Back to Work with Milder Temperatures

September 7, 2010.

Back to work today. We were out the door by 6:00 a.m. with temps in the 80’s. I got to work on the older of the two John Deere Gators by filling the rear tires with Slime tire sealant. I then worked on draining and cleaning the water tank in the bed of the Gator. Our supervisor, Stan brought over the new pump for the tank. I would have to come back to it as Joyce and I needed to take care of some other work before it got too hot

Joyce and I started off with cleaning the three fishing docks, emptying garbage, cleaning the pit toilets and blowing off the concrete peninsula trail. I then collected some landscape gravel from one of the piles in the work yard and filled in where storm water run-off before our arrival had washed away the decorative gravel.

Afterwards we went to the kayak launch and shoveled off sand and gravel from the concrete launch area. Again this was a result of storm water run-off which occurred sometime before we had arrived. It looks good now!

Eventually we got back to working on the John Deere Gators. Joyce topped off the eight batteries in each of the two (battery powered) Gators. I worked on putting together the pump for the water tank. It will be used to pump water for general cleaning and maintenance tasks. Stan also gave me a new fender to put on the older Gator as one of the fenders was cracked and broken from someone colliding with a guardrail (old damage before our arrival). It took us a few hours to change out the fender as I had to remove and remount the front wheel and shock absorber, then remove and remount the fire extinguisher mounted to the interior of the fender. I wasn’t able to complete the electrical connection for the pump as it was missing a connection.

Later in the day, Stan located the missing connection. He wants me to now remove and replace each of the 8 batteries in the older Gator tomorrow at which time I’ll complete the electrical connection for the water pump. Stan also wants me to install a new tank, pump and 12 volt battery power source on the newer Gator on top of the other chores!

We called it a day by  12:30. At least it was cooler today with a high just over 100. Tomorrow should be the same and actually cooler with highs in the mid 90’s by later in the week. This evening we took the dogs for a walk and it was actually pleasant outside. I sure hope the change of season is upon us!

I’m having difficulty loading photos on the blog and I’m not sure if it’s a software issue or just related to our poor internet connection speeds. It’s something I’ll have to work out.