Back Yard

Some might look at this yard, and think "that's a lot of junk," or "look at all the work that needs doing."




I look at it and see progress.
1. Dad hauled a whole bunch of junk away today.
2. I pulled some weeds, helped dad with some heavier stuff, shovelled and swept dirt off the patio, and sifted crap out of the pine needles. (I asked dad to leave that basket for a bit, so I could use it to sift.)
3. A neighbour showed up with a hosta, which I could plop in the newly-cleared ground! Granted, not in good dirt, and it's big enough that I could divide it... but I figured I'd stick it there for now, and maybe move half of it later when other parts of the garden are ready and have better dirt. I won't be buying dirt, but I'll be digging and amending what's here. The hosta is pretty much planted in pine needles right now... I need to add compost, ashes, and something to hold moisture. The more clayey areas will need compost and something organic... peat moss, or equivalent. (I seem to remember seeing someone offering bales of coconut husks that can replace peat moss, given that peat moss harvests aren't very environmentally sustainable, or something.)

Also, the back gate now opens and closes easily:

Dad would probably say this is the wrong way to fix it (he was blaming frost heaving, I think, but, given that it's the garage side that's taller, unless "heaving" = "sinking", I don't think that's it... at any rate, I'm *not* resetting the height of the garage!) I need to go back in daylight to see if I can get some of the screws in tighter (there's a gap between the gate and the wood) or something, plus I need to paint it... but it's *soooooo* nice to be able to open the gate without having to lift the dang thing!!!

Saturday

Well, today went a little differently than I thought it would when I rolled out of bed this morning. I was up rather earlier than I am on a weekend, and raring to go. My goals were to:
- plant a peony that's been living in a bucket for far too long
- buy some fabric to modify my dress (I'm thinking of adding some coordinating side panels so that my belly-fat isn't so obvious... other options are buy a new dress, or buy spanx)
- buy some wood to make the raised garden beds I've been planning
- buy groceries

I was initially going to plant the peony first, but, since I know I can get a bit carried away while gardening, I thought perhaps I should shower & go to the fabric store first, since it doesn't stay open very late. After my shower, I watered my plants, trimmed the dead lobelia out of my hanging basket (it suffered from my inattention to watering, but the other two plants are still hanging in there), loaded dirty dishes into the dishwasher (I was a bit lazy the past few days), and flipped through this week's flyers so that I could get them into the recycling.

While I was doing this, Dad showed up. (He had arranged with the neighbour who owns a bobcat to get the lathe from the garage into the truck.) I sat with him while he ate lunch, and then decided to do gardening while he was here, since I figured I'd see more of him that way, and the store would still be open by the time he left.

Before I tackled the peony, I finally got around to putting those weeds from a few weeks back into a trash can. (Yeah, I've been lazy.)

Prior to dad showing up, the three trash cans contained only one bag of kitchen trash. (Okay, technically I didn't put it in there until after he arrived, even though I had put the bag by the back door last night or the night before... did I mention that I was lazy the past couple of days? I blame my lingering gastroenteritis.) Since that weekend I did all the weeding, I've only had one small bag per week. This week? Why does it all happen at once? But I'm getting ahead of myself...

First off, the weeds from the other week filled one trash can. Oh... there was also a few things from near the big pile of weeds. For some reason, I went over by the blackberries, and noticed that one (which turned out to be several) of the canes had decided to grow *into* the air conditioner, between the outer cover and the cooling fins:

Although I hadn't planned on extracting blackberries from the AC unit, I didn't think this was something I wanted to put off. There ended up being at least four canes growing into the unit, plus one virginia creeper vine. Argh. The canes themselves were easy to pull out, but then I had to get the rest of the leaves (as much as I could, at least) out with a pair of needle nosed pliers. (At some point I should probably go out with a wrench and a vacuum cleaner, take the cover off, and properly clean the fins... but not today.) The blackberries also had a cane growing up the downspout:

*Why*, with all the other places they could grow, are the canes *trying* to grow into dark crevices?!? *sigh*

Dad got me to help him take the extension ladder out of the garage (so that he could open the garage door where the lathe was), so, since the backyard was an obstacle course of dad's junk, I asked him to take the trash can from where I had put it while filling it with weeds (and blackberry canes) to the pick-up spot beside the garage in the back lane.

