When I made my first goal, I had intended to work on a throw-away motor that I got somewhere. I was thinking perhaps from a thrift store, or a friend that hadn’t gotten around to throwing something away. However, wouldn’t you know it, in May I got our chainsaw out to cut up a tree, and it wouldn’t start. Tada! Now I have something to work on.

So I’d better mention that the entire reason I have this goal is because motors terrify me. They are like some sort of magic that you put fuel into and then they just do their thing.

The reason I say that is so that you won’t judge me too harshly when you look at the condition of the poor motor in the chainsaw. I bought it at a yard sale several years ago, and I just use it whenever I need it. Turns out, you need to actually do maintenance on your small motors occasionally. And that’s just the kind of thing I was looking to learn about this year!

I watched about a zillion hours of YouTube videos on chainsaw motors, and finally felt like I was ready to tackle it. Because I was now pretty much a professional, I diagnosed the problem as being a dirty carburetor. I took the engine apart one piece at a time, taking pictures of every step, so I’d know how to put it all together again afterwards. Eventually, after clearing away the guts, I made it to the carburetor. I took it apart, and cleaned each of the pieces, and after lots and lots of finagling, and perhaps a choice word or two (in my head), I managed to get it all put together again.

Then the moment of truth. I filled it up with gas, cranked it, and voila! It started! Me! I! Rob Olsen. I got an engine working again! It was a very proud day for me.

Funny enough, just a month later, our water heater stopped doing the one job it has. Lazy water heater. So I was still riding my new handy-man high, and managed to figure out that problem, buy the part, and fix it as well! Seriously, I was pretty pumped when we turned it back on again, and the house didn’t blow up. Working with gas lines is SCARY!

My second goal this month was to make sure there were no dirty dishes every night before going to bed for two weeks. Mindy tells me I’m not allowed to talk about the state of our house or our kitchen except to say that it is perfectly clean at all times and in all ways. So I’ll just say that this must have been a super easy goal for me and we keep an immaculate house and this is the best of all possible worlds.