Know When To Fold 'Em

Sometimes you just have to do those crummy jobs yourself.  Yes, I can hire a handyman, but I'd much rather do the job and spend that money on fabric.  Here I am, all suited up for my foray into the depths of hell, full of scorpions, spiders and rattlesnakes, the den underneath my house.

Here's the first two feet.  I have to crawl about 20 feet.  Although gone in this picture, I set up a large light so I could see what the heck was going to bite me.  Not that I would be able to get out of it's way, but at least I would know what to tell the ER Doc if and when I got there.  

I did my very best worm impression as I slid underneath that pipe, all the while telling myself LOUDLY ... you can DO THIS!  There's lots of room and NO critters!!  That caused excessive barking from the living room upstairs.

At any rate, the hose is now spliced back together with gorilla tape because I couldn't for the life of me get one end over the other.  It's good enough for now to keep the mice, rats and scorpions from crawling up the hose to the dryer.  

I have to say this is a ridiculous setup.  I'm going for solid piping in the next couple of days to replace the springy stuff.  Any suggestions on how to hold it up?  There is nothing to strap it to, only metal and insulation.  I need something to support it from underneath.  

I skinnied back out (yes, that's a word) and began removing everything, straight into the garbage can. I'm hoping I don't come down with Ebola.  

I should have quit there, but NO ..... I'm still working on the cactus bed out back.  I had spotted a suitable specimen further down the hill.  I grabbed my trusty shovel and dug it up, making sure to keep all appendages AWAY from the spines.

I dug my first hole, right into the drip irrigation line.  Who in the heck put that line in the middle of the flower bed?  Good grief .... now I have to buy another one of those connector gizzies.

I moved over and dug ANOTHER hole.  My sneaker slipped off the shovel right into the side of the cactus.  RATS!!!  I tried using the shovel to remove the chunk now stuck there.  Seriously?  It refused to budge.  Then it broke into three pieces.  I'm now trying to remove THREE pieces with the shovel.  

At last, I got them off, only to step on TWO MORE!!!  I'm pretty close to throwing it ALL over the fence at this point.  I tried grabbing one of the spines to pull it off.  It came completely off the cactus. I did that again.  Pretty soon, all the spines were off but the cactus was still stuck to my shoe!!!

I'm happy to report, I WON that war using two sticks AND the shovel.  By then, there was only HALF the cactus left to be planted.  Maybe this wasn't such a good idea after all.  KNOW WHEN TO FOLD 'EM ... I gathered up my tools, stomped a little dirt around the edges and went in the house.  If it lives, it lives.  

I think I better stick to what I know .... sewing!!!  Next up, my RV license plate is up for renewal.  Won't THAT be fun!!!  The plumber also comes tomorrow ... maybe I'll ask him about the dryer vent.