months until Eric stops by and I can have him climb a ladder to replace burnt out bulbs :D

I did quite a bit of cleaning of the tool box/work bench but for some reason the photos aren't syncing :/

Had an extension for the pole saw, and while it works with the weed whacker head decided the extra effort of using it wasn't worth the gain.



And more volunteer violets(?)...I did not plant these or the white ones in the background.

But where I had a patch no longer seems to be growing, so I'm wondering if a squirrel has been relocating them.

Jeep Turned 100,000 miles!

Monday June 3rd, on Maple Street driving home from work on a gorgeous day with the top open and windows rolled down.

Just like it should be.

Saturday June 1st -- Yard work and Courtney's 40th

Was able to keep cleaning up around the yard in the morning. Courtney's wasn't till 4pm and I like it when the get togethers are later in the day on nice days for yard work!

Roughed in the raised garden bed, definitely won't be in use this summer, maybe I can get a fall lettuce crop in.







Zipping around with a grabber tool picking up debris in the yard.



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I was taking some candid photos from a distance...oh Ruthie I was soooo close to an absolutely awesome shot!

Friday Assembly

Had a wicked, wicked bad inflamation attack on Tuesday and ended up leaving work shortly after I got their because my temper was hair trigger.

Much better on Wednedsay, but ended up putting about 12 hours in after a last minute issue came up :/

Thursday started off raining, but I think I also still had a touch of whatever was related to the inflammation. Had the day off but didn't do much.

Friday I finally got a few hours in, not as much as I wanted but feeling a bit fatigued so taking it easy now.

But first a pic from this past Sunday...how the heck did I turn off my tractor but leave the key "on"??? I don't remember ever killing my batttery before (except when it sat a long time).

Got a little garden seat, hoping it helps me scoot around on some yardwork stuff...



I **think** I bought this two years ago? Finally assembled it, although it's getting a later in the year so I'm not sure I'll plant anything in it. Have to put it in place and then get some dirt from the garden to fill it.

But it will be ready for next year!

Monday Brushing

Rain was predicted, so I got out at 6:30 (skipping breakfast) and worked till 11...of course the rain held off till the evening.

But made good progress -- raked quite a bit, forked it all to the swamp. Next up is probably another round with the mower and pole saw to cut some of the stuff that the rake didn't pull out.













Getting pretty good with the zero turn mower using as a "wheel chair" -- here moving some scrap plywood from garage to the shed.

Working in the Yard

Actually hiding from the afternoon heat right now, hoping to go back out around 6pm and zip around on the mower cutting more stuff to haul with the tractor tomorrow.

I'm starting to get pretty adept basically using the zero-turn mower as a wheel chair as I cut brush back around the yard. Here I'm picking some brush with a reach tool and stacking it so I can grab it later with the tractor forks.



Got the front end of the tractor greased up, checked oil, checked hydraulic fluid.

Had a zerk that gave me trouble, and while checking if the zerk was bad or what I dropped it and it poofed into an alternative universe -- never heard it hit the concrete, never found it.

But it was a pleasant day to drive to Tractor Supply with the Jeep top open :)



Can't really tell, but I pulled out some of the wild rose I cut from around the birch tree, and added to the pile some small trees I cut down by the house, before hauling it away.

Hopefully next pic of the birch will show a lot of progress -- now that it's a bit thinner I need to come over with the mower and pole saw and cut more of the roses back.



Stacking stuff to make fewer runs to the brush dump.



This bush along the drive way is a bit hacked up at the moment, but at least for the first time in years I've gotten the multiflora rose out of it.

More Yard & Garage Work

Time for coffee...finally remembered to drive down Church Street -- the Quineabuag has undercut the bank near the road; they're scheduled to move the phone poles from that side of the road to the other next week.

Army Corps and all the other agencies and engineers are working on a plan of what to do.



Holy Schnikes...maybe the holiday weekend? I know I see this on weekends at the Brooklyn Baker's Dozen but at 8am on a Friday?!

(I usually stop at the Putnam one now on my way to work, less traffic and less busy to deal with)



Butch haying in the field by Gorman & Creamery Brook (on the Creamery side) for one of the last times...









Finally setting up the battery-powered grease gun. Major goal is to get the tractor in the garage (no later than Sunday morning) to grease it before I do the next batch of brush clearing.

But a lot of today was dump runs --
7 bags of garbage
5 gallons of used motor oil
3 old car & mower batteries



Did some more trimming :)






Hmmm, don't like that -- dying branches on the Ash trees at the end of the driveway, Emerald Ash Borer might be here.





Emptied the back of the Jeep so I could haul garbage bags...usually don't have quite this much but had chucked a bunch of stuff I normally keep behind the drivers seat into the way back before I went to help Eric winch out the Bobcat. I had taken them out when I put it in the transmission shop since his "just leave the keys in the visor" didn't give me warm fuzzies they kept things locked uo.

Used my creeper so I can roll the stuff around till I'm ready to load up the Jeep again.



Pondering why there is pea gravel in my spare tire tread...

Garage Progess

Just rainy enough, just cold enough to avoid doing any yard work (other than quickly clearing one thing from the driveway since I had a Amazon order coming).

First pic is a couple weeks ago but pretty much what it looked like yesterday.

Never really cleaned it up after the rush getting the Jeep ready for the trip, and my knee was to painful to work over the winter.



What old man level do you unlock when you use the grabber tool to reach out for the cinnamon whiskey to add to my coffee at 11:30?



But scooting around on my rolling stool, made some real good progess

FInally starting to make some progress...

I've setup a 3 day weekend -- 4 day weekend -- 4 day weekend schedule to hopefully start catching up on stuff around the garage and yard.

Got a pole saw attachment for my Milwaukee "multi tool" or whatever they call this -- it has a weed whacker head too. The curving is from the Panoramic photo.



I can't use the tractor bucket to drag this wild rose bush, due to the stone work near it. So it's got to get cut:









And also got started on cleaning the garage -- the rolling stool worked out well letting me do stuff like sweep without having to stand up as I did it.