This shot was taken about 4 hours before the rain started falling. It’s a beautiful afternoon in the yard, and I’d just dug through the basement to find my old Tonka trucks for Bear and Finn to play with in the sandbox. Jen had Ruby on a blanket next to them, and I left them to run out to Mariottsville for some tolls I was buying from Bennett. As I pulled out of the driveway, Jen was on her back lifting Ruby into the air, and a light sprinkle hit the windshield.

I took the day off today to finish up post-flood recovery. The basement is pretty clean. There’s still water around the edges of some low-laying tile, and the ice room still has a wet spot on the floor. It’s hard to dry out in 100% humidity. The Scout is loaded with a pile of trash waiting to go to the dump, and I could probably throw out more. I’ve got a bunch of stuff I’m going to Freecycle in the ice room and some stuff in the garage that needs to go, too. Maybe this weekend…

After I’d cleaned up as much as I could clean up in the house, I got to work on the greenhouse. I’d patched up some of the holes in the plastic a couple years ago, but time and weather did their thing and they all took a beating. I peeled the old stuff off, washed the plastic (it was filthy) and applied new patches to make it water tight again. I moved the old rickety water barrel platform to the back outside corner of the greenhouse and used my wort chiller pump (it’s still alive!) to transfer all the water in the barrel under the garage to a spare barrel up on the platform. Then I reconfigured some hoses to reach inside the greenhouse so there’s on-demand water available for the plants. We also moved them to the corner nearest the house to get maximum light. They all look pretty happy so far, although there really hasn’t been any sun since they were planted.

Then I started organizing my new toolbox. It’s a heavier-duty unit than the one I already had out there but a little smaller, so I got creative with organization. I inherited a ton of new crescent wrenches with the box, a lot of miscellaneous tools, and a bunch of crap socket sets. I’m going to give the old toolbox to Glenn, who doesn’t have one, for his garage.

The compressor I bought is a used Craftsman 25 gal. electric unit, in good shape, but with a ratty hose. When I get past the camping trip I’m going to pick up a cheapo Harbor Freight sandblasting kit and try cleaning up some of the spare parts I’ve got. It’s good to have air out there, though, because now I can get some air tools to make things go faster.

One of the things Bear did for me while he was here was inspect our tent, which turns out to be too small for three people. I found a Coleman 4-person tent with good reviews on Amazon, and put that in my shopping cart along with some glow sticks, flashlights for the kids, and a beginner’s tackle box among other items. There are two weeks to go for our camping trip, and I’m slowly assembling the stuff we’ll need.