Rot Repair, Sanding, and More Priming

This weather just isn't cooperating.   Nice sunny skies but cold, very cold.  I was able to finish priming the second set of shutters.  But now I am just waiting for a day where the weather is sunny and at least 55 degrees before I can even think about putting two coats of semi gloss paint on them.  We have spent a lot of time making these shutters and hunting down the hardware for them so the last thing I want to do is rush the top coat.  This will be a test of my patience but I must resist the urge to paint before the weather is warm enough.

Best way to resist the urge?  Move on to another project.  I started raking the flower beds around the garden shed because that is where R was working and I like to get the hosta beds raked before they start growing.  None have pop through yet but I did find some tulips and hyacinth bulbs that are starting to come up.  Also the daffodil bulbs that R and planted last year under the hedge row of lilacs out by the street have popped up.  We can't plant tulips like we want to, due to the fact that we have a lot of black walnut trees that are toxic to a lot of plants.  Tulips don't do well but daffodils do just fine and they are more deer resistant, too.  So to add some variety I try to plant different daffs every year.  This fall I am going to plant white or very pale yellow ones.  AND more hyacinths....love hyacinths.....the scent...is only second to lilac.  Love them both.

R has spent the last two days working on filling in the rotted window sills in the garden shed with universal filler.  We have used it before and it holds up to our extreme winter weather.  Should we have cut out the rotted sills and replaced them?  Probably, but this is a garden shed and we have bigger fish to fry then to do a restoration on the shed.  We have made big strides with the garden shed that everyone said "tear it down!"  So for now, filling in the sills with filler is just fine.  It is not like George Washington slept in our garden shed.

On Thursday, R put the first coat of filler on and today he sanded and shaped it, and then refilled again.  It's a process of layering.  

R touched up the flower boxes with the sander before he put it away.  Depending on the weather on Saturday, I might start priming just the inside of the flower boxes.  I can do that in the work room and not have to worry about the cats stepping on the wet paint.  I probably just jinxed myself and the cats will all decide that they must sleep inside the flower boxes.

Within the next month, we have a tree trimming crew coming for 8 hrs to trim our large trees.  We have a very large ash tree that has two large low limbs that need to be removed and also a few dead limbs that are too high for us to get to.  They will also remove two black walnut limbs over the sun room and remove all the small limbs that grow downward.  The bulk of their work will be on two huge silver maple trees that have a lot of storm damage.  These trees are important because they are situated where they give us our afternoon shade in the summer.  Do I wish that they were not silver maple and maybe oak or sugar maple?  Yes, but I cannot go to the nursery and buy a 100 year old tree.  So we are making these trees work by removing limbs that will cause us problems in the future or limbs that could compromise the health of the trees.

I am currently collecting bits and pieces for a focal point design piece for the back of the house.  There isn't a rush on it because we have to reshingle and hang eave troughs first.  Here's a hint...it involves our scrap pile....Surprise!!

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In a race with the rain

We just can't seem to get going on any projects because of the rain and cold. The last two days have been warmer and rain free so we are raking up a storm trying to beat the next round of rain storms due to begin on Saturday night or Sunday morning.

The side lawn is very soggy. I still need to rake the leaves out from around the climbing rose bushes and maybe give them a quick trimming and a little fertilizer. Everything is just so brown except for the lawn, it is greening up nicely. Too bad it is soggy and squishy. I would like to fertilize but it is just too wet to walk on.

Today was spent raking leaves out of the rose bed, trimming the lavender, trimming the roses, and fertilizing the fruit trees with Jobe's Fruit Tree spikes.

Here is the before shot. Notice all the leaves, unruley lavender, and overgrown rose bushes.
And now the after shot with everything trimmed. What you can't see is the bleeding photographer. My hands have at least 15 spots where thorns became embedded in my hands. Ironically it is the smaller thorns that hurt more. And no I did not have gloves on. I cannot work with gloves. When I was working and needed to wrench on an engine I hardly ever wore gloves. If you use Jobe's spikes, Ace Hardware currently has a rebate on them. They are on sale for $7.99 and have a rebate of $5.00 making the final cost $2.99 for 12 jumbo spikes with a bonus 3 additional spikes. You can apply for 2 rebates each for the Fruit trees, Trees and Shrubs, or Evergreens. Preen, Round Up, and Ortho Weed b Gon all have rebates available. The Ace Rewards program also is giving double points on these products.

On the list for tomorrow is level the large cement bird bath in the front hosta bed. The bed is rather new and because R used a rototiller to loosen the soil, before I planted the hostas, the soil sank a little and now the bird bath is askew.

I also need to trim the two smaller rose beds, rake leaves out of the tulips across the back of the house, rake the leaves out of the remaining 3 hosta beds, and replace all my label spikes that popped out of the ground because of the frost. So tomorrow will basically be more raking, raking, and raking.

With each passing year, the spring clean up becomes easier as we clear out brush that grabs every leaf that blows by. Also with each passing year, our driveway get wider. When we purchased the house the driveway was so covered with decayed leaves and pine needles that it was just two tire tracks. Once we shoveled all the debris from the driveway we were disappointed that the driveway was rather narrow. Well lo and behold it was not. It merely had two feet of overgrown lawn on each side. We edged a little more this spring and we think we have found the edge on both sides. The last remaining bits of dirt and sod were used to fill in low areas in the lawn.I am still bummed about the lack of spring flowers. I did though uncover one very small daffodil called Tete a Tete. So here for your viewing pleasure....the only spring flower blooming in my flower beds.