Beautiful day

And after I get done what I have to get done, I'm tucking my tootsies into my hiking shoes and getting outside to get some work done. There's maters to water and the Merlot to tear apart to make even more beds. Trust me, that trailer is going to become some serious garden material from the wood. Drawers and cabinets are going to make pretty nifty instant beds, even if they only last a couple of years, and since the interior surfaces aren't treated, they'll be pretty and functional. Then there's the paneling - lay it treated side down and cover and kill all the grass and weeds under where all my "planters" are going to be. Studs can be torn apart and reformed into trellises. The metal exterior is going to be going into a pile for scrapping, and once the whole freaking thing is torn down to the base, we have to rent a cutting torch and turn that sucker into what's called "short steel," and that's a few hundred pounds of metal there to scrap, too. Hopefully, there will be some serious progress by summers end. I'm hoping to salvage some of the windows for cold frame covers, but if not, the glass that breaks can go into buckets or a trash can and go to a different salvage yard in Harrison that buys glass. Goodness knows, there's a bunch of busted up mason jars sitting around here that I can toss in there, too.

Quentin and I laughed this morning that eventually (or "evegtably," as my son used to put it when he was little), we are going to have three black trash cans ... one for the crushed soda cans  (he drinks a lot of soda), one for all the glass (jars, windows from the Merlot, etc.) and one for regular food cans (wet cat food, his soups, etc.). It all counts as a bit of chump change, so might as well save it up and take it to the scrappers.

There is so much to do, and I really hate Saturdays sometimes, because there are so many errands to get done and that leaves no time to do other things. We are hoping for a "short kill" tonight, so that even though we'd lose some or all of the overtime we've garnered this week, we'll get home and get some extra sleep and be able to get up and moving super early tomorrow. So much to do - scrap load to drop off, swap meet to go to, burn barrels to get (a friend at work needs a couple, so we are getting some for him and he's giving us a bit of profit on them for our trouble), grocery staples to get, laundry to do, a stop at Home Depot and the bank and Big Lots .... I'm tired already just thinking about it. Thankfully, with having hit my one-year at Tysons last week, and my birthday coming up in a few weeks, plus Memorial Day, I have a week's vacation, plus two "floating" holidays to take, plus a regular holiday. Spread out over the summer, one every other week, I can have three-day weekends that will allow me to get some extra stuff done around here.

What is a "floating" holiday, you ask? I don't know about other places, but at Tyson's, we get two a year - our birthday and our hiring anniversary. We can take them any time during the year after they accrue (ie, day after your birthday to the next birthday), and get paid for the day off. We just have to fill out a vacation request form and mark the floating holiday box and which one it is. I want to take several Mondays off. The money from selling back my vacation days would be nice, as I really want to get a new laptop, but there's things that need doing here that are not going to get done unless I have some time off to do them. One day off I can deal with. A whole week? I don't know how I'd manage other than going stir-crazy and "oh gee, I have lots of time to do this stuff..." and the week would be gone in no time, and nothing would be done. So a day at a time, alternate weeks, to spread the days out over the summer. Then I just have to wait for Labor Day, and then a bit more for all the fall/winter holidays (Thanksgiving, Christmas and New Years) ... and shortly after that, it will be my anniversary day again. We are hoping that with me working second shift, we can get bills paid off faster, and put money aside for a place easier, too, since we'll have a little bit more coming in - shoot, this week's check, my first for second shift, was nearly $60 more than my regular 5-day checks from first shift, so yeah, I'd say it will help us out!

Anyhow, time to start planning what days to ask for as off days, and find you guys some good books!!

KINDLE FREEBIES OF INTEREST


Kitty Draft Excluder - Easy Knitting Pattern
Adventures in Outdoor Cooking: Learn to Make Soup, Stew and Chili in Your Dutch Oven (Cast Iron Cooking)
Soap Making For Beginners: Make Healing and Nourishing Soaps from Herbal Ingredients
DROUGHT TOLERANT LANDSCAPING: Practical Landscaping To Drastically Cut Your Water Consumption
50 All Natural Body, Skin, and Hair Recipes - Quick, Simple and Easy to Enhance the Beauty of your Body, Skin and Hair!
Growing Organic Tomatoes: Your Seeds to Sauce Guide to Growing, Canning, & Preserving Your Own Tomatoes (Organic Gardening Beginners Planting Guides)
Top Tips on Gardening
Beginners Guide To Knitting Scarves (Knitting For Beginners)