Bells at the Bok Tower Gardens

Yesterday we took the day to visit the Bok Tower Gardens in Lake Wales, Florida.  (Thank you, Christopher and Lindsay, for the Botanical Gardens membership you bought us this past year.  We were able to get into the Bok Gardens free through their reciprocal agreement with other National Historic Gardens.)

The Bok "Singing Tower" with its 60-bell carillon.

Pinewood Estates, which is known for its wonderful tile work,
peeks out from the trees as a path leads from this garden
bench to the front entrance.

The Bok Gardens are known for two things: the "Singing Tower" which plays daily carillon music, and the Pinewood Estates and Gardens, built from 1929 - 1932 by Bethlehem Steel vice president Charles Austin Buck.  (Yeah, I know.  Buck and Bok!)

We left Dunedin about 9:00 a.m., drove through very heavy traffic, and arrived in Lake Wales at approximately 11:00 a.m.  We purchased tickets for the Noon - 1:00 p.m. viewing of the Estate, so that gave us just enough time to beat the bus crowds by having an early lunch in the Garden's Blue Palmetto Cafe.

The cafe is located next to one of the special areas called the Pollinator Garden.  This area is filled with beautiful shrubs and flowers that attract those insects that keep our food chain thriving and our gardens blooming.  As we enjoyed lunch, we watched swarms of bees and an entire kaleidoscope of Monarch butterflies happily dance from flower to flower doing what they do best: pollinate the neighborhood.  We were amazed at the number of butterflies present.  In addition to the colorful Monarchs, we also saw both black and white butterflies busily at work.

The entire estate was decorated for Christmas
with lots of poinsettias.

A Christmas "tree", made entirely of bromeliads set in a wire rack,
presented a festive view from the dining room.

After lunch we took a liesurly stroll through the garden to the Pinewood Estate.  We were somewhat disappointed that not more was in bloom, but we were assured that if we returned in Spring, the landscape would come alive again by that time.  What was apparent was that the garden and the estate were decked out for the holidays.

Amaryllis add a touch of color to the landscape. They bloom
from December until early March in Florida.

Some plants that we see in abundance in Florida were the poinsettias and the amaryllis.  Both flowers were used extensively to decorate the grounds and the house.  Each year the design team of the Amaryllis Club decorates the estate for the holidays, choosing a year and a theme to highlight.  This year they chose 1936, and the story line was that Mr. Buck had invited his children and grandchildren to spend the holidays at Pinewood.

The Loggia, or family room, presents a place
for the family to relax, read, and play games.

Even the dog has an elaborate bed!

Each room was extravagantly decorated with holiday decor; yet under all of the glitz and glitter, we still could see the original ornate woodwork and wonderful tiles that adorn the house year round.

Heavy woodwork and massive doors reflected
the opulence of the house and the 1920's style
of architecture.

The interior of the house with dark, massive,
ornately-carved woodwork contrasted with
intricate 1920's plaster work.

After the house tour, we walked to the Bok Tower in time for the 1:00 p.m. concert.   The Bok Tower is named for Edward W. Bok. Bok was an American author, editor of The Ladies Home Journal, philanthropist, and peace advocate.   He established Bok Gardens in 1929 as a gift to the American people.  The 50-acre garden was designed by noted landscape architect Frederick Law Olmsted, Jr.

Graceful, shady paths lead to the moat around the tower.

The star of the garden is a 205-foot marble and coquina "Singing Tower," a structure designed to hold  the 60-bell carillon to provide music to the garden.  The bronze bells were manufactured in London; the smallest bell (highest tone) weighs 16 pounds, and the largest bell weighs over 11 tons.  The Tower has employed a carillonneur since 1928.  Geert D'hollander is only the fourth carillonneur (starting in 2012) since that time.  He went through extensive musical training at the Royal Conservatory in Antwerp, Belgium, and he studied carillon at the Royal Carillon School in Mechelen, Belgium.  He also has won numerous first place awards for his skills as a carillonneur.

We found seats in the garden in front of a video screen whose live-broadcast allowed us to watch D'hollander as he played a selection of Christmas carols.  The bells are played at an organ-like structure through a series of paddles which are pressed down to activate the clapper in each of the bells.

The music was wonderful; we also were blessed with a sunny day in the low 70's, so our time in the gardens was very pleasant.  After the concert, D'hollander came out of the Tower and answered question from the crowd.  I kept thinking of my friend Bonnie's son, Kyle, would would have loved the whole performance and probably would have enjoyed a conversation with the performer.

The original instrument is now on display.

One bell is hooked up to show how the
instrument moves the clapper in the bell.

After the concert, we made a final stop at the Hammock Hollow Children's Garden.  While the garden had some great places for children to climb (including a giant nylon "spider's web") and three different xylophones, we really thought that the Children's Garden in Green Bay is equally good.

Overall, we had an enjoyable day.  We were told that the peak bloom time is from February 1 - March 31, so we will have to consider returning there during that time.

Hobbies at last

The great draw to living in Florida is that we can take a leisurely walk outside in the middle of winter without freezing our fingers off.  We are here for the weather, and we make sure that we take advantage of it as often as possible.   Yesterday was a beautiful, mid-70's day, so we ventured out for our morning walk.  As we turned the corner from the backyard to our driveway, I caught movement out of the corner of my eye.

"Well, hello," I said.  Before Rick could ask who I was talking to, he saw the recipient of my conversation.  There, taking in the morning sun, was a 3 foot tall snowy egret, perched on the roof of our house.  This fellow is a regular in the neighborhood, but he still is a majestic reminder that we are in Florida each time I see him.

A snowy egret enjoys the morning sun on our roof.

We finally are to the point of being able to set aside our remodeling agenda and to turn to some of our hobbies.  That includes weaving.  For the past six years, we have had a small table loom to use.  While it allowed me to weave a few things, it had many challenges and limitations.  A couple of weeks ago, we sold that loom to a woman in Tampa, just in time for us to take delivery of our new, eight-shaft Baby Wolf loom.

Rick spent a couple of days putting it all together, and then I chose a pattern that I wanted to try.  We decided to weave something that we both could weave and use.  Each person weaves differently, so me weaving half a scarf and Rick weaving the other half would have been a noticeably different product from beginning to end.  We decided on one warp on which we each could weave a placemat.

We spent a couple of days counting out the yarns (called the "warp") and putting the yarns on (sleying) the loom.  Once the 270 threads were on the loom, I started the first placemat.  The pattern we chose is a series of red poinsettias on a white background. As I started to weave the first placemat, I noticed a problem.  I was only getting half-flowers instead of the whole bloom.  I discovered a problem in the way the threads were threaded through the heddles on the loom, so we had to take it all out and start over.  I redid the first half of the threading, and Rick did the last half.  Then he drew each of those 270 threads through the reed and we tried again.

