July 24 update

This week's been productive. We've gotten the pool on the way to being useable. It was really nasty in there but we've gotten the cover off, lots of chlorine in it and it's looking better than when we started. Today I figured out how to use the leaf bag on the long pole to try to reduce the number we'll have to deal with later. The end of the long pole got smooshed a while back when I ran over it with the tractor so I spent some time today "unflattening" it and attaching the leaf bag. Alex enjoyed hunting for leaves beneath the pea soup of the pool water. Progress comes in many forms.... :)

Wednesday, on the house proper, we tore out a closet in the SE bedroom and removed all the debris to the burn pile, along with all the scrap torn out previously. We also ripped out the door trim and casings in the upstairs doorways. They'll be replaced with casing that will look like 1750's material. All that's left to do up there demolition-wise is to take out a plaster wall where the new hallway is going and remove the old bathroom. Hoping we can get that completed by early last week. The head came off our sledgehammer so work there is suspended until I can get a new sledgehammer.

Today was one of the best working days all summer and we spent a lot of it whipping the bushes into shape around the yard. There are what seem like miles of overgrown privet hedges. Less of them are overgrown now.

Tuesday I tried to "top off" the pool so we could run the filter. We got the water we needed but managed to run the pump dry so it lost it's priming. Wednesday it rained REALLY hard and the pool was almost overflowing this morning. Today I tried to get the well pump reprimed (12 gallons later...) but didn't have enough clean water to do the job. So I brought home the 65 gallon ag tank and filled it up. I'll have clean water and to spare now. :)

Oh, one other little job, we dug up the "frost proof" hydrant (it's not a faucet, it's a hydrant if you go looking for one) and discovered a mysterious connection to the water supply that I have no idea what it's for. We decided that if we didn't know what it was, it was getting cut off, which made it easier to cobble together the right piping. Or so we thought. We got home and discovered that the plastic barbed fitting that looked like it had the right threading to fit the galvanized elbow actually doesn't. Back to the store tomorrow for the right fitting. I hope.

So if all goes well, we'll have the well working again, the faucet (ahem, the HYDRANT) by the barn working as well and a good bunch of the kitchen floor linoleum torn up. Cross your fingers. :)

On the Eloise resurrection project, she's gotten her new starter motor installed but the battery was kaput. So that's the next item on the shopping list for her. Once we have battery installed we'll see if we can get gasoline and electricity to work their magic in her guts and get her running again. The yard is pretty well fixed lawn-wise, but if she's running I can cut down trees along the road and haul them out of there much more easily. And considering how many leaves we've had to scoop out of that pool, those trees are going to GO at some point this summer. :) (Just so you know, they're all growing up into the telephone/CATV lines as well, so they really have to go.

For most of this week I've had the able assistance of Joel and Alex, two hardworking young fellows with strong backs who are able to take directions well, so things are stepping along. It's wonderful to say, "Sweep this up" or "tear this out" or "cut this back" and they make it happen while I'm off puttering on other things. It's a great blessing.

Thanks for reading my "stream of consciousness." Off to the land of Nod.

Doug