This is my busiest time of year- I’m doing all the little outdoor things I need to do to make sure that the house is ready for another Indiana winter- it’s a tough gig, and doing it on a 60 year old house which was neglected almost all it’s life is a chore.

Last year I spent a great deal of time tuckpointing and cleaning, and near the end of the season I spent nearly 10k having the west end of the house excavated, jacked up, sealed, and backfilled. it was an amazing amount of work, and I’d rather not repeat it, so this summer, I put in a retaining wall to keep the dirt up against the house from washing away. The retaining wall is on the back slope of the yard, a precipitous slope which is good only flor sledding.

Anyway, 500 odd retaining wall blocks weighing in excess of 60 lbs each had to be hand carried and placed, and this last weekend, I finishjed all the backfilling and put down heavy plastic and covered the resultant terrace with large river gravel. I ache everywhere. Next weekend I have some friends I need to help with some projects, and then I need to jack up the roof of my garage and replace a sagging header, then replace the garage door. Then I’ll be ready for winter, more or less, and I can call it quits and move to indoor projects for a while. Home ownership is such a pain. Promise I’ll return to more blogging soon.