Another Thirty Yards

Saturday morning I tried to make a “realistic list” of things I wanted to get done this weekend, which ended up being something like fifteen items long and included things like “tear out all upstairs carpet” and “organize workshop.”

Just for reference, this is what the workshop currently looks like…

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Yeah. I actually have to scale a small mountain of wood scraps to use the miter saw, and for the most part I consider this to be a perfectly acceptable way of living. Which means I don’t have an ice cube’s chance in hell of getting that place organized in a weekend, even if it’s all I’m doing. (And it’s never all I’m doing.)

So, in lieu of a fifteen-item-impossible-to-complete-list, I decided to start by focusing on one simple task.

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Fill up this dumpster.

There was a time in my life when I used to go for long walks or run at the park to disconnect my brain and get a sense of peace. Now I do this instead…

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Ten cubic yards of this big boy is now taken up by two pool tarps, three broken stone crates, 100 linear feet of twisted metal flashing, a truckload of plastic ridge vents, one of eight broken wheelbarrows that came with this house, and a truck bed liner. That’s the kind of thing you can just happen upon on your property when you have a full-fledged rubble pile to sort through.

Barn beam, barn beam, barn beam, hey, wait, what’s this plastic thing under…? Oh. Of course. Part of a truck.

Most of the big stuff is out of the way now, but I’m determined to add any demolition debris from the house to this pile in short order. Which does, in fact, mean that I will finally be tearing some carpet out of the future master bedroom, and finishing up demo of the master bath as well.

I didn’t get quite that far in my list this weekend, but on top of the hauling and tossing of shit, I also got to do some shoveling.

Of actual shit.

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I actually enjoy mucking out the barn stall. I mean, in the spectrum of cleaning things, I’d much rather do this than, say, laundry. That’s not even sarcasm. At the end of a long day I walked inside, looked at the washing machine, and was like…. actually…. I think I’m going to go muck out the barn stall.

Plus I am a shoveling maniac these days. If it’s not barn stalls, it’s topsoil, and if it’s not topsoil, it is an endless amount of gravel for the walkways between my garden beds…

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And sometimes when I need a break from shoveling, I dance around on the gravel to pack it down. Then the cat pretends he doesn’t know me.

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Honestly, progress on the garden is slow, even though I seem to be constantly working on it. I’ve refinished entire bathrooms in less time. But little by little, it’s starting to come together.

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The vertical garden bed took significantly longer to build than its horizontal cousins, but it’s pretty close to being complete, which means I’ll post my version of “plans” and a how-to later this week…

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Nothing actually got “checked off the list” this week, but I definitely worked my ass off. And then celebrated with a beer…

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Really, Nugget?

13 Responses

  1. I hear ya! You work and work but still no results good enough to blog yet. I like your garden beds and the Vertical climbing one!
    Did you name the chickens yet? Or are they all “nuggets”?

  2. Okay, if I lived closer, and if you had an idea of how you wanted the workshop organized, we could totally knock that out in a weekend.

    We would have to fix that whole, “you don’t know me thing, but I promise I am not an ax-murderer thing.”

    I love the vertical garden bed too. I may have to rip off your plans.

  3. List are good as long as they are realistic. Once you make your list is always important to prioritize. Otherwise you can just become overwhelmed.

    Havig a beer when finished wold have been top of my list!

  4. Well, hard work really does pay. I hate cleanups too but I gotta admit that after every cleanup, there is some sort of satisfaction that you feel. I wouldn’t be surprised why you would celebrate with a glass of beer. I guess the chicken also did some hard work and wants to treat herself with a glass of beer to. 🙂

  5. It’s great that you did the small stuff first and end up getting something done at the end of the day. That’s a lot better than pondering on the list and getting overwhelmed by how big some tasks actually are LOL.

  6. I make lists too long too. And have had my share of weekends filling the dumpster. Funny how a little 5 acre property and old houses can generate things to fill the dumpster. Now I’m off to stain some hardwood floors we sanded last Friday. Love to read about your adventures!

  7. Why is it that a list is made, you are non-stop working and your list ends up being longer than when you first started? I have come to the conclusion that the list never ends. Take those walks and enjoy your beer, the list will be waiting for you when you return. Hard work does pay off, your garden looks great!

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