Bushwhacking

I may have mentioned that I'm having the outside of my house painted. It certainly needed doing. Unfortunately for me, the best thing for my dog was a vacation at the kennel. I miss her!

I found an iPhone app called "Map my dogwalk." It is sponsored by Subaru and is free. I'm using that to track how far I walk. I'm still walking, although alone. This morning's walk was almost 2 miles, then I walked the track at the gym as usual for a warm up before hitting the machines. I skipped the treadmill that was scheduled for today. I figured that I had already walked farther than usual.

Here's a before and after example from the house painting. The scraping is done. The window and trim are aluminum. When the windows were put in, my DH planned to aluminum side the house. It no longer makes sense, since I won't be here long enough to make it pay.

The dormer twin is already primed. It's hard to tell,because the house color is almost white. The front wall below the dormers is already painted. The paint is sprayed on, which is why the window is masked. Makes for a nice even coat with no drips.

Did I say something about bushwhacking? The side of the house to the left has a couple of trees and used to have five Rose of Sharon bushes. When I told Rockie, my neighbor that the bushes would have to be trimmed because the touch my house, he said he didn't care if they were cut down. He hates that variety of bush. I agree that they are a weed. The seeds scatter and grow everywhere. I said I would cut them down. He will pull up the roots. I left about a foot of bush to grab onto when pulling roots. That's a lot less than the 8 - 10 feet high bushes that were there this morning. Out came the saw and the big pruners. I really had fun destroying the bushes. I have two big piles of

greenery tied up waiting for trash day (next Tuesday). You can see them under the tree, to the right. The white things behind the trees are my downspouts. They'll be replaced tomorrow, as rain is expected in the evening.

I had already spent a bit of time weeding in the front yard, and spraying miscellaneous plants that needed to be killed. I finished the day with another "dog" walk before dinner as usual. I was afraid to delay it, because if I sat down, I might not get up. A very productive day, although as usual plans got changed along the way.