The Day My Drone Rage-Quit Before I Did
It was a scorcher. Not “nice summer day” hot, actual holy-man-it’s-hot. My phone said 29, climbing to 32 by mid-afternoon. And naturally, that’s the day I decided to tackle the back 40.
Quick bit of history: the back 40 isn’t a lake, it’s an overland runoff river, with weirs built in along the way to keep the water level up. My wife Tracy has done way more to keep that area clean than I have, if I’m being honest. We just keep letting it go and falling behind. But the soil’s good back there. If I ever wanted to grow something, it’s ready.
I had a whole production planned, drone for an overhead yard-brawl-style shot, one camera running a timelapse, another camera just for me to stop and complain to directly. The drone idea specifically came from watching YardBrah, if you haven’t seen his channel, go check it out, the overhead mowing shots are genuinely awesome and part of why I wanted to try one myself.
Ambitious plan, for a guy who forgot to hit record not once, but twice.
The weeds were taller than my armpit in some spots. I mowed all of it with a push mower, which is absolutely not the tool for the job, and I don’t know how many more seasons that mower has left in it. My riding mower’s mid-repair, new head gasket, and I’m stuck at the reassembly phase, which is not exactly my strong suit.
Then the drone happened. I got it up, flew it in for the big overhead shot, brought it down to reposition, and it just… died. Overheated in the heat and crash-landed. Might have been my only drone footage for the whole day, gone. Not broken, just done for the afternoon. Add it to the list.
Somewhere in there my mower’s rubber gasket broke off too, so it was that kind of day. One thing after another, all while sweating through my shirt in ridiculous heat I probably shouldn’t have been working in.
But I got the back mowed. Cut back a solid 10 to 15 feet of overgrowth. And of course, now that I can actually see back there, I see how much more there is to do. Two dead trees still standing, one of which is technically my neighbor’s, but if it comes down I might just drag it over for firewood.
That’s kind of how every project goes though. You start one thing, and it just shows you the next thing.
Might As Well finish what you start, even when it’s 32 degrees and your drone gives up before you do.
Gear From This Day
- Push mower (well past its prime)
- Riding mower (mid-repair, new head gasket)
- Drone (RIP, for the afternoon at least, inspired by YardBrah)
- Two cameras (one for timelapse, one for talking to)
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