On a lighter note, I finally managed to address a little problem that had needed attention ever since I decommissioned a particular fixture on the homestead. This fixture is the solar light that I had set up for a while to illuminate the driveway at night. The old unit had long since died due to the main battery crapping out and even afterward had continued to degrade as the plastic container started to rot from sunlight. I wanted to revive this concept so I had added the newer solar light that I picked up for cheap that uses a self contained solar panel and lithium ion battery and LED array that does an excellent job of illuminating the driveway.
I had already dismantled the solar array from the old setup and installed the pieces on the roof of the storage trailer in order to power the fan there. The LED's that were used were dismantled from the board and stored away and the plastic container disposed of. All of the components within were also stored away as these parts were still good. With the new solar LED light hung on the post, that still left the old wooden framework. With the old wood post, I couldn't cut all of it up as part of it was actually holding the plastic post. Without that support the pipe would flex too much and eventually break. My plan was to cut the front portion of the frame free from the back most posts where the supports are at for the light post. Leaving this back most part of the frame and its concrete blocks, I'd remove the cut wood frame and front concrete blocks. After making the cuts on the frame I was able to pull the unwanted framework away from what I was keeping. I further cut the section so I can work the two sections separately as I had to remove the concrete block and metal bracket from the wood. I wanted to retain the blocks and as many wood screws as possible for later use. The brackets went into the scrap. After separating the blocks and brackets from the wood I removed as many of the screws as I can to separate the boards from each other. With the boards separated I was able to cut the boards down into smaller pieces for later use as firewood. Most of this wood was already at the point of starting to decay so its use as lumber later on was highly unlikely. Firewood was the best use for this wood. I ended up actually using this wood for another oil wood bucket, especially since I had recently changed the oil on our two daily use vehicles so I had plenty of old oil to use. With the blocks stacked away and the unwanted wood cut up and applied to its new future use, I had the now opened up area in front of the rear most part of the frame and light post to contend with. The next move was to use the trimmer to cut the grass all around the old solar light site and move some dirt around to fill in the openings in the ground left from the removal of the blocks. With the ground now cleared all around I was able to relocate some equipment I had staged next to the old solar light frame. The small air compressor and truck jack I had outside were moved into this little area to put everything on a smaller footprint so I can more easily trim/cut the grass in this area in the future. With the area cleared other future plans for this immediate area will be the extension of the pea gravel coverage from the area between the walkway and the rock garden. This gravel will proceed along the walkway all the way to the driveway with it blending into the regular gravel as it extends into the greater area along side the house and into the clearing between the house and the main driveway, soon to be a fence line. At some point this wood too will decay to the point where it'll no longer be able to do its job of supporting the plastic pipe post. At this rate I'll have to come up with an alternative to the wood which will most likely have to be something that can either stiffen the plastic pipe or maybe fully replace the pipe in holding the light at the height that it's currently at.
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