Saturday, October 25, 2008

Sheds, Rocks, Roads and Meeting More Neighbors

I had many goals today, as usual, but I only accomplished a few of them. My first priority was to pick up all of the large rocks that the grader had churned up when he graded the road.

This was the road before:


And this is after:


I had my sunscreen, hat, camera, and gloves all ready for some rock picking. When I was just a little ways down the road I saw a lady driving up it. She stopped and said that some of the road was better and some of it was worse because her large sedan had trouble making it through the sandy spots. Because I didn't have a lot of money for fixing the road I didn't buy extra gravel so the grader used sand from the wash (that's what we call our dry river beds) to even out the ruts. I agreed with her because she was old and doesn't live out here. As she drove away she encountered another car from the other direction, had to back up and got stuck in a dip. I went over to see if I could help but the other car was driven by her son and he had things under control. As I walked away, picking and throwing rocks off the road I could hear her repeating her complaints. Oh well, can't make everyone happy.

After her car was unstuck and she went on her merry way, the son, who does live down my street stopped to chat. I had never met him except for the usual wave and hello when we passed on the road. He told me about his other neighbors who I rarely see and offered to chip in on the road. I told him it was already taken care of this time but next time maybe we can have some gravel road base delivered and fix the road even better. All of that sand will wash away at the next rain anyway. As an added bonus, he is a painter and has a lot of extra paint so he offered to get me some paint for my shed.

I stayed outside too long trying to clear the rocks and by the time I got back to my RV I had a raging headache which pretty much ruined the rest of the day. After lying down for a while I started to feel better around 4pm and mixed up a bottle of lysol for the shed interior. There have been packrats in the shed so I sprayed the floor and corners. You can see where they were trying to gnaw a larger opening near the door. I need to repair that with some metal flashing.



I also plan to caulk and putty all cracks and then paint the floor with primer. That should help to keep the bugs out. I saw a scorpion under one of these pictures in the shed.


The previous shed owner forgot they were still in the shed. I called her and said I would bring them to her if she wanted but she said to just keep them. I guess I'll sell them at my garage sale next year. Hmm, more stuff to store.

5 comments:

Over the Cubicle Wall said...

Nice score on the free paint. Sorry about the headache. Is it still pretty hot there?

Daizy said...

Today was around 90 I think. I wasted too much time on the computer in the morning and didn't get outside until 11:30. 2 hours later I was wondering who would find me first if I passed out in the dirt...probably the neighbor dog.

Sharon S said...

Hi there-wishing you better, hope the scorpions and rats find a new home!

Over the Cubicle Wall said...

This time of year, I usually try and wait for it to warm up before I go outside.

That dog sounds real helpful...

Daizy said...

Thanks sharon rose. I hope I didn't buy them a giant rat/scorpion house! Eek!

over the cubicle wall, pretty soon I'll be waiting for it to warm up too although 50 is cold to me. I'm never happy. Always too hot or too cold.