Things do happen.

Howdy,

Things do happen around here. Maybe not always be what I want to do or happen, but life is moving forward.

It was mostly a nice weather week here finally. For me the temps in the mid-80s felt fantastic. It was strange to hear people complaining about the heat/humidity. I guess I still have Floridian blood..

I mentioned last time that I used the pole saw to bring down limbs for chipping and burning. Here are a couple of pictures of the fallen debris.

That’s the pole saw in the middle. 21 foot long.

Started sorting and chopping / sawing into pieces for chipper or fire.

Pieces were either chipped, or burned. Some of the logs were 4 inch diameter.

Within a few hours the chips were around plants, and the rest was making ashes. The sprinkler is going in the background trying to get the new grass seed to grow.

After that, I was left with a fire pit filled to the top with ash and “stuff”. It had to be cleared. I read that the ash was as good as lime for the yard, so I knew I wanted it spread over the areas with the most moss.

But, there were lots of unburned chunks of charcoal in the pit, and other “gifts” from the prior owners. Thus, I did a sift and separate process on the pit.

What you see in the wheel barrow is the unburned charcoal. It went back into the pit for more processing. The white bucket was almost full with beer cans (easily over 20), broken bottle glass, nails, melted plastic, and at least two gun shells (my guess is from a 22). Id-juts lived here before me!!!

I pretty much had to rinse the ash off of the other materials in the pit. Did that through the sifter into the big red bucket, and then dragged it to the mossy areas and poured out the water/ash.

The pit is now ready for the next tree trimming. Coming soon — waiting for a lopper head for the pole saw so I can be a little more selective of branches..

Also got a couple of other items checked off my list.

Put in a tree ring around the tree out front. Need to get a bag of mulch for it, or I may use the next round of chipper material.

Looks much better and should help separate lawn from tree bed.

I also got back to that bare board on the deck to get it sealed from the weather. At the same time, I sanded down the one set of steps with the deck, that had mostly chipped all of the paint and was damp wood. Some day, hopefully this summer, the whole deck with get a fresh coat of paint. There are spots where I can tell the id-jut used non-treated wood. I temporarily put a pint of wood putty into bad areas (non-structural) just to make it look less bad — those will need replacing soon.

But the wood is protected for the rains coming over the next couple of days.

Just a little off color because the rest of the deck has mostly faded. Can’t even tell where repair begins or ends now.

The steps look so much better. Oh, the lower rail on the right is where a bunch of putty went. That board is not treated lumber.

In case you think it is all work and no play, here is a picture of me taking off for a quick trike ride around the ‘hood.

And I do get visitors.

Mr Cardinal is asking “What’s that blinking red light?”

Mrs Cardinal is saying, “Ignore it and it will go away”

And a Deer friend came by one day.

Doah !

And then there was someone I Bearly want to get to know

The video can be seen on my FaceBook page https://www.facebook.com/jody.querry/videos/3497125836983459/?t=0

Much more is happening, but I don’t capture everything. The state is slowly re-opening from lockdown. The number of new virus cases isn’t growing, even though they are doing more testing every week. Is it dying out naturally? Is it taking a break for the summer? Will there be new major outbreaks now that people are gathering?

I know the little baseball field across the street is now being used for practice by an 8-9 y/o “travel” team. I find it interesting that the first day, the boys were following the rules wearing masks when not playing, and that the coaches all were consistently wearing theirs. But only 3 practices in, that is becoming more relaxed. And, as for the parents, they act like there are no rules, and none of them wear masks, nor practice social distancing. Such good role models for the kids. NOT.

That’s enough for now.

Enjoy Life,