I've just started helping my dad with some work on his new houses. He's recently been purchasing foreclosures and then fixing them up to rent or sell. Now that he's in China for a couple of weeks with his family, my sisters and I get to do all sorts of fun things to help manage these properties: yard work, pressure washing, cleaning, window washing, ordering beauty bark... and so on and so forth.
This also includes many fun trips to Home Depot. I've never really thought of Home Depot as a fun place but when you're doing projects like this, it kind of turns into an office supply store of sorts and all of the sudden it's a bit of a wonderland. I bought some gardening tools yesterday and I'm really quite pleased to own them. My favorite new tool is the action hoe. Rather provocative name, I know, but it's pretty much amazing. Helps to hack away at unwanted plants/grass/weeds and gets all of the roots out of the soil. Great stress reliever! So if you're looking for a good time.... well, I know where you can find your very own action hoe.
My first job yesterday was to take down this old and decently unsteady play structure (p.s. I tend to remember to take my "before" photo a few minutes after I've already started the project so my "before" pics are really "work in progress" pics).
I got to use a hammer and a cordless drill and this really fabulous, um, some kind of tool that I don't know what to call it, but you wedge it in there and then pry it back to force the pieces of wood apart. It felt good to know that I still have some muscles however weak they may be.
At first I tried climbing up the ladder to take it down from the top but I just didn't feel safe up there....
So I had to pull the whole structure down to really get going.
I have to admit, I was pretty pleased with myself once I had finished. Then I had to drag everything over to the side yard to add it to the pile of stuff that needs to be taken to the dump. This process took a bit longer than it should have due to a mama bird and her baby who were causing a bit of a distraction. They kept hopping across my path and I had to go real slow to make sure I wasn't running over them. It was kind of silly. They were cute though.
I spent the next couple of hours pulling weeds out of flower beds, edging the flower beds and getting rid of clumps of grass, moss and dead plants that were in places they weren't supposed to be. I still have loads more work to do in the next week and a half.
Upon returning home around 7pm I thought it might behoove me to do a bit of yard work of my own.
This plant has been driving me crazy for an entire year now. I just think it's ugly and overgrown and pointless.
So now it's gone. So much better, right?? I think so. My action hoe came in quite handy with this project. Couldn't have done it without her. There were many layers of vines and roots and leaves and it just seemed never ending. The plant originated in a pot in the middle but had put down roots everywhere it touched the ground and it seemed to have a pretty strong hold.
You wouldn't believe the stuff I found under there: garbage, a kitchen knife, cigarettes, some of the biggest spiders I've ever seen in my life, glass marbles, loads of dead leaves, an old broken flower pot and a garden hose! Nice to know that we have a garden hose I guess.
I'm not sure what I'll plant there now but I know I have to plant something. If you leave it empty then the weeds think that means they get to take over. Not cool. Let me know if you have any suggestions of what I can plant in our little spaces on either side of our front door that don't require sunlight and won't grow too huge and will stay green throughout the year. I know, those are a lot of requirements but that's exactly why I haven't planted anything yet! By the time I went inside around 8:30 I was sweaty and dirty and tired and my body is still reminding me just how tired it is almost 24 hours later. Everything is sore.
The good thing about these projects is that I can actually see progress! It makes me feel productive and like I'm actually accomplishing something. It's rewarding. For now at least. Until the weeds grow back. Ay yi yi.
That's all for now!
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