This past week at work, for me, has been a stressful one. We have started a new fiscal year, our new target numbers have some out and the task ahead feels pretty darn daunting.
When weeks like this come along I am VERY grateful for an old house, a yard, and lots of ongoing physical projects for both. We are now in the final stretch of settling my Grandpa's estate - this has been a learning process for all of us and, yes, I know I haven't posted much of anything about losing him, but since the impacts of Grandpa's loss are still ongoing, I'm holding out on posting thoughts and feelings about it until I can organize some of the things I have learned in order to share them in a way they can maybe help others.
Anyhow, yesterday we had a small garage sale at his house in order to try and sell off some of the items that are left. The turn-out was disappointing and the things left will still need to be organized and passed on to where they might do the most amount of good. One of the items I have some home with through this process is actually a small table saw.
And you KNOW I needed one!
This particular table saw has an interesting history to it. Mum and Dad picked it up at a joint garage sale they had with a family we knew well through the Cowichan Valley Goat Club MANY years ago. Mum and Dad had put in a bedroom suite they got when they first married - and sold it to the people who had put in the table saw. They came home with the table saw. I have no idea if they actually sold anything else that day, but the table saw came home with them.
Dad, I'm sure, used it for a while - but it went from my Dad to his Dad at some point. After his Dad died in 1987, The table saw then went to my Mum's dad. My other grandpa had it until he died this summer. Yesterday it came home with me. It is an 8" saw - which I *think* means that the blades are 8" - and it has two metal "wings" on it on either side that allow for wood to track thorough it without having to try to hard to balance. It also came with a wooden stand that actually has wheels on it - wheels which will allow me to move it from place to place outside (or inside!) and to store it safely. It still has to be put together, and my Dad will be re-wiring some of it for me, but the great thing about this little guy is that it is PERFECT for me!
Today is the doing things at home day (including writing this blog post and doing laundry) and so I thought I would tell you about something that has been happening here are my house this week and what I did this morning.
I got home from work on Wednesday night to a note (taped to my door) from one of my neighbours. He had been off work and feeling energetic, so he decided to start the fence replacement project! The first thing he did was have a pal of his come over and they took the old fence down - they initially stacked the old fence panels in my back yard thinking I might want to take them apart & use them for firewood (I let him know when I was speaking with him that night that if he wanted them, he was more than welcome to use them himself and he did want them! I went out to have a peek at what they had done but couldn't see much of anything in the dark so went out to take a couple of pictures the next morning before leaving for work.
To me, it feels as though this fence is like a mushroom - growing in the dark. When I look each morning something new has happened. First the old fence had been pulled down and a string line had been put up between the properties.
Then a form had been built and concrete poured for a retaining wall.
Today when I went outside the new thing was a full panel built and in place! It will be nearly as tall as my back fence is and will not have any lattice on it, and will still have space for puppies to sniff through fences and light to flow through for things growing on the other side. I forgot to check my side of the fence to see if he had stained it - he was staining the pickets as he went. If not, I'll go get a gallon of the stain I used on my back fence and throw a coat on on a warm day.
The main projects I had in mind for myself today were to rake up the next bunch of fallen leaves (and mulch them around my blueberry bushes) and then to dig out/fill in the pond.
While a cute little thing, the pond really wasn't big enough to have goldfish in, and other than algae, duckweed and sludge, the one lily plant it had was starting to die out... so I decided that this summer was the last summer the pond was in place. I will be digging out the cedar-y little shrub beside the pond, and will also be pulling out the pear tree (possibly something next weekend if we continue to have warm-ish non-rainy days) but before I can dig out the shrub I had to fill in the pond.
First things first - the rocks had to come away from the sides.
Next, I had to pull out the liner. FYI, it wasn't actually proper pond liner, it was an old water-bed liner! The liner had started to crack and split and was going to have to be replaced anyhow at some point, if I wanted to keep the pond... so with much grunting, effort, and yes, a little swearing, the liner was pulled out.
I then had a DEEP puddle in the yard to contend with.
I threw all of the rocks salvaged from surrounding the pond INTO the puddle (made some great ad wonderful splashes while I was at it) and then dug out the hump that had been on the other side of the pond and used that dirt to back fill the rest of the hole.
I am certain that as it settles and continues to drain, the cavity will require more dirt - especially since when I dig out the shrub I will have another (albeit smaller) cavity to fill. For now, though, the space has been overlaid with some of my planter protectors - the lattice stuff I use over my vegetable beds to keep out cats and dogs - in order to keep Herself from making a great muddy mess of herself (and tracking it all into the house, ha ha ha!
All in all, a pretty productive morning. I need to pop out and get some groceries, but the rest of my Sunday will be spent finishing laundry and puttering. And maybe baking something - gingerbread sounds like a GREAT idea right now!
With love across the waters...
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