Now that it's gotten cooler I can't seem to get my ass in gear

I've made a little bit of progress on the yard but in reality it doesn't seem like much at all.I just can't seem to get outside and get anything done.

The last time I posted , my wife and I had  cleared and roughed out the path for the new walkway. I mixed two bags of quikrete in the wheelbarrow and we poured the star part of our LONE STAR ornament and the rest of the mud went into the first form for the walkway.

I wrote up an earlier page which featured this but I was persuaded to delete it because I was upset about the election results and it unfortunately spilled over into the blog. I have now calmed down enough to make another attempt , but I'm still an unhappy guy.

 While trying to rein  in myself I decided to burn off some of my negative energy by making a supply run. It's amazing how loading , transporting , and unloading a half ton of bags of quikrete ( did I mention my "truck" for this is a Chevy Malibu ? ) can cool you out. Unfortunately , it can also take a bit out of you . While examining my Lone Star I somehow lost my balance and while trying not to fall , stepped squarely in the center of my concrete star. Which snapped off all 5 points . We were not amused.

While all of this has been going on outside , the inside of the house is complete chaos as we have all the carpet removed and laminate floors installed.

We removed all the furniture from two bedrooms and the living room and removed everything from the walls because we were afraid all the pounding from the installation of the new floors could cause stuff to fall. After just over two weeks of this ( everything coated with a thick layer of dust ) we are almost ready to clean everything and put everything back.

After removing the now "dead" star I decided to remove everything from my " star pit so as to rethink it. If only inspiration had struck. Instead , I mixed up some mud in the wheelbarrow and dumped it into the pit , thinking I could insert my star form while it was still wet. This proved to be not so much a good idea.

This is what I have now. Those who have seen it so far have been very solicitous and advised me to move ahead with it " as is ". One person said it had " a certain homemade cachet about it "  , and another said " you want it to look homemade and not exactly perfect " . I would have to say those were very polite ways of saying " better luck next time " , but I'm going to run with it as is . Still uncertain as to the final form of it  , other than that the star will be filled in another three inches with concrete and the area around the star but inside the border tiles will be most likely be some combination of red lava rock and white marble chips. Who knows ? I know I don't. 

I'm hoping this week to remove the grass and weeds from the area between the new walk path and the house , spread the newspaper to keep the weeds down ( I am almost amazed that to date I have only had ONE weed in the other side of the yard ) and maybe get some plants in the ground before I spread some marble and pour some more sections of the path.

with Twila as helper

I have been relaxing and enjoying my retirement , but , there is work to do. My lovely wife Twila told me she wanted to work outside yesterday to enjoy the nice weather , get some fresh air , and to add some input ( and oversight / supervision ) to my yard work efforts. So , out came the shovel , rake , and wheelbarrow . Several hours later , we had what seems to be a definite plan for the new front walkway and progress on my second concrete creation , a Lone Star.

Since I am using a Chevy Malibu to haul my materials it might be a while before all the concrete work is done . Still debating the possibility of edging the new walk with stone to match the sidewalk . Lots more digging if I decide to go that way but it's the expense and the look that will decide it for me , not the amount of time or effort it would take to accomplish. 

The inside of the house is a total wreck right now as a crew showed up on Friday to remove all the carpets and underlying padding in preparation for installation of new flooring.Everything cleared out of two bedrooms and the living room and all of it stowed and stuffed into the remaining bedroom , kitchen , and dining room. And from the carpet removal , everything in the entire house is now coated with a layer of dust. Which is part of the reason Twila wanted to work outside.

Part of me is very glad there is a self-limiting factor to how much I can do on any given day determined by how much stuff I can haul home from Lowe's . At 80 pounds per bag , I only bring home a max of 4 bags of concrete per trip which makes two wheelbarrow loads mixed and poured and finished . Ah , restraint.

Actually , I've been thinking about this walkway for so long , I'm really happy to finally be making it a reality. I just hope it turns out well and no serious problems crop up to hamper the work.

It's getting to be much cooler. I had to really get after it to work up much of a sweat . During the last couple of weeks of relative inactivity my weight has wanted to inch back up toward 230. I hope by the time the walk is done I will be back under 225 . I then plan to strip the remaining grass off between the walk and the house , cover all the exposed ground with newspaper to keep down weeds , and then cover with rock like on the other side in front which I completed earlier. Then I'll place the collection of plants I have been gathering and saving to complete the overall work and then I'll be done. Until I decide to put something around the base of the tree which was the reason for all this effort. I think. I also still have to decide how to finish off that star. And the model train layout which is DEFINITELY on hold as the room is full of everything that was in the guest bedroom while the floor is being done. And the shed made out of pallets 

has been receiving some thought but no real work . Yet.

Work to do , work to do indeed.