Zen And The Art Of Fall Maintenance

The cold rain and wind gusts created a shower of wet leaves swirling to the saturated ground in the woods behind our house. Fall had returned with its unmistakable air of rotting vegetation, a warning that winter was just over the next hill.

In this wondrous northland where we’re always getting ready for something, I mentally reviewed what needed to be done. It’s easier in our new home. Just take in the hoses and store the deck furniture – no more than a half hour. The only leaves I need to rake are around some bushes. I just mulch the rest on the final mowing. And because of all the rain this summer I don’t need to blow out the sprinkler system since I didn’t use it.

This contrasts greatly with my previous house where at one time I had to remove about 30 screens and replace them with heavy storm windows. That yard had an abundance of oak trees that waited until just before a blizzard arrived before giving up its leaves. Mulching is not an option when you lose sight of your mower in a mountain of leaves.

I do need to prep the snowblowers. I have one small one for the deck and one larger one for the sidewalks and driveway. Buy gas and mix in the oil. If we have another winter like the last one, I might buy a four-stroke snowblower. I kick myself for selling the one I had, thinking I wouldn’t need it at the new place. Everyone in Minnesota should have three, right?

Next, get the cars ready for winter. Even that has gotten easier. Maybe get the tires rotated. No need to change to snow tires like Dad always did. Change the oil and filter, add straight windshield washer fluid good to 30 below and replace the wipers if worn. Clean the battery posts. Test the antifreeze. No need to worry about spark plugs or points like the old days. Vacuum out the summer sand and autumn leaves, then wash and wax at the car wash. A clean car always runs better.

Prep for winter driving should include putting some survival items in the trunk. To be fully prepared for almost anything a Minnesota winter can throw at you, it’s recommended to stock your car with a flashlight, shovel, kitty litter (for traction, not the cat), snack bars, portable air compressor, cell phone charging cord, first aid kit, some common tools, jumper cables, candle-powered heater (metal can, candle and lighter), extra hats, mittens, coat and blankets. That should leave you with enough room to haul two bags of groceries.

Do I have all these items in my cars? Nope. I didn’t carry all this when I commuted to work in the Twin Cities and Rochester. I had some tools, jumper cables and, eventually, a cell phone. Oh, and AAA coverage. Anything more than that and you aren’t really accepting winter’s challenge.

Having completed all this prep work, I thought I would do a couple more car-related projects. I learned from Dad that if you run out of things to do or want to hide from Mom there are always things you can do on the cars.

So I changed out the incandescent bulbs in the garage door opener with LED bulbs. Wrong. The remote suddenly worked only intermittently. An online search revealed that LED bulbs can generate a radio frequency that interferes with garage door openers. Who knew? The recommendation was to use incandescent bulbs – the ones we’re supposed to discard. I bought some LED bulbs designed specifically for garage doors and the remotes worked only a bit better. I’ll keep looking. This may be a case of “you get what you pay for.”

The tire pressure sensors on my 2005 Toyota 4-Runner have failed, one at a time. As many of you have found out, each tire has a sensor and each sensor has a built-in battery. The low tire pressure indicator on the dash just blinks if one of the tires is low or the battery in it has failed. You get to figure out which one it is. Even the full-size spare tire has a sensor. I had a couple sensors replaced but at about $100 each, it was a fool’s errand on a vehicle that old. The price is coming down, so I may finish this yet. In the mean time, the standard fix is black tape over the indicator. It works 100% of the time.

An unnecessary project I recently completed was the installation of a laser light system that shines a beam on the dashboard when you pull into the garage so you can park perfectly every time, allowing car doors to open wide enough to get in without bashing the other car. It works but you don’t know if you are lined up correctly until you pull all the way into the garage.

You still need something else to aim for as a general guide until that tiny beam crawls across your hood and hopefully alights on the colored sticker you placed on the dash. But wouldn’t lining up with something like a light switch on the wall be enough? Of course, but where’s the challenge in that? If the beam’s not on the sticker, you need to back out and try again.

I wonder what the neighbors are thinking.