For starters after a long complicated winter, the garage was in much need of cleaning. It was so bad I was embarrassed to have the door up not wanting anyone driving down the road to see how piled up it was. While it is still piled, it does look much better. (Half of the garage stores my grandmother’s 1967 Cadillac.) Mid-Kid and I got that job done last week.
Then the basement needed cleaning. After a long winter of wood furnace heating, dust ends up everywhere. I try to keep things covered and last year, I managed to get by with just sweeping it really well…but this year we are searching for all forms of mold and needed to remove some wood pallets. So most everything was hauled up the flight of basement stairs to the garage and the basement was hosed down and scrubbed. Today should find the stuff in the garage back in the basement and the car back in the garage!
Hubby has been recognizably not well for two years,- so much has gone undone or half done. These areas are noticeable. So for starters this year we are attempting to do some spring clean-up. Attempting to make the place look better from the curb while moving forward with the basic yard work and plans for the new (and rapidly approaching) market season. This overall work will probably take most of the summer.
The wind blew like a storm yesterday but the sun was out so we tried to utilize the day as best as we could. We planted our new asparagus bed trying not to be blown away in the process and are hoping for great success there.
After lunch, Hubby and Mid-kid moved some rhubarb plants into one of the larger patches. We are still fighting voles. There is a war zone going on out there with the vole trenches clearly identifiable. If only we could reach into their underground country and bomb the life out of them. More vole traps are needed. It was decided that many of the small surviving rhubarb roots will be dug up in a week or two (when they get a bit larger and identifiable) and put into pots to grow. This will enable us to save what we have so that we can start over.
While Hubby and Mid-Kid were off doing that, I got started on a tangent that turned into the rest of the afternoon. For the past couple of years, I have wanted to trim back the honeysuckle. I love honeysuckle but it has taken on a Kudzu affect in this area of the yard. The following photo was taken after I had already gotten into the mess and started cleaning.
I moved the scrap iron pile over to the other scrap iron pile (consolidation!). I even found some cool things I can make into yard ornaments (if I can find the time and a can of spray paint). There was on old piece of farm equipment that a lilac bush had grown into (so Hubby came along later and cut the lilac bush down and hauled it out for me).
I cut and cut and cut some more on the honeysuckle vines just trying to find where they came from. Only to discover (thanks to the eldest daughter) that the Flowering Quince and the Honeysuckle is sort of grown together for the most part. I am still contemplating how I am going to manage to save both….
Then Hubby decided to consolidate the slabs of cement….I did suggest that some of them be moved to our footpath into the barn…perhaps that will eventually work out but after moving three huge chunks of concrete he was ready to call it a day and glared at me with disinterest.
The following is the almost completed...clean up. The Flowering Quince is under that Honeysuckle vine.