Hooray for no $$$$ spent

Now that the shed roof is finished we decided to deal with the mess that is our wood pile.  We want to store our wood on the north side of the barn so that it is partially protected by the deck.

First, we built a trellis like structure on the west end of our wood pile.  The trellis was made out of wood from our scrap pile......hooray for no $$$$ spent.  Once the trellis was installed we started tidying up the wood that was already on the north side.  We then started the task of moving the wood from the east side to the north side.  We are stacking the wood in two rows about 5 feet high.

It soon became obvious that we needed something at the other end to contain the wood.  If you don't have something at both ends, you run the risk of an over zealous squirrel running on top of the logs and initiating a log slide.

We built another trellis like structure using wood from our scrap pile.....hooray for no $$$$ spent.  We attempted to put the finishing touches on it today but the rain and the electric drill just don't mix.  In between showers we started moving some additional logs and now have about 50% of the area filled with logs.

Over the last four or five days whenever we needed to give our log moving/trellis building muscles a rest, we would work on laying a slate walkway from the deck to the back of the barn where our compost bins will be located.  We have a stash of large slate pieces from the demo of the swimming pool.  So this project was also completed using our slate scrap pile.......hooray for no $$$$ spent.

We also planted some flowers next to the trellis and added a large stone as a back drop for the irises.  The stone came from our stone pile......hooray for no $$$$ spent.  The flowers that we planted were taken from around the yard..........hooray for no $$$$ spent.  Irises, pink coneflower, and a pink daylily will all do nicely on the northeast side of the barn.  They don't look too great right now because I trimmed the irises and day lilies back.  The coneflower is about 40 inches tall and in bloom but we had to use a string to hold them up once we dug them up.

I doubt if we will get all the logs moved tomorrow but the trellis should be finished tomorrow.  Whatever wood is left over will get listed on Craigslist.  Last year we listed the wood and had someone come and take quite a bit of it.  Hopefully this year we can finally finish the pile off.

I know you're asking yourself......where are the photos?  I've taken plenty of photos but still cannot find my camera cord to download/upload photos.   I have LOTS of cords but just cannot find the correct one.  I want to know why they (electronic designers/manufacturers) cannot make all electronics use one or two types cords. Grrrrrr

Shed roof finished, now what?

We finished the shed roof and we are very pleased with the end result. I will start scrapping paint off the shed as soon as the heat wave retreats.  The heat is so stifling that it is hard to concentrate on what you are doing and add to that the MOSQUITOES......they are huge and mean.  I had one bite me on my upper arm and it left a bruise.

Between the heat and the rain, you can almost hear the grass grow.  It takes us an entire day to mow our property but we usually stretch it out to 2 partial days.  BUT lately we have had to mow twice a week so that leaves very little time to get anything else done.

We did build a trellis like structure to hold the fireplace logs in place.  It was fabricated out of scrap lumber that we had leftover so it was a freebie project.  Our plan is to move all the logs to the north side of the barn and store them under the loft portion of the deck.  Currently we have wood on the north and east side of the barn.

What's up next?????  Almost all of our projects require cooler/drier weather like removing the chimney that serviced the original furnace.  Removing this chimney will give us added space in the laundry room, eliminate an area that could possibly leak in the future, will give us space in the basement to install a tankless water heater, and make it possible to move the furnaces and ducts to install the wide pleated filters instead of the current thin pleated filters.

We also need to fix and paint the front door now that the new gutters keep the majority of the rain off the door.  The front door has taken a beating from the rain and sun.  We are keeping our fingers crossed that we can somehow fix it without taking it off the hinges.  The door is 3 inches thick and 40 inches wide and very very heavy.

Between the two deer and the bunnies.....we have harvested just 2 radishes from our garden.  The deer are getting bold and walking right into the yard during the day.  They just walk along taking a bite out of this plant and that plant.  The plants that they don't nibble on are trampled. This is the first year that we have had apples and plums.  I'm keeping my fingers crossed that the heat doesn't make them drop all their fruit before they ripen.

As you can see, I haven't added any photos.  I can't find my camera cord....well, I probably could but it's too hot to look.