We had a few visitors today:
Apparently the East Bay Parks District hires someone to bring their goats over and mow down all of the wild grass a few times a year. I think it’s a nice, harmonious arrangement. The goats get fed while the grass becomes less of a fire hazard. On top of that, they were pretty entertaining. One of the goats even tried to climb the chain link fence separating the backyard from the valley in attempt to chow down on my mom’s lemon tree.
It’s taken a whole three days, but Jef and I finally got the long rails mounted to the Thule load bars. There was lots and lots and lots of drilling. Lots. 36 holes to be exact. And we’re only halfway done—now we have to drill matching holes in the solar panel frames so we can mount the panels to the rails. I wouldn’t count on hearing from me for another three days if I were you.
Really, it shouldn’t take three days to drill 36 holes in steel, but the fact is that: a) I’m a cheapskate and didn’t feel like buying a drill press; b) there was a heck of a lot of measuring, climbing up and down ladders, and ladder repositioning going on; and c) honestly, we’re probably not doing it right. About halfway through I remembered that I had some nice cobalt drill bits, so that made the job a little bit easier, and we got our time down to about 10 minutes per hole. We used the method of starting with a teeny tiny bit, and then working our way up very slowly to the 21/64 bit. Like I said, probably not optimal, but it did work, and we didn’t set anything on fire, or break any bones or anything, so I’d say we did okay.
In case you’re wondering how I got this shot …
Ladders are overrated. Cirque du Soleil, here I come.