My Elysium

Living on an island means ferries.

My own island is reasonably self sufficient. Medical clinic, pharmacy, fire department, police, groceries, galleries, hardware and lumber store, mechanics/garage, restaurant. For most things you don’t have to leave.

Sometimes though there is no avoiding it. Medical imaging or ER or specialist trips. Specialty wood supplies. Tools or hardware can be found local but selection is limited, sending you across the water. Until recently we had a husband and wife vet team but their impending retirement will mean a ferry trip in the future.

Some folks are quick to complain about the ferry. “Running late again!” “I got cut off in line”. “Hey that’s an illegal u-turn!” These sometimes end up in a call for a bridge, which is immediately naysayed by many others.

It can be quite comical.

Personally, I say if you don’t like ferries don‘t live on an island. Simple. In the meantime, enjoy the experience.

The fates must read my posts.

The truck continues to be repair shop bound. As is sometimes the case you fix one problem and the next weakest link in the chain fails. After replacing two rad hoses last week I am now having to rebook the truck in for a new radiator. Cracked. I am taking the opportunity to also replace the surge tank so I can get the low coolant sensor working again and have one less alert scrolling across my dash.

I took a run at fixing the perpetual door open alert too. I have this for two doors. Although I did find and fix one broken wire I did not resolve the problem. I will need to chase the wire harness back toward the BCM. I guess next I’m opening door sills.

AND…..AND….the Subaru is going back in too. Rebooked it for the day after the truck. Hopefully by the end of next week all the vehicles are happy.

Most of my life I have made a conscience choice to keep my vehicles for as long as I reasonably could. I have been quite content putting money into a vehicle to keep it on the road for as long as I can. My logic is with new car prices what they are today a few thousand in maintenance is only a few months of car payments. Replacing a car is usually a result of an accident and subsequent write off, or the body rusting out excessively.

Generally I am content with this strategy. The last couple years have been trying though. All three of our vehicles have at one time or another been in the shop to repair rodent damage. Rural living and no garage comes with certain risks. Thankfully these are covered by insurance but there is still that deductible.

This year we have been chasing recurring issues with both the Subaru and the Silverado. The Subaru has a fuel leak somewhere. Twice we have had fuel line clamp issues. Still smells of gas. The problem with it now is the smell has gone away by the time I get it to the shop and they can’t find the issue. It needs to be there overnight so they can find it on a cold start. We did have that booked in but life got in the way and I had to cancel it. Need to get it rebooked soon.

First I need to get the Silverado highway trustworthy. Its recurring issue the a throttle position sensor error that keeps dumping me into limp mode. It is an intermittent error that has eluded pinpointing so far. Today I am back in the shop getting the harness replaced. We already did connectors at both ends and so now we’ll do the whole thing.

Over the past year I have put several thousand dollars into the truck fixing leaks. Rad hoses, seals and gaskets, broken engine mounts, new throttle body. Add to this brakes and tires and it has been an expensive vehicle year.

It is tempting to say sell them all and get a new(er) one. That thought goes through my head at least once a week. At the moment I am not ready to do that. The bodies on all the vehicles are still in very good condition. They run well (present truck issue aside). The chassis are in good shape. each of them could very well give us years of service still. Now that I’m not working the need for a daily drive truck is removed. All I need now is an occasional trip to the landfill or the lumberyard or the greenhouse. The truck will become the winter driver, as the BMW goes into storage in October each year. Too low to drive in snow, and hate leaving a ragtop out in the days and days of rain.

So I will for now continue to spend money to extend their life. My original plan was to try to get another three or four years out of the truck then look at replacing it. Perhaps by then the newer battery technologies will be mainstream and the issue with ferries and lithium batteries will be resolved so I could actually get an EV to the dealer if it needed to be towed there.

Well, that’s it.

This week I finished my last customer project and have officially hung up the tool belt. I am retired – again.

Nine years ago I answered an ad from a local landscaper looking for help. Twenty-ish hours a week, only when he needs an extra hand. Sounded great. Fast forward a couple years and the twenty hours has evolved into pretty much full time and was starting to leak into the weekends and evening.

I really appreciated the guy I worked for though. The term landscaper was really inaccurate. We did everything. From lawn care to irrigation to hardscaping in the landscape space to roofing, carpentry, plumbing repairs, painting and more in the property maintenance space to tree felling and chipping in the forestry space. I learnt an amazing amount of things.

Heck, I learned to weld in the job.

A few years ago while working on a pond I wrecked my back moving large rocks. I was completely immobile for a few days and off work for a few months. When I came back I was not longer doing the labourer tasks and instead was exclusively on the carpentry jobs. This shall be known as the “miles and miles of fence” phase. We couldn’t build a fence without two or three people stopping by and asking us to build theirs. I had to finally start turning down jobs worth tens of thousands of dollars because we couldn’t keep up. This was also the period when I began to work under my own brand and not for the landscaper. His need for a carpenter was limited but I kept getting more and more referral work. I would be booked up six and eight months out.

Even though there are a lot of upsides to working (money, new friends, working outside) I found myself less and less motivated. House and home was a bit too neglected for my comfort and my hobbies I so looked forward to after the first retirement were for the most part still waiting. It was time to call it a day.

So yesterday I finished the last project. A small shelter for a clients golf cart. Invoice sent, payment received. All I have left to do is put away the tools, clean the truck, close out the books and deliver an entry bench to someone (bench is complete, client not ready to receive it yet).

I will still be doing a little bit of work for another person but that is not really as a hired contractor. It is for the lady whose workshop I use, a trade, labour for access, that I’ve had in pace for a few years. Look forward to hearing about the spiral staircase remediation in the coming months.

It’s autumn and the rains will start soon. Sketch book and watercolours first up I think.