Sunday, October 18, 2015

Slogging through mud

After taking so long to build the last gate and bit of fence I wondered if re-roofing the tool shed would take as long.  Yup.  And maybe longer.

Friday I only got a a couple hours of work before dark.  After sleeping in, the morning was spent moving moving irrigation pipes.  Then I had to go to the grocery store(s).  I hadn't been grocery shopping in over a week and was out of many things.  I didn't even have milk for breakfast.  By the time I grocery shopped and then ate breakfast/lunch it was 4:45 pm.  I worked on the pole shed that is right next / against the tool shed.  Since I am re-roofing the tool shed I plan on making their connection right.  The jigsaw blade broke; the power saw partially could do the job; the first handsaw handle  lost a screw and I had to find a second handsaw.  Then it was dark before I finished.

Saturday - the last forecasted nice day for a while -  should have been a productive day. It was still around freezing when I made sure the calves had enough hay so I thought I would go uptown. I had to buy new jigsaw blades.  I also forgot some grocery items.

After coming home and put items away I was about to go outside and move irrigation pipes when Dan called.  He spent lots of time Friday walking looking for his missing cattle.  He talked to lots of people - no one saw them.  Dan didn't find them.

Dan spoke with a guy who ropes cattle.  He and a buddy plan to come Sunday with their horses and help look.  Dan needed to have a horse trailer ready if they found and roped the cattle.  So Dan got his old wrecked pickup with the partially smashed windshield running and insured.  Dan called me to drive his car as he planned to hook the pickup to the trailer and leave it out at his old place - 16 miles away from mine.

Sure.

I got home before 1 pm.   Then I noticed half the cattle were in the middle pasture where I left them and half the cattle were in the south pasture.  They walked the river.  I opened the gate to the south pasture and had all the cattle together.  I moved their salt there too.

Then to move irrigation pipe.  Shouldn't take long.  Right.  I ended up replacing two valve caps that leaked.  I am at a point in adding to the mainline pipe with adding pipes I hadn't used before.   That means spending time adding wire to help hold them together.

The pre-positioned line of pipes had been knocked over by the cattle.  When setting them upright I found I had to move them over a bit to not overlap where the previous line had watered.  Making this a challenge was that the line now went through a fallen tree that I had not had time to limb this Summer.  Not through as in 'perpendicular' but along then through - the most annoying way to cross.  The pipe crossed under near the top of the tree.   One and a half pipes were involved.  I ended up de-limbing almost half the tree and then had to haul off the cut limbs.

Once that was done I still had problem pressuring up.  I forgot to double check both end caps and both were off.  The first end cap I had an excuse as when I moved that pipe I noticed a large Flathead Electric utility truck with a boom driving along my south pasture fence.  I had to go investigate.  They were on my neighbor's land right along my fence.  Apparently my southern neighbors lost power.   I had to explain due to the trees and the river channels they could not drive any further.  I explained how the lines crossed the river and continued on and how they could access the line from the other side of the river.  The lines on my side were not a problem as the electric company had trimmed the branches last year.  He didn't know that until he drove along the lines.

I missed the second end cap because it was the last line to move and I was in a hurry to get back and start the pump up.

I didn't move all of a line of pipes to pre-position them for the next time, nor did I check all the sprinkler connections.  Because the gaskets are old I sometimes have to wiggle the pipe to get the gasket to stop leaking.  The sprinkler pressure was on the low side but due to the late time I don't plan on moving the pipes again until Monday morning.

To help me out Donna earlier said she would make me a meal and bring it over at 5 pm.  By the time I got back to the house from the irrigation work it was 4:45 pm.   Once again I wasn't working on the re-roof project until late.

The past few days I have been going and going and not eating much so by now I was running out of gas.  I wasn't tired but feeling weak.  Friday night I think I watched the weather forecast - maybe yes maybe no - but I do know I fell asleep about that time.  I woke up and went to bed at 11:45 pm - and I rarely go to sleep before midnight.

Donna's meal really helped.


By now it was after 5:30 pm and I had less than two hours to work before dark.

I really wanted to get the rolled asphalt roofing installed.  But first I had to fix the roof.  The tool shed roof overhangs the pole shed wall somewhere by a half a foot to a foot. Over the many years the edge of the roof had gotten wet and was starting to rot.  Because the tool shed roof overhung the tool shed wall by so much I was able to cut a little over three inches off the roof.

The following photos are 'before' photos once I took the fascia board off.   I don't have 'after' photos as it was dark.



The jigsaw blades?  I thought they were standard.  Wrong!  The blades I bought did not fit the Skill brand of jigsaw.  So I had to use a power saw and a handsaw once I measured and marked a straight line.   I need to buy a Sawzall reciprocating saw like my uncle Curt has.  Let me know when you see one on sale.


Well... I just woke up so I guess it is time to move Daisy off my lap and to go to bed.

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