17 days and counting

No, we don't get excited to go work on the property. Not at all.
And of course the price of fuel jumped up about 10 cents a gallon this weekend. Got to love winter fuel prices.
So, I was talking with Gail over At the Farm, because her post about fixing the shed roof, quite frankly, made my toes tingle, haha.
I was telling her a bit about the property we work on and she mentioned to be sure I take pictures. Well, I do that, when I don't forget to charge the camera battery (spare battery and charger are packed). And I want to get another memory card. I know I have room. And I know how many pictures I can fit on a card - 963 on the last one - but I want a spare card anyway.
And I thought I'd post some pictures of some of the work that needs doing. I'll do a couple of posts because I don't know how many pictures blogger will let me show you, if any. I hear they are getting stingy about pictures.
Anyway.

This is something we need to remember and take care of. It has poked me before when mowing and I didn't know what it was. When it got hubby on the last trip, I went looking for it. This is just one picture. There are others in the May 2010 album linked to on the side of my blog. This one, pardon the pun, gets the point across.

Those spines are a good inch or more in length. The base of this thing is actually outside the fence. Near as I can tell from the shape of the leaves is that it is a 'Passion Vine', though I don't think we've ever seen flowers on it. How it got to be hanging from the corner oak, 10 feet inside the yard, I don't know. If I can figure out how to hold it, we'll trim it. I don't know any gloves that would not be pierced by it.

The pump house needs replacing, too. We replaced the pump last year, and then during that freeze a pipe broke, so we've decided we want to replace it - and insulate the pipes this year. Here's what it looks like now.

We haven't decided for sure yet, but we're thinking maybe some sort of small shed to put over it. It will need to cover the tank too.
We have a stump to pull, too. Remember I told you here about the old crepe myrtle we had to cut down. Well, we still need to pull that stump. I don't have a picture of the stump, but I'll show you the base of the crepe myrtle again.

So, now on to the garage. It's probably not a garage like a lot of you think of, but the Brother-in-law sent us a few old pictures last night, and there was actually a car in it!  So yes, it was indeed a garage at one time. And possibly it had animals in it at one time because there is mesh fence on the front of it that we had to pull open to start cleaning it out. There is still a lot of junk to be hauled. And the roof needs repair, but I'd like to fix it, rather than tear it down because there is a concrete base of sorts on it. These pictures are not in a particular order. They are just some of the pictures I have taken over the two years we've been going there. Seems like a lot of time, but when you only get 4 weeks a year, it's not really that long at all.

I think we finally got all that green under control this last summer. Won't really get a good idea this fall, but we'll find out next spring for sure. In the third picture you can see what's left of the crepe myrtle that we need to pull. And we can't use it for firewood because there's no way to be sure we got all the termites.

See that little cluster of green pecans in about the center of this photo? We're hoping by going a little later this year that pecans like that will be ripe when we are there. Hubby wants to cut that tree down. It's had a little storm damage. I want to keep it, but he doesn't like it because it's what's called a 'papershell' pecan. That's exactly why I like it. They're easy for me to crack without a pecan cracker. But, in the scheme of things, I can compromise since he is willing to save the garage there. And we are planting more pecan trees and will be planting apples and pears and I haven't figured out what else yet, so yeah. Though I would prefer to keep it, if he wants it gone, I can live with that. I just don't want him to cut all the trees he wants to cut because 1- shade. 2- I like them and they take a LONG time to regrow 3- I don't want to change the character of the property too much. I know I'm 'emotional', what my mom used to call a 'sob sister' and such, but this property has spoken to me since I first saw it when he took me home to meet his parents back in the early '70s.

In the second picture you can clearly see the concrete that I was talking about. It's not on a slab like the outbuilding, but I think it's good enough that hopefully we can save it. It's part of that character thing I was talking about.
The garage has never had glass windows to my knowledge, just what you see. I think once we get the roof fixed, would be nice, maybe, to do something about that for when the hurricanes come through; but then maybe that's why it's never had glass...

As you can see, we still have a lot of trash to haul out of the garage. I was real happy to see the screens up in the rafters though. I think window screens and maybe a screen door or two as well. I'm hoping they're in good condition so we can use the windows in the house - though the windows still need a lot of work, too. Sash windows I think they are - the ones that use the weights and pulley ropes? They all need repairing. May just replace them, but then again... In spite of the character of the house, it might be more cost effective to have them replaced.
See that rusty orange thing back under the window of the bottom picture? That's all that is left of the metal cabinets that used to be in the house. We're going to have it sanded and paint it and I think it's going to go into the 'laundry room'.

Wow. This is a huge post. lol. I think I should end it. My foot hurts. I tipped a tool box over on it. It wasn't a big one. And it just had nails, bolts, screws, washers, stuff like that in it, but I was in bare feet and I have a lump on my foot and it still hurts. But at least I am pretty much over my cold. The tool box has been moved to a bin on the trailer because we always need what's in it at the farm house. And we'll add to it. Because he has his new saw to use, which has also been packed. I should take a picture of our trailer. It's not completely finished being packed. Still have another bin to put on and we need to finish filling them, but yeah. It's pretty much ready 17 days early.
For those of you who watch TV, am I the only one who thinks 90 percent or more of the commercials are designed to make people stupid?

And one of our favorite shows right now? Swamp People. I like all the swampers on the show, but I like Troy best. He seems the most... well rounded, I think. Him and his family. If I couldn't live on the farm, I think I would like to live in a house like his.

Happy Tuesday all!