Oops!  This time we discovered that one thread (of course, in the middle of the whole group) was still in the wrong place.  Out came half of the threads again, even though we had both double-checked our work.  Sigh.

The third time was a charm.  We got the threads sleyed through the proper heddles in the proper order, and I started to weave.  I love the feel of the new loom.  The pattern emerged beautifully, the weaving was fun, and the edges of my work were even and easy to maintain.  I finished the first placemat in about 1 1/2 hours.

Christmas placemats on the loom.

We chose the poinsettia pattern for a festive look.

Now it is Rick's turn to try the new loom.  He can weave the second placemat for our holiday dinners.  I wish now, after weaving the first one, that I had made the warp longer so we could have woven a set of four rather than two mats.  However, this was our "getting to know" first project on the loom, so we wanted to keep it short.

We are happy with our purchase.  I am satisfied with the results so far, and we both are delighted that we finally can relax and enjoy ourselves as we renew our interest in our hobbies.

Flush with Frustration

There is something to be said about an outhouse.  It has been used for centuries, and in all of that time, it has served its intended purpose well.  The simplicity of its design has made it ideal in several cultures and in almost any location.  And there is little, if anything, to break down... except the deposits that nature takes care of in due course.  More is the pity that modern technology has replaced the efficient operation of the outhouse.

Sadly, we now have modern conveniences that are susceptible to failure.  When we returned for the winter to Florida, we noticed that the toilet in the main bathroom was leaking.  That toilet, though a Kohler, had given us trouble since Day One.  It had a tendency to continue to run water through it at a slow trickle even after the flush was complete. Rick has replaced every internal component in the tank more than once to try to solve that problem.

Since the toilet was leaking, we had no choice but to take it up and to replace the wax ring.  This we did a couple of weeks ago, noting that the floor under the toilet was not level, and that the opening to the drain was not the standard, modern size.  A wax ring barely fit where the seal should go.

While the first install after our remodeling last year had required a shim in the back, when we replaced the ring and re-seated the toilet in November, it seemed to settle in well.  However, within the last couple of weeks, Rick had noticed that moisture seemed to be seeping into the floor around the toilet.  So yesterday, he took the toilet up again.

Rick had purchased two new wax rings since we knew we would need both an inner and an outer ring to make the seal work correctly.  Now keep in mind that Rick still has a very sore hand that is still healing after his surgery, and that the space in the bathroom is really too small for me to fit in to help him lift the toilet out.  So the job that should have taken only half an hour began.

After draining the toilet and lifting it out, cleaning up the old wax, and mopping up the wet floor, we added a small fan to the mix to try to dry out the floor.  Rick actually took a small cleaning sponge and some CermaBright ceramic stovetop cleaner to get some of the stains out of the terrazzo floor.  After the floor dried, he put the toilet back down.

It did not seal.  Crap!  (Excuse the pun.) Back to the store for more wax rings.  Up came the toilet for the second time.  Clean off the wax rings that did not work.  Open the packages, and put on the new wax rings.  Lift the toilet back into place.  Thankfully, this time, the toilet seemed to seal, but it rocked a bit.  I questioned whether it was set, so Rick got mad and pulled it up again.  It actually HAD been sealed, but now the seal was broken.  We needed more wax rings. Back to the store for more rings.

After he put the toilet down for the third time, it seemed to seal and be set.  This one was going to work.

Rick tightened down the bolts, and then he turned on the water to refill the tank.  Suddenly, he heard the sound of porcelain splitting.  As the water added weight to the toilet, the bolts in the base were too tight, and on the uneven floor,  the base split.  $#!*!  We were back to Square One.

Keep in mind that Rick has installed at least eight new toilets and has taken up and put back down those toilets four or five times more as we remodeled bathrooms.  He has never over-tightened the bolts nor cracked a toilet... until now.

This time the trip to the store was not only for  more wax rings, but also for a new Kohler toilet.  While neither of us were particularly sorry to see the toilet go, neither of us wanted to spend the money right now for a new toilet either.  Plus the new toilet was both awkwardly boxed and heavy!

We maneuvered it into the car (thank God for SUVs) and then into the house.  Then Rick had to drain the toilet once again, lift it out, transport it to the garage, and bring the new toilet in. New wax rings went down, and Rick installed the new base.  By this time, I could not bear to watch the process.  I was done with the whole thing and told Rick to just give up for the day.  We had another functioning bathroom, and I could not care less if we ever got this second toilet reinstalled.

However, Rick was not going to give up.  He finally got the new base installed and the new tank attached.  He needed shims in the back because the floor really is not level, and in the end the double wax rings seem to have everything sealed.

I don't have the heart to go and inspect it too closely, and I have to admit that I have not used the new toilet at all.  I am just done with plumbing in this house for a while.  We still have to dispose of the old toilet, and since the base is cracked, we cannot just take this one to the Magic Curb for someone else to haul away.  We'll have to dispose of this one properly.

So Rick took most of the day to fix a leaking toilet.  It took about 10 wax rings to do so, much more stress than his hand should have encountered, and enough frustration to last a lifetime.

And in the end, I think that the ancients had the right idea.  Dig a hole, do what needs to be done, and let nature biodegrade the results.  And if things do not disintegrate quickly enough, add dirt on top, and move over a few yards to dig a new hole.  There is something to be said about an outhouse.

November 30, 2017

Today was almost a holiday in Florida since November 30 marks the last day of the hurricane season for 2017.  I am sure that no one was sad to see the season end.  This one caught Floridans, and that is something that has not happened in this state for a number of years.  In fact, the last hurricane to hit this city happened in 1921... almost 100 years ago.  We were lucky that Hurricane Irma downgraded to a Category 2 by the time it reached the area; however, that was strong enough for our tastes.  Had I been here, I am sure that I would have been terrified.

Yesterday Rick and I went to the Nursery and purchased two crotons for the back flower garden.  Yesterday I took the shrub nippers and cut off the top three feet of the gardenia tree in that garden.  The top had not filled in well, had probably been whipped too much by Irma, and just was not particularly appealing to view.  By cutting the top off, we now have a manageable tree that I want to fill in at the bottom.  I can keep this plant a bush rather than a tree with correct pruning.

