The Estate Manager doesn't have time to find a *real* job

[hawklady]

I was poked about not updating regularly, and now that I'm not on any particular work assignment I'm not restricted from blathering details about what I've actually been doing, so ... (note there is no guarantee this is going to be interesting or well-written. It's just not NDA/sensitive/going-to-piss-off-a-client-or-coworker

Comments

[spiritdance]

For the saw, it's worth checking if the local home improvement store does equipment rentals. All of the big-box places here, as well as several of the smaller, local shops. I had no reason to buy a sod cutter, but having the rental was much easier that trying to do the job by hand :-)

[cymrullewes]

We rented a large hole-saw to cut the opening for the dryer vent. Much easier/cheaper than buying one. And not having to store it afterwards.

[hawklady]

:) I ended up just buying the drill bits for those holes back when I was making the mews. Making barred windows out of metal conduit required hundreds of holes.

Not sure where it is now, but it sure was easy and convenient once I got the hang of it.

(need to find it again, too, since it may end up being used to make holes for nuts-and-bolt holes in PVC pipes on the telescoping perch experiment)

[hawklady]

They do - Home Depot started rentals back in the 90's in part to combat the issue of people purchasing things just for a project and then returning them for a refund. It's still an issue that every store in that business faces, but rental capacity has helped a great deal. Plus, rentals give the consumer higher-grade options than they would be willing to purchase.

On the downside, rentals are pricy if I'm ever going to need it a second time. Need to think this over. I hate the idea of $30 to rent something that I will end up needing to buy anyhow in the next few months.

A sod cutter? Dang, talk about specialized!

[spiritdance]

The story behind renting a sod cutter:

We are in an area where, when a new development goes in a former cornfield/soybean field, the first thing the developer does is lots of grading. Ostensibly to make things move & level. But it's a bit distressing to see 10+ feet of lovely topsoil leaving in the back of dumptrucks, never to be seen again (except in bags at the big box stores).

In theory, there are regulations calling for 4 inches of topsoil on a lot as part of the final grading before sending or sodding the yard. In our yard, it looks like maybe a half inch was put down before the sod. Did you know sod comes with a lovely plastic mesh backing? I found out about the mesh when we went to put in a garden. We used a sod cutter in an attempt to get under the mesh, so a tiller could be used.

Turns out the soil is so bad under the sod it wasn't worth tilling. I've got a mix of raised beds and straw bale garden instead.