Today, I finally opened the box with our new drain auger. Given the weight of it, I just went ahead and cut the box apart at a couple of corners. The box was made of very heavy duty carboard, yet it was pretty beat up during shipping!
The auger, however, was well padded and protected, and completely unharmed.
Pretty much as soon as I lowered the sides of the box, Ghosty was inside it, checking things out!
In pulling out the various items packed with the auger, included a pair of work gloves, I found the instruction manual and paused to take a look.
The manual was for a different model. One with a different frame supporting the auger, and two large wheels at the back, so it could be pushed around like a hand truck. This one has a frame that’s more compact, and four wheels that need to be attached. Two of them have brakes on them, so those would go onto the back. There are no instructions on how to attach them. I assume that’s what the Allen key is for.
I didn’t have time to fuss with it right then, so it’s been left for now. Once the wheels are on, we need to figure out how to get it safely into the old basement. My husband suggested using a rope, which might actually work out and allow us to take it down the old basement stairs securely, instead of taking it to the new basement stairs and going down that way. The old basement stairs are oddly narrow and steep, to fit in the space, and I don’t have a lot of confidence in how strong they are. The new basement stairs, however, have a door that swings over the stairs, blocking access to the hand rail, instead of into the entry. You wouldn’t believe how unsafe that makes it. When I was a kid, I never saw a problem, but now that I’m old and broken, and have a problem with stairs, it’s really noticeable.
Ah, well. We’ll figure it out, one way or the other!
He got me a cordless drill and driver set! I am so thrilled with it!!
One of my goals for today was to disassemble, reconfigure and reassemble a 4′ x 4′ wooden frame I had. It will be used to create a new little squash bed, just big enough for the Crespo squash.
The batteries were already charged, so all I needed to do was get the impact driver set up with the right size bit, to take the screws out of the frame. The boards are held together with 3″ deck screws, and I really didn’t want to do that manually. Especially with my left elbow the way it is. Yes, I can use my right hand, but I would be switching back and forth a lot for a job like this, and it would have taken quite a long time just to remove the screws, never mind put the frame back together again in the new configuration.
Which is when I discovered two things.
First, almost all my Robertson screwdriver tips are missing (and I just realized I’ve been calling them the wrong name for years; I’ve been calling them Robinsons). I prefer Robbies, because I find they don’t slip or strip as much.
When I finally found a tip the right size, I found it was too short for the driver’s chuck to clutch. I needed something longer, but while I found some that were standard and Phillip’s tip, I had no Robbies.
While I was going through the basement, the sun room and various tool kits, my SIL started messaging me. As we were chatting, I mentioned my frustration. After going back and forth about it, and I was finally resigning myself to having to take the screws out manually (while my husband looked up and ordered a set of impact driver bits for me!) I got a video call from my SIL. My brother was with her and trying to understand why I was having issues. So I was able to show him the chuck and the bits I had. He was the one that remembered the very first tool kit they gifted us with, which is currently our garage tool kit. He thought that kit might have an extender in it. After we were done our video call, I went to look.
He was right! Not only did it have the extension, but other sizes of tips that I knew I would need.
Which meant I was able to use the impact driver after all!
Also the extension and tips are now stored in the case, with the drill and driver. 😄
I am so incredibly happy. It took almost no time at all to remove the screws, sent the boards in their new configuration, drill pilot holes, and screw the frame back together again. Even if I were using our corded drill for this, it uses a chuck key that’s stripped (the original chuck key was lost, years ago), so it’s hard to tighten it properly. I could use it as a drill, or as a driver, but switching tips to do both is incredibly frustrating. The new drill is chuckless, and the driver has a completely different style of chuck.
By the time the new box frame was assembled, I’d been hearing thunder for a while, but still in the distance. So I headed over to where I wanted to set up the frame to try and get that part done before the storm hit. That area had mulch on it from the last time we tried to grow things there, but weeds were growing through it. Still, with the ground so wet, it wasn’t difficult to pull them by hand, and it looked a lot worse than it really was. There was also a piece of sheet metal on the ground next to it that I moved, so there were no weeds from under there to pull at all.
Later in the season, all the paths around this bed, and the three 9’x3′ beds, will be covered in wood chips.
Once I did a bit of weed clearing, I set the frame down and set it so that there was still a path between it and the compost ring, then went and got some cardboard to put under it. As I was putting that down, I could hear thunder almost constantly, and the wind was picking up, so I stopped there. A good downpour on the cardboard would be a good thing, anyhow!
Tomorrow, I will get a couple of wheelbarrow loads of garden soil from what’s left of the pile, to fill the frame. I plan to hill it a bit in the middle, rather than make it level.
Four feet square for a low raised bed is actually too wide for me to reach into very well, but once the Crespo squash is transplanted, it shouldn’t be an issue; aside from some weeding, it won’t need to have much done in it until harvest time.
The one thing I do want to make sure to do is set up a barrier of some kind around it, right from the start. We know, from the first year we tried growing it, that deer and groundhogs find the Crespo squash plant delicious, and deer do still come into the yard, and especially come to check out the compost ring! I have some chicken wire I can put around it, but that would make weeding difficult. I do still have some cardboard left, though, so if I use that around the transplants as a mulch, that should solve the weeding problem. Or I could try putting netting around it. I’ll see what works out best, tomorrow.
If the weather apps are at all correct, we should have two days without rain, to get things done. Depending on what app I look at. None of them agree! I’ve got one that says we’ll have rain all day Monday, which is when I’ll be at my mother’s again, anyhow, then likely more rain during the day on Tuesday – then thunderstorms all day Wednesday!
Which means we need to get as much done over the next two days as possible.
The rain is a good thing – our water table still hasn’t recovered from years of drought – but a break long enough to get the garden work done would be appreciated!
Still, I’m glad I was able to get as far along as I did, with getting this bed done, before the storm hit. It was just a quick downpour, which will have done a good job in getting that cardboard wet for me. 😁 I might still need to soak it more, before adding the soil. Those Crespo squash really need to be in the ground. They are the largest and fastest growing of all the winter squash we started! I’ve already pinched off buds ones, and more have grown back! There are three surviving seedlings, and that 4’x4′ bed should be a good size for them.
Good grief. It’s already well past 9pm as I write this. I should get to bed, so I can get up and get started, before the heat of the day hits!
Which I’m both happy and sad about, since it meant he’s basically maxed out his new credit card. Which means, after he gets his eyes tested later this month, he won’t be able to get new glasses.
So we’ll be working on paying that down as quickly as possible!!! I’ll be getting a caregiver tax credit that I was going to put towards his glasses, anyhow, so that’s going to his credit card.
I’ll be getting a SkyTech mini-gaming computer. Since I will be doing more photo and video work, a gaming computer will have the system requirements I need. A few things will probably need upgrading; it has only 500gigs of memory storage, for example. My current computer has 1.79T, plus I have a 3T external hard drive – which I currently can’t access on my current machine. But that’s easy enough to work around. The important part is having a machine that actually works!
Speaking of which…
I’ve downloaded a free version of the Advanced Systemcare software recommended to me, and have been trying to install it.
The installation bar shows it at what looks like 99% installed, and it’s been like that for over 10 minutes now.
The order for the new computer has just been placed, so we don’t have an estimated delivery date yet. Hopefully, it won’t take long. The way things are going, I won’t be surprised if this thing starts smoking or something!
The Re-Farmer 