Today before the sun got around to that garden, I cleaned out some of the debris (leaves, sticks, and pine needles) that were mixed with the stone.  I really need to take all of the stone out to do a thorough job, but I got off the surface mess for now, and that will have to suffice.  The neighbor cut down the pine tree, so I am thankful that no more messy needles will fall into the garden.

Two new crotons flank each side of the corner garden.

Two plants that I had put into the garden a few years ago did not thrive, so I took them out when we first arrived this fall.  I planted the two crotons in their place for a little color in the garden.  The type of croton I planted are fairly slow-growing, so I should be able to keep them pruned to a manageable size. I also had trimmed the Ti plant in back, so that is starting to grow well again also.

The result is a tidy garden for now that I will enjoy as I look out the back windows in the Florida room.

A Little Key West...

We vowed when we came down to Florida that our house would be decorated in a tropical style, and we have tried very hard to support local artists by buying only things that either come from art fairs or from consignment shops.

Yesterday we went downtown to the Farmer's Market because Rick wanted to buy some honey with which he can make some home-baked bread.  While we were down there (since we actually scored some FREE parking at Pioneer Park), we also took a stroll through the Art Fair that was setting up.

We found a glass artist that had some cute little copper fish on a stained-glass background.  We purchased one small panel of fish and brought them home, only to find that they were way too small for the intended wall above the toilet in the master bathroom.  We took the fish back and somehow were talked into ordering a much bigger piece for the wall.

On the second trip back to the Art Fair, Rick mentioned a fun watercolor that really caught his attention each time we walked past the booth.  (Truth be told, I really liked the same print.)  The print was framed, and the artist wanted $75 for it.  We found a similar print in his batch of prints for $35.  When he asked if I wanted to buy that print, I told him that I really wanted the print that was in the frame, but I did not want to buy the frame. (The frame was too wide and not well made.)  He said that he would "swap out" the print I wanted for the print I was holding, so we bought the colorful print of three houses that we wanted to put on our kitchen wall.

The fun, Key West bungalows add some color to our
large, blank kitchen wall.

Rick did some research and found that Michael's had frames for up to 70% off.  We went to Michael's and found the perfect white frame, normally $39.99, on sale for $12.00 + tax.  Such a deal!  We came home, framed the print, and it was hanging on the kitchen wall that night.

This morning we woke up and discussed the fact that neither of us thought that the copper and glass work that we ordered would be right for our master bathroom. I could not figure out yesterday why it bothered me, but last night I noticed that all of the fixtures in that room are brushed nickel, and I don't think that the copper would look right with it.

So this morning, before church, we went back to the Art Fair.  We purchased a second print of a bright pink house with a hammock and a flamingo from the same artist, and we tried to find the glass artist so we could cancel our order.  She was not there yet, and we had to get to church, so we left.

After church, we drove back to Michael's to buy another frame.  Of course, the 70% deal was off, and the same frame was now just 50% off.  We still got a good deal on the frame, so we took it.

When we returned home,  I e-mailed the glass artist, cancelling our order.  We are much happier with the two bright, new prints that we have.  They make me smile, and both prints and frames still cost us less money than the one copper piece would have in the end.

Our new print brings a bit of Key West
even into the master bathroom.

The art is fun, original, and funky. Gladys needed a little color in her life, and if something makes a person smile, then it is worth the time and effort to get it in the end.

Subtle Changes

Although our yard does not look much different to the casual observer, some small changes have taken place as we went about "cleaning up" our landscaping.

In the front, that just meant cleaning out weeds around the mailbox, pulling a few weeds from the main garden by the house, ripping out a patch of pretty-purpled-flowered-but-still-weeds vegetation from the center of the yard, and trimming the front bushes away from the sidewalk a bit. That whole venture filled less than a full contractor's garbage bag of yard waste.

The back yard was a bit more work.  My little corner garden is under our neighbors' camphor trees both to the north and to the east, so Rick blew out a huge bag full of leaves and sticks from that garden alone.  I am glad that we put down the heavier red river rock in our gardens because we can blow off the leaves and not scatter the rock.  From that garden I removed two nearly-dead bushes, and I trimmed back two tall Ti plants.  The great thing about Ti plants is that if you trim them back, they will send out new stems and grow.  I had cut down one last year, and it is about a foot tall already. You can just see the red leaves peeking out above the front plants in the picture below.

While the gardenia tree does well, I had to remove
the bushes in both front corners and cut down the
overgrown Ti plants in the back.

My back gardenia tree needed some trimming away from the fence, but it looks full and good this year, and it has been rewarding us with gardenia blossoms since we arrived.

I have little left of the center lemon-lime plants,
but they should grow back out with new shoots
and green-and-yellow foliage.

The garden in front of the Florida room windows needed some drastic measures.  I had planted lemon-lime plants, and they had all grown tall which meant that all of the foliage was at the top with just spindly stems underneath.  Since the lemon-lime are the same type of plant as the Ti plant, they too can be cut back and allowed to grow new stems.  Right now, they look a little sick, but I have hopes that they will reward me with new shoots in a couple of weeks. (If I remember to water them!)

The bougainvillea towers above my head as
it fills in the gaps on either side of the tree where
we had to stop the back yard fence.

The bougainvillea that I planted around the back tree a couple of years ago is doing well.  (It must have liked the hurricane!)  I had to cut back some of the taller  branches and cut off one branch that was invading my neighbor's yard, but the rest looks healthy and good.  I tied one branch back onto the trellis and was rewarded for my efforts by driving one of the many bougainvillea thorns into the flesh of my right thumb.  Wow! Those things really hurt.

I really should not complain since the thorns are one of the reasons I chose the bougainvillea.  A former neighbor had a nasty little dog that was always trying to come into our yard, so by putting up a trellis and planting the thorny plant, I have successfully stopped any creature larger than a snake from entering our yard through the gap in our back fence.  Right now we see green leaves, but I see small signs that the bougainvillea soon will have red brachts to make it festive for the holidays.

Work needs to be done to form a garden around the
arika palm in the back corner.  The palm itself
was protected from Hurricane Irma's winds and
did very well.

The arika  palm that we planted in the back corner of the yard survived the hurricane well also; however, once again I raked out an entire huge bag of leaves and debris from under it.  We want to add edger pavers around that palm and to put down landscape fabric with stone on top, but the edgers that we have elsewhere in the back yard are discontinued.  Sigh.  Why is it that if one finds stones... or shampoo... or a particular food... that one likes, the manufacturer just HAS to go about either changing ("improving") or discontinuing it?  Now we have to hunt for another type of edger that will complement the gardens we already have set in place in the back yard. The fun never ends.

