errantember

Just when everybody thought it was safe to assume I'd never emerge from my heroin-addict-level of torpor, I suddenly started accomplishing things yesterday. The tree I cut down to a stump in the front yard came back with a vengeance, resurrecting itself into a 15 ft. tall bush in the few months since the original deed. It was blocking out the view of most of my front yard, and therefore the necessary guilt feelings to ever accomplish anything outside again, not to mention stealing valuable minerals from my soil.

It was once again Chainsaw Time.

While I realized that using the chainsaw without any kind of body armor is a good way to die, I also realized that attempting to wear anything capable of slowing down a chainsaw in 100 degree heat would *definitely* kill me, so my only nod to self protection was jeans, ear plugs, safety glasses, and combat boots. It was a long and dangerous job, especially the flush-with-the-ground cross cuts to remove the pieces completely, since there's no way to not be in arc of the blade when your cutting horizontally below your waist. I managed to complete the job with 100%/0% my-limb-to-tree-limb ratio, however. I then hand-stripped all the leaves from the branches and piled them on top of the stump as the start of a new compost pile. If I get another sub-100-degree day, I will dig deeply enough around it to locate the main roots, and then cut them off. At that point, I should just have to wait a year or so for it to rot enough to pull out. I also want to create a rain garden in that location before the fall planting season, so that will help it get it's rot on, too.

Today my roommate and I *finally* re-started work on the main floor of the house, a project we got precisely 53.4% done with at Crossmas. It's been annoying the shit out of both of us that it hasn't gotten done, but, after months of waiting, we finally reluctantly came to the conclusion that, with no one else living here, we would have to do it ourselves. As a result, all eight of the remaining door jams have been cut and cleaned, and the last four or five rows near the back door are finished. Tomorrow we will begin moving into the kitchen in earnest, which will require moving all of the major appliances, including the gas stove. My goal is to have the place ready to rent the master suite by the end of the month, and I think we can get the floor finished in the next two or three days. The space will be completely transformed, and we'll finally be able to have it looking like something other than a crackhouse for construction workers for the first time in six months.