Clearing the Driveway

[kevin_standlee]

My thanks to those of you who sent your congratulations about our acquisition of the East Lot. Today, I started doing some weed clearance, but not on the new property, as there were higher priorities.



The garage and driveway are on the south side of the original house. Thanks to the purchase of the East Lot (to the right in this view), we now have streets on three sides of the property. All of our vehicles are either in the garage or parked on the north side of the house as of today. Weeds have been growing all about the place, including coming in the driveway itself. It was time to do something about that.



It only took a bit over an hour to dig up five wheelbarrow loads of weeds and haul them to the debris pile growing on the north side of the East Lot. It certainly felt like longer to me. I did remember to apply sunscreen and also to wear a face mask, not against COVID-19, but against the dust and pollen that this work kicks up. The last time I dug weeds like this, I was pretty sick the next day.

I'm pretty happy getting all of this stuff pulled up. We'll move vehicles back here soon, although we have work to do like getting that bad tire off the Rolling Stone and replaced. It's a start on the larger job of cleaning up the East Lot.

Comments

[radar]

You need to get one of those giant yard skeletons, dress it up in a Halloween-themed train conductor's uniform, and motorize the arm so that it waves to the train crews as they toot past your place. Perfect addition to your new lot! ;-)

[kevin_standlee]

Oh, that's a good idea! Thanks!

[radar]

There is a giant iron T-Rex in Redwood City whose owners dress him up in seasonal costumes. Easter Bunny, Santa Claus, and even the fandom silly (Stay Puft Marshmellow Man). If you image search "Dug the T-Rex", you'll find a plethora of fun ideas- especially if you'd like to place a railway twist on some of them.

Parking

[belak]

When you're more flush with cash, fencing the new portion of your "estate" or "compound" might be helpful for keeping a hold on the catalytic converters and other vehicle parts that might be more likely to wander off when parked on the street. Locked behind a gate rather than on the street is safer. Safer yet if you had security video, but I digress into hypothetically spending more of *your* money! ;-) It is soooo easy to spend other people's money to help protect their things!

The fence might be a hybrid job--hire out the digging and planting of the fence posts and gate, but you and your beloved might be able to hang the fencing itself if you're doing cyclone fencing. Putting up the fencing also might decrease the insurance cost for the grand estate and the vehicles, though likely not enough to offset the fence cost.

Re: Parking

[kevin_standlee]

We're considering looking for a surveyor to check the property lines to make sure where our land actually extends. We can roughly guess by looking at the other properties, but if we could afford it, making sure we have the bounds correct would save us from making a costly fencing mistake. Besides, we probably will have to get a building permit to put up a fence anyway.