I guess because he then had to use that gate, he commented that the raspberries needed tying up. I knew that they did (they grew quite a bit since I last tied them up), and had been planning on getting to them after the peony, but decided to do them next. Didn't I do a lovely job of this spot?:

(I forgot to take a "before" photo... partially because this wasn't what I had intended on doing.) Not only did I tie up the canes, but I also got my broom out and swept up the pine needles, and pulled some of the weeds beside the sidewalk. Since I had the broom out, I also swept the other side of the gate, shovelled the avalanche of pine needles off of the pad, and scraped them back from the edge of the dirt area:

Since there are no "before" photos, you'll just have to take my word for it that this is an *amazing* improvement.

When I went to throw out the stuff accumulated from dealing with that section of raspberries, I noticed that there were now only two garbage cans beside the garage, despite dad having brought the one full of weeds. Hmmm... looks like dad will be throwing out some stuff from the garage (a good thing), but that means I only have the smallest one left for anything I produce from now until Wednesday, when the next pick-up is. Normally, that wouldn't be a problem, but I tend to fill trash cans while gardening. (All those weeds that have gone to seed, branches that would take too long to compost, etc.) Oh well... I can always use trash bags, or just leave weeds in a pile for the next pick-up, like I did that last time. :P

So, I spent the next while working on the raspberry canes between the parking pad and the back lane, which also needed tying up.

After the lathe was loaded in the truck (plus the "workbench" dad got on freecycle, yay!), I ended up talking with dad and the neighbour for a bit. Dad remembered that the neighbour had finished his own concrete for his garage, and so was thinking we could hire him to do that job when we concrete the back parking pad. The neighbour was a bit skeptical about concreting the pad. After dad left, I talked with the neighbour some more. Before I continue, here's a bit of background on the back parking area: once upon a time, the area was gravel. After my parents divorced (I'm pretty sure it was after), my dad got motivated to concrete the pad, probably because it tended to be quite weedy. He had someone dig down quite a ways and (he says, could be) had 6" of 3/4" gravel dumped in the hole. However, (a), he didn't put any membrane between the dirt and the gravel, and (b), he figured the cars parking on it would compact the gravel, and so he could skip that labour. Um, no: Dad always parked in exactly the same spot, and so ended up with deep ruts under his truck wheels, and the gravel and mud probably got rather churned together. Back to the present: when the neigbour was driving the bobcat on the gravel, it moved a *lot*, indicating it was *not* going to provide a proper support for a concrete pad, and the pad would just end up cracking in a few years. (Thus flushing the money for rebar and concrete down the drain, plus I'd have to pay for someone to break up and haul away the concrete, since concrete with rebar can't be taken to the dump for free.) Since the bobcat was there anyway, my neighbour scraped down a bit to see just how much gravel there was, and how it was holding up. Turns out there's pockets of mud (as expected) in the gravel:

Neighbour's suggestion: dig down 12", put down a membrane, start with broken concrete chunks (which are cheap, and will interlock), put limestone gravel down on top of that (we might be able to salvage some of what is there), pack it *properly*, then put pavers on top. Dad isn't a fan of pavers, saying they move. Neighbour says that they won't, if the foundation is done correctly. However, the base for both would be basically the same, so I'm getting him to write up a proposal (with options) that I can present to dad. (If *I* say it, he'll think he knows more than me. If I come with the contractor neighbour's proposal, and break in the idea over time, I think I have a shot.) At any rate, the neighbour has said he'd give me a good rate, I've seen that he's done good work at his place, and I can always just park on the base for a bit (with a bit of extra gravel at the back lane edge, of course, so that I can get in and out of course) until things are more decided. Also, the neighbour put the gravel back level enough that I'll be able to park there for the winter, which is what I want for the short term anyway. (Depending on the numbers the neighbour comes back with, I may start the work this fall, or I may wait until next summer, when I have more savings. I've let him know this.)

