Well, the goal for today was to completely clean out the garage.
😶
It’s currently 9:01 p.m., And I haven’t spent a single second cleaning out the garage today.
Oops.
🙃
What did I do?
A crap ton of other stuff, so I’ll call it a win. 😎
I started by working on the first Domino that needed to fall in order to start cleaning out the garage effectively– moving the Volkswagen Beetle. So I fired it up, and I drove it down to the greenhouse area where I’m going to be storing all my stuff for the time being.
As I was walking back, I decided that it would be good to get the equipment that I’ve had sitting in Liz’s yard out of her yard and parked at the greenhouse as well.
So I fired up the skid steer, and as I was driving away from her house, it dawned on me that there were a whole bunch of projects That a skid steer would be the best piece of equipment to do, and since I was already on it, I figured I’d dive in and get all those different things done.
- I went over and pushed the huge brush pile that was sitting on the edge of the pond all the way down into the bottom at the bank s of the water itself.
- I went down to the lower pasture where I scooped up and cleaned up the leftovers of the burn pile from a month ago or so.
- Then I cleaned up the shooting target that somebody had set up and left to rot in the middle of the lower field.
- I went over to the big pile of dirt and ash that had significantly overgrown in the middle of the road that leads to the far back pasture.
- I gathered up all the leftover fencing stuff, the big wood posts, the t posts, and the coiled up barbed wire that I had worked on taking down a couple of months prior before splitting my leg open with the ax, taking it all to the barn.
- I cleaned up another burn-pile leftover
- Filled in the channel I’d dug next to the garden that i had dug to run the water line from the hydrant to the garden. I got the trailer with the shed stuck in it last time I tried to go beside it, and I didn’t want to take the chance this time.
- I grabbed a few big scoops of wood chips for Jenna and Zach, so they don’t have to carry them by hand.
- I built another parking space out front of the house. We had a gravel pile, so I figured I’d get that built for them. I did it, but unfortunately, the “gravel” pile turned out to mostly be a dirt pile. Still, it’s built.
- I cleaned up the scattered wood chips by the entrance to the ramp down to the creek, so now the wood chips that were covering the areas where I want grass to grow and all scraped up, and the grass can now fill in.
- I pushed the huge wood pile that was encroaching on the lower pasture much farther back into the woods by the creek–piling it up in a place that’ll be much better, as it will allow more area to be mowed/hayed.
- I did the same for all the logs that were in another pile, pushing them all back into the edge of the woods.
- I scraped off high spots in a few places, trying to make it smoother to mow.
- I tore out the majority of two huge blackberry bush clusters, and dumped them in a burn pile.
- I moved both large Sycamore tree pieces to the burn pile, along with a lot of other tree leftovers.
The skid steer got a workout today. 😁
Oh! I forgot to check to see if the lines are still leaking. 😬
What else… I re-secured the shed to the trailer and very carefully drove it down our steep driveway, across the bumpy lower pasture, and all the way to the back pasture, leaving it still on the trailer next to the greenhouse, using the skid steer to set the trailer exactly where I wanted it because, I couldn’t back the trailer where I wanted it because my truck was on a hill and couldn’t back up the hill with a loaded trailer.
Then I walked home for the second time, picking up my CNG van, driving it down to the greenhouse area, and getting a ride back from my wonderful mother. Well, not back yet, as we headed over to a little farewell get together to see off Sarah, who took a job as a regional big wig in Utah and Arizona for 7 Brew. She leaves on Saturday.
Then I grabbed the mini ex that was still in Liz’s yard, and drove it down to the greenhouse area, getting a ride back to the house with Mom, where I grabbed my pickup truck, headed over to Jim and Steph’s place to ask Landon if I could borrow the trailer.
Chatted with Landon and Eleanor for a bit, then hitched up the trailer, loaded the Subaru parts car onto it, and drove over to Miguel’s shop–dropping it off and heading back home (sans working trailer lights. 😅
Made it back just as darkness settled in, and the full moon, or near full moon? rose.
Got home, found that the man who’d tried to help replace the toilet seat on the upstairs bathroom I think kept trying to tighten the plastic nut on instead of loosening it, destroying the plastic assembly, which required my getting a sledge hammer and chisel to remove.
And it probably took me 20-30 minutes to get the severely-damaged leftovers off. Should be about a one-minute job. Oh well, his heart was in the right place. 😊
Did I remember that in the moment very well? No. 😬😅 But I can look back and choose to see it that way now.
Dinner. Shower. Comfort food. 🙃 And now to bed…
Not a single second spent on cleaning out the garage. 😅
But lots of good stuff done.
My tentative plan is to live in my shed and van down by the greenhouse and to clean that area up. It’s been in the to-do list for a long time, and I’ve gotten bits and pieces done here and there, but If I’m living there, then it’ll be a lot easier to focus on.
So, I’ll live down there, bathing in the creek (don’t worry, environmentally friendly soap), getting my water from the spring that bubbles out of the hillside, and cleaning things up around the greenhouse area. Once all my vehicle and equipment projects are done, once my taxes are all done, once my car business is shut down/sold, then I’ll likely take a long trip, I’ll make my more permanent plans for where I’m going to live, and I’ll begin the transition into the Lift the World chapter of my life.
Busy busy.
Oh yeah! What’s with the phantom poison ivy rashes! I managed to get poison Ivy but haven’t touched the stuff.
Well, clearly I have, but… where? 🤔
I must have run across a hidden vine of it when weeding by the propane tanks. I’ve never seen poison ivy there, but… that’s the only reasonable place, I think. Otherwise, I’ve just been packing, sorting, weeding the garden, etc.
Oh, and either 3 or 4 tick bites today. I’ll be scratching those for the next month. 🙃
Love and hugs.
Lift the world.
~ stephen
Lift the World 