10 April 2012 - Pink Moon

In the world of full moon names, one of my favorite names for the April full moon is Pink Moon. This year, the Pink Moon coincided with Easter and Passover.  Why Pink Moon? This name came from the wild ground phlox, one of the earliest flowers of spring. Other names for April’s full moon include the Full Sprouting Grass Moon, the Egg Moon, and among coastal tribes the Full Fish Moon, because this was the time that the shad swam upstream to spawn. I like Full Fish Moon, but Pink Moon fits. Here in Salt Lake City, blooming under the Pink Moon are many pink trees: Redbuds, Weeping Cherry, Ornamental Plum, Saucer Magnolias, Flowering Almond. So many! So pink!


No full moon pictures this month. We had rain, then snow, then rain mixed with snow. Fortunately the eight inches of snow we received quickly disappeared, but the clouds obscured the moon.


I now have a new philosophy for getting things done. One thing each day. I started out thinking that a whole lot of one little things will add up. That's true, but how come my one things tend to be big things?  My first one thing was to get out the patching adhesive and slather with patching compound. Day two would be sand the patches. Day three paint. But it just doesn't ever happen that way.


Last weekend? Day one, one thing: clean out the tool corner. Here's the before. Actually, I started this the previous weekend. Pulled everything out of the corner, then realized that the handles all had a lot of sun damage, they were dry and cracking, so everything came to a halt while I rubbed mineral oil into every one.


Took longer than I thought. Then I discovered the forecast was for rain and snow.  Ended up having to pile all the tools back where they had been. humph. Unsatisfactory, except the handles really look good.


In the meantime, Jack and I went to the Depot looking for more tool racks. The plan is to clean it out again, stain the siding, install more tool racks, and voila! Yep. One little thing.


 Oh yeah, need stain. In the basement I found four gallon cans of stain. Three were half full and one was unopened. Cool!

On further inspection discovered that two had gone bad, but one of the half full cans might be okay, and the full can was fine.


Back to the weekend. Saturday, I emptied out the area again, swept the walls down, and got ready to paint. By the time I was ready to do the painting it was too late, so that was going to become the Sunday one thing.


On Sunday, David showed up. The day took a different twist. He replaced the leaky valve out front so we could turn on the outside water. I worked on cutting out more elm volunteers around the meters and where he was working. After the valve was replaced, David and I pulled three tree stumps out of the front yard. That took another hour of digging, water blasting, and chains hooked up to his truck.


I went in to see what we could rummage up for dinner. David started working on the tiller. He got it started, then oiled it up and was able to get a couple of passes made in the garden before it quit.

Monday after work,  (one thing) Jack started painting the garage tool area.


I went out front and started working on the pruning pile, (second thing)  cutting the trimmings into small enough pieces to fit in the garbage can.


 Finished  the pile, but realized that the front of the garage could use another coat of stain. (Third thing).




An hour later, the front was finished, but now I need to get another shade of stain for the doors.


Guess that could be thing one for another day.


But moving on to thing four for Monday, after finishing the garage, joined Jack on the back of the garage and started working on yet more painting, starting with a very weathered beam.

The beam was so dried out that it was  practically sucking paint out of the can. I can't tell you how good it feels to be working on the house, getting it back into shape.


While there is so much to do, my one thing a day seems to be working. Even if one thing turns into way more than one.

And the tool space? It looks really good. Maybe tomorrow we can get the tools hung up. Progress!