This morning, my daughter and I headed out for errands. Too early, it turned out. I had a package waiting at the post office, but while the general store it’s in opens at 9, the post office itself turns out to open at 9:30. I could have sworn they opened earlier! My daughter had dashed in and did get the mail, but left the parcel card for on the way home.
When we got to town, my daughter was a sweetheart and took me out for breakfast (lunch, for her) before we hit the grocery store. This time, we were actually able to refill a couple of water bottles – last time we barely managed to fill one, as both dispensers had no pressure. We picked up a few things, including some things for my husband to make sure he’d have easy food available while my younger daughter and I are away all day tomorrow. My older daughter will be home to make sure he doesn’t have a repeat of last week and almost die on me again!!!
After that, we made a stop at the gas station that ended up taking an unexpectedly long time. On the way home, we just made it to the post office before they closed for a couple of hours over the lunch period, and my daughter was able to get my parcel.
Unfortunately, by the time we finished in town, my pain levels were kicking in again. By the time we got home, I was able to help bring things inside, but had to pain killer up and used some diclofenac cream, then lay down for a while. After a couple of hours, there was no relief in pain. It was long enough that I could take more T3s, and that eventually did it. I’m really hoping that new prescription does the job and this pain goes away, but I’d only had one dose so far. It’ll take at least a little while before I can tell if it’s working.
By the time I was able to get up again, I was eager to test out the contents of my parcel.
My eavestrogh pressure washer was finally in!
I was pleased to see it had a quick connect, but when I tried to attach it to the hose, I realized it had two male couplings. I had to remove the quick connect nozzle and attach the piece with the on-off switch (not visible in the photo) directly to the hose. Very odd.
I then spent the next hour or so, trying to clean a couple of the shortest eavestroughs.
I did not succeed.
I knew it would be difficult. The eavestroughs all have tiny forests of elm seeds growing in them. The debris was dense enough to break the brush head on the other cleaning tool I’d picked up – it came with two brush heads, and the first one broke the first time I tried to use it!
I was able to get some debris cleared out, but found myself with a different problem. The downspouts were getting clogged. After fighting it it for quite some time, I gave up and tried to clear the eavestrough on the other side of the old kitchen/sunroom. It was even worse. Finally, I have one last try at a corner of the living room, just trying to clear the opening to the downspout. Water could barely leak through at all!
I had to stop. There was no point in continuing. The eavestroughs were just too badly clogged.
I’d been updating my brother and SIL about all this, knowing they’d be coming out some time tonight. After failing to clear the eavestroughs, I got out the chain saw and a 100 foot extension cord, instead.
I FINALLY got that big piece of fallen maple branch cleared! It had broken up a bit when it hit the ground and I’d been able to drag off the narrow part of the branch, but the remaining piece was just too large and heavy to move – and it was taking up a significant portion of the lawn.
Not any more!
It took two wagon loads to clear away the logs and the scattered pieces of bark. Anything big enough to be a problem for the law mower. In the second image of the slide show above, you can see most of the logs (a couple of pieces are hidden behind the pile) set up and ready for the fire pit. Maple will make some good cooking fires, and this wood has been dead and dry for some time, so it can be used right away.
It was while I was finishing up putting the logs away and cleaning up as much bark out of the grass as I could, that I heard my brother and SIL arrive.
Since I had the chainsaw out anyhow, I moved on to the sections of maple I’d dragged under the hawthorn “fence”. This includes the pieces that had broken off another maple some time ago that I hadn’t got to, yet.
With these, I stacked the logs in between trees in the living “fence”. There are still some branches to do, but they were too thin to bother using a chain saw. I’ll come back with a hand saw.
I had considered cleaning up more fallen trees in the maple grove, right near the old branch pile and the fire pit logs. I decided against it. I was getting eaten alive by mosquitoes, and the chainsaw needs sharpening.
Part way through the cutting, I had to refill the oil in the chainsaw, so I went to the garage to get the jug. My brother was in lean to side where their mower is stored, looking for something. When he came out and saw me, chugging a water bottle I’d got from the truck, he told me he was going to go up on the roof to check where the leak is coming from. While he did that, I remembered to grab a broken old hose reel he’d dug out of the junk pile for me. I’d found it in the barn some time ago and we tried to use it for an actual hose, but it didn’t work and the hose ended up splitting and cracking. He had the idea that it could still be used to store the longer extension cords, and I was finally able to give it a try when it was time to put things away.
It worked beautifully.
By the time I was putting things away, my brother had done checking the roof over the second floor, and was clearing the eavestrough over the “new part” of the house. He mentioned he might need a hose, so I passed that up to him and he was able to grab it with the tool he was using the clear the eavestroughs. He was up there for quite a long time. The eavestroughs were horribly clogged. Thankfully, he was also able to clear the downspouts.
As for the roof that was leaking, he said the eavestrough over the 2nd floor windows were also clogged. Which is odd, because the girls told me that it never gets clogged. He concluded that this was why there was a leak at one of the windows.
I’ve since passed that on to my daughter and they disagree. This area was a problem before we moved out here. They’d patched the damaged wall, only for it to become damaged again in our first winter. It had stopped after the roof was replaced, until this past winter. They don’t see a connection between the state of the eavestroughs and the leaking.
Well, we’re supposed to get more storms in the next while, so I guess we’ll find out soon enough.
While trying to clear the eavestrough from the sun room, I almost refilled the rain barrel, so while my brother was using the hose to pressure wash the eavestroughs he had cleared of debris, I use the rain barrel to do some watering, even though we had rain this morning.
I was quite happy to see this.
I’m really hoping these were successfully pollinated. I’d hate for these lovely zucchini to whizzen away!
I was also really happy to confirm something that I wasn’t sure I was seeing right, over the past few days.
This is a luffa seedling! I direct sowed them because this variety needs only 55 days to maturity, which means it still has a chance to make it, and we might actually have luffa. I still have not been able to find my package with the remaining seeds, so it would be really awesome if it survives long enough that we can collect seeds.
After my brother was done on the roof, he brought over some tools and a reciprocating saw, with a blade that can cut metal, to work on the tire around the elm tree stump. He was able to cut through it in three places, then we used a pry bar and my chisel tip bar to try and work things loose.
There was progress, but my brother was so tired by then, we left it for the night.
After he left, I brought the hose over to rinse the dirt off my tools when I decided to use the highest pressure setting to try and wash away some of the soil inside the cut up tire.
That ball of dirt is so filled with swirling tree roots, almost no soil got washed away at all. !!!
Still, we’ll probably have it off by the end of the weekend, which means the tree guys will not have to figure out how to deal with it when they come back with their stump grinder. That tire has been sitting there for so long, the rubber is starting to disintegrate in places. It was still hard to cut through, though!
So that’s where we’re at now.
Tomorrow is going to be a very long day at the market, but I’m looking forward to it.
Now, to try and get some actual sleep, so I’m not drifting off at my table tomrorow!
The Re-Farmer
The Re-Farmer 