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Garages and Patio - 
OK, so work on the garages and small patio/garden has finally begun
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12 October 2002 - this shows the jungle in the patio -- these were simply weedy trees that grow wild along the railway tracks at the end of the street that probably arrived via birds -- unknown species simply because I never bothered to check the leaves to identify them when Bernar lived here I asked him numerous times to cut them down -- at that time they were well below the garage roof top -- his answer was always wait until the leaves fall off and I will get to it and/or wait until the spring and I will cut them down -- and I waited and waited, many autumns and springs until they grew above the second story roof of the apartment! Unfortunately I could not cut them when he left because they were already too high |
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28 November 2002 - a neighborhood friend of Donald's, Thomas, said he would cut them down for me -- he did, but only the several much smaller ones in the front -- and broke the wire carrying electricity to the garages when the heavier branches fell on it -- months later I repaired the cable and got the inside lights working again he was supposed to get rid of the branches and trunks, but never got around to it, after weeks of prodding! |
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28 November 2002 - his way of disposing of the larger trunk sections was to get some neighbor kids to pile them all, very neatly, right where I parked my Festiva so I could not even get in the car! I once sort of thought he was just a tad more intelligent, but I cannot always be right! |
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11 March 2004 - this view is from the roof at the back of the property -- one notes that the last very large weedy tree is over two stories high! |
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18 March 2004 - Toni and a pal of his who is visiting from Virginia started on the remaining large tree on the 17th, basically cutting the smaller branches that two other pals of his left when they began cutting the uppermost branches on the 15th -- you will also notice on the upper part of the garages where he added a higher roof margin so that the water does not run over the edge and continue to ruin what is left of the paint -- I do not particularly like how he did it, and shall have to add a wooden edging strip below the wide metal crap he added, just to make it look less tacky |
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his pal, also from Costa Rica, is kewl but a real clown -- they are both standing in the yard of the neighbor's place, and notice that my chain link fence came down with the freekin tree! The crack on the lower rear garage wall was obviously caused by the tree -- oh, yes, and they broke the electric wire again! at first I was told he arrived by train to Trenton, and then he shows up in a sporty jeep-like soft top with Virginia plates, TFP 4899! He was supposed to leave a few days ago, but is still hanging out here -- today I was told he leaves tonight, and I felt like asking if he is taking the car in a backpack on the train! I did give him a bottle of wine and whiskey for the trip -- I do not like whiskey |
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Toni and pal after the large section of main trunk, plus attached fence, finally came down -- there was a slight glitch because the tree trunk had grown OVER parts of the fence itself, the metal vertical bar holding the chain link fencing, parts of the chain link itself, and a bracket that once contained a horizontal pipe at the top of the fence! I bought that electric chain saw yesterday and intended to give it to them -- I already paid for this work (which is not yet finished) two days ago |
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this shows how the upper part of the fence pipe was very firmly overgrown by tree growth -- I myself shall cross cut what is left of the stump and add used motor oil to the grooves and around the stump -- my neighbor said that will rot what is left -- Toni kept yapping that all this work will mean more moola -- he gave me an estimate and I already paid him -- if and when he removes all the piled up crap, I will give him the new chain saw as an unexpected bonus, but not a cent more than I already gave him |
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this is a close up of the upper section of trunk in which was embedded parts of the fence -- the right side of the fencing is a mess, but I wanted to construct a block wall there anyway, so it is not a major setback -- Toni still has to remove all the branches and trunk sections from the patio -- then I can begin work on the rest of the exterior of the garage -- mostly painting and other cosmetic repairs -- we had snow the last 3 days and are expected to get a lot more tonight and tomorrow! |
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20 March 2004 -- I got up bright and early this morning to try to clear some of the shit out of the yard -- it is approximately 11 feet wide x 20 feet long, so it is not exactly as large as a rain forest -- you may notice the neighbor's kid with a yellow plastic bat in his hands on the far right -- I told his dad, who is pitching the ball to him, that the fence post is just hanging in there and that the kid should not be playing right against it |
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curiously they continued, despite my warning -- until I brought my camera out to take these pics, then all of the adult males, including the brother of the owner of the place next door and the kid, suddenly disappeared! I gathered up some larger trunk sections and took them to west trenton, then I started cutting the longer branches and trunks in half with the chain saw, and piled what I sorted on the left against the house -- they will also go to west trenton, but I am way too tired to do it now -- maybe tomorrow |
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this has yet to be looked at and sorted -- a pile of branches of various diameters and some quite large trunks, a couple of which I cut in half -- I wanted to get this work done as soon as possible and the mess cleared away so that the spring plants, which are starting to appear (and are now half crushed!), would bring some nice color once I repair and repaint the garage -- then comes the cinder block wall where what is left of the inside fence is -- I might like to plant an evergreen of some kind |
25 June 2004 / Friday - new stuff, transferred from my main YES-2004 page
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OK, so Albert finally got there and it was larger than he thought it might be, and without wheels on the bottom -- I told him it was moved using a forklift many years ago, which was the easiest way to move the thing -- he called some pal with a flatbed truck, and he arrived in about 10 minutes -- he has a logical simple totally manual way of moving these things based on a long lever thing and whatever he can find to roll them -- this pic shows it resting on the flatbed in front of the garages |
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It is a double door Mosler, having interior stainless steel safety doors -- the moving process took a couple hours longer than it would have if he had used a fork lift -- he did not take the smaller sculptures or anything else because he was seemingly in a hurry, as usual -- he promised he would do that next week -- we shall see |
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this is the left wall in the left garage where Albert will put the safe -- he is frequently using his cell phone, as you can see! He always appears neatly and casually dressed, totally unlike a typical person who might move such things, or anything else, for that matter -- he is kewl! He does sweat a lot though, as one might assume |
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this shows the interior of the safe -- you can perhaps see the inside doors -- it is sort of like the safes they used to store those large rolls of data tape used by the old monster computers -- standard milk crates filled with stuff fit nicely in each of the partitions I immediately noticed that a wooden chest of vintage silverware was missing, and one other large sterling silver item -- I did not look through the crates present to see if anything else was potentially lost somehow -- only Bernar and I have the combination -- maybe I should worry or something? I wonder when I will get a phone call from him asking when I moved it? It sometimes takes him a while to notice things! Bless his heart! |
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9 July 2004 -- Albert returned to move more things from West Trenton -- two heavy Czech stone sculptures, a rare large marble snail fossil from the Italian Alps (similar to ones which Leonardo DaVinci wrote about when he concluded that the sea had once been where the shells were -- perhaps the first correct interpretations of what fossils are!), and my small home safe which is now stashed in the garage but has to be moved upstairs -- the door has been in the apartment for 3+ years already -- it was the only thing I could move myself! The safe can easily be moved up the stairs by two hunky dudes as time permits I shall be adding pics and commentary as my work progresses |
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