Monday, March 19, 2012

Monday. 6AM start time. And then 12.5 hours. Every. Single. Day. (except for Sunday…because we all need a break!)

No, seriously, that's the level of insanity of where I work. I could easily hit 70 hours including Saturdays, which also means things on the homefront are in danger of slipping, and when I get off work I'm either too tired to go out, or have prior obligations, or frankly have to get up so early the next morning that I'd be dead if I did go out. So what have I been doing? Trying to balance some of this mess.

The weather has been abnormally gorgeous, even better than the spring of '06, and it looks like the lane has dried out as well. No doubt it got some help from these ridiculous winds we've been experiencing. We're luckly the screen door is still attached to the lodge. No joke.

Saturday, put in an 8 hour shift and then got down to business at the Lodge. I had put aside all previous construction plans to focus on Spring Cleaning and Preparation for the day. You know, the things you need to do as a homeowner to keep the place together. As it turned out, it took us most of Saturday afternoon/evening and Sunday morning to get done. So I got the yard hydrant working for the season, replaced a couple burnt out bulbs, put away the snow shovels and cleaned up all the scrap in front of CS3 (now that the snow no longer covered it). Also got the clothesline set up just in time for Cara to hang out the bath towels.

Inside, I took down the 8 clerestory window screens, scrubbed them outside with soap and water, cleaned the glass inside, and tackled the triangle windows, too. 40 linear feet +. Ugh. The partition between the upstairs rooms was also in need of a good cleaning. Then before dark, we took the pressure washer and metal brake to their new home in CS3. Did we watch a movie that night? I don't even remember.

Cara was busy with the vacuum and dusting, and I was after the asian beetles which are ridiculous this year (the shop vac has been working hard). I also had to wrangle up all the outdoor solar lights and get a baseline of where we were at. Having 1 of 8 functioning is pretty sad, and I'm afraid this model might now be discontinued. Between polishing the solar cells, swapping batteries, cleaning terminals, and getting out the soldering iron to meld two broken ones into something functional, we should now be back in business.

Now, the grass hasn't started growing yet, so it's the perfect time to de-weed what needs de-weeding. We moved all the drive-in concession stand lumber from its weed-ensconced pile and restacked it out in the open so it wouldn't become one with the earth (that includes plywood and shingles, too). Then I got the battery onto the tractor, moved things around, and I cleaned up the weed island and made a few passes at the barrier strip at the rear of the drive-in lot. Fired up on the first rotation! Amazing.

It was still early in the afternoon on Sunday and we got the snow fences taken down, rolled up and the fence posts stacked. One less thing to worry about. Then we finished the day with cutting and plywood painting and general lower soffit work. Cara probably wishes she wasn't so handy with that paint roller!

Sundown- tools put away, grilled cheese sandwiches, and utter exhaustion. Maybe today I put up the remainder of the lower rear soffits and call it a day. Oh, and we bought a new car.