Earlier this spring we gave some much needed attention to a large tree in our yard. For years I trimmed as high as I could so that I could mow the lawn without poking out my eye. But it was slowly growing into ours and our neighbor's homes. Something needed to be done.
While I was away on a field trip with my eldest, several guys with some pretty heavy equipment rolled into the yard and hacked away. In addition to getting the limbs off the houses, they weeded out the sickly and dead branches.
When I got home that afternoon I was a bit shocked at just how much of the tree they had removed. A few days later the clouds cleared up and My Vet and I went out to deal with the stack of firewood left behind. Then I noticed how much sunlight was shining through.
So many times I have grown limbs that were abruptly removed from my life. Limbs that were so much a part of me, it hurt, I've weeped, I mourn the scars that will always remind me of them. Yet I continue to live and grow new limbs.
It seemed like forever until the leaves started to grow and the wounds started to heal. Now suddenly I see things that I couldn't before, flowers are blooming in new areas, grass is growing. A neighbor was inspired to trim his trees as well, another told me how they could see farther now too.
Whatever you are walking through, whatever fresh wounds you are nursing, keep your eyes on God. He is Good ALL the time, trust in His plan. God made the tree, He certainly knows how to make it grow best. He also sees who is watching you.
Now that the long, cold, snowy winter is over.... it's rainy season. Yeah! (Italics of course signal sarcasm.) The best part is that all the rain has brought to my attention that the gutter over the mainly used door, is in serious need of attention.
When you choose to stand in the rain a ways back from the door, reach through the downpour open said door, jump through the downpour of water and close the door behind you mightbe a redneck have a problem.
While picking up supplies for my last project, I grabbed a few extra gutter hangers. We have long term plans to replace the siding so right now isn't the time to update the ugly old leaky gutters. Instead I opted to make repairs.
You can see in the picture that the gutter sags over the door. since water always runs downhill, it collected in the handy spot over the door, and then spilled over and dripped through the seem. Since it was sagging away from the fascia, water would then run behind the gutter and onto our heads.
A couple of gutter hooks quickly fixed the sag, and tightened it back to the fascia, behind the drip edge. If you are planning on installing or repairing gutters I highly recommend the invisible gutter hanger over the spike and furrule method of attachment. The gutter hanger uses a long screw to attach, while the spike just gets hammered in. The gutter has to withstand all kinds of weather and pressure, a screw is going to hold up better in the long run. Besides the invisible gutter hanger is just that, invisible from the ground I am calmer just thinking about the smoother cleaner finish.
As you can tell by the photo I also removed leaves and debris while I was up there. I noticed a missing end cap that I will pick up when I return the extra piece from the main gutter project.
** the door on the left is not broken. I have a hanging screen that I use when it's nice out. It keeps away most of the bugs, and at about $10 was cheaper than a custom screen door for french doors. I do gaze at the nicer one with dreamy eyes, but with kids and a dog the screen curtain is functional.
Last summer I went out with a weekend full ofhard work. I am determined to welcome this years hard earnedsummer by playing more than I work. Since I wanted to expand my garden this year, I got to work early.
My Vet and a friend took care of tilling up, and adding manure to the area I had marked for the expansion.
Looking good, but more than the plants are missing.
With the heavy work done, I power-washed the remaining traces of manure out of the trailer, and picked up some landscape timbers for the edging.
Pretty straight forward 2 timbers high, with staggered seems, screwed together with galvanized deck screws. At 3 feet by 17 1/2 this new section is large enough for 4 tomato plants, 4 pepper plants and a ton of carrots. The piece in the foreground is darker because it was salvaged from where I cut in to mix the new section with the old.
Since this new section runs along the garage, I needed to tackle the issue of rain water. Water is good for plants, thousands of gallons running of the roof onto small seedlings will kill them. Gutters don't look to complicated, I figure I can tackle it on my own.
I prepped by watching a clip of my favorite show. (BTW what can't Tommy Silva do?)
I took notes as I watched. Hmm, there is more to this than I initially thought. Said goodbye to My Vet and The Girls and off to the store. I picked up all the pieces I figured I would need and headed home.
Assembling the pieces was similar to doing a jigsaw puzzle. Time to permanently assemble. I called My Vet away from working under the New to Us Pickup, so he could show me how to rivet. It was a lot like using my cropadile.
Pre-drill and load the rubber coated aluminum rivet (grommet?) into the hand tool.
Insert into the hole.
Pull the trigger.
Not perfectly aligned! Not visible from the ground though so OCD should be OK.
Repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. I am not sure exactly how many I was suppose to do, 4 per seam felt flimsy so I did 6 (2 in the front and 4 in the back).
Give all the joints a water tight seal with joint sealer. (Not really sure how important this is since it will only be in operation when it is raining everywhere, but Tommy said to do it and who am I to argue that logic?)
Clip in the gutter hangers at regular intervals. (I used 22 for 26 feet of gutter.) Assembly took me about 2 hours.
With everything assembled on the ground. My Vet came back to lend his strength and hands to hang this light but awkward 26 feet of aluminum.
Self tapping screws anchored the various pieces of the down spout at the rear of the garage. I didn't put in a down spout in the front yet, I am thinking a rain chain would be pretty, so I will keep you posted. I couldn't find a hack saw to shorten the downspout, so My Vet stepped in again.
My Vet rocking his Iowa State shirt.
It doesn't seem like that much work, but I ache and I didn't even get any plants in the ground yet! I am looking forward to the fun part though. The Girls and I will be hitting up some green houses this week. Are you planning on playing or working Memorial Day weekend?
Not sure how well this diverter is going to work, I'll know in a couple of hours though.
*** Kudos to me, only 1 extra piece needs to be returned to the store!
