Living
with Jim and Gayle
September, 2020
CORONAVIRUS
The world is sad. We are sad without Max.
We continue to self isolate as much as possible.
The garage is done. Or it was until we needed more shelves to store stuff. Now I need to paint the added shelves. But, the garage looks really good.
Our next project was making a home for the boat. All of the bids we got to do the work were outrageous. Jim decided that he could take out the sprinklers and the two of us could move the river rock. We also moved and repurposed the pavers on the left side of the house and installed steel edging between the grass and the new gravel. I found a guy that was willing to remove the sod and deliver and spread the gravel for a reasonable price. We are really happy with how it came out.
Left side of the house before the grass was removed.
Both sides after the gravel was put in with the repurposed pavers.
We thought the job was done but when we brought the boat home, the turn into the sideyard from the driveway was too narrow and too close to the house. Jim had to disconnect the boat and man-handle it into place. We have to widen the gap. Unfortunately, there is a big sprinkler backflow preventer in the way which has to be moved. But first we removed the river rock to be reused once the sprinkler box is moved.
We got a bid to move the sprinkler box. The bid was higher than we expected but Jim didn't want to do the work so he told the guy to do it. Then we found out the work wouldn't be done until after November 1. That is no help to Jim moving the boat if we are able to go fishing. So, Jim moved it himself.
Bringing the boat home meant that we gave up the storage unit which was full of other things that we had accumulated over the years. It doesn't all fit in the garage. Jim has added as many shelves as he can. He's going to build an outside storage box to store boat and yard stuff.
In sorting out the garage and the storage areas, we came up with a lot of junk. I put ads on Craigslist for "Free". This is one of the 4 piles of junk I listed for free. A lady came and picked up this pile. Gave new meaning to the saying "One man's garbage is another man's gold mine."
When we got the boat, we first picked apples. I have made a lot of apple butter! I also froze some apple slices to use this winter and made a couple of apple cakes.
The west was on fire this month. For a solid week we had hazardous air (right when we were trying to get the sideyards done). That's a coyote in the picture -- we have at least two that hang out around here.
A good friend of ours, Paul Nelson, was killed this month when he was struck by a tornado while driving his motorhome. He will be missed.
Late breaking news. This last day of September, we have a new family member. We have adopted Bo, a 9-month old male yorkie. More on him next month!
