Day 185

The work is over. Today I completed the last task that I'll do this spring. I resprayed some of the areas that I sprayed before. I also covered the road areas that I didn't get to the first time because I ran out of poison. That's it, done, fini.

Only now it's time to prepare to leave. I need to get the truck's oil changed and I'd like to get it a bath. I'll see about that tomorrow. It's also time to start cleaning up the house. It needs vacuuming and a few things put away. I also need to turn down the water heaters in the house and the apartment.

Ellen spent the day cleaning out files. I did the shredding. We got rid of all of the records from the '80's and '90's. There's still some more to do, I'm not sure we'll get completely finished.

I met another neighbor today and the local sheriff's deputy (he drove by while we were talking). It turns out there was a meth house down the road a while back. The guy's doing 22 years in the state pen now. Good riddance.

A little while ago I started a list of all of the things that we've done here since March 6th. That's 37 straight days of work (not counting moving the trailer and yesterday's time off). In that time we accomplished the following:

1. Unpacked the storage containers and moved everything into the house.
2. Unpacked all of the boxes from the move.
3. Hung over thirty items on the walls of the house and the apartment.
4. Cleaned all of the cabinets and closets in the house (they were dirty).
5. Got new roof installed.
6. Got burglar alarm installed.
7. Disassembled swimming pool and installed new lattice work on the deck.
8. Painted the entire interior of the house including trim and doors except for the bathrooms.
9. Replaced three kitchen lights and two bathroom lights.
10. Replaced ceiling fan in the study.
11. Installed surround sound speakers in the living room.
12. Hung the TV on the wall.
13. Replaced all of the door knobs in the house with levers.
14. Installed blinds on two windows.
15. Sprayed the weeds and gravel areas with Roundup equivalent.
16. Filled up pot holes in the entry road.
17. Pruned trees at the entrance to allow trailer passage.
18. Shredded 20 years worth of financial documents and tax returns.
19. Bought the following furniture:
a. Rolltop desk
b. Wooden file cabinet (converted it to modern files)
c. Double bed frame for the guest bedroom
d. Double bed frame for the apartment main bedroom
e. Dresser for the guest bedroom
f. Dresser for the master bedroom
g. Two dressers for the master closets
h. Table for the living room
i. Table for the kitchen
j. Kitchen table and four chairs for the apartment
k. TV stand for the apartment
l. Washer and Dryer for the apartment
20. Painted the apartment living room including trim.
21. Put up trim around the apartment front door and other unfinished places.
22. Put up towel bars and a clothes rod in the apartment bathroom.
23. Built a shelf in the garage.

I'd call that a lot to accomplish with 1.8 people (Ellen was gone for a while) in 7 weeks.

I'm tired and looking forward to getting back on the road. Driving the trailer isn't relaxing, but I think it's going to be lots easier than the last 7 weeks have been.