Woke up at 8:05 A.M. Grabbed a bowl of cereal, showered, then headed out the door for Lincoln to meet Ruble. I arrived at 9:15, and we hopped in his car and headed for Peoria. He now has 252,000 miles on that beast! You turn it "on" with a light switch, and you start it with a push button. I love it. I have so many fond memories (and thousands of miles!) in that beaut. It was good to be back in her.
We were heading up to Peoria for him to pick up a tool kit that he had found on craigslist. He's planning on selling it for profit. Well, we picked that up, then headed to B-Dubs for lunch. It was nice to hang with him again. I haven't seen him since his wedding. We talked about quite a bit...marriage, the good ol' days, his finger and rehabilitation, insurance, houses, job plans, and on and on. It was weird having to catch up with one of my closest friends, but I guess that is life.
We arrived back in Lincoln at 12:30, but I had to skedaddle in order to get back to Springfield in time. A gentleman was coming over between 1:00 and 2:00 to pick up my rock!!! I definitely wanted to be there for that. And sure enough, he called when I was two miles out, saying he was in my driveway. He had brought two younger girls (13-ish?) to help him, and they provided some impressive work! Definitely Texas-bred. No, seriously, they were. I was quite impressed. We had all of the rock loaded up in about 15 minutes. Boy, was I glad to get that out of there. I was scooping as much and as fast as I could! I wanted it gone! I FINALLY have my driveway back after a few weeks of not having it. The front of the house is finally looking decent!
After they left, I grabbed the chainsaw and started cutting down trees in my backyard. I had four more to do today, and after changing the chain, the project went very smoothly. It is so nice having the right tool. I just zipped right through those trunks. But boy, did I have a lot of tree in my yard, though! I chopped up all of the limbs into easier-to-manage lengths, then did the grudge work of hauling them all to my curb. I seriously had a ton of branches to haul out there. It was a ton of walking back and forth. But the weather was decent (high 80's?), and I actually felt pretty good. After NUMEROUS trips of going back and forth, I was finally done. Now the backyard is coming together! I was thrilled to get that project done. It's not overly noticeable, but at the same time, it really opens up some parts of my backyard. I'm happy with it.
I finally took a shower after all of that was done. I had planned on hitting some garage sales this evening, but craigslist led me astray. I found a Craftsman riding mower for $100. It was advertised as running good but having a crack in the front bumper. Cost? $100. Deal. So I went over to my brother's house, exchanged our trucks, then headed to Dad's house to pick him up, then drove the 40 or so minutes to pick up this mower. Oh boy. It wasn't exactly what I was expecting. I mean, it was all there. But it wasn't that great. It had rust throughout, dried gas lines, a make-shift gas tank, and a very-much-broken hood (that's the cracked bumper). It was...lacking to say the least. I looked it over. And over. And over. It was a 2001, but as my dad said, "Looks like it was rode hard and put away wet." No, seriously, he said that! But it was true. It had certainly been used and abused.
After much thinking, I passed. And I felt pretty stinkin' good about that. I did pick up a push mower for $25, though. She said it just needs the flywheel key replaced. I hope so! It's a very nice-looking Craftsman. I guess we'll see what happens with that! I at least have to get my gas money out of it!
From there, we headed to Chatham to meet a guy with a trailer. We need the trailer for the hay run tomorrow. So we picked up the trailer, then headed back to Mom and Dad's house. I was just dropping him off, but he said it would sure be nice to use this trailer for hauling my branches. By George (who is he, anyway?), he was right! So we made the decision to just do it all tonight! Mom tagged along, and we headed over to my house and picked up the huge pile of branches. I then hauled them back to their house where Dad is planning on burning them. I tell you, it was work, but I was THRILLED to bring that project to completion all in one day!!! There is nothing like wrapping a project up. I was stoked.
Just after 9:00, I finally had a chance to eat some supper that Mom had fixed. Then I took my brother's truck back to his house, picked up my truck, then headed to my sister's house where some friends were supposed to be. I arrived right at 10:00, but everyone had left already. I went in for a bit and played with Baby, but I was yawning like crazy. I was beat. So I left there at 10:45.
I came back home and FINALLY sat down on a couch! What a looooooooooooooong day! But another project is wrapped up! A total of six trees cut down, and all of the branches removed! A perfect finish.
Ended up going to bed VERY tired at midnight. I have another long day tomorrow, starting off with a hay run at 8:00 A.M. I think it's going to have to be a coffee morning.
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