Pulled in at 1:30 with Hannah, who was glad to be back again so soon. She tore a few laps around the yard while I went into the keep to check out the Puckanet. It never reconnected to my VPN after the power was restored yesterday so I wanted to see what was going on. Turns out something got corrupted on the Pi and it wouldn’t boot at all. I’ll have to take it home and restore it from backup. Looks like the cameras will be down for a few days. I headed outside and saw Danny and Buck walking in to say hi. Hannah’s come around on Buck. She used to be really territorial and tried keeping him off the property, but now they’re perfectly happy chasing each other around the yard.

I’m sick of fighting this busted thing.

My main reason for coming up was mowing/leaf collection, so I got right to it. I hooked up the blower and the NASCAR trailer and started collecting leaves along the driveway. It was slow going as the trailer filled quickly. After three loads, I decided to change tactics and unhooked the collection equipment. I went around the yard between the keep and the pole barn and just mulched, progressively blowing the piles inward. Twice I was stopped by the front tie rod assembly coming apart at one of the wheels. I’ve had a redneck fix applied to this for the past year where it’s just held in place with a metal hose clamp, but it won’t hold anymore. The mount is just too worn out. I was forced to give up mowing around 4:15 with a lot of yard left to handle.

I got some pictures of the part and the mower model number so I could track down a replacement and get this back up and running during a later trip. I closed up the pole barn and headed back to the keep where I grabbed the Verizon router and Pi to test at home. I turned on the infrared heater and set it to 54°, the lowest it could go. I just want to prevent things from freezing in here between now and Friday when I come back for deer camp.

Hannah and I were back on the road by 4:30. Kind of a bummer of a trip; everything needs repair.

It’s still amazing how much we’ve been able to open up.