Catching Up

We discovered cat pee right as we tried to leave Friday to take Shane to see Nana and Pop. Cleaning up helped make us late, but it also jump started a theme for Spring Break week: Catching up.

I spent all of Saturday working on school work, laundry, and barn stuff. Carrie rearranged and cleaned the whole laundry room from top to bottom.

We've done barn chores and cleaned something every day, but Monday was especially heavy on cleaning. 

Tuesday included a recycling run. We ran out of space in the bins and it had started to pile up in the garage (and this picture is AFTER I'd started working for a bit).

I broke down a sea of carboard and managed to pack it all into one very full truck.

I got to see the Fluvanna County dump for the first time. It's a much smaller operation than the one in Albemarle, but the recycling is single stream. No sorting required!

I'd hoped to do everything in one day, but the trash had to wait until Thursday (The dump is only open Tu-Th-Sat).

Some things were too big for the truck, so we had to use the trailer....and something were too big for the trailer and had to be trimmed down!

Random loose garbage went in the truck...

...while larger items we could brace and that wouldn't spill went in the trailer. It'd been a long time in between runs.

We still need to sweep or rake all of the old dead hay out of the pole-barn. It feels a little bit after a bonus job after we cleared it out as much as we did!

Some jobs were easier than others. The gator repair guy came by again to see why the gator's front wheels still squeak after being serviced. He pointed out some grooves in the rotor and said, "Gravel dust. From the arena." 

One chore that was a long time in coming: Haircuts. Carrie scheduled appointments for both of us on Thursday.

Carrie showed the stylist a picture and then went off to get her hair tended to, as well.

I was done first and got a picture of my lovely wife checking out her hair's progress. You'll have to wait to see my new hairdo. 

Throughout it all Carrie has been battling with the front gate. It decided not to shut one day and she went out to work on it at least three days in a row. She WD-40'd the hinges, tighten bolts, played with the circuit board, reset it, and it still refuses to act properly. 

Friday morning I declared "We're basically caught up." There are still things to do....and new things happen every day. But stuff has been taken care of that everything is in good shape. Hopefully, it will stay that way or slide slowly enough that the next catch-up week can happen over summer break!