Upside of playing with the gravel: a bunch of the weeds got chewed up. ;)

After he left, I went back to tying up raspberries. (How did that get to be such a big job?!?) Here's the tied up raspberries by the trash cans:

(Dad left me a bit of space in the third trash can, and now all three are full to the top.) Here are the canes beside the parking pad:

I still have more to tie up... but I ran out of the scraps of kitchen cotton I had outside, and decided to leave the rest until another time, possibly tomorrow. (Depends... I still need groceries, and I really should do that tomorrow, given what I'm out of and low on.)

However, while I was trimming the broken canes (argh, who keeps breaking them!?!!?), I discovered:

uh...

crap...

Looks like I have raspberry cane borers. (And the broken canes were probably their fault.) That would also explain why so few canes survived last winter. Of course, I only discovered this near the end of my time outside, plus I didn't know the correct course of action until after I came inside to google, so dealing with them properly (cutting damaged canes and burning them) will have to wait. (I'm going to leave the ones in the trash cans there, but new cuttings will get burned in the fireplace in the back yard that dad hasn't removed yet, using firewood also left behind... and the ashes will be helpful in treating the highly acidic bed piled deep with pine needles. Win-win-win: borers burned, more ashes for the garden, and less firewood lying around.)

Also on my to-do list, but not on the high priority list for today: weeding my tiny patch that has garlic, onions, and a few other things planted.

Since I wasn't planning on doing this tonight (by the time I ran out of string, I was feeling dehydrated and hungry), also no "before" photo. But, while I went past it, I figured I'd pull a few weeds.. and ended up pulling this whole pile:

(Behind the post... in front of the post is more stuff that needs pulling.) Again, you'll just have to trust me that it looks better than before. And, since my trash cans are already full, I just left that pile where it was. :P

Also discovered and tackled:

When dad moved a piece of his crap from beside the garage (yay, another piece left! ...I think), the neighbour noticed that wasps had started building a nest behind it, in a crevice between the trim and siding on the garage. I used some of the expired wasp spray dad had bought. Dad (previously): "they were clearing it out cheap!" Me (today, in my head): "...uh yeah.... that's because it expired in 1998, and the aerosol has pretty much all escaped..." However, it had just enough oomph to escape the can, and that's all that was needed in this case. The way the wasps reacted, I think it was still poisonous to them. I'll check again later, when I think of it, just in case.

To finish off tonight's post, a very clean deck screw:

This deck screw is not remarkable because of it's cleanliness... that can be explained by the fact that it accidentally went through the wash. What *is* remarkable about it is that there should have been *two* deck screws. (There were two left over from what I had borrowed from my uncle's supply in the garage, and I was intending to return, but had apparently forgotten in a pocket of my grub shorts.) I cannot find the other deck screw in the washer or the dryer. How does a 2.5" deck screw disappear? (It's not in any of my pockets either.) So far I haven't discovered any new holes in my clothes as a result of this misadventure... but then, I still need to actually *fold* my clean laundry.

Okay... off to fold the laundry, make the bed, and go to sleep. (How did it get to be so late?!?)

PS: The peony is still waiting to be planted.

Fridge-Be-Gone

The fridge is gone! Yay! Both it's contents and it left on Tuesday. :) (Dad took the contents to the dump, and he sold the fridge.) When he e-mailed me earlier in the day about someone coming to buy the fridge, I suggested he might want to clean it, so the buyer didn't run away screaming.

While dad was cleaning the fridge, I had an mischievous thought. I sent the following e-mail to my dad's wife:

Dear ###,

I thought you might be interested in this: evidence that my father is capable of cleaning! In the last photo you can clearly make out that there is less dust on the top of the fridge. In the first two photos you can clearly see his face.

Yours,
###

My dad responded back:

Smarty pants!!

