Roots

I'm going to keep this super short--Jerry and I are going on our first "date" in probably three years! We're just going to play Keno at our favorite dive bar--nothing fancy. But we're not fancy people, so that's what we enjoy ;) 

I've been on a roll lately working on stuff outside--it's so nice to get it done! Our deck is going to be the biggest outdoor project but I want to get it done this summer. It desperately needs to be power washed, stained, and sealed again. (Ideally, we would remove the deck and install a patio, but the thought of that is so overwhelming!)

Today, I replaced a couple of the pieces of deck railing, which should have been easy enough except that several screws were stripped or bent or buried in the wood too far to try and get them out. However, after lots of creativity and pretty much every tool I own, I was able to get them out and replaced. Then I searched row by row of screws on the deck to tighten any that have popped up a little over the years.

We used to have lattice covering the underside of our deck, but for some reason, we got rid of it years ago. I have no idea why we did that, because it looked better with the lattice. We'd like to put some more on before we stain the deck, so today I was pulling out some weeds from around the sides. I pulled at what I thought was just a baby tree (you know, the seedlings that have a few leaves?) and it ended up being attached to a HUGE root.

I was kind of excited, so I went and got Jerry (who was putting some stepping stones between the house and the garage) to show him. It was way too big to pull out by hand, so I pulled as far as I could and then I used a Sawzall to cut through the root. I found a few more like that so I crawled under the deck to cut them as far as I could.

I have no idea how far the roots go or what they are connected to, but it was fun to cut them. The dirt under the deck was so dry and hard that I could feel my knees just getting torn up. (I told you that I can't do anything without getting hurt in some way!) My knee *joints* were just fine--it was the skin that was killing me:

Needless to say, I was SO happy to take a shower after that. I actually turned on just the cold water, and it took my breath away because it was so cold--but it felt amazing. Now that I'm cleaned up, Jerry and I are going to head out and hopefully win a little money playing Keno :)