11.09.2024 Keep on tippin'!

 ~o~

  Wednesday 11th 51F/11C [8.00] Heavy, uniform overcast. Early rain and later. With a pause mid-morning.

 Up at 7.00 after a night of dreams. Follow up dental appointment early this afternoon in town. Rain is forecast. So it will have to be another trip in the Morris.

 I had a phone call from the health authority. Checking up on my progress and fitness. It's nice to know somebody cares. Having access to my journal means everybody involved is quickly and fully aware of my situation. One of the huge benefits of computers. Those with paranoia about sharing private details, albeit with authorized personnel, need not apply.

 10.00 Sunshine! Only briefly. I can load a modest wheelbarrow with huge heaps of weeds and brambles with a few stabs of the fork. Then effortlessly trundle it up the slope to the parking space. Which saved my dragging the trailer down to the western lawn level. 

 With the trailer body tipped I was easily able to transfer the weeds and spiky brambles using a fork. No need for thick gloves to protect myself from the bramble stems. Our large digging fork handle rotted and broke some time ago. While digging up weeds. So I should probably buy a new fork. The present one was the lady's version of a pair. 

Refitting the rear grill and returning the trailer to normal attitude. Allowed a considerable volume to be securely housed for transport. Probably as much as the larger trailer once housed. Though that one had much lower sides. Adding further weight, like grass cuttings on top of the weeds, will compact it all even more. The tipping motion leaves the draw-bar horizontal and still attached to the car. 

 I really like this small trailer. Everything is so much easier to deal with. No stretching or struggling with the great weight and sheer scale involved. The big one could carry long branches. I'll deal with that problem with an electric saw or loppers.

I have moved onto heavy lifting. A round, concrete lid to the old septic tank must weigh 200kg. It was removed years ago to allow the rainwater downpipes to flow somewhere. Without wetting the lawn. There is an old drain pipe which runs into the woods. No human waste has gone into the system for a couple of decades.

 The water in the septic tank is clear right to the muddy bottom. It was pumped out when the new local sewage system was installed. I had to move the heavy lid back again using manpower. A combination of sack truck and a spade was at the very limit of my remaining strength. 

 The sack truck handles had to be literally horizontal before it would balance. Achieving this, required brute strength and silliness. The concrete lid had been parked about three meters from the tank. The sack truck would not roll on the soft grass. 

 Anyway, it is now back in place. So I can finally cut the grass at the western end of the house. The problem is I have absolutely no idea why I am doing all of this. A vanishingly small number of people will ever see any of it. 

 15.30 58F/14C. Returned in sunshine with new teeth and new glasses. The first set of new teeth in probably 50 years. Fist real pair of [prescription] glasses in over 30 years. 

 I bought a 25 liter, plastic container for drinking water while I was in town. To satisfy the government's recent advice on being able to survive unaided for a few days in an emergency. 

 Having failed to find a decent gardening fork I came home to have some lunch. I still have to go grocery shopping sometime. Though I could shop in town tomorrow morning before physio. Provided it isn't anything perishable. 

 Dinner was mackerel in tomato sauce on toast with halved cherry tomatoes. Sorry, no pictures.

 

 

 ~o~