Good Morning!!!! 53F @ 6:45AM. Sunny. High 84F. Winds S at 5 to 10 mph.
Oh my, you folks had a busy weekend!
Nice shot of the RWBB, Ron. Their calls remind me of summertime back in Ohio. Don't see many out here.
Pretty fountain, Paul.
Yes, Bill, I did sue the Sheriff. Won, too, but the judge only gave me half what I asked for. The deputy never showed up, just some hired legal type person that admitted everything and had the judge wondering out loud why the county refused to pay damages.
Sun finally got high enough to get the water tank site out of the shadows, giving me time with some string and a can of spray paint (Kubota orange, of course) to mark the boundaries of the pad. This is what it looked like to the drone at about two hundred feet. Close enough for government work, I guess. I think it'll be tucked back in the trees far enough I won't have to look at it. And after digging up the paperwork on the power line easement, it looks like it'll be OK with that as well. Now just have to figure out how to cut a level pad. The hill there slopes in two directions, so there's no level place to start from with the tractor. Probably gonna have to mount the backhoe to get it right, but I'm gonna start with the FEL and box blade and see how big a mess I can make first. Or at least get the grass cleaned off. And find out how well the Wicked Tooth Bar from EA cuts.
I'd never tried the Return To Home function on the drone, so gave it a go coming back from the water tank site. I'm relieved to say it works as advertised, landing within a couple of feet of where it took off. That'll save some work in the future, and maybe the drone itself. The top meadow where the water tank will go is far enough away that I could barely make out the drone, let alone tell what direction it was pointed in. The RTH feature is nice to have in that situation.
The mail man brought the new string trimmer head, so I gave that a try. Instructions were horrible, and it took a while to figure out how to take the thing a part and identify the correct threaded bushing to use, but it was worth the effort. I used the 20 feet of translucent red line it came with because the blue stuff I was using on the old head was too big. Best part was the trimmer started right up after several years of sitting idle. Took it out to the back meadow and it did much better than the hedge trimmer attachment that was on the unit. And the bump feed worked well without issue. The nice thing about the head is that to fill it you just poke another 20' length of string through the head, feed it half way through, then wind it on by turning the bottom part while holding the top part. Only problem with that is when running it through poison oak, everything will get crapped up. I have an over supply of Clorox bleach wipes for some reason, so maybe I can use those on the head? Cut a couple 4 foot wide swaths with not much effort, other than slipping on the grass and steep slope, but stopped because it was so dry. There's enough to do that I'll spread it out into hour long sessions this week.
Dug the new pole saw out of the back of the truck and put it together. It seems well made, except maybe for the chain cover on the head. Seems like the first time the chain jumps off it'll be toast, being made out of flimsy plastic. And unlike the Makita chainsaw, this one needs a bar wrench to change/adjust the chain. It came with a harness, one big enough to put on a horse. Each strap had a funny little velcro loop thing on the end, but that'll probably get cut off because there's so much extra sticking out of the buckles. It also came with an Oregon bar and chain, though they did paint a Makita logo on the bar. Not sure if it's the same chain as on the Stihl pole saw, but they look very similar. It also came with a fairly good set of instructions, and I didn't have any trouble at all putting it together. And just like the Stihl, a few minutes work had a huge pile of limbs laying on the ground. But unlike the Stihl, it fired right up with the push of a button, no fuel to drip, no carb to prime, no air filter to clean. And the pole is about two feet longer. Only inconvenient thing I found is you have to take the saw off the harness to reach the clamp and shorten or lengthen the pole. But it's heavy enough that resting it on the ground will be a nice break. Yeah, it weighs about the same as the Stihl, the two batteries making up for the lighter electric motor. There's a backpack available for it that holds four batteries, but it costs as much as the saw so at this point I'm not ready to jump in and buy one. It would work with the chainsaw, to, and probably the rest of the Makita tools as well. Just not sure it would get enough use to justify the cost.
Hope everyone's week gets off to a good start...
