The list is getting shorter...

Having someone here working on the house has been good for us. We both made lists of things to get done, most have been set aside for way too long. It feels great to get things done.


The butterfly bush is in full, spectacular bloom... and the honey bees have made themselves at home

We spent three days in the garage and the barn, looking for candidates for a dump run (like the bed liner for the Aussie family's camper, which has been behind the barn since 2016), and the metal recycler. We finally hauled our huge old CRT television to Goodwill, which made room down the center of the garage for two workbenches that have been in boxes for years.

I went through every box in the garage, making sure things were where they are supposed to be (my husband is more of the "leave it where I used it last" kind of organizer, which makes me crazy).

In the barn, we had to unload all the lumber stored along one end, so John could beef up the joists and nail up cross-bars to support the lumber. With the wood out of the way, DW pulled up the hay storage platform and rebuilt it using joist hangars, and built a framework for storing plywood and other sheet goods.

A lot of patio and gardening chores were also on my list, including laying new stepping stones (a great use for hardened bags of cement), and sanding and oiling our teak deck chairs. I finally tackled this job yesterday, and got both chairs sanded and oiled. It's been a few years since they got any TLC (except for storing them indoors during the winter months), and they were very thirsty!