So, How Was Your Labor Day Weekend?

As for us, I took an extra day off and worked in the yard, removing a bougainvilla tree from our yard. In the process, I was pulling on the remnants of the plant when part of our fence actually fell over. Come to find out, the post had rotted out and the little piece that was keeping it standing broke off and it came tumbling down. So, looks like that will need to be replaced this weekend. Next, I found that our weedwhacker had some problems because the fuel lines fell apart and needed to be replaced. After that was done, I was finally able to use the weed whacker.

Next, I had bought an electric pole/chain saw to trim the trees in the yard about a week ago and when I just opened the box, I found that it was used and had been stuffed in the box and returned to the store. Since I couldn't find the receipt, I had to tear the saw apart and fix what was wrong it before I could use it.

Apparently, Fate wasn't done with me though, because I couldn't get the lawnmower to start after gassing it up. I took some time, but I finally figured out that the gas had water in it. It turns out that the new fuel we have been getting from the gas station has about 10% alcohol in it, which means the gas/alcohol mix is hydroscopic. This means that it sucks the moisture out of the air, so if you're in the habit of leaving the cap off of your gas can while you're mowing the lawn, it's pulling water into the can. So, I had to drain all the fuel out of the lawnmower and replace it.

We ended up going through this kind of process all weekend, fixing things that should be working and finding things broken that shouldn't be broken. I mean, on Labor Day, we were working hard, digging out the old fence post that was concreted into the ground, then re-casting the new post and replacing the damaged pieces of fencing that failed when the post gave out. We just couldn't wait to get back to work, just to get away from all these issues. Hopefully things will get better.