| Next Post - Previous Post List View
| |
 | 5/14/2017 11:57:34 AM Demo Ouch. |
While demolition work has long been relegated to the hubby, sometimes things just need to get done... like the demolish and removal of this dog house that mice, foxes, bees, and who-knows-what-else has been using for a party-pad since long before we bought the house. And since it is too heavy to just move even with two people, it has sat hosting the mating rituals of foxes right next to our bedroom window. Now that is something you don't want to hear in the middle of the night.   So today several things conspired to make me get out there with a pry-bar, hammer, and giant metal spike. #1. Bees. The poor things die each winter, but about every other year a form of furry bee makes a nest in the walls of this dilapidated dog den, and it needs demolished before they do it again this year. #2. Mice. While at first glance the dog house looks well-built, the roof barely meets the walls allowing water in all over and there is some kind of open space underneath allowing mice to make-happy year round a couple feet from our home. NOT a good idea. #3. And the main reason I decided to get this done now instead of waiting for months (or even possibly a year) for hubby to be home again.... bricks. Not any brick in the dog house itself, but I need a place to put a couple tons of bricks as I rip them out of the patio to be re-set and this seemed like the only logical place to stack them that would not kill grass or be more than 100feet away. Luckily (and proving even more how incorrectly this was built) the whole thing was at least a quarter rotting, though double nails at right angles still made some parts very hard to pry.   I first managed to get the roof loose all the way around, but didn't want to kill a little struggling tree that was on the level behind the dog house. So I braced up the top and hooked on a long cargo strap to pull it sideways. (Because you don't want to be anywhere close to a nail-filled roof when you yank it with the general hope it falls where you want it to.)     After that I moved the roof carefully to the side where nails could not be stepped on. Then started dismantling the side. Dead bee nest looks cool, but I sure would rather they go away and nest somewhere they could live and flourish and not be a few feet from my house.   Again carefully moving each nail-filled panel to the side, I then moved to the front wall. It pushed outward pretty easily and with some extra prying I got it unattached from the base. And did I already mention how careful I was being about moving all the nail filled boards to the side???? Yeah. I guess you can be the most careful person in the world, but if you don't know a stupid little board fell off under the front wall without you knowing it... when you lift the front wall and step forward to push it onto the pile... that stupid hidden board sprouts two nails exactly the right width apart to puncture your shoe and spike right into your foot.   "Ouch!"...... I literally screamed "Ouch!" Pulled up my foot, but standing on one foot while bracing 50 or more pounds of devilish dog wall, just... doesn't... work. And that board with nails that punctured my shoe, and a little flesh, of course didn't fall off when I picked up my foot. It is now firmly nailed to my shoe. So down my foot comes and I am desperately trying not to push the nails in further as my foot hits the ground. "Heeeeeeeee... Hooooooo!" Now I am doings some kind of lamaze chant. And with a mighty shove I push the wall away from me and manage to keep most of my weight on the non-pin-cushioned foot. "Ha-Ha!" - not sure how I suddenly though that was a success with nails still stuck into my foot, but take the small wins as they come, right? Not surprisingly, the first step onto the nail board made a tiny and less-tiny puncture, but the second step scraped a small spot of skin off the side luckily instead of going deep into the pad of the foot. Hurt worse to trim off the scraped skin, dig them open, and douse them with peroxide than it did when I stepped on the nails in the first place.   Guess it is lucky I got a tetanus shot before traveling, and even more lucky that it really did only a little damage. (Honestly, I am more distraught that one of my two pairs of perfect work shoes that hubby brought to me from Colombia got holes in it.)  It may be a day or two before I move any more of the pieces, but not really from the foot damage. The smell..... the floor base smells somewhere between rancid meat and death. So I think airing it out and maybe spraying it down with concentrated floor cleaner is in order before I make any more progress on it. | |
Next Post - Previous Post List View | |
| COMMENTS | |
| 5/14/2017 3:58:25 PM Punkin |
Add Your Comment...
Burns like heck but my dad would wash every nail puncture in one or the other of the above. He would tell us as he drug one over to the can of stuff " there will be no lock jaw in this family" LOL There are some things you never forget from child hood.
Glad you wound was not really awful but know that TLC is necessary to make it well.
You will need to stop and rest until tomorrow.