3 tons and counting

The most easily quantifiable accomplishment of today was that Dick took 3 tons (tons!) of scrap metal to be recycled. We spent all day working on general cleanup at the farmstead.

Dick became the king of scrap metal, sorting it by type, loading it and taking trips to deliver it in his truck. None of us predicted there would be that much. And that's only pieces small enough to load by hand — from nuts and bolts to box springs and cow stanchions. Bob and I stopped counting after a dozen broken pitchforks alone. Tomorrow we'll load entire old iron implements on a trailer with the loader tractor.

Maggie worked all day in the shop. She sorted through the treasures (an ox yoke, a few Lincoln Logs and marbles, interesting farm tools) and the junk (random jugs of hazardous waste, evidence of some rodent's bachelor pad, parts to long-gone tractors). The progress in that one building alone was incredible.

Bob and Mark took on a variety of projects that needed to be done. Trees were trimmed (lots more to go though), wood loaded, junk burned, decisions made, weeds mowed, parts run after, a burn permit secured. I also worked on a variety of projects, starting with fence post patrol and ending with mowing weeds in the light rain. When I started to get cold, I focused on mowing closer to the fire until I was warm enough to move farther away.

Dad spent most of the day on the loader tractor. He pulled fenceposts, yanked old implements from their burial places in the ground and carried burnable items to the big fire.

The only big job we weren't able to get done today that we wanted to was to burn the roof from the old garage. It shattered apart whenever we hooked onto it with the tractor, so we'll have to try something different tomorrow. If all else fails, plan B is to remove the tin and cut up the wood by hand. Ugh, not looking forward to that.

Brenda kept the girls safe by babysitting them all day. They spent the morning playing with her old Strawberry Shortcake dolls. She's in the midst of cleaning, sorting and packing, so she was already busy.

After she was home from work in the afternoon, Diane took care of the girls and made a nice dinner for the crew, putting up with the mess we must have tramped in the house — and more to come tomorrow.

We got home about 8 p.m. and the girls and I had our showers. Addy and I managed to much of today's school done in a short period of time. I'm determined to stay on track even with all the work to be done.

Before I hit the hay, I'm going to make out our list of priorities to accomplish tomorrow. We want to make use of the loader tractor, mower, trailer and dumpster while we have them. Mom will be staying with the girls at Mark and Diane's house, so I figure she can use her substitute teacher experience and work with Addy on some of her schoolwork tomorrow.