Stinky

Dad had a fridge in the basement. Said fridge had food in the freezer portion. I have no idea how old that food was, but I'm sure it was ancient even before he moved out a year ago. (Ancient as in "carbon dating might be useful".)

Dad tried to clean the fridge out a while ago, and then e-mailed that it had turned out to be "a bigger job than he was expecting." After that comment, I took a peek inside, and saw this:


Last Friday, movers came to move some of dad's larger items. No, not everything of his has left, but they took the couch, two filing cabinets, a safe... and moved the fridge from the basement to the back yard.

Sunday dad asked me to check to see how the thawing was going. The insulation must be pretty good, because it's been hot here, and, besides a few things poking out the front, it was still pretty much a big block of ice.

I suggested I could prop the doors open, and then it would melt faster. He said he couldn't be here until this afternoon or evening, and not to prop things open until this morning. I have trouble making the bus as it is, but I said I would do what I could.

This morning I propped the fridge door open, plus the freezer door (old school: it only opens when the fridge is open). It was a hot day again today.

When I got home there were flies, etc, buzzing around the freezer contents, which were still in the freezer. I sent dad a reminder e-mail. (Trash day is tomorrow. I don't want it rotting all week in the trash cans until the next pick-up!)

Late tonight he sent his excuses. He said he'll take the stuff out to the dump. I sure hope so! And I hope he comes soon... otherwise I'll have to avoid the back yard because of the smell! (Although it looked like there might still be some ice at the back, the meat at the front has thawed and is... "fragrant".)

*sigh*

(I sure hope those raccoons don't come back and drag everything around the yard!)

Disaster Brewing?

The tub has a drip. The drip is getting worse. To measure the drip, I plugged the tub overnight twice, and during the day today, then took a photo after eleven to twelve hours.

July 16:


July 18:


July 19:

Uh oh...

The plumbing supply place my dad recommended is open 7 am - 4:30 pm, and is in a part of town fairly far from where I live or work, and it has nutty rush hour traffic. It's my first week at work. I prevailed upon my dad, and he's going to try to get the parts for me tomorrow. (Yay!) I'm going to disassemble stuff tonight to take (hopefully) sufficient photos so that they can identify them that way, allowing my dad to get the parts on his way into town.

Keep your fingers crossed for me, will you? ;)

Today's House Update

Today I turned off the water to the house, then disassembled the taps so I could stop the drips.

It wasn't as straight-forward as the web page I found made it sound. The o-rings looked fine. (It claimed I should replace those to stop water from coming from the faucet.) The cartridges were showing their age, though. Of course, I didn't manage to get all the pieces out, so I took what I *could* get out to Home Depot, where I proceeded to once again stump their staff. (One guy seemed more knowledgeable, but even with lots of searching, he couldn't find the right part, and so reluctantly suggested I try a competing home store. However, since I was also buying lumber that would prevent me from closing the back hatch, I decided to leave that for another day.)

Upon reassembling the taps and turning the water back on, I discovered that I made the hot water tap's "on" and "off" directions reversed. Back down to the basement, up to take apart and re-reassemble the tap, back down to turn the water back on, back up to check the tap... yup, back to normal.

You know it's a good thing I drive a station wagon...

(That's lumber for the closet shelf sticking out the back there. The closet is 10 feet long, so I had a choice of 8 foot lumber the right width or 12 foot lumber that I get to cut down to size and biscuit-join. (Luckily dad has a biscuit joiner.)

Since dad will be by tomorrow picking some stuff up, I took this opportunity to go through the rest of the bathroom cabinets, to sort out stuff he and my brother left behind. Here's what I figure I can use:


(I'm not so sure about the shower head, but it's identical to the one currently in use, so I figure I might need to borrow parts from it.) A few containers were empty and got tossed. Two old toys went in the thrift boxes. One largish box got filled with the rest, and now is Dad's problem:

I'm really hoping dad takes his boxes. (This is the second one I've filled for him.)

