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08/30/2007: "Getting stuff done!"

The girls and I went down to the farm a couple weekends ago, and for once I got just about everything that I intended to do, done. What a rarity! Either my expectations are getting lower, or I got lucky. Usually I'm down at the farm, and there's some tool that I forgot to bring, or I'm running out of daylight, or there's no one to help... and the job is left unfinished. But not this time!



Of course, one thing at the top of my list was getting the batteries off the pallet in front of the garage (where they have been for weeks, if not months), and into the battery shed. I had puzzled over how to achieve this for quite some time, as each battery weighs a formidable 270 pounds. I had even purchased some 5/8" all-thread rod, shackles and chain from Winks hardware in Portland; my thought was that we could assemble the shackles onto the rod, and the chain onto the shackles, and use four people to lift and carry each battery. When we got down to it, however, it turned out that this approach was overkill. The picture above shows the final result of our battery moving labors.

A key factor in making it possible to move the batteries was the fact that Channa's friend Bob was willing and available to help. Both Nate and I have backs that are not so great, and neither of us was feeling good about moving the batteries with just the two of us. But Bob came over to help: ah, the strength and optimism of youth! He looked at my complicated chain/shackle/threaded rod setup and said, "Hey, why don't we just lift them with our hands?!" Then he leaned over and gave a mighty heave that barely budged a battery, but he had proven that, yes, this could be done.

Since my back has been in good condition for a while, I volunteered to be the lifting partner. We positioned the green cart at the end of the pallet for easy transfer, and then heaved it up onto the cart. Nate took the job of helping steady the battery for the journey down the sidewalk, and I pulled the cart.



We put a board across the cut sidewalk trench, and got the cart close to the shed. Then Bob and I lifted the battery again, and got it most of the way into the shed.





Moving batteries in the shed was tricky: I used one arm to support myself on the wall, and the arm as a hanging crane. This kept me from having to support my back from my legs alone in a bent-over position. It got easier as we optimized our cart use: where to position the cart of easy loading and unloading.

Another job that I wanted to get done down at the farm was filling in sections of the trench that holds the conduit that carries electricity from the cow shed photovoltaic panels to the house. Saturday morning I got right to work with Mr. Pickaxe, and started breaking up dirt and shoving it into the hole. After seven months the soil that I had dug out of the trench with the trenching machine was hard as a rock! However, a couple of blows with the pickaxe would break it into chunks that could be shoved into the hole.





You can see that I got about 75 feet of trench filled in. There's a section of trench that hasn't been filled in yet next to the orchard fence, but this is out of the path of traffic and covered with weeds, so with any luck the electrical inspector will overlook it.

Nate agreed to help me on another project that I have wanted to do for several weeks in this long, hot summer: water some of our seedlings out in the wild area beyond the pasture. To get there we had to hack our way through some pretty fierce blackberry brambles; here is a photo of Nate wielding his prize ColdSteel machete:



Once back in the brambles we found that most of the Big Leaf Maples and the two walnut seedlings were still alive in their protective plastic mesh. We gave each of them a couple of gallons of water to tide them over until the fall rains begin.



On the way back we stopped by to see the pig. Still un-named by intention, he's a personable little guy: he gets up on hind legs and squeals when he sees Mr. Treat Man, aka Nate, in the vicinity. I had no idea that pigs were so social.



All in all, a very satisfying overnight trip.