Projects, Projects

We've been busy around here preparing for the upcoming hurricane season. After having the windows replaced, I went on to have our annual tree trimming taken care of. When you live in a hurricane prone region it's important to have trees pruned yearly by a trained arborist so they don't FALL ON YOUR HOUSE!!!

In 2005 one of our trees survived hurricane Wilma but sustained a lot of damage. (Our two live oaks and several palms went through the storm beautifully.) This particular tree is a "junk" tree that grows really fast but doesn't do well in storms so it wasn't a surprise. The tree guys came out and removed the damaged branches and started shaping it again, but for a while it looked like something out of Dr. Seuss! I still chuckle when I think about it, and I think about it quite a bit since the tree is directly outside our computer room window. (I'm looking at it now- it forms a lovely, leafy background around my computer monitor.) It grows so quickly that it was back to looking like a real tree in very short order. It did the annual leaf shedding a few weeks ago and the new leaves were filling in within a week; good thing since the tree really cuts the glare from the afternoon sun when I'm trying to work on my computer. Thank you, tree! I love you even if you are junky.

My project for today was to inventory our freezers (we have one refrigerator inside and one in our garage) so we can use up as much frozen food as possible. I like to run light for hurricane season, which starts in June, so that it's not such a big deal if we lose power for an extended period of time. Plus both freezers are jam packed full which is frustrating when I bring groceries home. While I was taking inventory I also cleaned, cleaned, cleaned. The inside freezer wasn't too bad but the entire garage refrigerator was disgusting; blech. I only keep drinks, mostly bottled water, in the garage refrigerator so I've ignored the yuck for a long time. I made The Eldest clean it out a few months ago but she did a.... less than thorough job, shall we say. I went a little more in depth. I pulled out the drawers and bottom shelf and brought them in to clean in the sink, then scrubbed everything else that wouldn't come out. That refrigerator looks brand sparkling new! My back, not so much, but hey, the job's done now.

Unfortunately the freezers are both still packed, even though I threw out some things that were so old I couldn't remember buying them, but now I know what's in them so I won't over buy things we already have. Like frozen pineapple chunks. We have 9 bags of frozen pineapple chunks. I like pineapple chunks, they are yummy in smoothies, but 9 bags are a little much. Just means I'll have to use them all up; smoothies, anyone??