Up on the roof

I can’t believe no one liked – or better yet commented on – my last post. I can only assume nobody enjoyed my Violet scene. That’s very disappointing.

Anyway…

Another summer (it is still technically summer, although I’ve broken down and lit a couple of fires this week) comes and goes with me managing not to break my neck.

Why would a broken neck be a possible every summer? Because one of my jobs (Mike was afraid of heights) has always been to sweep the roof and clean the gutters. Normally this is an August job – get the gutters cleared out before the rain starts again in September. Well, the rain has already started, but yesterday was clear all day, so time to get ’er done.

As is often the case, I didn’t manage a before picture, but I did think to take my camera up when I came down to get some water at the halfway point.

Yes, that’s a lot of fir needles.

Two hours later the job was done for another year.

Rain again today and for the foreseeable. Good to know the cistern (which I’d inadvertently emptied earlier in the summer) is filling up again. A bit annoying that the rain is only captured on one side of the house. It would be good to have another one on the other side for watering the garden. Oh, well. Maybe some day.

This job used to be less stress inducing. We used to have an 18-foot ladder – the perfect height for climbing up the back and simply stepping on to the roof. At some point that ladder disappeared – doubtless sold for drug money by the lowlife Mike had house and cat sitting while he was in hospital in Vancouver in 2008. (In fairness to Mike, he did not know the guy was a lowlife.) 

When he arranged for someone to replace the ladder, the guy bought a 16-foot one instead, which is not as good. No more easy stepping off, no more angling the ladder safely. Now there’s just enough ladder at the top to hold your breath and hope for the best. So far so good.

The gone-missing ladder was not the worst sin perpetrated by this tosser. He also managed to smash and destroy my beautiful blue glass Art Deco coffee table.

But his greatest sin was failing to take Tri to the vet after he’d been in a fight with another cat or perhaps a raccoon, causing the poor guy to lose the sight in one of his eyes. It’s a good thing I have no idea who this guy is or what he looks like.

Back to the ladder. Yesterday was not its first outing of the year. Mr Fixit has been on the job. The job being the repair of my leaking woodshed roof.

He says it is now good for 25 years, which means, in all probability, that the woodshed roof will last longer than I will.

Now I just need to finish filling it up. (Turns out, with the post heatwave demand, I will not be getting a heat pump until next spring.) You never know when you might need this.