It wasn't the ordinary interruption. Those involve running out of stump killer, or getting too many thistle pokers inside my gloves and having to remove them, or deciding I need a different tool. For those bigger interruptions, it's just plain exhaustion. I've hit my wall.
Today it was a gas leak.
An outside one, fortunately. I was continuing my weeding along the south side of the house. Paul insisted there were actual blueberry plants still growing in that mess, so I decided to prove it either way. They'll be edible before too long, assuming they survived, and they're a favorite. Progress so far is about 4 feet per day. That's not square feet, but linear, in a patch mostly about 3 feet wide. This is day four here if we don't count the two it took clearing out the AC at the end of the house. The whole ares is infested with long and short grass, violets, Canadian thistles - the spikey ones, not like sow thistles - several unidentified weeds, lily of the valley now that it's shady at ground level, virginia creeper vines, and innumerable shoots from trees that were cut back in previous years without benefit of stump killer. Those include maples, box elders, chokecherries, high bush cranberries which are actually viburnums so not quite trees, and whatever else has taken root. There is also a significant amount of dead blueberry branch bits. Some cut, some attached. Attached means to something still living.
I have yet to find a fully dead blueberry bush. I'm pretty sure a couple are missing however. And there are new shoots popping up, though I don't know whether from seeds or roots, so I have no clue whether and/or how they'll bear fruit. I do know they're yellowish, so I went and bought iron for them yesterday when I got my new lenses in my glasses. 'll have to remember to spread it tonight. There's a hope of rain tomorrow. Otherwise, pull the hose up from where it's embedded in in the lawn - yes, seriously: what happened last year? - and turn it on.
This morning's progress led me to the thistle patch surrounding the first one of the meters along the house. I figured this might be the first time this particular meter had been read in years, the thistles were so thick and tall. Of course, if it were the water meter, they can read it from the street. They put in that system back in the 90's. But as I leaned forward to eliminate a thistle growing between the meter and the siding, I caught a whiff of a familiar smell. Mercaptan. This was the gas meter. Leaking. There is an octagonal gizmo in the piping, two flattish pieces with a gasket and screws holding it all together. The leak was from there. When I put my nose right on it, like when reaching behind for the next weed, I could tell.
Of course, I wasn't in any danger. Plenty of fresh air diluting the stuff, no smoking, digging, or electrical anything happening, not even my cell outside with me. Just two sizes of manual trimmers and a bottle of chemical plus a brush. The wheelbarrow (plastic) sat next to me out in the grass, and I sat on a resin chair. Nothing to make a spark anywhere. So I kept working, figuring whoever came to fix the problem would appreciate not having to dig into a field of thistles. Besides, I still had some of my morning ration of energy left.
After about ten minutes more work, I headed inside to make the call. I was told they would be out in about an hour, after asking bunches of questions and giving advice of what not to do. I went back out to prune more thistles while I waited. It turned out to be more like 15 minutes, so there were still a few thistles left uncut or unpulled, but it was mostly a workable area. He confirmed my nose's accuracy, and I headed into the house with the dog for breakfast. He promised to knock at the front door if he needed anything - like warning me to get out of the house fast!
I'm contrasting this visit with one of the first ones from the gas company in Arizona. When we leave the house untenanted because we've gone north, we have the gas shut off completely. Once back, we have one of the gas company employees come out to turn it back on and check every single place it comes through for any possible leaks. They insist, and we appreciate it. That first year when the fellow finished I detected the smell under the stove top. Now that I could cook something, I'd opened the doors under it to get a pan out while he was still down the hall, checking out the water heater. I informed him of the leak. He insisted he'd checked and there was none. He then left.
Periodically I continued to smell the leak. It wasn't always there, and for some reason I didn't continue to complain to the gas company. However, the next season when we had the gas turned on again, I mentioned it to the new person checking our appliances. He found it instantly and fixed it. I double-checked it this spring when we had the counter replaced and a plumber had to disconnect and reconnect that same stove top. No new leak.
I'm going to go out and sniff that octagonal gizmo on the meter before this guy leaves. If it hasn't heated up outside too much, I think I'll do more weeding. There was a pretty tall blueberry with lots of tiny berries on it sitting right past where I left off.
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