We would like to add some weed and feed fertilizer to our front yard, but we are just getting into the dry season here, so we don't know if now is the right time to do so.  I also need to add some plants to the back corner garden under the gardenia tree, and we would like to add some vegetation on the south side of the house, too.  We'll do that both for color and to keep our landscape people from chipping all of the paint off the bottom of the house with their weed-wackers.

The gardens and yard will be our main focus this year now that the interior of the house is complete.  This transformation will not take place all in one year, both because Rick's hand is still healing and because landscaping can be very expensive.  As I figure out what I want to put back there and what we can afford, we will start to make Gladys beautiful again.

Sparkling Clean

We spent this morning completing our cleaning project by pressure washing the south and the west sides of the house.  Then Rick and I went back and washed all of the windows.  I wish the windows in my Wisconsin house were this clean! The house does look much better, so the result was well worth the effort. While he was finishing the cleaning, I hosed down the screens so our views are clear again.

Rick uses the pressure washer to clean off Hurricane Irma
debris from the house.

The job took us most of the morning; however, as I mentioned before, mornings are our time to work.  We also wanted to get out early to wash the south side of the house before the sun got too intense on that side of the house.

We have a mystery, though.  We have noticed that the gutters on the south side of the house have mold growing on them on the outside. Now I could understand that if this were to happen to the elements on the north side of the house, but we cannot understand why mold would grow on the sunny south side.  If anyone has an explanation, I would love to hear it!

With the house all washed, we now have the opportunity to spray for bugs tomorrow.  We always forget how many creepy-crawly creatures inhabit the south until we have not had the chance to spray the perimeter of the house to keep them at bay.

After Rick finished the house, we moved on to the fence.  I was in the garage when he walked in carrying the damaged fence board that I noticed yesterday.  OK.  Apparently the board came out of the frame much more easily than we had anticipated.  We dug out a replacement board that we had stored in the rafters of the garage, and within 15 minutes we had the entire fence section back together.  Success!  We were very fortunate that our only storm damage cost us nothing and took us less than a half hour to repair.  I guess constructing the fence "the Anderson way" paid off in the end, as did our earlier efforts to reconstruct this house as hurricane resistant as possible.

The Schwan's man came today for the first time.  He was very happy we were back in town as we had ordered a literal freezer-full of food.  We now have enough meals to last us for months!  (And Owen, the Silvermint bar I had tonight was delicious.)

My last task of today was repotting my plant in the pot on the front porch.  The pot originally held two plants, but one died, so I had to repot and center the remaining plant.  It survived the hurricane nestled in the corner of the porch, thanks to my neighbor's efforts to tuck it away out of the wind. So I guess now I am obligated to keep it alive for the winter.

Perhaps tomorrow we can visit the nursery to see if we can find some plants to put in on the south side of the house.  The inside is complete; now we need to buy Gladys some flowers to make her pretty again.

Home Again

The great thing about owning two homes that we have remodeled to our tastes is that no matter which direction we travel, we eventually are home again.

Our trip down to Gladys this year in the new car was blissfully uneventful.  We flew to Gladys in October to pick up the old Honda and drove it home for our trade in on the new car.  Why purchase new?  Well, when we bought the last Honda CRV, we did so in a hurry because Lindsay needed our old Toyota. The Honda did not have many of the features that we wanted, but it was acceptable at the time.  The following year (2015) Honda came out with a Touring model that had all of the features we really desired.  As I age, pulling down the hatchback in the back is becoming more difficult.  I never totally will regain the strength I once had.  The Touring model has a power left gate in back. It also has a great navigation system for my lousy sense of direction, and it is loaded with a gazillion new safety features.  For a mid-priced SUV, the 2017 Honda CRV- Touring is rated one of the most safe and most reliable models on the market.

Rick wanted an all-wheel-drive vehicle (in case we want to bring it back to Wisconsin someday), so we purchased the new car in Green Bay.  I won't go into the hassle that we encountered trying to get it licensed in Florida; let's just say that too many hours from too many people were spent trying to get everything legally in place. Thank God for a wonderful woman at the Florida DMV named Ashley! At this point, the car is ours, it is licensed, and we are safely in Florida.

We left Wisconsin on Friday at 4:00 a.m. and drove as far as Tennessee the first day.  A violent line of thunderstorms was making its way eastward through the Plains, so we wanted to try to beat the majority of the bad weather.  Saturday morning at 4:00 o'clock found us driving in pitch dark with dense fog through Nashville and the mountains of Tennessee.  Not my favorite way to travel!  We had fog all the way from Nashville to Atlanta, Georgia.  Then the sun finally came out and the day cleared.  We never really saw any of the rain that was still chasing us eastward. Rick wanted to save money by not stopping at our hotel in northern Florida, so from somewhere he found the energy to drive all the way to Gladys.

When we arrived at Gladys on Saturday, she was so excited to see us that she peed herself!  Sigh.  Yes, we discovered on the "first flush" of the season that the toilet in the main bathroom was leaking. Off to Home Depot we went to get a new wax ring.  Just what Rick wanted to do with his injured hand: pull up a toilet!  However, between the two of us, we were able to get the toilet out and to reseat it onto a new wax ring.  Rick was concerned that when we put it back down, he did not feel it "squish" down on the ring; however, it securely bolted down and has not leaked since that repair.

We did discover that cock roaches like to live in the drainage sewer system, so as soon as we get the whole house power-washed, the bug spray is coming out!

Hurricane Irma did not do hardly any damage to our house.  We know that is mostly because we have spent the last six years adding hurricane resistant doors, windows, garage doors, and roofing materials. We noticed that the westerly wind (which was reported at 100 mph) tried to force its way through the front doors, but they held.  Rick was able to reseat the doors in the frame, and we found no indication of water infiltration.  A quick walk-around showed no other damage to our house.

The back of the house now is clean, and the windows once again
let in the Florida sunshine.  Our bottle brush tree survives (although
not well) and the bushes next to the house need some attention.

The house is filthy due to all of the debris that was flying through the air, so today Rick power-washed the back and north side of the house, including the soffits.  Then we cleaned the windows and screens, and he took the leaves out of the gutters. The rain gutters actually changed color as he washed them!

I discovered a small hole in one of the fence
panels on the north side of our property.  We'll
try to replace that panel if we can get it out.

Only when I was washing the screens (which I had propped against our fence) did I notice our first indication of storm damage.  What I thought was a small leaf plastered onto the fence turned out to be a hole that obviously was made by a flying projectile -- either a stick or a stone.  The hole is less than the size of a quarter, but it is something that we will have to address.  We'll have to see if we can bend the fence posts enough to get the broken panel out and then slip a new panel into the same place.  Thankfully, Rick said that he found a panel stored in the garage, so that task awaits us another day.

