Triumph of the Scrounger’s Will

Parts of my yard are kind of embarrassing.

I try to at least start with neat stacks, I really do, but between wind and packrats and dogs digging for packrats and Ghost’s never-ending quest for new and innovative shady spots, it always ends up just heaps of stuff.

Sometimes people hire me to haul stuff off. Those that know me are non-specific as to where I haul it. The junk junk does eventually find its way to the county dump. I’m no more into trash piles in the desert than you are, I live here. But if it’s useful or potentially useful in even the remotest way, it ends up at the Lair. On things like fencing and lumber, my track record for actually finding uses for it is pretty good. On plumbing parts, maybe not quite so much. But most of it either gets used or gets hauled to the dump eventually.

I’m particularly proud of my pile of little old solar panels. If it works at all when I acquire it, it goes here. Until this morning that policy never paid off but I was confident it would.

Right after I finished the post below Ian came down the slope, sad face in place and multimeter in hand, to announce that the (brand new) solar panel that’s supposed to power his water heating system’s circulation pump is FUBAR. “No problem,” said I, and we trooped over to the pile’o’panels. Found a good’un that will bolt up to his mount, and hopefully that was the end of the problem. We’ll know later, but it sure beats a trip back to the city for a warranty exchange. 🙂

ETA: I love technology. Just got a text from Ian: “Pump is running now!”