bumpercropping
diggin up the back yard, originally uploaded by artnoose.
The past few days have been a flurry of work around the house. All of us have been digging away at the back yard, which we're going to attempt to turn into a mini farm for us. Inside, the major projects have been: basement, bathroom, and plumbing for outdoor spigot.
J. and I have been working on one room of the basement to transform it into a sweet band practice room, or at least in phase one, a tolerable one. The problem is that the basement is totally disgusting. The Great Veggie Oil Spill of 2008--- in which 35 gallons of waste veggie oil spilled all over the floor--- occurred in the room above the new practice space, meaning that before we did anything, J. and I had to remove piles of discarded wire insulation that was soaked through with a film of rubbery, congealed oil. Then we excavated a former basement window that had been at some point filled in with bricks, trash, and dirt. This has been a source of major water entry into the basement, and I spent the rest of the day (and some of today too) sealing the opening.
While we were doing this, M. and S. worked on the second floor bathroom, which should be operational some time soon (and I know I've been saying that for a while).
Today I spent the whole day finishing the wall tile in the second floor bathroom. I was really about 99% finished with it, and had almost forgotten that I hadn't finished it yet. There are still three tiles I have to set tomorrow because I still have to finish building up the wall behind it--- sometimes things take a while because you have to wait for things to dry.
While I was doing that, M. and S. put in a spigot in the back yard so we don't have to fill up watering cans in the bathtub anymore. J. built awesome bike parking in the front entry room. I continued filling in the open space in the basement. After yoga tonight, I was exhausted. (Not too exhausted to make sweet potato tacos though.)