Shower Gift

My stepbrother and his fiancée received a whole bunch of candy-apple red Kitchenaid appliances (mixers, blenders, etc), so I made a pair of hand towels and felted potholders to match:

I like them. :) (The fiancée seemed to like them too.)

The buttons are from my stash (I actually found my main button stash in the mountain of boxes!)... I had a choice of matching buttons that didn't work as well, or buttons that went well with the grey yarn. Since they won't both be out at the same time, I went for the latter. (Apparently I was silly for pointing that out at the shower. Whoops.)

House Update

Both closet doors are up! I was able to get the second one up one evening last week by adjusting the nut at the bottom. I have no idea how I was able to get it down but not back up.

Yesterday I was at a wedding shower for my step-sister-in-law-to-be, and then a friend came over for a visit-while-I-work. In the morning I made a list of things I could do while we visited. When I reached the bottom of the pad of paper, I decided I could stop adding things to the list, even if there were more things I could be doing. ;) The list I came up with:
• water plants
• make burritos (I assemble my own frozen burritos)
• weed
• wash walls
• tidy kitchen (I didn't have time on Friday to clean up after making a dish for a potluck Friday evening.)
• sort bathroom (dad still has stuff there)
• sort toyroom (brother's stuff)
• vacuum
• drawer corners (I bought replacements for the missing ones in the kitchen)
• caulk tub
• bedroom floor (I still need to use fantastic around three of the edges)
• office, sort (brother's stuff), take out carpet pieces
• alter pants
• tie up black raspberries
• put CFL bulbs in chandelier
Of course, what I *actually* did didn't quite match items on the list, but I at least got stuff done:
• water plants (yay, they won't die this week!)
• tidy kitchen (does it count if I then got it dirty again cooking dinner for the two of us?)
• swept and mopped kitchen floor (it *needed* doing... however, I didn't get the bit on the other side of the "bar", because I was also doing laundry, and that's where the laundry was piled)
• laundry
• installed toggle screws for towel bar in bathroom
• swept and mopped bedroom floor (but didn't fantastic the edges)
• swept and mopped bathroom floor
So, only two of those items were actually on the list, and one was immediately undone (I was waiting for the dishwasher to finish the previous day's dishes, I'll get to that this morning), but everything needed doing.

One day when mom was over cleaning, she said "with all the time I'm spending cleaning, you better *keep* this place clean!" Mom, I cleaned! I'm trying! ;)

My friend lives near a Home Depot, so I stopped by to pick up a few things when I dropped her off. However, it turns out it closes at 8 on Saturday, and it was 9:30 when I arrived. Dang!

The list for today is more manageable than yesterday's list, but I suspect I still won't get everything done:
• extract sewing machine (it's behind the mountain of boxes, although I have a goat trail mostly there)
• alter pants
• Home Depot
• sort bathroom (dad will be here tomorrow)
• move my stuff away from dad's stuff (dad has movers coming tomorrow to get some big items)
Wish me luck!

Clapotis

I knit a sock yarn clapotis scarf for my mom:

(She can sometimes be a bit of a ham. ;) ) I managed to miss mother's day *and* her birthday... but I gave it to her now anyway.

Ironic: I put blocking wires (stainless steel welding rods) on my Christmas/birthday wishlist a number of years ago, once I found affordable options. (Again, ironically, the stainless steel welding rods ended up coming to the same price as KnitPicks blocking wires... oh well... at least they weren't $60, or whatever the previous options I knew about were.) Either last Christmas or the Christmas before, I finally received a set, but then didn't finish something that needed blocking wires again until this clapotis. However, due to the move I couldn't *find* the dang things... until, of course, *after* I blocked and gave the scarf to my mom. *sigh*

Mom likes it. :) (And she will have it to wear in the fall, which she wouldn't, if I had waited until Christmas.)

A Girl's Gotta Have Priorities

Yesterday, in exchange for beer (shoot, beer is *expensive! I think I've spent more at the liquor store this month than I have in the past ten years!), my neighbour and his son helped me move the last of my stuff.

Today mom helped me with the final cleaning, and then I turned in all of the keys except the building key I had to get back from my dad.

