Friday, November 22, 2013

Trimmed tree, new gutter guards, new loppers

Wednesday was a nice sunny day (though a bit chilly), so I decided to trim the little tree that's in front of our picture window out front. I can't remember if I trimmed it last year or not, but I think it was two years ago. At any rate, it really needed trimming. I imagine the squirrels will be disappointed though. So I got out my old pair of loppers and my big ladder and went to work.

While I was up there I noticed that the corner gutter had quite a bit of gunk piled up (where it runs down from the valley in the roof), so I started cleaning that out. We have gutter guards on all the gutters but these were pretty well shot in the corner, so I decided I would replace the two pieces that go into the corner. As I was getting into the car I remembered that the gutter guards on the front of the garage were pretty worn too, so I decided I would get enough to replace them too. So off to Menard's I went.

I found the gutter guards I wanted (with the screen over the holes). I bought seven of them. As I was going to leave I passed the tree trimming section, and I decided it was time to get a new set of branch loppers. The ones I have were my dad's from eons ago, and the one handle kept falling off - like, all the time. So I bought a pair of Corona Titanium loppers that have extending handles. They work pretty nice.

When I got home I replaced the corner gutter guards, and then decided to just replace the rest of the gutter guards on the front of the house in that section instead of the ones over the garage. So I did that, and it looks pretty nice. Maybe in the spring I will replace the ones over the garage.

After that I continued cleaning up the branches I had cut off the little tree. It took forever because there are little berries on that tree and they were making a mess. I have no idea what kind of tree it is, or what kind of berries they are, but they're a pain. So I got that cleaned up, then headed out back. I trimmed the little bush behind our bedroom, and the rose bush in the middle section, and a few other things in the middle section. I was out of garbage space, so I just raked things into piles and will have to pick it up at a later date.

I guess I also covered the air conditioning unit outside. I have a big heavy duty garbage bag that just fits over it, and then I keep it tight with two bungy straps.

I felt like I got a lot accomplished, but I was a bit beat afterward. I am not big on doing yard work, but it's nice to have most of it done. I took some tylenol before I went to bed.

3 comments:

MR said...

Which reminds me to clean my gutters now that my trees are empty. Don't want them freezing into big ice trays this winter.

Unknown said...

I know nothing about this kind of stuff. Thanks for this post. Drew now has a list of things to do :)

Carrie Jade said...

^^^^ from your daughter, obviously.