July 2024 Island Trip – Day 10

This morning I got the deck on the house sealed. It took about 2.5 hours and wiped me out. OK, my fault… It’s not that the work was difficult (6” roller on a long pole), but that it was exacting, the sun was strong, and I did not have enough fluids on board… Stupid, I know. But! It’s done, maybe for 4-5 years! I had a supervisor, and left their part of the deck unseal so as not to damage them…

After a wee snooze and lunch, I got up to far simpler things like completing cleaning paint brushes, and drawing a better pic of the lower barn space. Oh, and sitting under the barn’s overhang in the shade with a cold water and watching the trees move gently. Rest. I rested 😳. It felt great!

In the late afternoon, hoping to avoid the sun, but not, I went back down to the house to address the drip irrigation. I found one thing wrong: A ‘feeder hose’s’ crimp had broken. The tenant handed me a 6” piece of duct tape to fix it (that’ll last at least a year!) The other feeders were fine. The micro-sprinkler heads were in good shape. The filter on the system had a little gunk in it, but not enough to keep the system from working… The hose bib wasn’t opened quite yet all the way… Then suddenly everything worked! Drip irrigation is simple. There are lots of simple individual components that all have to work flawlessly in order for the whole system to work. Other than the feeder crimp on the south garden bed being busted, and possibly the spigot being slightly closed down, I do not know what was wrong. But we’re watering now!!

So, after the irrigation miracle, and with help from the tenant, I replaced their belongings on the deck, picked up all the weeds I’d ripped out trying to find the feeder hoses for the irrigation system, checked the bluetooth irrigation timer (and texted my DH for instructions re one aspect of this gardening marvel), dumped the weeds at the new fall burn pile, and limped into the trailer for a shower.

I am thankful I made enough dinner last night for two evenings last! I watched a few episodes of a silly show, played backgammon with my sweetie, and am looking forward tomorrow to a day of only optional heavy duty physical labor!