Productive day today, since it was abnormally warm. Pulled out the mower to take care of all the weeds and dandelions that were all over the place. Threw the bagger on to collect everything, and throw it into the compost pile. The issue with the drive motor controller was even worse starting out, than usual. Will be ordering a new one before the spring hits. Don't feel like going through another summer of this stop/start nonsense.
Pulled the tarp off the pile to see a pretty good sized ant colony had formed in there.
Mixed up 1 gallon of my favorite pesticide and sprayed the pile, turning the compost with the new clippings to get it all mixed up nicely. RIP ants!
After that, pulled the EXT into the driveway, to make room for clearing out some unnecessary stuff. Put the Gorilla cart to good use, moved some leftover gutter pieces and downspouts, couple boxed of tile, nearly full 5 gallon paint bucket, empty plastic gas cans, and an assortment of 10" wheels from prior projects. Beach canopy and PVC rolling cart for it found a new home too. Much of that went into the newly roofed extension off the shed, along with some unused rain barrels that had been sitting in the yard. Took some old plastic lawn chairs and milk crates out of the shed, and moved those over as well.
With all the new found space in the garage, took advantage of that and gave it a much needed sweep. Plenty of dirt, spider webs, leaves and dead bugs behind all those things that never got moved. When putting the EXT back in the garage, much more wiggle room for the doors near the wall. Not that I swung them open enough to hit things, but it's nice to not have anything right there when I get out.
Cleaned out the gutter on the screened in patio. Decent amount of leaf litter had clogged one of the downspouts. Since I had the sprayer out, put some weed killer in it and hit all of the cracks between the pavers. Most of the weeds were still pretty small and barely noticeable, but there were a few that had gotten big enough to be weed whacker worthy.
The whole time I was outside, I noticed 2 door to door salesmen who were walking around. They had hit my block a couple of times, I guess trying to catch some of my neighbors who weren't home earlier. They saw me working and didn't bother me, but something was telling me they were just going to wait until I was done, since they kept coming back to my street about half a dozen times. After getting cleaned up, I went to the grocery store, needed a few things but had a major craving for some ice cream. When I got home, they were finally gone for good.
Save me a trip and a few $$$
. Shut everything off, clean up the water, cut out the leaky joint and put in another. I barely had enough pipe remaining from the old pipe coming off another joint. And luckily I had a spare joint. Clean, paste, heat and solder. What doesn't help is this lead free solder needs a lot more heat. No more leak but I left the bucket in place and have a water alarm just in case.
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Walked a bit closer and sure enough all 3 of the rails had come loose from the post. Thankfully the wind wasn't blowing hard enough to rip the other side loose. Drove some 4"screws to resecure it. Did notice a number of boards were starting to come loose, so I'll have to spend some time with a pocket full of short screws and walk the line.
le vandal kids in the neighborhood kicking my fence to snap the rails last summer, so I'm hoping they've outgrown that phase, but it would be good to have the added strength when storms come. 
