July 2023 Island Trip – Day 3

Everything on the list was accomplished today, and more.

We’ve decided to wait until I’m back next month with the truck before obtaining compost and mulch. The price plus delivery brought out the cheap skate in my tenant, by his own admission. He wants to pay for the compost. The truck is just a big wheelbarrow and it’ll save us both money in working on the garden.

After picking up the ground rod driver from my tenants (they receive Amazon and other deliveries for me 💕), and chatting about our days, I finished what called the ‘fill in mudding’ on the lower barn sheetrock project. This fills in the deeper voids on the corners, and some wall joints before installing corner bead or tape. Neither my DH or I are proficient at hanging sheetrock, nor was the building designed to be sheetrocked! And no professional sheetrocker will take on a tiny job like this. It’s not worth their time, so we muddle through 😂.

100% of the pricing for the estate sale is done. There are still signs to make, like: Free Boat & Trailer (tenants are joining the sale), Water Tank $50, Shelving Not For Sale, Cash Only, etc. I bought fluorescent poster board and huge sharpies to accomplish this task. I have 28-days to finesse this end of things. I did some additional staging after moving the things my tenants wants to buy into the lower barn. I am eager to empty this building and hose it down… The last two days in there has caused me a certain amount of respiratory distress. I need to wear a mask in there going forward.

I heard from Rusty and took my PA gear to his and his wife’s house. We had a really pleasant 30-minutes catching up. After that it was off to the hardware, drug and grocery stores. Then the non-ethylene gas station for mower gas.

I gave myself limits on mowing this afternoon… 1.5 hours max, and finished up logical spaces before my timer ran out. Another 45ish minutes will take care of the rest of the chore until the rains start again in late Sept/early Oct, and that’s a brief season until cold weather sets in.

After cleaning up I did very little for an hour and a half except bake purple potatoes. At 5:30 I went down to the house with three pounds of black cod, the potatoes and Irish butter. Tim and my neighbor to the east joined us and we had a delicious dinner on the deck completed by banana splits!. Tim was suppose to bring cheese, but arrived with a sad story of dropping the plate on the ground on the way to his car. We reassured him, and asked him not to feel bad. These things happen. So, we fired up the grill and rolled right into dinner. As the gathering wound down, Tim asked, “Do you want the cheese for your ravens?” He explained he doesn’t have ravens at his place, only two miles away. We said, “Sure!” It was indeed sad looking cheese, but any bird who can dissect a rodent with surgical precision will know how to work around a few stones and fir needles.🐦‍⬛