For me, it’s a curse.
This past Friday, I decided I wanted to park my boat next to the barn to better protect it from the winter winds. It’s too tall to fit in the barn. First I had to make a flat spot to park it, so I get on my John Deere tractor and played in the dirt for about an hour, not only making a flat spot, but a driveway to it, and a trail leading to a lower piece of property.
On Saturday, I knew I needed 110 electric power at the barn so that I could easily plug power into the boat. Just one little 110 outlet is all I needed... or so I told my wife. LOL
Well, I put on the backhoe attachment, and 3 hours later I had a 3’ deep ditch that runs from the garages for the 200’ to the barn.
So, I am thinking that as long as I have spent this much time on this project and will need to buy the stuff to run the line, I decided to make it a 220 line.... that requires much more money in parts to accomplish.
On Sunday, we laid the conduit, pulled the wire and connected the entire thing.
Then, I thought that as long as I have the ditch, why not run a waterline too. You guessed it... a water line now heads out to the barn.
I then went about filling in the trench. I graded it off and it looks great.
I will get around to wiring the entire barn for lights and outlets and move my wood shop tools out there, and when we buy an Airstream travel trailer, I will already have a place to winter it.
While doing this project I went ahead and made my wife a flat spot for a vegetable garden she has wanted me to put in for next Spring. I also dug a hole for the future placement of a power pole that PUD let me have... and then I will be able to light up the entire area for my bride. LOL
I almost forgot. Now that the boat is next to the barn, it’s clear to me that I will need to build a fish cleaning table hanging off a wall for the side of the barn... right where I put the water outlet.
AND, once I cut that trail in that leads down to the apple and walnut trees, it became clear that small lights on either side of the pathway would also look good.
One would think that after 38 years, my wife would be very carful about asking me to start on ANY project... I tend to wonder far beyond her mental picture... LOL
One day I put in a circle drive with the neighbors cat, and then moved eight 15’ trees and planted 6 more... all while she was at work. I did this mostly just to see her smile when she first saw it while pulling into the drive. It was worth it. LOL
I don’t know that I would ever want or need to, but unlike last Friday, I can now weld in my barn~~soon to be called “my shop”. LOL
My wife calls it, “obsessive compulsive disorder”... I call it, “creative fun”... that is only limited by ones own imagination. ;>)
I can run a farm tractor and various useful devices off the PTO . . . but have never been allowed on a bulldozer or Ditch Witch. Man, could I achieve some results! (Or, as George MacDonald Fraser's Lt. Dand MacNeill said with reference to Wee Wullie -- "well, now all he really needed was a three-ton truck. Right."
Somebody, somewhere, must want a nice house in a close-in suburb of Atlanta, convenient to all the good schools and shopping . . . . .