We'll try to finish washing the south and west (front) sides of the house tomorrow.  The task goes fairly quickly with house wash and the power washer.  We have lots of windows in the front, but they all can be reached from the ground or from a small ladder, so by tomorrow we should have the house, soffits, windows, and screens completed.  This job is taking a toll on Rick's left hand -- on which he had surgery this summer for ruptured ligaments-- and on his left arm.  Perhaps I can get him to let me use the power washer for a while tomorrow...

Washing the fence will wait for another day.  We are back into our old routine of working in the cooler temperatures of the morning, and then realizing (or feeling) our age and resting in the afternoon.

A little bit at a time.  We are so thankful that Gladys came through the hurricane intact and that the small tasks which face us are totally within our realm of possibilities to complete.

Fall Fatigue

Ask anyone who lives in the upper Midwest, and they will tell you that this has been a very strange fall season.  We had temperatures in the 90's in September, balmy 70's last week, and a sudden cold snap -- but more seasonable temperatures -- this week.

Even Mother Nature is confused.  The trees did not turn the vivid golds and reds that we usually see in the fall.  Instead, we see more muted oranges, rusts, and browns this year.  The trees also are not dropping their leaves at the usual rates.  While our cottonwood tree, thankfully, has shed most of its foliage, most of the maple trees in the neighborhood are still fully in bloom.  They should be bare by now.  Our new little maple in front has not lost a leaf yet, and our Japanese lilac also retains all of its still-green foliage. Strangely, the first major blizzard of the year hit the Dakotas, Minnesota, and Upper Michigan yesterday.  Stephanie, in Rochester, MN, said they received their earliest snowfall on record, getting 2" of wet snow.

We had hoped since we are returning late to Florida that we would be able to get all of the fall clean-up finished and not have to pay someone to do a "final raking" of the yard before winter.  Since the birch trees in the back are just starting to drop their yellow leaves, we may have to pay yet this year.

In an attempt to get as much to the curb as possible, Rick and I worked all morning doing what we could to clean up the yard.  He used the leaf blower while I handled a rake.  Once we got all of the leaves to the front curb for pick-up next week, I took the lawn mower with a bagger and cut the whole lawn one last time.  I was surprised how long the grass still was in the front.  The backyard cutting was good just to pick up the remnants of the leaves that we were not able to capture on our raking spree.

Our raking and mowing efforts clearly define the boundaries of our yard.
Note, however, the leaves ready to blow back onto our property from the
neighbors' yards.

The result is a beautifully raked and mowed yard that, sadly, will not stay clean for long since our new neighbors to the north do not seem to understand the use of a lawn mower or a rake.  If the wind blows in the wrong direction, their mess will be in our yard.  Perhaps it is time to build that fence after all...

As we worked this morning, however, I became aware of two things.  First, I am getting older, so each year the yard seems to be larger than last year.  I can still handle it, but keeping it neat takes more effort than doing so has done in the past.

But that is OK, because the other thing I became aware of was how blessed we are to have a home and a yard in which to work.  So many people this year, due to hurricanes or fires, have no homes left.  Their yards are either mud pits as a result of flooding or are charred wastelands as the wildfires that consumed their homes also ravaged the yards.  At least I have green grass that needs cutting and standing trees that have golden leaves falling to the ground.  So I will not complain of the weather or of the work.  Instead, I will count my blessings and be thankful for everything I have.

Why?

I just don't understand.  We awoke this morning to learn that a lone gunman last night had killed 58 people and wounded over 500 by opening fire with semi-automatic weapons on a concert crowd in Los Vegas.   Then he turned the gun on himself and fired.

Mass casualties. The worst massacre in US history.  Not terrorist related. Just terrible, senseless death and destruction. But why?  To what end did killing and wounding all of those innocent strangers have?  Did he promote a cause? Was he angry at someone?  Why take out frustration and anger on those who had nothing to do with the causes and reasons for such hatred and anger? His actions destroyed lives and families, yet changed nothing.

The gunman was 64 years old with no history of mental illness.  The concert-goers were country western music fans, mostly between the ages of 10 and 35.  The worlds of the gunman and the concert-goes probably never crossed, yet we know that with his arsenal and his choice of hotel rooms from which he acted that he had planned this horrific crime in detail.

His family is stunned.  His brother says that he never has seen his brother even draw a weapon, and certainly not shoot one on a regular basis.  Yet the gunman was well-armed with several semi-automatic rifles and mountains of ammunition.  How has our country become so lax that we allow someone to accumulate such a store of weapons regardless of his mental or emotional state? Why is there no limit on what a person can buy within a certain period of time?  Why are there no checks on who can own weapons in this country? And why is there no registry on who does and does not own such weapons.

When our Constitution was written, it gave people the right to bear arms.  At the time, in the late 18th century, bearing arms had a very practical reason: to feed one's family.  With no handy-dandy corner grocery store with a well-stocked meat counter, going to out kill a deer, pheasant, turkey, buffalo, or bear was a way to survive.  Yet those hunters of yesteryear would never have dreamed of using a semi-automatic weapon to bag their prey; doing so would have destroyed the very meat they were trying to harvest.  People had the right to bear arms to feed themselves and to defend themselves against wild animals that may have freely roamed near their homesteads.

And I believe that people still should have the right to own a weapon with which they can hunt game, be that birds, bear, deer, or other animals they would choose to put on the dinner table.  I understand the reasoning behind keeping herd size in check, and I find nothing wrong with the sportsman who wants to hunt.

However, I see no sense in allowing anyone the right to own -- and to use -- semi-automatic weapons outside the realm of the military.  No-one needs a semi-automatic rifle at home.  No one needs a weapon that, through instructions readily available on the Internet, can be turned into a fully automatic weapon.  Law enforcement agencies decry the law that allows these weapons in the hands of the general public, and I see no reason why anyone would need one.  If you want to shoot targets, do so with a weapon that fires single shots and actually shows what skill you have. If you want to hunt, do so with a single-shot rifle specially suited with ammunition for the type of animal you seek. Semi-automatic weapons have no business in the sports field since their only purpose is that of mass destruction.

Had the gunman not had semi-automatic fire power, hundreds of people would not have been injured, and I would venture to guess that the death toll would be much less.  Allowing people these weapons makes no sense to me.  Nor does shooting randomly into a crowd of innocent strangers.  Their deaths serve no purpose and, sadly, probably will not cause any changes.

