Sunday Reading - Baby Steps

 

At least I can say I got something done today. Sundays being my only day off I can count on usually and lately pretty much the only one period.  I am never lacking for stuff to do. Typically I am home by 2 or 3 in the afternoon everyday but lately I am walking so much I just never feel like doing much when I do get home but the longer warmer days are beginning to get me out now that I still have light until almost 7PM again. As long as it isn't friggin raining anyway.

And raining seems like what it has been doing for almost a month straight here. It hasn't been really cold but not exactly warm outside either and definitely no dry false Spring like I was hoping for. Actually except for a few forced emergency repairs I have not had any sort of a productive Winter either.  I basically waited for the right combination of warmth, Sun, lack of Wind and time off and they never seemed to cooperate until the last few days really. 

Well the rain stopped today like I said although it was still pretty cold this morning. The wind finally dropped to below 20 mph and has continued to drop today and I had to fill the water tanks anyway so it was a good time to do another test on the water line to the barn I repaired. I started off running my pumps even though I didn't really need to as I have been keeping up but all I need is to have my repaired water line bust and find out my pumps weren't working too. Pumps worked, turned on the line to the barn at about 30% full and let it em stay on to be sure no new leaks have developed. So far it has had pressure for 10 hours and no leaks I can find yet. Doesn't mean there isn't one under ground but nothing coming up that I can find. 

Of course then the reality of filling the tanks at 30% water pressure hit me so I decided I had enough time to finish cutting up the tree in the goat gate while waiting for the tanks to fill. My super hero organization skills assured me a quick trip to get everything together. Started the saw and made two cuts when it died and would not restart. I don't know why but that particular saw has this complex auto-choke thing on it that I have never liked. I imagine I flooded it. 

After wasting about an hour checking to see if something was clogged I just gave up and went and got my old standby. After 45 years that saw never let's me down.  I do not understand why small gas engine equipment just sucks anymore. I finally gave up completely on gas engine trimmers a few years back as they are so finicky and time consuming due to maintenance. Once wood cutting equipment technology reaches the right point I will gladly give up gas powered chain saws too. 

Of course I have that luxury now that I am using the smaller wood stove up until this Winter I didn't.

So at least I managed to get past the Spring Curse today. Yes my first bit of equipment failed but a bad Spring Curse will require everything to break and need shop time or wait for parts to start using again. The only way to get around it is redundancy. Of course I didn't start mowing yet that is going to be the real test and it is going to have to start soon.

Still the tree is cut up. I need to go pick all the wood up and I can close the gate and let the sheep in there. 10 sheep will keep it under control much better than 3 little goats who will be happy in the garden while I get it an order for planting. 

The garden area is such a mess that it is going to be an adventure of it's own getting it in order as well. Unless work slows down some getting a garden area as large as I was hoping for is now in question too. 

Keep Prepping Everyone!!!