'Saturday in the park......'

7:05 am - Sunday - June 2nd - Ramona, CA - 56° F, 84% humidity, wind 5 mph out of the west by northwest.......cloudy (May/June gloom) today with a forecast high of 74° F......the view this morning.......↴

Saturday in the park by Chicago

Another 'Saturday in the park'.......the marine layer did not dissipate until after 12 pm.  It was quite cool, and I wore my RORVR hoody sweatshirt zipped up until then.  After opening the park, and checking the water tower level I reported back to Rich to see what was on his agenda for the day.  He gave me a new mixer valve to install in Cabin # 94's shower.  The old one was leaking, and was probably 10 years old.....no one knows.  I've changed a lot of shower mixer valves over the years, and it is normally a 10 minute project beginning to end, but then there is the 'Hockwald way' which means it will take two people working for an hour to get it loose without breaking anything.  When there is such a long interval in between mixers calcification begins to accumulate around the valve making it difficult to remove. Nevertheless, after a lot of tugging by Rich and I it finally came out.  After using a cylindrical wire brush to remove calcium deposits from the guide and smooth out the walls we installed the new mixer in a couple of minutes.

The old plastic stubborn mixer valve......the new one is brass

By the time we closed up the cabin it was after 11:30 am so I headed back to the office area to work on another project.....cut back the ice plant along each side of the gravel driveway leading to the tool shed so it would be possible to back the company pickup truck in there without driving over the ice plant.  This job took me up to lunch at 12:30 pm, and after lunch until almost 2:30 pm to complete.  Things were slow in the office so TLE came outside to do some weeding in the office flower beds.  When I was ready to pick up all the ice plant I had cut TLE came over to help me load 7 trash barrels full of the stuff.  A trash barrel full of ice plant weighs around 60 pounds.....about twice the amount of weight I am allowed to lift right now, so TLE helped me put each barrel on the back of the golf cart then unload it back in the storage yard where we pile branches, weeds, grass cutting, plant cuttings, etc.

I had just finished unloading the final barrel of ice plant when I got a call over the 2-way radio from Rich asking me to get the the keys to the Kubota loader from the office, and bring it up to the storage yard where he was attempting to unload some large metal posts with concrete attached to the bottoms.  He had used the Kubota to load them on the company pickup, but thought he could roll them off the back of the truck, however, they were a little too heavy and awkward for him.  Using a large chain attached to the loader bucket I lifted each one off the truck as Rich gave directions.....my first time using the tractor and no small animals, or children were harmed.  The metal posts with concrete were removed from the area of the propane station so it could be moved to a better location.  Rich was digging a trench for the new electrical conduit which will power the propane station in its new location, which, in turn, necessitated moving the old posts which were laying the path of the trench.

Caroline, our housekeeper, had been trimming the hedges on the north side of the Red Barn before lunch, but she went home for the day not feeling well, so for the last 90 minutes of the work day I finished what she was doing hauling away the hedge trimmings, cleaning up, and putting away her tools.  Every day here at RORVR is different, and I like that a lot.  The time seems to fly, which I like even better.  The work is satisfying and varied.

Thanks for stopping by!

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