Hot and the forecast has all of Texas in a potential thunderstorm area. It sprinkled several times yesterday, once in the morning at the house, once while I was driving the 40 miles to the Lowes store. Since I’m doing dirtwork with red clay, even a tiny bit of rain is a mess.

That said, I did get a lot done. I dug out the drainage ditch at the edge of my lot. I needed to practice with the miniex. The mailbox will probably go back into place… the ditch was silted up with the crushed gravel road base, so it needed some digging.

Despite my misadventure with the water line, I feel pretty good about what I got done. Operating the machines is coming back to me as muscle memory, once I changed the control paradigm for the mini excavator. There are at least 2 schemes in common use, and many more from various manufacturers over the years, and the ISO standard one doesn’t work for me. Fortunately, it’s a simple lever to move on the hydraulic mixer to select the scheme that seems natural to me.

At the end of the day, when I didn’t have enough light to see the detail I needed for my project, I did some scraping and compacting on the boat ramp. There has been significant erosion with all the rain we’ve had up here and one of my goals was to see about fixing some of it. I could work fast and loose in the fading light, and made some improvement. More practice for me with the skid steer too. The main cost for the HOA is maintaining the gravel roads and several of the guys will do touchup with their tractors or other equipment. For me it is part of being a valuable member of this community we joined. Meatspace baby!

Today I’ll do what I can to get the walkway area ready for the crushed slag. If it’s raining I will look at doing something else that isn’t as fussy or right next to the house. There’s a list.

Always be working… and stack up some goodwill if you can.

nick

Hot and humid, again or still. 80F when I went to bed after passing 100F during the day. At least at the BOL there is a cool breeze off the lake. I expect today to be hot, humid, and overcast but clearing later. We’ll see. As long as we don’t get much rain during the day I’m ok.

Did a bunch of stuff on Friday to get ready. Most of it was shopping but also phone calls and ordering stuff. Even bought some stuff on amazon for delivery. We do live in the future.

Got to the BOL too late to do any work, the sun was setting as I pulled up. The mini excavator came with the wrong bucket for most of the work I’m doing and I can’t get it changed until at least Monday. I might have to re-order the work I want to get done. Or try to use what I’ve got.

That’s the plan for today. Get started and see if I can make it work, and if not, figure something else out.

That’s the kind of thing I’m generally good at, overcoming existing constraints to get what needs doing, done.

We’ll see how it goes.

For anyone not playing with big boy toys, stack something!

nick

Hot and humid today with an increasing chance of rain. Not my favorite thing. Still it’s been cooler than other recent years. Same today as yesterday, sun, a few clouds, oppressive humidity, and heat to make it miserable outside.

Did stuff in the morning. Got my rental equipment sorted, found a crushed material to use as walkway and paving. Slag. It’s cheap, recycled, and produced locally, and it’s black which is what my wife wanted. It may not be ideal, but it’s ‘good enough’. Did a couple of pickups. Talked to my auctioneer about dropping some more stuff off. And getting paid. We’ll see.

Today I need to do one pickup, and some shopping. I need to get the material to edge my crushed slag walkway, and I need some more Hungry Man dinners. I’m so worn out after running machines all day that just microwaving dinner is all I can do. And they aren’t bad. Much better than they used to be anyway.

Hopefully, it won’t rain all week when I need to be running machines.

Always be working… and stack some stuff to. That will give you plenty of stuff to work on later.

nick

Hot and humid, back in Houston. It was another hot day at the BOL with really high humidity yesterday. Yard work in the sun was debilitating. Had to go in and cool down several times. It was very nice at night though.

I spent Monday doing stuff, mostly yard and outdoor stuff. Spent some time talking with my buddy. Chatted with another neighbor for a bit too. Meatspace baby. Yard looks nice, if cut a bit short. I couldn’t cut it any longer though, so I hope I didn’t just kill the whole thing. If it rains soon, it should be ok. Then I put stuff away and eventually came home.

Today I’ve got a couple of auction pickups. Fewer this week than usual- I am trying to cut back. I’ve got some shopping to do and some office stuff as well, and I really need to visit my auctioneer in person.

I’ve got a bunch of stuff to do before I drop off the face of the world for a week. Which is what it will be like if I spend a week doing earthwork at the BOL. That’s predicated on getting the rental equipment, and they haven’t confirmed the availability yet. If they don’t, I’m not sure what I’ll do. I’m sure I’ll find something worth doing.

Besides stacking.

nick

Hot and humid, probably clear and sunny. Brain boiling hot in the sun. Yesterday wasn’t crazy hot but the humidity made it very unpleasant to be working outdoors. I spent most of the day in soaking wet clothes.

I did get some of the maintenance done on the mower. I didn’t have the right washer to use as a spacer with the new front wheels and tires, so I put the old one back on. It only leaks slowly and was fine for the day. I sharpened the blades, they were in rough shape but the grass was so long I didn’t want to abuse a new set. The cheap chinese blades don’t hold up for very long, but they are easy to sharpen. I broke them mower deck drive belt half way through, but I had a spare in the shed. I can get the deck on and off in minutes since I’ve had so much practice. I also replaced the blade engagement cable. Nothing wrong with the cable, but the plastic end that makes it all work was worn out. Poor design choice. Or not, if you think they want you to spend money replacing stuff.

We did get a spatter of rain while I was cutting, but not enough to stop.

There was a bit of putting stuff away, and some organizing, but mostly the day was spent working on the mower, or using it.

Today I’ll finish trimming the yard, and if it’s not raining, I’ll run the mower over everything again in mulching mode to get rid of the rows and rows of grass cuttings. Maybe I’ll do the park too.

I’ve got quite a bit stacked up here, but not all of it is well organized or put away. That will be an ongoing project.

Always be working. And stacking.

nick

Damp and a bit cooler at the BOL than the last week in Houston. It was very nice last night on the dock, 78F with a gentle breeze off the water cooling it even more. It’ll be steamy today with all the moisture in the grass and dirt, and forecast for sunny skies.

I did a bunch of stuff yesterday. Moved some stuff around at the house, putting stuff away and sorting stuff. Loaded the truck for the stuff coming up here. And then I did something that has been on the list for a while. Since I was already soaked to the skin, I figured I’d spend a few minutes working outside, cementing some flagstones back into place on the front walk. I think I spent about 2 hours total and I’m not done filling in the “grout” between the stones (which has dissolved and been blasted away). I got the worst of it done, and fixed the biggest tripping hazard.

Oh, and I fixed my phone too.

Today I’ll unload the truck, and do some maintenance on the mower. I’ve got a new blade engagement cable and new blades to install, as well as new wheels and tires for the front. If it’s running and the grass is dry enough, I’ll mow after that. If not, it’s gonna really suck when I do get a chance to mow. It’s already way too long to cut easily. Another week of growth and it will be agricultural, and not something I can easily do with the riding mower.

I’ve also got to do some measuring and planning for my big week up here alone doing heavy equipment stuff. I intend to do some grading, install a gravel walkway, move some sand to the lake and level the leftover dirt piles from my previous work. Some sand and better dirt will likely end up on the garden in the hope of loosening up the clay soil, and some firewood needs to be moved… There are other things that a skid steer and mini excavator will make easier too. And if I have the time, I’ll do some drainage work for the HOA park. Tasks expand to fill the time available.

Stack. And always be working to improve your situation, right?

nick