When I got back to the house, dad was there, and so then I could get that last key from him (turned in!), and pester him into talking to Shaw so that I could use the PVR my brother left me. (The registered owner had to call and do the transfer, so that they know it's not stolen.) An *hour* (and a second phone handset) later (what the heck were they *doing* over there?!?), and I now have a hooked-up TV and PVR. :)

I even shifted a few of the boxes, and so now can see the TV from the couch:

Of course, being summer, there's nothing on to watch... but if there was, I could watch it now.

Hmmm... I wonder where I put those taped shows I didn't have time to watch last month? (That would require hooking up the VCR too, but I'm pretty sure I know where all the pieces for that are.)

Weekend Move Progress Update #6

*** Breaking News ***

Dad cleaned up some of his junk from the basement! There is now visible counter space in the downstairs "bathroom":


Not pretty counter space, but still, it used to be buried under a pile of junk. (I will need to use this space while renovating upstairs.)

Of course, it's still a cluttered goat trail to get *to* the bathroom:

(Off in the background there is another spot he de-cluttered... previously there was a lot more there.)

Easily amused: I like seeing people's reactions when I show them the floor of the shower stall:

Uncle's suggestion: build a platform of wooden slats to stand on while showering. (Good thing I have his workshop easily accessible!) The neighbour (who is a real estate agent) also mentioned there's paint meant for tubs that might do the trick. (It will never be pretty, but it might get at least as far as "sanitary". (Hopefully better than "when was your last tetanus shot?".)

Weekend Move Progress Update #3

I was hoping this awesome little bookcase would be one of the things that dad was going to leave behind, but it's not:


Darn. Oh well.

Strange things (I'm pretty sure) my brother did:

I guess he wanted that shelf to be higher?

*sigh*

The Cleaning Battle Continues

Mom finished the kitchen cabinets. This dirty water is from cleaning just two:

Yeesh!

I worked on the living room. I started by sweeping and mopping the floor (removing some screwed down pieces of wood that prevented the couch from shifting around), then washing the walls. Step one, swiffer the walls:

Whoa... that dirt was from a tiny section! (Note to self: swiffer walls regularly!)
Step two and three, clean with all-purpose cleaner solution, then rinse with plain water. Here's the wall above the fireplace after I've cleaned two-thirds of it:

Gee... can you see the difference? I sure can! The outline of the deer head is much less visible now too. :)

After I was done with two walls, I re-mopped the floor, since (a) I noticed that the first time (done with a swiffer wet mop) dried streaky, and (b) I was also wearing my (outdoor) shoes while washing the walls, because the stepladder had narrow steps. I decided to try my dry swiffer with a dampened cloth:

Urgh! I believe this calls for a *real* mop! (Third mopping to come tomorrow.)

I also sorted through some old stuff from the "mitten cabinet" in the kitchen (it was close to the back door). I was going to donate everything, but got suckered in by a few things from my past. This hat for one:

(What if a visiting little girl needs a hat to protect her head from the sun?) My grandma made these slippers, and I loved them:

How cute is this set that my grandma made?

(Hat with attached scarf, and critter mittens.)

It was pouring down rain, so I decided to take the ficus outside for a shower. However, taking the ficus outside caused it to pretty much stop raining, and I had to use the hose to finish the job. Oh well. While I was outside, I noticed that the storm windows on some of the original windows seem to be missing much of what holds the panes in:

I should probably do something about that sometime. (Preferably before they fall out in the middle of winter, leaving me with single-pane windows.) Two options: repair the storm windows, or replace the original windows with insulated ones. The second option should really be done eventually (especially since one of the windows is cracked), but the first option is a lot cheaper.

Since I now had a taller borrowed stepladder at the house (so I could wash the walls), I also put up the plant hook and chain outside, so that my dad's wife could have her decorative hook back:


Finally, I brought over the largest piece of art I own to cover the screw holes in the wall above the fireplace:

Not bad, but I think I actually need something bigger. (That painting looks *huge* in my apartment!)