Too Many Projects/Gravel Found

I've found that with the overwhelming number of projects that need to be done and so little time to get to all of them, you have to take each moment as a small victory. Take, for instance, my quest to find gravel. I think I may have found it, and somehow that just made my day. We are having drainage problems on the house. The rain that runs off the roof hits the ground and splashes back onto the house, causing a great deal of rot. The obvious solution would be to simply install rain gutters, but they seem unsightly and may not be practical. Marty never installed them, and she's a guru, so I'm guessing there was a reason for that.

Either way, there are several places to get gravel out here, but the rocks are all gray. Not to be too much of a dork about it, but Marty used red rocks and they look a lot better, they go with the brick path and seem to blend with the house and plants. So I went on a mission to find them, checking with several quarries, none of which had the rocks I was looking for. I was struck, however, by how cheap they are. I guess they're just rocks, after all.

Well, my journey brought me to Longacres Nursery, and there they were, red rocks, by the bag. I actually had a hard time distinguishing the color, they were covered with dirt (funny thing about rocks, wouldn't you say?) but they had a box of samples and they looked pretty good to me, i.e. red! So I bought some, and will put them out today. Of course, it's raining outside, contrary to the forecast.

I've moved about two cords of the woodpile, and it's one of those seemingly insurmountable jobs that you can't ponder too much or else you'll go crazy. The worst part of it is moving the pile, it takes about twenty trips with the wheel barrow to move one cord, and then you have to stack. I like the stacking part, but would prefer it if we had a good stretch of dry, sunny days so I can not worry about the dry wood getting wet.

I also finally took a good look at the peeling paint on the back of the house, and I hear Jack Castle's words ringing in my head, "Take care of your house and show people how much you love it." The stain on the back, south facing, had been peeling for months, if not for a year, and I put it off because it's really something I'd never done before. Finally I bit the bullet and sanded off the chips and restained, and it went smoothly, except for the fact that I realized how much work really needs to be done. I think the entire south face needs to be redone, but I may too late this year and will have to wait until spring. It's a gargantuan task, and I have to paint the windows and trim, as well. Not an easy job, but one that needs to be done show my love...

I'm still pondering my ambitious plan to redo the front facade. I may have to wait on that, as well, since it will involve painting and the weather is getting poor. So many projects, so little time. Until the next time, thanks for reading.