Trying to Get Greg Off the Property

Of course, we were back at the property again.

My friend Amy was in town for a concert, and her sister had a couple of extra tickets. She asked if Greg and I wanted to go. I said yes and immediately started trying to convince Greg that he should go too.

His response was that he had too much to do at the property.

So I came up with a plan.

If I went up there and helped him get some work done, maybe I could get enough things checked off the list that he’d agree to go to the concert.

Apparently, that’s how you have to convince Greg to do anything fun.

We got up there early Saturday and got to work. Greg had the small excavator, and since I’d operated a larger one weeks before, he asked if I felt comfortable working on the trench from the top of the hill down to where the septic tank was going all by myself. I said I’d give it a try.

He gave me a few refreshers and then left me to it.

Operating the excavator is actually pretty easy. It’s the part where you have to keep everything even and level, know how deep you need to go, and figure out when you’ve gone far enough that takes some experience.

I think I did pretty good.

Greg never had to come over and fix anything I did, so that’s really all I needed to know.

I was definitely much slower than he would have been. What took me a couple of hours probably would have taken Greg much less time. But I was still getting it done, and that was one less thing he had to worry about so he could work on other jobs.

While I was working on the trench, Greg was working on another project.

He had gotten a large diesel generator from work for free. It needed some work, so he put in a new tank and fixed a few other things and got it running. Once it was running he brought it out to the property.

It’s WAY more generator than our camper needs, but it will be great for the cabin someday. For now, though, Greg wanted to have it out at the property for hunting season so he could run whatever he needed without worrying about power.

The problem was that diesel generators are not exactly quiet.

So Greg decided to build a box around it to help keep the noise down and protect it.

He started with some skinny trees that had already been cut down and worked on drawknifing them to remove the bark. Once I finished my trench, I helped him work on the box. We used some of the leftover material from logs we’ve milled, so once again we’re finding uses for things we’ve already got.

We were getting close to having the box finished when it was time for me to leave for the concert.

I tried one more time to convince Greg to take a break and come with me.

He still had too much to do.

So I left him there.

I didn’t have much time once I got back to town. I changed, freshened up a little and headed to the concert. I’ll save that story for its own post.

Amy left early Sunday morning, so there wasn’t really any reason for me to stay in town. Back to the property I went.

There was still some digging left to do on the trench going up the hill, so we went back to our usual system. Greg used the pick to break up the dirt and I’d shovel it out.

Except this time I was having a terrible time.

The trench was only about as wide as a shovel, which meant I could only stand sideways in it. My boots kept sliding around on the gravel, and the foot I had stuck behind me as an anchor kept falling asleep.

So I would have to stop and rotate myself around to wake my foot back up.

Eventually Greg saw me struggling and asked if I’d rather go work on sewing the camper instead.

Not really.

But I would rather do that than spend another few hours sliding around in that trench on the side of a hill.

So I switched jobs.

I started sewing up the canvas on the camper where it was coming apart.

And let me tell you, that isn’t exactly fun either.

The area I was working on is a seam where the window screen is attached, so there are about seven layers of material to get the needle through.

It’s not easy.

I had to use a thimble to push the needle through all those layers, then use pliers on the other side to pull it the rest of the way through. Then repeat. And repeat. And repeat.

All while trying to hold all those layers together.

It’s not physically demanding in the same way digging a trench is, but my hands were definitely tired when I was finished. They were actually sore for a full day afterward.

Greg kept working on the trench, hoping to get it finished.

He finally called it a day when he was exhausted.

There were about 10 feet left.

Of course there were.

We had spent the entire weekend working on it, and we were *almost* done.

But that’s how things go out at the property. We get a lot accomplished, we get completely worn out, and somehow there’s always just a little bit more left to do.

And apparently, even when I try to help enough to convince Greg to take a night off for a concert, the property still wins. Especially this time of year when it’s close to hunting season.

The generator, this will be really nice for the cabin, to have another source of power. Especially during the winter if the solar panels fall short.

A little photo-shesh in the excavator.

Umm gotta say I love the camera on my new phone.

So many layers, textures and colors of green.

Love how there is a pine and douglas fir right next to each other.

When I got back Sunday Greg had completely finished the box for the generator.

This tree looks like a grinch tree to me. I took this picture and then Greg came up the hill right next to me and just as he did he looks behind me and says hey why aren’t you getting pictures of the turkeys. I turned around and there was a whole group of them by this tree. They were not there just moments before.