A big trip away wouldn’t be complete without a few loose ends to tie up right before departure. For the last few years, I’ve had an experimental (which sounds so much more professional than “temporary”) drainage arrangement in my back yard, involving an inexpensive garden hose. Before cutting the grass, I’d roll the hose up to avoid damaging it with the mower, but this time the sunlight-brittled plastic hose snapped.

Rather than putting effort in to repairing that break, which would surely be followed by more, I went over the hill to Mosgiel and bought some proper farm-grade piping, then made a big mess!