Daily Photo: Remnants of a Tiny Girl

I found these two in the backyard yesterday while I was working.
I found a little green dinosaur earlier in the week, too.
So cute.  Dodger and I just laughed and smiled when I found these.  :) 

I Got Up Off the Couch... and I'm Getting Stuff Done!

Since I'm still trying to figure out what to do with myself today, I thought I'd work on a blog post.  It's been a week since I last posted and I've resigned myself to the realization that for the time being, once a week is most likely as often as I'll be posting.  I've been keeping busy with doing work on outside projects daily and it actually takes more thought and energy to put up a blog post than it does to just throw on my work clothes and gloves and head outside for some hard work.

Right now, It's too sunny to pull off siding.  I don't like to be in the sun very long.  Until the garbage comes on Tuesday, I can't really pick up any more shingles because I'm out of old 5 gallon paint buckets to fill up.  I could fill up more grocery bags, though. I don't yet have a blade for my sawzall, so I can't cut up any of the old wood roofing.

Here are some pictures of what I've been working on all week...

A small pile of shingles bagged up in grocery bags.
They are just too jagged and heavy to put into garbage bags, as is.

More trash and bagged shingles piling up and ready to set out on the curb for Tuesday's trash pick-up.

All of the clear space was covered with old shingles and wood.

Got even more done.

Some of the old wood from the roof.

The neighbor behind me needs to do some work, too!

The space behind my garage is now clear.
Remember what it looked like a few weeks ago?
The space back here it perfect for a garden!

The mess of branches I cleared from what was hanging over into my yard from the back neighbor's yard.

The mess along the side of the garage that still needs cleaned up.

Dodger pulled off some siding on the side of the house to get me started.
I have pulled off more since this picture was taken.

Dancer's summer activities started this week, so I'm back to running her around 3-4 nights a week.  We're both glad that tennis was offered in the evening as well as the morning this summer.  Neither of us are morning people and it worked out that she was free to do Monday evening's lessons.

I've been working a few hours every day getting our property cleaned up.  I've even managed to keep up the cleaning inside the house at the same time.  When I first started in on the garage this week, I felt very overwhelmed but then I remembered that line that you eat an elephant, one bite at a time.  So I just started in, did what I could, and have been working daily to conquer the mess.

Time and consistency conquers just about every problem.  We've got to do something differently if we want different results.

Dancer is out golfing with my dad this afternoon.  Dodger is at work.  I'm going to throw on my work clothes and gloves and head outside to see what I can do today.

Have Tools, Will Work

Or maybe that title should say... Will Work For Tools... 'cause I can always use more tools.

I got a slow start to my morning.  I played a little Castleville.  I tried to use Facebook but it still seems to be acting wonky.  Last night, I couldn't post at all and today I could post but I couldn't see other friends posts even though I was getting notifications that they had posted.

The crazy storm that came through last night brought cooler temps with it, so earlier this afternoon after I finally ate something, I went out and pulled siding off the house.  The aluminum siding is old and the wood underneath it needs care.  We're just going to pull all the aluminum off and go back to the wood siding underneath it.  It's going to need some repair and prep work done to it and then painting but pulling the old aluminum off is pretty quick work.

I did three small sides of the house this afternoon, the outside walls to the bathroom.  What nails I couldn't get pulled out got hammered back in.  I pulled off the paper they put on over the wood siding and the staples they used to attach it.  All three of those walls are now ready to be scraped and pressure washed in preparation to be prepped and painted.

I'll need to get Dodger up on a taller ladder to pull off the aluminum along the taller sides.  I won't go up on a ladder any taller than the one I had to get up on today.  I'm not fond of heights.  Then I can pull off the rest of the siding.  We should have this prepped and ready to paint in a few months.

After I finished up with that, I picked up some of the sticks that the storm last night knocked out of the trees around the house.  Everything could be broken up with my hands and feet, so nothing major.  Nothing like Monday's mess.

I'd like to do some more picking up behind the garage but I think it's too wet to mess with and my feet are starting to bother me, so I think I'll be done with the hard work for the day.  I've got laundry and dishes to do inside.

Aluminum siding, ready for the curb.
Someone always picks up my metal from the curb for scraping.

Back to the wood.
This is the area just to the right of our backdoor.

This is the corner right around to the right of the picture above.
I have cracks in the foundation to fix, too, plus some rotted wood just above it.

My recent eBay purchase arrived today, a DeWalt reciprocating saw... aka sawzall.
I hope it works right.  It's always a gamble when purchasing something used off of eBay
but this guy had a 100% positive feedback rating, so I went for it.
I just need blades and then more cutting of things will commence!  :)