What's plastic, green, and comes out in the spring?
Paddy O'Furniture.
Speaking of which, this weekend was all about cleanup at the casa. We had planned to tackle some much-needed yardwork (mostly cleanup of leftover leaves from last fall) on Saturday but the gentle 30-mph breeze blowing all day put an end to that idea. So we tidied up inside, which was needed just the same.
Yesterday being sunny and in the '60s, we had no such excuse. So we headed out to spruce up the yard, which involved blowing the dead leaves out of all the nooks and crannies around the house. Then we got to put our newest toy to work - a tow-behind leaf collector. That friggin' thing was an adventure in itself. We bought it Friday evening, and of course the box was too big to fit in the Corolla. So we unpack it andstart shoving it in the car, and of course it starts to rain. Lovely.
Anyway, back to yesterday. Now it's time to put the collector together. It seemed like such a simple device, but I swear it took our combined intellect (no comments please) to figure out the stupid and most unhelpful instructions. Finally we got it together, hooked it up to the riding mower, and I commenced to colletcing leaves. Until the flat tire that is.
See, I had considered myself fortunate that the mower started up after the winter, despite a lack of any winterization treatments. That good feeling went away when zena73 noticed the left front tire was flat. Joy. And on top of it, it's a tubeless and we were unable to fill it with a manual pump and a plug-in compressor because there was no suitable seal on the outside of the rim.
Thankfully after some internet sleuthing I found a neat trick - tie a rope around the circumference of the tire (in the middle) and twist it with a screwdriver (like a tourniquet). Start pumping in the air and the side of the tire will pop out to the rim, thereby creating the necessary seal to allow air to fill it up.
So after all this, I was on my way finally. Got most of the leaves, and the yard looks much better. We're not done by any means, but the major prep work is done. Next comes weeding, planting, and tearing out a bunch of unwanted foliage. The joys of home ownership!
Almost forgot - we decided to reward ourselves for our hard work and persistence, so I fired up the grill for the first time this year and cooked up some steaks.
Speaking of which, this weekend was all about cleanup at the casa. We had planned to tackle some much-needed yardwork (mostly cleanup of leftover leaves from last fall) on Saturday but the gentle 30-mph breeze blowing all day put an end to that idea. So we tidied up inside, which was needed just the same.
Yesterday being sunny and in the '60s, we had no such excuse. So we headed out to spruce up the yard, which involved blowing the dead leaves out of all the nooks and crannies around the house. Then we got to put our newest toy to work - a tow-behind leaf collector. That friggin' thing was an adventure in itself. We bought it Friday evening, and of course the box was too big to fit in the Corolla. So we unpack it andstart shoving it in the car, and of course it starts to rain. Lovely.
Anyway, back to yesterday. Now it's time to put the collector together. It seemed like such a simple device, but I swear it took our combined intellect (no comments please) to figure out the stupid and most unhelpful instructions. Finally we got it together, hooked it up to the riding mower, and I commenced to colletcing leaves. Until the flat tire that is.
See, I had considered myself fortunate that the mower started up after the winter, despite a lack of any winterization treatments. That good feeling went away when zena73 noticed the left front tire was flat. Joy. And on top of it, it's a tubeless and we were unable to fill it with a manual pump and a plug-in compressor because there was no suitable seal on the outside of the rim.
Thankfully after some internet sleuthing I found a neat trick - tie a rope around the circumference of the tire (in the middle) and twist it with a screwdriver (like a tourniquet). Start pumping in the air and the side of the tire will pop out to the rim, thereby creating the necessary seal to allow air to fill it up.
So after all this, I was on my way finally. Got most of the leaves, and the yard looks much better. We're not done by any means, but the major prep work is done. Next comes weeding, planting, and tearing out a bunch of unwanted foliage. The joys of home ownership!
Almost forgot - we decided to reward ourselves for our hard work and persistence, so I fired up the grill for the first time this year and cooked up some steaks.