Saturday, June 27, 2009
Thursday, June 25, 2009
Another long day...and then MJ died...
Today I spent the majority of the day trying to till the backyard. The ground it a lot more solid then I thought. I ended up breaking the drive belt after only three long runs in the back. Then I spent the next 2 hours driving from store to store trying to find a replacement belt. I finally found one at the local hardware store. The only problem is, I wasnt sure of the correct size so I ended up buying the wrong one. After getting home and installing the belt, I was only able to make one pass in the backyard before the belt I just bought snapped. CRAP... So after Scratz got home from work, I headed back to the hardware store to find another replacement. However this time, I bought 2 of them just incase. That is about as far I got today. Tomorrow we are going to Lagoon, so no yardwork for me.
And for all of those Michael Jackson fans, here is a video in his memory.
And for all of those Michael Jackson fans, here is a video in his memory.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Yard update, 4-billion and 10...
Well today was pretty much a waste of a day again. The sun was out for the first part of the day, but the ground was still kind of soft. I decided I would try and move some of the gravel from off of the newly poured concrete and stick it out in the far end of the yard where we might have a sitting area on year. Well, I managed to get one load out to the fence line without much of a problem...UNTIL I tried turning around to head back to the house. The left side of the bobcat sunk all the way up to the frame. I couldn't turn, all I could do was go forward and backwards about 3 feet. With each attempt, the bobcat sunk deeper into the mud and I inched closer and closer to the fence. I then decided to use the front bucket to try and push or pull my way out. I was not making and progress forward, but was slowly going backwards. Remember I am literally 2-3 inches away from the fence. At one point the front bucket actually snagged on the fence, but I stopped in time not to completely destroy it. Since that wasnt working so well, I did the old trick that you do if you get stuck in the snow. I started rocking that bobcat like it was a 1982 Chev Scooter. I figured it at the rate I was going I was going to be buying a new fence for the farmer when I was done anyway, so I put the throttle up and went for broke. Somehow I bounced that bobcat up and out of the hole and I ended up getting high centered on a wooden pallet. I again used the front bucked and was able to work myself off of the pallet. Since I was no longer stuck I figured I ran out all my luck for the day, so I parked the bobcat and moved on to a different project.
By this time I was already pretty frustrated, then so I decided to wire the valves for the sprinkler system. I got everything wired up, and luckily I took this picture of the wires I needed because I almost cut the wrong ones when I made it over to the other set of valves.
Well as I was doing playing with wires, Scratz had been digging in the area of the mud puddle to see if she could find where the water was coming from. She ended up diging a little hole where you could actually see the water flowing from either under the cement pad or coming up from the ground. The water was draining out pretty quickly so we ended up making a trench that headed from the cement pad to the middle of the yard.
The point of the trench was to see if we could drain enough water off to either have it all gone or to find out where it might be coming from. Well the water kept flowing for hours. We even turned off the sprinkler system to see if that might have been the source for the leak. After many hours of waiting for it to stop, we think it might have tapered off but I am not really sure since it started raining again.
After just a few minutes, there where puddles of rain everywhere again.
I continued to play in the yard, while Scratz took the time to clean the house and watch the baby. While I was outside I was able to complete all the wiring to the sprinkler vavles, mount the controller, and do a quick test of the system just before it started raining again. Since I ran into about a million stupid problems while installing the controller, frustration won out and I called it a day. Shortly after that my brother called to tell my Happy Fathers day, which I actually pretty much forgot about with all the B.S. going on with my yard project. Anyway, I talked to him for a few minutes and then decided to go out to dinner with the baby and Scratz.
We went to one of our favorite places to go, Lorena's. It is a small Mexican Resturant where the food it good and the price is even better. I figured the rain would start again while we were in eating dinner, however the rain never came. When we got home, I happened to take a walk out into the backyard and noticed that the ground was firmer then it was earlier in the day. I decided to take another try and moving the gravel since I did pay a hefty amount to rent the bobcat for the weekend. Luckily I was able to move one load of gravel without any problems, tried a second load and was successful with that as well. Then I figured, since the ground wasn't just a big mud pit, I would flatten out a few of the tire ruts I had made earlier.
I was able to avoid the extra soft spots for the most part and re-flatten out a large amount of the backyard. Scratz was outside helping me spot mud zones and sprinkler heads so I wouldn't cause any more damaged then needed to be made. While I was flattening out large sections, Scratz was filling in the big ruts I couldn't get to with her shovel. We only had about an hour and a half of day light, but we did a pretty fair amount of work in that short time. That is a good thing, because now I dont feel that I rented the bobcat for nothing.
Well, it's getting pretty late and we both have to work in the morning. Hopefully by the time we get off work tomorrow, I will be able to tell if we still have a water leak in the backyard or if it is just drainage from around the house. This will require the rain to stop for a the rest of the day at least.
By this time I was already pretty frustrated, then so I decided to wire the valves for the sprinkler system. I got everything wired up, and luckily I took this picture of the wires I needed because I almost cut the wrong ones when I made it over to the other set of valves.
Well as I was doing playing with wires, Scratz had been digging in the area of the mud puddle to see if she could find where the water was coming from. She ended up diging a little hole where you could actually see the water flowing from either under the cement pad or coming up from the ground. The water was draining out pretty quickly so we ended up making a trench that headed from the cement pad to the middle of the yard.
The point of the trench was to see if we could drain enough water off to either have it all gone or to find out where it might be coming from. Well the water kept flowing for hours. We even turned off the sprinkler system to see if that might have been the source for the leak. After many hours of waiting for it to stop, we think it might have tapered off but I am not really sure since it started raining again.
After just a few minutes, there where puddles of rain everywhere again.
I continued to play in the yard, while Scratz took the time to clean the house and watch the baby. While I was outside I was able to complete all the wiring to the sprinkler vavles, mount the controller, and do a quick test of the system just before it started raining again. Since I ran into about a million stupid problems while installing the controller, frustration won out and I called it a day. Shortly after that my brother called to tell my Happy Fathers day, which I actually pretty much forgot about with all the B.S. going on with my yard project. Anyway, I talked to him for a few minutes and then decided to go out to dinner with the baby and Scratz.
We went to one of our favorite places to go, Lorena's. It is a small Mexican Resturant where the food it good and the price is even better. I figured the rain would start again while we were in eating dinner, however the rain never came. When we got home, I happened to take a walk out into the backyard and noticed that the ground was firmer then it was earlier in the day. I decided to take another try and moving the gravel since I did pay a hefty amount to rent the bobcat for the weekend. Luckily I was able to move one load of gravel without any problems, tried a second load and was successful with that as well. Then I figured, since the ground wasn't just a big mud pit, I would flatten out a few of the tire ruts I had made earlier.
I was able to avoid the extra soft spots for the most part and re-flatten out a large amount of the backyard. Scratz was outside helping me spot mud zones and sprinkler heads so I wouldn't cause any more damaged then needed to be made. While I was flattening out large sections, Scratz was filling in the big ruts I couldn't get to with her shovel. We only had about an hour and a half of day light, but we did a pretty fair amount of work in that short time. That is a good thing, because now I dont feel that I rented the bobcat for nothing.
Well, it's getting pretty late and we both have to work in the morning. Hopefully by the time we get off work tomorrow, I will be able to tell if we still have a water leak in the backyard or if it is just drainage from around the house. This will require the rain to stop for a the rest of the day at least.
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