Perhaps the only good that could possibly come out of this tragedy is if enough people actually become enraged enough to contact their Legislators and to demand that the laws be changed to protect the innocent.  We need stronger gun laws that allow the sports hunter the right to bear arms while keeping weapons of mass killing off the streets and out of the hands of those who are not mentally or emotionally able to know right from wrong.

Yet I fear that nothing will be done.  We have the power to change what is wrong, yet no one will do so.  And that, I do not understand.

Good News on a Day of Mourning

Today is September 11, a day of perpetual mourning in America for all of the innocent lives we lost to senseless terrorist attacks 16 years ago.  It is a day of remembrance, and ceremonies across America commemorated those civilians lost and those brave first responders who gave their lives trying to help.

Yet today also was a day of good news for us.  We learned, first of all, that our nephew and his wife were safe, having lost just a few shingles from the roof of their house.  We learned that our church members and pastor and his family also were safe.  Apparently our aging church withstood the winds and the rains and came out intact.  Some of that is due to the fact that the storm, at the last minute, drifted east, sparing our area from the worst of the rains and the winds.  Some of that is due to the architecture of the church being low and having the buildings protect one another from the way they are configured.  And part of that is because people prayed for deliverance, and they were granted that grace.

We learned that our sister-in-law's sister, who fled Naples and drove north, was safe. The fate of her home is still unknown, but we know that she was out of harm's way when the winds and the water invaded her city.

We learned, thankfully, that the time and money we spent putting in hurricane resistant windows, doors, garage doors, and roofing materials paid us back in full.  We reportedly have no damage to our house, and even the vinyl fence (complete with its concreted-in posts) remains standing.  We are so relieved to hear that our home and property are intact.

Sadly, we also learned that our neighbor who has been watching our home for us did not fair as well.  She had a huge back porch with jalousy windows that worried her.  Thankfully, she took shelter with a neighbor to the north, only to return today to find that her porch was totally gone.  She said that she could not even find the pieces of it in the neighborhood.  When the porch blew off, it also took part of her roof on the house, so she had to scramble today to try to get tarps on the roof and across the back to protect the interior of her house.  We have not heard from her again, but I have thought of her often today and pray that she was about to secure her property.  If we had been there, we gladly would have helped her tarp the house to keep it safe.

Yesterday, Florida took the worst weather beating of the last 96 years, and recovery in some parts of it will take months.  Power is still out in over half the state; crews may need days if not weeks to get it all functional again.  No power is all right with us as long as the house stays enclosed.  With no one going in or out, the air conditioned, dry interior air will stay somewhat cool and dry, so we are not worried.  When power is restored, the air conditioner should start again with no trouble.

Now the healing begins.  Yes, we probably will get a $600 bill from our insurance company to help with the claims from people who have lost everything.  Somehow, that seems a small price to pay.  Our preparation was worth the time and expense to keep our property safe.  We are fortunate that we do not have to travel down to Florida to take care of downed trees or missing roofs. We are grateful that we did not lose any family members or friends.  We will stay here, out of the way for now, to let Rick's hand and our adopted state both begin the healing process.

Big, Bad Irma

Seven years.  That's how many years of loving labor we have invested in our Florida home to make it the comfortable, safe, bright retirement home of our dreams.  When we first laid eyes on the house during an open house one fine March day, Rick did not want to even go inside to see it.  So I went in alone, took a look around, and saw great potential.  I finally persuaded Rick to take a look.  All he saw was lots of work.  We went back with Steve and Chris after the open house to peek in the windows.  They, too, saw the potential buried under all of the dirt and neglect.  All Rick saw was lots of work, but he was willing to give me what I wanted.  We closed on that house on June 6, 2010.

On the day we closed, Rick wanted to sleep that night in a hotel.  I wanted to save the money, so we moved in that same day.  The house was built in 1960, and it had not been updated since that time.  It was filthy.  While Rick cleaned the disgusting toilet (he would not even use it standing up!), I set about sweeping dog hair and dirt from the Florida room.  I scrubbed enough of the floor to set down an air mattress -- which would be our bed for the next two summers -- so we would have a place to sleep.  Since we both were still teaching in Wisconsin, we had just a few precious weeks each summer to start the transformation process on the house.

Like many crazy people do with inanimate objects, we personified the house.  Because of her location, we called her Gladys, and I immediately began to think of her as a sad, tired, achy, neglected old woman who was just crying out for some love and attention.  She needed some new clothes, a little bit of patching up and boosting up, a ton of cosmetics, a new hairdo (roof) and a few flowers to make her beautiful again. We had our work cut out for us.

The kitchen was so disgusting that we tore everything out of it within the first week.  For the next two years, we survived with a metal rack from Sam's Club to hold all of our dishes, pots and pans, and other kitchen necessities.  We started with just a microwave which we had brought from Wisconsin and a refrigerator that took me four hours to clean out and to sanitize.  Rick built a 2 x 4 frame to hold a Lowe's countertop and a sink.  Part of the time, I was doing dishes in a dishpan in the bathtub.

Our living room consisted of folding lawn chairs, orange plastic storage tubs for tables, and old lamps on the floor.  We didn't have a dining room table, so the plastic tubs also served as dining tables the first year.

Then we started to do everything to the house, as money, time, and energy would allow. Each summer until we both retired, we would come down to intensely work on Gladys. We evicted the rats in the attic, and took out all of the old insulation.  We added new, fresh insulation to guard the house against the intense Florida sun. We replaced the electrical service, the HVAC, and almost all of the plumbing inside. After we retired, we switched the hot Florida summers for the mild Florida winters.  We spent thousands of dollars replacing every window and outside door with 130 mph hurricane-resistant materials.  We replaced the garage door with a hurricane-resistant door also. We replaced every interior door in the house with solid core doors, adding new woodwork to match.

Through the years, we worked from room to room, renovating each in turn.  We built an all new kitchen with new, clean cabinets, new appliances, and new lights.  Fresh paint covered every inch of the interior, and new closet systems were installed throughout.  We expanded the master bath, adding a new shower and sink.  We had all of the terrazzo floors throughout the house ground down and re-polished until they shined line new.

And just this last year we took out a loan to refinish the last of the house.  We gutted the last untouched room -- the 1960's pink-tiled bathroom -- and brought that room up to date with a new tub and tub surround, new walls and a fan, new lighting fixtures and electrical, and a new sink and vanity top.  We spent thousands of dollars on a new roof and roof fan.  We had a new cement front walkway poured, and we added pavers on the north side and back around the new patio slab to help with the drainage of torrential rains that sometimes visit Florida.

Seven years, thousands of dollars, and more cuts, bruises, injuries, aches, and pains than I care to count.  And now we may lose it all.

