This Week at Our Place.
As Cerwin and I get the house and yard ready for the upcoming winter, we have been doing extra work in our yard and on the exterior of our house.
Cerwin started by trimming our very large, overgrown firebush at the back of our yard. I don’t think it has ever been pruned – partly because it is in front of the woodsy part of our yard and it covered up our trash pile. However, it was getting a bit out of hand.
It has been years since we saw under this bush – unless we got down on our hands and knees. I am not sure if we even planted it. We have several firebushes around the back and sides of our house (which he trims every year), so I think a seed from one of those started this bush when our children were young.
His next project was painting a sealer/preservative on the stone part of our house.
He doesn’t do this every year, but seems to know when it is time. It keeps rain water from seeping into our house.
This is most important for our chimney. If he doesn’t put sealer there, we notice leakage in our attic which eventually shows up on the ceiling of our entrance area.
Today he continued his fight against the Spotted Lanternfly – especially on our maple trees.
I think this is the third time this summer that he is spraying these trees.
In case you think he is the only one working, I just came in from weed eating – covered with dust, grass, and pieces of leaves. 🙂
I have been doing some maintenance inside as well. This week I am cleaning every ceiling light. Taking it down and washing the globes. I do the same thing in the yard. One flower bed a day. 🙂
When I was young, I would houseclean a whole room at a time, but now I choose a project to deep clean by the week – or as long as it takes. 🙂 The older I get the more I like small projects.
These projects reminded me of our sermon on Sunday – which was really about the fall harvest and the amount of work it takes to keep gardens and crops growing – from planting the seed until the harvest.
Maintenance of a house and yard is similar – it takes a lot of work if we don’t want our place to decay and look like a tumble-down building and lot.
It is also a good reminder of what can happen to our spiritual life if we don’t invest energy into our spirit and soul.