shop buildout and fence clearing

This is turning out to be a busy year with a lot of projects which is just as well because now I don't have time to waste on FB or Twitter depressing myself with the continued shit show and pandemic. It's like things that have been on hold all got the go ahead all at about the same time. The stopped up toilet that led to the talked about remodel of the big bathroom, the acceptance of our offer of a house for my sister, and now the buildout of a room and a bathroom in the shop that we can air condition and heat so we can work over there all year (!) that the stay at home orders precipitated because people don't want to start any work that will entail having workers in the house and our contractor/handyman/neighbor/friend was hurting for some work. So work over there began Monday. Insulation, sheetrock ceiling, leftover beadboard walls, gonna leave the concrete floor for now. Rocky's emptying his garage of all leftover material that we can use...insulation, sheetrock mud, maybe even a new toilet. He already gave me a faucet set from a previous job months ago for this eventual buildout.

Aaaaand, work came to a halt end of day Monday. Before they closed in the ceiling with sheetrock an assessment of all the electrical wires needed to be made because some of the plugs worked, some didn't; some of the switches worked, some didn't; and we needed x amount of light fixtures, x amount of plugs, and x amount of switches and there was some pretty ancient shit up there. And Gunnar would not be available til Thursday.

So Rocky set his brother Rene, who is currently on leave from his job, to helping me on the fence Tuesday morning while he enlisted the aid of another of his people to come assess the electrical wires.

All the guys are amazed that I have cleared that fence by myself with a few days of help from my sister. I tell them, two hours a day day after day after day. After helping me for an hour Rene says this is hard work for a woman. I told him women can work hard. We have a higher tolerance to pain and have more stamina. I'm thinking women's work has always been hard like doing laundry before washing machines and helping their husbands plow fields. All that aside, there is something to be said for male upper body strength. Rene, he's a small guy like his brother Rocky but he pulled down four sections of crap off that fence in the time it would take me to completely clear one section. 

At one point he asked me if I'd seen any snakes which I hadn't and told him so though I was surprised as I figured there would be snakes in there. Not five minutes later Rene was poised to cut the head off a little 8” garden snake that slithered out from under some debris. “Don't kill it!!!”, I exclaimed as I herded it off to safety. “It's a harmless little garden snake, a sign of a healthy ecosystem. It's not hurting you so leave it alone.” I do not understand why people want to kill things just because they can.

Rocky returned 12:30 with Fred, y'all take a break he tells me and Rene, and then we pondered the ancient and the just old electrical wiring, a plan was formed, an amount of money agreed on with the resumption of the buildout on Friday.

I thought it would take me nearly a week to cut up and pile up Rene's work for burning but I got it done in two days. 

I had to go out into the world yesterday for new work gloves since I've destroyed the two pair we had. Just two more sections of fence to the corner but those last two are going to be a real bitch but at least I'll be working in the shade for a change.

 And I wish we would get a day with no wind so I can start burning some of those piles.