It's Father's Day, so I was sent off by myself to do things dads do.

It's been a bit more than a month since our last visit to the house in Wisconsin. It's been raining a lot, and the cameras showed some pretty deep grass on the driveway and parking area. I also wanted to check the mouse traps and had one camera offline.

I offered to drive with the whole family, or any interested members, but neither kiddo wanted to go, so mom decide to let me maintain in peace and at my own pace.

The whole deal was pretty uneventful. The drive was peaceful and I got to listen to some music a little too loud, and drive with the windows open for a bit. The trip ended up being a little off schedule to stop for a bite on the way down, so I figured I'd do it on the way up. I thought since I was by myself, if I needed to take a break, I could, and I'd dash for a burger and beer or something when I wanted to, so I didn't even stop for drinks and snacks on the way, as is the norm.

It's a 90 minute drive, give or take for traffic or weather, so I stepped in the loo as soon as I got there. I tapped the flusher and turned on the faucet in a whirl of activity as I gave a pump on the soap dispenser. Just then I realized the toilet wasn't filling and nothing was coming out of the faucet. That's not right. I wandered down the hall to the kitchen and found its faucet didn't work, either. I found a water of bottle in the fridge and rinsed the soap from my hands and texted the missus.

I wandered out to the area where I thought the well was, and didn't see anything amiss. There's a yard hydrant there, which didn't emit any water when I lifted its handle (and I wasn't actually sure it would), and a couple of electrical meters mounted on a little billboard (meant to hold them, not to advertise), and another box that says "Johnson Pump" on it. Next to the box is a cut length of wire, which has also been disconnected from whatever it was connected to. It looks like that cut was old, though, and the wires were all dirty with age, too, I sent photos and descriptions to the missus. After a brief conversation I set in to finish the yard work.

The gravel drive way is a few hundred feet long, with gravel in the tire tracks but grass the rest of the way. There's a big grassy area next to the paved apron outside the garage where three or four cars could park or turn around. That's about all the mowing that gets done any more. There's an acre of yard there, but it's all wildflowers and tall grasses now.

There's a riding mower in the garage, but we put the camper trailer in there last fall, after parking the mower inside. I parked the Jeep away from the garage on the apron, and wheeled the trailer out so I could get to the mower. I realized that was probably a two-person job, as there's just enough incline on the apron that the trailer wouldn't hold still enough for me to get the wheel chock in place. I pivoted the trailer so it was perpendicular, and it stopped rolling. I chocked the wheel so it wouldn't try to roll all the way down the bluff. There's a bush and number of trees in the way, but if it made it past the bush, I'm not sure I'd be comfortable going after it in my Jeep all by myself.

I pulled the mower out, and noted it's getting low on gas. There's still a sloshing amount visible in the tank, so I set about mowing. I went up and down the drive, and made circles in the parking area and got everything cut well enough. I pulled the weed whacker out of my Jeep and gave the edges a little trim.

I moved some boxes of books that were stacked on a pallet in the garage on top of another stack of books on a different pallet. I moved the pallet and a ladder that were in the way, and set to rearranging the garage a little. I moved my motorcycle out onto the apron. We have two trailers parked there, one small box trailer, and the teardrop camper. I pushed them both deeper into the garage, leaving enough room for the mower and motorcycle by the door. I parked the motorcycle and mower behind the trailers. Everything fit well, and the motorized vehicles are now a little more accessible.

I replaced the batteries in the dead camera, and it sprung to life. I moved it to a different spot on its porch so it can see more of the yard. I moved another outdoor camera to try to see down the driveway better, as it mostly looks at the aforementioned bush next to the driveway instead. I also moved one of the cameras in the house that used to look at a trap, but was just looking at the floor since I put the trap elsewhere.

I checked all the mouse traps. Only one of the bait traps had a little chewed off, but I didn't find any mice. None of the electric zapper traps had mice either, but I reset them all. There was one dead mouse in the bucket trap in the garage, so I chucked that into the tall grass by the propane tank where the bugs or snakes can get a snack.

I secured the house and garage and set out for home. It was late enough that I figured I'd wait to get home to eat, but I did stop at the gas station for an iced tea for the drive.