Nothing cleans like a good burn pile

Dirty windows? Grab the Windex. Dishes? Cascade. Tid-e-bowl will take care of the toilet. But when it comes to odd scraps of wood, broken shake shingles, and odd piles of tree branches cut down by the previous neighbors, nothing beats a good burn pile.

Troy returns tonight and will probably come by tomorrow to size up where the work starts from now. It is a surprisingly great motivator to get lots of things done before his return to show I can handle progress even when he’s away. He will return to the vast lawns freshly mowed, blueberry bushes planted, raised bed gardens now showing little sprigs and sprouts, water barrels ready to collect some rain, the blue tracer wire running the length of the water line so as to meet permitting approval. There’s a new bird feeder and the plant beds behind the house and patio are all weeded and mulched. And, there are the benches and planters so you can actually sit on the patio now. Oh, yes, and the dirt back filling that he so worried over has been done for over a week now. So will he notice all that? Nah, but I’m sure he’ll sense that things are shaping up.

I hadn’t planned to fire up the burn pile, but once I finished mowing and mulching today, it struck me that it was such an easy thing to do and call “work” which mostly amounted to sitting on the patio and watching it burn. In two hours, two large piles of scraps went away as well as a third pile of tree branches and general wood junk left by the previous occupants. With that gone, I feel like I just got an extra chunk of backyard.

And after washing the smoke out of my hair and degrunging for the evening, I can ignore some bad tv while feeling so pleased that those piles of scrap are now gone.