Short June Island Trip 2023 – Days 2 & 3

Day 2:

I essentially mowed all day. Six hours. I’ll try not to do that again. The landscape is not smooth. This is old pasture land that foxes and rabbits have burrowed in over the years. Lots of lumps and bumps. It looks incredible, and I am sore!

My AN stopped by and consulted on a number of items including the caterpillar decimated trees (the little bastards are now eating the grass!), next steps in our water project, getting water back into the lower barn, and what a pond might cost (he was very excited about the pond idea!).

I made an easy and early dinner and was in bed before 10.

Day 3:

Up very early, I met my friend at his mom’s place to pick up the stove. The stove folks joined us and used the coolest ‘dolly’ I’ve ever seen to move 400 pounds of cast iron and still have use of their backs in their retirement. It’s motorized, of course, and does intricate lifts. They got the stove to the upper barn, removed the poor old one, peeked at the stalled out lower barn stove pipe project, and will quote both installing the upper barn unit and finishing the lower barn pipe install. They also were able to tell me to scrap a bunch of stove pipe I had sitting around, hoping to use. More floor space!

Next was to install the motion sensing waterer to scare the deer out of the new perennial garden. I overcame three leaks, a non-operating waterer and then troubleshot why the waterer was so wimpy. I was running out of time and the tenants were willing to take on the exploration and adjusting of the device.

At my tenant’s request, I put up a ‘No Trespassing’ sign at each drive, and a ‘Private Drive’ sign at the bottom of the west drive. They have a Ring doorbell and have caught vehicles going by, more than once, that have no business being there. I understand their concern, and it makes me sad to have to deploy the signs.

Being a short trip, it didn’t take too long to close up Stella, until I got to the black tank, which required 10 rinses… No, one does not openly rinse the tank. You close the slicer valve, open the freshwater input and let it fill for about three minutes. Open the slicer valve and repeat until you get a clear rinse (there are clear plastic parts to allow a visual on this. Not for the queasy 😂). Yeah, it’s not glamorous, but it’s a really important part of trailer living. Evidently I’ve failed at the job the last few times 😳.