Hurricane Irma has taken a turn, and instead of going up the center of Florida, it has now drifted to the west coast.  The last time the west coast of Florida saw a hurricane was in 1921.  Now Irma is on a course to make landfall in Naples and to travel up the coast.  The eye of the hurricane, with its most destructive winds, is scheduled to pass directly over Dunedin and Tampa.  We will get the worst the storm has to offer.  The one saving grace is that it may be downgraded from a Category 4 to a Category 3 hurricane by the time it gets that far north.  Storm surges probably will not reach Gladys, but sustained winds over 100 miles per hour still may cause complete devastation of the entire town.

Gladys has withstood countless storms throughout her 57 years, but Irma may bring her to her knees. The eye of the hurricane is supposed to hit her about 8:00 p.m. and will last until approximately 8:00 a.m. on Monday.  Seven years, and it all may be gone in twelve hours.

Yet, as I have said earlier, if Gladys is seriously injured, she can be replaced.  The people of Florida are the real concern.  We are scared to death for them. The people we have met, enjoyed, cared for, and learned to love in the past seven years are irreplaceable.  We have lost one dear friend from church already this year, and we do not want to lose any more. We worry about our family members who live just a few miles away.  We worry about our neighbors, and we worry about our friends in our weaving group and in our church.

Sitting here watching the news and waiting is extremely difficult.  We are scared.  We feel helpless.  All we can do is to watch, wait, and pray that we have something left in Florida when tomorrow dawns.

Nasty Weather

With sick hearts, we have witnessed the devastation that Hurricane Harvey has caused to cities in Texas, Louisiana, and other places in the Gulf region.  Thousands of people have lost everything, and the recovery for those losses will cost the nation trillions of dollars.  More devastating, however, is the loss of life caused by this horrific storm, and the nation is not finished with this type of weather yet.

Here in Wisconsin we have watched the weather patterns do some unusual things also.  The spring was mild and warm, the summer was unusually wet (we had no "brown out" of lawns this July), and now September dawns wet and cold.  "Early winter" and "harsh winter" are predictions starting to populate conversations.

The wet weather, along with Rick's hand surgery and subsequent recovery time, both have hampered our progress in getting the rest of the porch painted.  If the weather is not too cold or too wet to paint, then our calendar is filled or we just do not want to face the task.  For all of those reasons, I seriously doubt that we will finish painting the porch this year.  And that's OK.  It has a prime coat on the parts that we scraped off, and it can wait until next year if need be.

Of greater concern, however, is the weather that now is heading toward Florida.  Rick said just yesterday, "Aren't you glad that we finished all of the remodeling of Gladys this past year?  Now when we return, we will have just a little gardening to do.  Maybe we can actually relax and enjoy Florida and all it has to offer."  He voiced this opinion partially because when we return to Florida, he still will not be able to lift more than 5 or 10 pounds with his left hand.  He will not be able to physically do a lot of manual labor until the hand continues to heal.  Sightseeing and relaxing on the beach sounded like reasonable, ideal pastimes.

Yet we know that Hurricane Irma is heading straight toward Florida, and this time Dunedin might not be able to dodge the bullet.  Dunedin has not had a direct hit from a hurricane since 1921.  Irma is predicted, in one model, to skim the northern part of Cuba and then to slam into Florida.  More than one model have it traveling straight up the center of Florida like a zipper, thus affecting nearly every county in the state.  If those models hold true, even Dunedin could see both destructive winds and torrential rains with possible flooding.

Governor Scott has declared an emergency for every county in Florida for the storm that is not supposed to hit until three or four days from now, and storm provisions already are sold out in most southern Florida locations. Evacuation of the Florida Keys has started. At last report, Irma was a Category 5 storm with winds of 185 miles per hour.  We know that Gladys has a brand new roof, 130 mph impact windows and doors, and a 130 mph wind resistant garage door.  What worries us is that although the windows in the double front doors are hurricane resistant, we are not so sure the frame and the pegs that secure the doors closed will hold in hurricane-level winds. And if those winds reach 185 miles per hour, nothing is safe in its path.

We also worry that the three plastic sheds in the back and side yards (and their contents) could end up in another county, as could our garbage cans, our park bench on the front porch, and our flower pot of flowers that our neighbor has so lovingly been watering for us.

Of course, the two large trees in the back yard also could cause considerable damage to our fence -- if the fence even surrounds the yard when we return -- and to our house.

 If Irma really rips up Florida, our homeowner's insurance will be useless because Citizen's insurance will not have enough funds to cover the cost of the damage statewide. Forecasters show that Phase 2 -- a tropical storm called Jose -- is lining up right behind Irma, and that it has the potential of turning into a hurricane and following the same path also. And those are just material concerns.

Of far greater concern is our nephew and his wife who live just a few miles south of us, our friends at church, and our neighbors on our street.  They are all dear to us, and they all are in harm's way.  We pray that the storm takes a less destructive path and goes out to sea east of Florida, and that our family, friends, and neighbors all remain safe.

If Gladys takes a direct hit, we may be driving down to Florida much sooner than we thought to see what we can salvage from the storm.  At this point, all we can do is watch, wait, and pray.

Porch - Day 2

One would think that after all of these years, we would learn that if paint is over two years old, it is no good.  However, we had to learn that lesson all over again this morning when we opened a can of Kilz paint to touch up some "bad" spots on the back porch.  Yup, the can opened.  Yup, the oil and liquids were all floating on top.  Yup, the base was so thick that it would have taken a major earthquake to shake the can enough to mix the two components together. So off to Home Depot we drove to buy a new pint of Kilz.

 Once home, Rick started by going around the base of the porch and drilling holes for Tapcons to refasten the structure to the cement patio.  Over the years, both sides had worked their way loose.  Then we draped the porch and Rick started to work on the boards that we either scraped the loose paint off yesterday or the ones that showed signs of water or rust damage.

Rick drills holes for Tapcons to resecure the
porch to the cement floor.

We probably should have replaced the board on the north side of the house, but neither of us was in the mood to do so.  Instead, I freely admit that we put a bandage on it by liberally slathering it full of Kilz paint.

The rafter ends needed some serious attention.

The rafter ends that were on the outside of the porch also were in pretty bad shape.  I had scraped them yesterday, and today Rick put on two coats of Kilz to try to protect them from further damage.  The good news is that the porch is not a major structural component of the house, so we are not terribly concerned about walls falling down or ceilings caving in.  For now, the boards are protected for another year or two.

