Perpetual Ruminations

Wednesday

Just not enough hours in the day, at least, not on the days I have off. As for the days I work, there seems to be an extra half hour with every hour worked, but then, after work, that half hour is subtracted from each hour I have before going back to work. Something like that, anyway.

My second day off this week, and I didn't get quite as much done as I had intended. We got up around nine and had coffee, then started mowing the grass. It went pretty well, but just as I finished up, the rider got a flat tire. It was low the other day when I mowed, but I had blown it up right away and it held fine the rest of the day. Today it was almost flat, but again I aired it up good and started out mowing. It held fine and I finished up the area that needed it most. The other half of the yard had been mowed last Friday, and it was kind of hard to tell where I had just mowed and what had not been cut yet. The old garden was taller, and I finished that up, then was going to mow around the big tree by the road. I had made a couple of laps around it when the tire went flat again.

This time it went flat fast, and I had to limp it back to the garage area on the flat tire. I knew the tube was most likely shot, so I put a block under the front axle and pulled the tire off. The valve stem for the tube had cut almost all the way off, and it pulled off the rest of the way when I tried to pull the tube from the tire. Luckily, I had a spare tube in the garage, still in the bag from when I bought it. I took it down off the shelf and double checked the size. It was the right tube and I would have the tire fixed in no time.

I stuffed the new tube into the tire, blew a little air into it, to get it to fill in just enough to hold it in place. Then, I worked the tire back onto the rim and held the valve stem in place while I blew a little more air into the tire. The valve stem wasn't out all the way, so I got a good grip on it and gave it a good tug. Guess what happened next? The valve stem pulled right off the tube. That's right, it pulled off, just like the old one did. What's up with that? I could see if it was an old tube, but this was never used. It sat out in the garage for a few years, maybe three or four, but it was still in the bag from when I bought it, up on a shelf, out of the sun and weather.

The only thing I could think of is the glue they attached it with at the factory had deteriorated with age, and from the heat and cold. It doesn't make a lot of sense, since tubes are all made about the same, just different sizes. this tube could fit in a small yard trailer, or even a small utility trailer. In other words, it could be on something used year round, in all types of weather. It should not have deteriorated with age like that. But, that's the only thing that makes sense.

The original tire setup for the rider was a tubeless tire, but I didn't have a valve stem for the rim. I did have a matched set of tubeless tires, so I went and got a valve stem and put in, then mounted the tubeless tire. It seemed to work fine, but I will check it tomorrow, just to make sure. I will have to change out the other front tire now, to match sizes, but that won't be a bad project. I have the tire and another valve stem, I just hope the tires are good and don't have any holes in them. If they do leak a little, I can put some stuff in them to seal them up, as long as the holes or leaks are small enough.

After finishing that, I started on the privacy panels we wanted to put on the retaining wall around the patio. It took most of the day, and it was learn as we went, but it worked out pretty good. Nothing on the wall is level, and the blocks don't run even, so it was difficult to get posts in place and make them level. Most of them are pretty close, but a couple need some adjusting. Also, some of them we were able to block in and make tight, a couple are driven into the ground to hold them, but the rest are lose in the block. I will have to get some concrete and pour into these ones to secure the posts.

It was quite a project, but we got it to work. There are still some things we need to do to finish, like the concrete, and cutting the caps to fit. Part of the wall is going to need something different to cap it, but we have some ideas on how to do that, too. We also need to put up the panels by the garage, which is going to be a bit difficult as well. It's an old garage and it leans a bit, so nothing will be square working on this, either.

It's interesting work, and we are learning as we go. But, we have the panels up, a fire burning, and now I'm going to go out and sit and enjoy more of our handy work. Once we get the panels topped and the wall capped, I'm thinking of getting a picture of it. We will still have to put the pond in, but that is a project for another day.