A very busy weekend, not all of it on the railmower project, but a lot of it. My main goal Saturday, May 21, was to buy concrete mix and fill in the postholes for the hoist to be used in the railmower project. I had decided that who knows when the concrete mixers would come to pour the foundation of the house under construction next door and I wanted the job done by the end of Saturday. But it seemed there was a conspiracy to prevent me from doing so.
My tenant agreed to let me use a large wheelbarrow to mix the concrete so I started to hook up my 4x6 trailer. Since I would be carrying several hundred pounds of concrete mix as well as the wheelbarrow I checked the air pressure. Low on both tires. I began to fill up one and the valve stem is blowing air out. Try to fill the other one and air is leaking past the rim. So the first project of the day turns out to be taking both wheels off and driving them over to Brake Specialists Plus to be left there for repair
(estimate of $ 40-45.00). At least on the way back I pick up the concrete mix at Home Depot and wheelbarrow and cart them both home in my Ford Explorer.
Now the wheelbarrow is not very usable since one of the lift handles is rotted off. So my next project was to fabricate and install a new handle. I had just the right pieces of wood in my wood pile so I jigsawed them to the right shapes, then bored holes and primed and painted the two separate pieces. I had to use my angle grinder to cut off three rusted bolts.
About that time the better half comes out and says the dog's ear looks mighty swollen and he needs immediate veterinary attention. Of course by 12:00 noon on Saturday all the vet clinics in Dripping Springs have closed so I have to take our pit bull (we call him "the puppy" although he is now 77 pounds and could lose 10 pounds or so, according to the vet) to an "animal emergency hospital" in Austin. Get the dog taken care of (who knew vet bills could be so doggone high?) and get back home around 5:30 pm.
On the way to the animal hospital I picked up the trailer tires. Asked the guy how much I owe and am told "it's free." So that put me in a pleased frame of mind. When I got home, I rotated the spare onto the trailer, installed one of the repaired tires and mounted the other one as a spare.
After taking care of the trailer, I resumed wrassling with the wheelbarrow. Surprising how ornery them critters can be. Of course, two of the holes I drilled were not in the right place so I had to drill them again. But I finally got everything fitted together and bolted down tight. It looked good. Even better, the wife came out and said "My goodness, I never really though of you as a "handyman" but it looks like you really fixed that wheelbarrow up." I took that as a compliment.
I gave up the idea of mixing the concrete since the sun was setting and vowed to finish that job the next morning before Frank Glatzl comes over for our next railmower work session.
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