We would love to put in a new roof, but the solid roof that we like is both too expensive, and it would be so solid that it would make both the dining room and the kitchen very dark.  For now, we will take the cheap way out and just stay with the translucent roof on the porch.

The rafter tails look much better now that they
are primed with Kilz.  A fresh coat of paint will
be added on Thursday if we don't see rain.

The Kilz in various places on the porch was as far as we could go today.  It has to dry at least 24 hours, and tomorrow we will be out of town all day.  We will have to see if the weather cooperates with us on Thursday because that is the next day we will have free to work on the porch.

For right now, that paint must dry while I go to wash the kitchen floor and to cut the grass.  The joys of home ownership just never end!

Scrub-a-Dub-Dub

If I had my hands around the neck of the person who built the roof joists for our back screened patio, I would squeeze that neck until he turned purple!  He caused us a great deal of work today, with more work to follow tomorrow.

The roof joists are a pain when they need washing
or painting.  Unfortunately, they need both this year.

The roof joists are set up in a lattice pattern so that the support for the fiberglass roof above is in various places.  This helped the builder because he could stagger the joists when nailing them into place.  The staggered joists also provide more support to carry the snow load on the roof in the winter time.

OK, OK, I get it.  I understand why the joists are positioned that way, but that does not make dealing with them any easier.

The vertical support columns are easy to paint, but the
roof supports certainly are not.

We knew that one of our tasks this summer was to wash and to paint the support posts and the roof joists on the back porch.  We spent this morning doing nothing but washing the dirt off of those surfaces.  A little TSP with warm water was the mixture of the day, but the porch was so dirty that each of us went through at least three bucketsful to keep the water relatively usable.  What a pain each little square of joists is to clean!  The corners are nearly impossible to get clean, and having everything overhead certainly did not make the job faster or easier.

Once we got to the outer parts of the joists and the rain gutters, the job did not get any better. In fact, the outside was almost dirtier than the inside.  Rick also took the gutter guards off and found a royal muddy mess inside the gutters which he had to clean.

We scraped the paint where necessary; tomorrow we'll add the prime coat where needed and perhaps a little Kilz in certain areas.  Painting this vertical posts is not difficult, but the joists of the ceiling are more difficult to paint than they are to wash.  Neither of us is looking forward to our job tomorrow.

I just hope the final result of our efforts will protect the porch for a few more years and will be worth the effort in the end.  Even then, I still would have murder on my mind if the designer ever came onto the back porch.

Green, Green Grass of Home

My watch tells me that the time is 3:27 p.m., and other than a small break at lunchtime, this is the first time today that I have had a chance to rest.  Needless to say, this has been another productive day.

The before and after pictures below show how the morning was spent:

The rest of the former garden, awaiting sod.

The side yard as it looks after 20 rolls
of sod. 

We had to go out to the fields where the men were cutting the sod in order to purchase 20 more rolls.  I guess we could not get sod more fresh than that!  We were home by 9:30 and able to lay down the next part of the sod.

We were surprised that we actually had enough to fill in the main mud patch section of the yard.  We still need to do a third trip to pick up sod, though.  We would like to lay down one more strip where the creeping-charlie weeds currently live.  Technically that area is on the neighbor's property, but since our trees grew out over that area (which allowed the weeds to grow) we feel we have the responsibility to remove the weeds and to add some grass.

Our front yard has a couple of places also that would benefit from new sod, and our back yard has the same.  These areas are all depressions in the yard that mark where trees once grew.  We need to add some dirt on top, and then so new sod to get rid of these ankle-turners.  Since driving 45 miles takes gas, we will wait until we know how much sod Lindsay and Chris will need for their yard, and then we will get all of the sod at once.

The afternoon has been spent with the usual Friday cleaning chores and laundry, plus a run to the automatic vehicle wash because our trips to the dump have left the truck filthy.  We are preparing to drive the truck to Milwaukee tomorrow, so we cleaned the inside, restocked it with snacks and water, and Rick filled the tank with gas.  We also made a run to the bank to keep the finances accurate.  Whew!

Once again the weather cooperated so we did not die of heat stroke.  We are both happy to see the major part of that task complete.  Now all we have to do is to add water.

Trees, be Gone!

We were up before 7:00 today because we knew that we were going to be working outside at Lindsay's house, and we wanted to beat the heat of the mid-day sun.

Earlier in the week, we had gone to their house and helped them remove some branches from their two huge evergreen trees at the back of their lot.  Yesterday, Chris contracted with a tree removal contractor to take down the tallest of the trees.  The man with the chainsaw did just that: he cut the trunk about 4 feet from the ground and let the whole tree just drop.  Tim-m-m-ber!

Lindsay walks toward the downed tree as Rick cuts the branches
and Chris started to pile them for transportation to the curb.

Our task today was to go back to help them remove the branches from the fallen tree so Chris and Lindsay could haul the debris to the curb.

We took down the trunk of the smaller tree, but what remains of the larger tree will have to wait until Gary brings over a chain saw.  That's OK since lots of pine needles, pine cones, rocks, weeds, roots, and other nasty-looking stuff was left from where the trees once stood.

Lots of debris remained under the trees.

We each took a rake or a shovel and started to fill five-gallon pails with the afore-mentioned debris.  As Chris brought the buckets up to the front yard using the trailer hooked to his lawn mower, Rick went with him to unload the buckets into the back of our truck.  Lindsay and I stayed in the back yard and continued to fill more buckets.

Another load of debris is ready to be hauled up to the curb.

In the end, we filled about 50 buckets full which measured about 1/2 a yard of debris.  Then Rick and Chris hauled it all to the yard waste dump.  Their yard looks much better.  They still need to drop that final trunk and haul it up to the curb.  Their neighbor down the street takes the wood from there, which is fine with Chris and Lindsay.  As long as it is not in their yard, they don't care who takes it.

They know of a man who they can call to grind down the stumps.  Then they can fill in the spaces with good black dirt and add sod to give them a fresh, green yard.

Some of the tree branches wait to be loaded into the back of the truck.

Once we were home, we talked to the neighbor lady and asked her if she would like some low-hanging branches removed from her front trees.  We have seen her in the past practically crawl under some of the branches to cut her grass.  She was delighted with our offer, so we loaded those branches and a couple that had fallen in our back yard into our truck bed.  After lunch we drove to the dump once more to get rid of those limbs.

My final job of the day was to finish cutting the grass.  I had cut the sides and front yard a couple of days ago; now I wanted to cut the back so we could continue to water the new sod that we previously put down.  With all of the rain and the watering that we have done, the new sods seems to be taking well.  We actually may have a green back yard by the time fall arrives.