Our Olde House: April 19, 2022

Apparently, we are running a retirement home for red wasps because they are everywhere, one flying every ten feet or so, and of course the usual squadron guarding the front of the house.  I made two more futile attempts this past month to climb up the ladder to paint the front peak of the house but was instantly surrounded and encouraged to leave, which I did before I fell or was otherwise forced off the ladder.

 

This past month was pretty much completely discouraging for trying to get any outside projects done; I tried to finish my car-cache work but the red wasps had that area covered too.  I did manage to run the line trimmer over the back corner enough to reveal the pieces of concrete buried not quite deep enough to mow over, but I found plenty of excuses not to dig them up now.  I found my chain saw and attacked the hundreds of small tree weeds springing up at the edges of the back yard.  There are more trees to cut but I remembered my last poison ivy incident and decided to spray before I wade into the thick of things.

 

I will need to fire up my chipper after cutting down all of these little trees so I can get rid of them in garbage bags.  The chipper is truly terrifying to run and one of man’s greatest inventions.  It is also a bit of a trick to plug in since it uses 19.99 amps to start so the circuit cannot be used by anything else electrical or the breaker trips instantly.

 

I noticed that I need to replace a wooden fence that has rotten boards in it which allow critters to pass through pretty much unimpeded.  Finally something that I know how to do, and something I can do without help from the red wasps.  Or not, when I got to my local lumber store I was reminded that lumber is now more expensive than food, so I skipped the cedar fence boards for $1 per inch (not foot) and went with the pine for $2 each.  I could afford enough fence boards to start but not finish the fence, but progress anyway.

 

I do need to turn the gate around in this fence so I can actually use it to get into and out of the backyard; now it swings open only 90 degrees toward the back fence and the deck and gate effectively block access unless the gate is closed.  It should be fun to move the hinges and reattach them to the other post, removing the current sag at the same time, of course.

 

I still need to remove the azalea roots from the front flower bed which should be possible unless the red wasps guarding the peak of the house decide to help.  I think I will spray for poison ivy just in case before I tackle this project.  Maybe the stumps have rotted enough to make them easier to pull out; there is some regular ivy there too that could use some line trimming down to the dirt.  Should be as much fun as it sounds.

 

I decided it was warm enough to fire up the big mower, and it started pretty easily after I did a trickle charge of the battery and jumped it with my portable battery unit.  I put more gas in it and rode around the back yard with my “riding my mower” face, at least that is how Ms. Sherry describes it.  She seems to enjoy seeing me mow the green stuff in the backyard and tries her best not to laugh too much.  I have my matching green John Deere hat which I wear while mowing which for some reason everyone finds humorous.  I wanted a riding mower since the first time I saw one in Sears, and by golly I got one only sixty years later; worth the wait.