Training Log Archive: Mess Engineer

Yard Restoration - Day 2 of 3

6:50 am - 7:45 am
Lighting yesterdays massive raked pile of leaves and then doing more raking nearby so I could keep an eye on the fire.

7:45 am - 8:10 am
Burning off collected sticks in Fire pit

8:10 am - 8:55 am
Raking leaves off the driveway in front of shed. Had to rake into piles and then shaking through my patented mesh sieve to try and get all the gravel back so time consuming.

9:00 am - 10:40 am
Whippersnipping around Fire Pit, and heavily treed area that I spent all yesterday raking .... whilst keeping an eye on the progress of the leave pile fire.
End result was area looked very neat and tidy.

Tidying up area next to shed.
Not very long but long in patches and with a heavy leaf litter load.
So mowed in progressively smaller circles trying to use the discharge chute to progressively throw all the leaves into the centre.

11:45 am - 1:15 pm
Raking 4 poly trailers of leaves and twigs from mowed lawn opposite shed and taking to leave fire for disposal.

1:15 pm - 1:40 pm
Mowing the main grassed area around the septic sprinklers.
I could have left this for another few weeks but this was the only remaining lawn area I hadn't yet tackled.
Only did a quick run over as very low on fuel and didn't want to get stranded.

2:05 pm - 3:15 pm
Now that majority of house yard under control shifted focus to the back bush block.
6 poly trailers of leaves from roadways over the drainage trench (and carted to fire) to restore it to looking actually like a road rather than a total leafy mess.

Break

4:05 pm - 5:10 pm
5 more poly trailers of leaves (and carted to fire) to restore track along downhill neighbours fence line.

5:10 pm - 6:20 pm
Whippersnipping roadway down to back bush block, around trench, and around entire perimeter track of the back 3 acres. These grass tufts don't grow very fast so this will last 6 months or more.

6:30 pm - 7:05 pm
Walking perimeter track of the back 3 acres starting to pick up all the large branches that have fallen here in the last 6 months when I haven't been maintaining it.

Ran out of daylight. Exhausted.

Yard Restoration - Day 1 of 3

Resolved to spend the entire long weekend slaving in the yard to endeavour to restore it to "acceptable standard" after months of neglect over winter. Many of these tasks only get done once every 6 to 12 months and I am going to do them all in 3 days. No park run for me today.

7:00 am - 8:15 am
Continuing last nights driveway stick collection but this time from the house down to the back shed.

8:25 am - 11:00 am
Raking all the heavily treed area between Fire Pit and downhill neighbours fence line. Lost count of the number of poly trailers.

Break for lunch

11:50 am - 2:30 pm
Raking continued.

Break for drink.

3:00 pm - 5:35 pm
Raking continued. Leaf pile is massive. About 3 metres wide and 10 metres long.

Running training with KC as part of a Meetup group session.

4:55 pm - 5:55 pm
Picking up all the sticks out of the gravel drive.
Time consuming even with my claw extension and wheel barrow but driveway looks a lot better when its not full of twigs.

5:55 pm -6:00 pm
Weeding front garden beds until it got too dark.

Rain stopped any work in yard tonight.
Hope to get a few full days in over the long weekend.

Trip to mower shop to test battery on way home (as I had disconnected and put in back of car in the morning).

They confirmed it was dead and past its used by date being around 4 years old.

I was very happy to hear this as it meant there was probably nothing else wrong with mower as next option was to have to stay home Tuesday for them to drive out and pick it up (they only do this one day a week) and they said there is a 2 week work backlog at the moment.

I have never had an unresolvable issue with the ride on to date so I wasn't looking forward to the rigmarole or cost.
Mower shop didn't have correct battery in stock so went up the road to battery shop in the industrial estate to get one.

Upon arriving home 25 minutes of cursing trying to get battery refitted into the inconceivably small and unnecessarily complicated space they designed it to fit into. After about 4 attempts to start mower back in action and running smoothly!

On battery it says should be charged every month. I don't own a charger and the battery is so painful to disconnect that means use the ride-on in winter even if just to cruise around the yard rather than leaving it idle for 7 months.

5:30 pm - 6:05 pm
Mowing front yard on both sides, nature strip out the front, around perimeter of house and the "dog" yard (which no longer has a dog).
Basically all the untidy looking semi long areas - could have left for another 2 weeks easily.

P.S. Never used the mower in almost darkness before. Quite a few occasional sparks seen coming out the side chute which I assume was from the odd piece of gravel being rocketed out the side.

C • Using it in winter 1

4:40 pm - 5:25 pm
Whippersnipping around house, spoon drains and other long patches that have accumulated over winter.

Spent 10 minutes trying to get the ride on lawn mower to start for the first time in over 7 months (according to log I haven't started it since 20th February!). Battery doesn't appear flat but it won't start. Will get the Maintenance Manual out but may need to get a technician out to sort it. Grass only needs a touch up so it can easily wait another week or more.

5:35 pm - 6:00 pm
Raking up 2 1/2 poly trailers of leaves as an alternative activity to mowing.

4:45 pm - 5:50 pm
Last done 03/02/2016 so just over 3 months ago.
5 1/2 grocery bags full.

Ran out of daylight to continue other chores - try again tomorrow.