We were up at 8 and by 9:00, Mike was out the door and on his way to purchase that burn permit. He arrived back home about the same time his mom did (to watch Mikey) and we were off to the races.
Mike was determined to make a scrap metal run - filling up Dodge #3 and hauling it away. (Prices are near to $150 per ton. Not as awesome as a couple years ago when prices hit a high of around $250 per ton, but still worthwhile.) So he went to work right away - tearing out the wiring he needed and throwing near to every piece of metal junk we had onto his trailer.
Meanwhile, I began tackling the basement. We decided to just scrap our giant scrap wood pile. It just looked like garbage, really. So I spent the better part of an hour just carrying wood up and out. The overflowing trash can - out. Empty paint cans and moldy drywall compound - out. Moldy bits of drywall - out. (Who needs a stair climber? Just climb stairs for a couple hours straight with armfuls of trash! You'll be fit in no time!)
Outside, we got the go-ahead to burn baby burn and Mike lit up the Trogdor Burninator with brush and branches. (Yes, we cut our old oil tank in half, added a handle, and turned it into a burning pit. And yes, we named it after that famous Strong Bad email.) Once the fire was going strong, Mike was right back to loading scrap.
He cut up an old boat trailer with his Sawzall and even loaded that - plus a couple lawn tractors. When everything was ready to go, he drove across the street where our neighbor loaded Mike's truck with even more scrap... until it was overflowing! He had another trailer he wanted Mike to take too, but he was already full up. Time to head out.
About the time Mike was leaving with all that metal, I was just about finished taking junk out of the basement. Time to organize, clean, and vacuum! And I went nuts. I even managed to put down our old living room rug to define a new exercise area for my treadmill and Mike's weight bench, complete with TV table. (Weight bench will have to be moved later - I couldn't lift it.)
It's been a VERY long time since the basement was this clean.
Anyway, when Mike returned we got back to some serious burning. (I had been tending the fire whilst he was away - but keeping it small and just throwing in a few sticks every now and again.)
We had a late lunch and then got started on tidying the yard.
Our other neighbor wanted some of our scrap wood for winter kindling... in exchange for some of his famous homegrown jalapeno poppers. No problemo! And he took more than half off our hands.
Back in the backyard, I cleaned up and raked - Mike decided to fix the old boat trailer so he could deliver the old boat to its new owner. Which is definitely a good thing, don't get me wrong. Unfortunately, this meant that a few things had to be left where they were.... a couple of large Dodge body parts, 4Runner #1, the scaffolding, the trash hut, and a buncha small misc items.
But all in all, the yard hasn't looked so clean in at least a couple years. And now that it's neat and clean, we'll be bringing in a new and bigger boat, 1/2 a trans am (happy birthday to me with a new pontiac 400 motor and trans), and a camper. Don't look at me like that! It's better then adding all that stuff to what we had before! I'll be doing my best to keep it neat, believe me. And I'll be doing my best to sell some items this summer - believe me on that one too.
Mike returned home around 9:30pm, just in time to catch me vacuuming one last time. And this morning he went to the dump with all that junk from the basement. Bu-bye.
Why all the mad cleaning, organizing, and finishing of small projects? In just about a week I will hopefully be able to say, pending if it all paid off that is. And pics of the yard to come... it was pouring rain this morning.
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