Where DOES it all come from?

I filled a dumpster at the Duck a few months ago. at the time, i knew i would have a bit more trash to get rid of. and as i've been working out there....i've been bringing truck loads of wood back home to burn...since i can burn any time at the farm and there are particular burn days at the Duck....like 1 day a month.

I was out Saturday afternoon and most of Sunday. i have gathered all the trash bags and pulled out lumber and old windows and doors. and the garage is quickly filling up again.

Here is some paneling, an old door, and a baby mattress found in the basement.

Then there are these 30 or so bags of crap from the basement, plaster, tile, sticks, whatever....

And yet another stack of paneling, plywood, pieces of wood, old windows, piece of carpet, etc.

My plan for these 2 days was to pull off the old red asphalt shingles on the outside of the house that wound up on the INSIDE of the front and back porches when they enclosed them. hidden, of course, under paneling.

Here is the front porch now....red shingles are all gone. but i still have to pull up that plywood on the floor and yet another piece of carpet under that.

Here is the wood siding. i will clean it and paint it.

And now that makes me wonder......if i take the siding off the outside of the house.....and then i guess there are those red shingles under that.....would i find this wood siding underneath all that? would it be in good shape? makes me want to tear some off in a back area and check it out.

All those piles of wood and trash bags that were outside the front door....and seen from the street....are now in the garage awaiting a dumpster. except for those wood slats that are left. the burn day is the labor day weekend....so i think i will go down and burn those all up then.

Then this area needs a bit of TLC. i might throw a quick coat of primer on that wood....it is the back side of the garage....it just looks all ugly.

Then i started pulling the red shingles off the back enlosed porch. and i took the storm window off the windows, too. i use the term 'storm window' rather loosely. it did not fit the window frame correctly, so the previous owner just nailed it up there....covered the edges with the shingles....and caulked it all. pitiful!!

That stick sitting in the window holds the window up when it is open. hahahahahahahaha

I pulled off as much as i could reach without getting on the ladder. It was about 3pm Sunday by this time and i was tired. i still had to drive 3 hours back to the farm....so i gave up for the day. i'll finish that up the next time i go down there....probably in a couple weeks.

My sis came over and helped me to cut up a bunch of boards so they would fit in my truck. i already have them unloaded into the burn pit.....probably burn those tonight or tomorrow morning.  and she filled buckets for me with plaster. i took them home, too.....to fill a hole at the farm.

She says i need watching.....so i don't hurt myself. and i didn't get hurt while she was here....but once she went back to the beast......ouch!!

I was moving a long board and dropped it on my foot. Crocs do not protect your feet. LOL   the board fell about 4 feet and hit me straight up. i think if it had fallen flat i wouldn't have these pretty colored toes. the bruise on the second toe didn't show up till this morning. i limped around for a bit and then forgot about it. i didn't know it was ugly till i got home and took my sock off to take a shower. i usually get a badge of courage when i come home from the Duck. LOL

Oh, almost forgot....my sis and I went to a big book sale on Friday. and after that we did a couple thrift stores. look what followed me home...

Isn't he just the cutest thing....with his foot all cocked up in the chair. i think i will spray paint him pink and then he will match the large pink frog i have outside. he may live on the porch steps at the studio. it's about 6 inches tall.

I also found this bowl....called a Fill-A-Bowl. first i looked at it and passed it up. as we were leaving i spotted it again and decided to get it. it was just too intriguing to leave there. don't know what i will put in those spaces yet. there are 15 spaces....you fill them from the bottom. the spaces are a bit more than 1/2 inch deep. it will live at the studio. should i fill it with buttons....thread.....fabrics......yarn.....got to figure out how to fill those slots. i know i don't want to put candy in there....like it shows. it would get all sticky. what do you think? what should i fill it with.....i have 15 spaces to fill. whatever i put in there......i think it's gonna be kind of heavy.

OK....i have to go to quilt class in a bit. we are doing a Feathered Lone Star today that will be the center medallion in a civil war quilt. it will get pieced over the next 8 or 9 months.

Major Progress at the Duck!

5 days at the Duck and things were happening....

I got into town on Friday with my sister....called my friend that is helping me with demolition....and he unloaded the truck for us and got my sister's mattress, springs and bed frame upstairs at the Beast. and carried up some other furniture that we couldn't get up there. God bless men with muscles.

Then i got my barn wood unloaded from my truck and got my grass cut at the Duck. .... same men with muscles. Just a couple hours work....but so needed.

Saturday we headed to Greenville, Illinois, for a book sale. both my sis and I came away with more books. i don't know when i shall have time to read all that i have now.

Saturday they delivered my hot pink dumpster.

16 feet long....8 feet wide.....6 feet tall.  and we filled every square inch of it.

Sunday morning at 6am it looked like this:

And then 4 hours later at 10am.....it looked like this.

And this is the man responsible for that.

I just cannot say enough good things about Josh. he brought a buddy and his stepson and got the wheelbarrow brigade rolling and the dumpster was filled in no time flat. He is the hardest working individual i have ever met. Give him a couple cigarette breaks and keep him supplied with Mountain Dew and he works like a demon. I'm not giving him up.....got to keep the 'to-do' list growing.

These are horrid pictures that were taken practically in the dark.....but the garage is empty of the mountain of plaster and the mountain of trash......Yay!!

Just a bit of plywood against the wall that Josh will take home and use.

The doghouse is gone from the corner. i tried and tried to move it and thought it must be made of really heavy wood.......it was nailed to the fence. sheesh!!    went into the dumpster.

Monday and Tuesday were very hot....100 degrees or better. All slats are now cleared out of the house....baseboards are all pulled up....kitchen floor (with 4 layers of linoleum and a plywood base) is gone....pantry walls and ceiling are removed. ... tile floor in laundry area is removed.   we worked like crazy.

That kitchen floor was a pure bitch the first day....just kept tearing into small pieces. but after learning of a trick to use a pitchfork to pull it up....the second half went very quickly. i'm going to have to replace that floor, though....so i can put down some ceramic tiles.

I got electric turned on in the garage finally and discovered that the a/c unit in the window of the office works. so we pulled some lumber out of there and made ourselves a break room. LOL   can hardly beat sitting in an air conditioned room for your cigarette break rather than on the back steps. throw in a cold bottle of water and it's almost heaven.

I got an estimate from the insulation people to install the blown in closed cell wet foam insulation and it wasn't as high as i thought it would be. for some reason the ceilings cost much more than the walls. so i have a little while to decide how i want to go with the insulation. i believe i will leave the insulation that i currently have in the ceilings....it seems to be adequate....and just blow in the exterior walls.

I did get 4 doors and 6 windows ordered. i need a carpenter to do a bit of repair on doorways and window casings but in a couple weeks i will have a new front door, back door, garage walk-in door, and door from the garage to the house. ..... and windows in 4 rooms. ....  all at a very reasonable price. i am pretty excited about that.

And i talked Josh into coming home with me to help hubby with his 'to-do' list of things that hadn't move OFF the list in a couple years.

All in all....a VERY productive few days. now i feel a nap coming on.

Later