what i did on my march break by siobhan
Mar. 24th, 2025 12:48 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
the_siobhanI just walked past a window and did a double-take - there is snow all over everything. I had the doors and windows thrown open earlier today because it wasn't overly cold and I was busy raising clouds of dust all day. I imagine it will be gone by morning, but it took me by surprise.
I scheduled a couple of days off work so I could get caught up on All The Things and so far it's been pretty productive. It took me most of a day, but I scooped all the water out of the bathtub, took apart the plug, and spent some time scraping clay, hair, clay, and what looked like pieces of the husks from Invasion Of The Body Snatchers plus more clay out of the pipes. Then I scrubbed the shit out of it. It's now a pristine gleaming white and the water runs clear down the drain without any pooling. Go me.
Before
After
Yesterday I went to a seed swap that was hosted in one of the local community centres. I came home with some arugula and some suggestions for local ground covers. I didn't buy more because honestly I think the yard is going to be a multi-year project. I went outside to poke around and it's... gonna be some work. Basically they took all the clay from digging out the basement and threw it over the yard and it's full of broken glass, broken concrete, whatever trash they uncovered. And the original plan said it would slope away from the house to reduce runoff, that is definitely not what I saw when I went out there.
In the short term, I'm going to just rake up as much crap as I can and then throw some white clover seed over it. Long term I'll section off a piece at a time to rehab with some compost to dilute the clay. I'll start with a square of garden and work from there.
But first the basement. I spent a lot of time digging through all the crap down there and trying to organize it. I found more things left behind by the housemate, which needs to be boxed up so it can leave with the rest of their stuff. I filled the garbage bin again, and there will be another full bag to go in once that's taken away. I have uncovered a lot of my tools and supplies that will come in useful. And lightbulbs. Apparently my housemate was ordering a case every time we needed one - they were cheaper that way I guess? But then promptly lost track of the box when we needed another so just ordered another case. I have so many lightbulbs y'all!
Also found some full wine bottles so tomorrow might be slightly less productive than today was, but I'm ok with that.
So much dust. And so many spiders. And I'm only halfway done down there.
I scheduled a couple of days off work so I could get caught up on All The Things and so far it's been pretty productive. It took me most of a day, but I scooped all the water out of the bathtub, took apart the plug, and spent some time scraping clay, hair, clay, and what looked like pieces of the husks from Invasion Of The Body Snatchers plus more clay out of the pipes. Then I scrubbed the shit out of it. It's now a pristine gleaming white and the water runs clear down the drain without any pooling. Go me.
Before
After
Yesterday I went to a seed swap that was hosted in one of the local community centres. I came home with some arugula and some suggestions for local ground covers. I didn't buy more because honestly I think the yard is going to be a multi-year project. I went outside to poke around and it's... gonna be some work. Basically they took all the clay from digging out the basement and threw it over the yard and it's full of broken glass, broken concrete, whatever trash they uncovered. And the original plan said it would slope away from the house to reduce runoff, that is definitely not what I saw when I went out there.
In the short term, I'm going to just rake up as much crap as I can and then throw some white clover seed over it. Long term I'll section off a piece at a time to rehab with some compost to dilute the clay. I'll start with a square of garden and work from there.
But first the basement. I spent a lot of time digging through all the crap down there and trying to organize it. I found more things left behind by the housemate, which needs to be boxed up so it can leave with the rest of their stuff. I filled the garbage bin again, and there will be another full bag to go in once that's taken away. I have uncovered a lot of my tools and supplies that will come in useful. And lightbulbs. Apparently my housemate was ordering a case every time we needed one - they were cheaper that way I guess? But then promptly lost track of the box when we needed another so just ordered another case. I have so many lightbulbs y'all!
Also found some full wine bottles so tomorrow might be slightly less productive than today was, but I'm ok with that.
So much dust. And so many spiders. And I'm only halfway done down there.