Pixie's Ponderings: I've got friends in low places

I used to be a bartender at a private club. They played a lot of country music and I always liked that song. It's exactly the opposite for any of my friends now though. They've got a friend in a high place!

You see, we had water damage when we got here. I assumed, and yes I know what they say about those that assume, that the water was coming in from outside at the bottom. Seemed logical to me. Water damage is on the bottom, water must be coming in there. Ah no, not so much. See, our gutters were plugged. Who knew that if the gutters are plugged you get water damage on the floor. I'll be damned I didn't know it. I do now. It was time for us to bond with the gutters. I use the word 'us' loosely. You see, 'us' refers to me and Den. One of us is afraid of heights. One of us is a bit too large to go up on a ladder. An 8 foot ladder to be precise. That leaves the other one of 'us' to bond with the gutters alone. The other one of us got to bond with the caulking. Hmmmmm I wonder which was which?

OK, that mystery is solved!

I'm still happy here. I haven't seen what's in the gutters. I know it's difficult to see in the picture, but the gutter is about 4 inches deep and it's filled to the top with this gunk. It's so thick I have to use a garden trowel to scoop it out and a little garden rake to break it up. It was wet, stank, and was crawling with ants and God only knows what else!

Here is one of the first scoops coming out.

Here it is going into the bucket. I emptied that bucket over 15 times. But hey, who was counting? Every time I filled the bucket, I'd have to climb down the 8 foot ladder, empty the bucket, then climb back up and start all over. Did I mention it was over 90 degrees? Wasn't just the gutters stinking after a while for sure!

When I was at the end with the downspout, I heard scratching inside. Wasn't sure what it was and was a bit nervous to peer down the hole. I did anyway. Just as my face hovered over the hole to see what was in there, this little fella did a kamikaze leap straight up in the air! Scared the beejeepers out of me for sure. I thought for sure it was his death leap, but no, he just clung to the window for a bit, shook it off, then was fine.

He settled in on the rung of my ladder to watch my progress. It looks like he's drumming his little fingers wondering just how long it's going to take me! If you were wondering too, it took a long time.

A few scoops later, I found this guy. Thank God he was dead. Yes, he is as big as he looks!

After I finished getting all the gunk out of the gutter, trowel full by trowel full, it was time to use the pressure washer to get it pristine. Oh yes, and also to try to force whatever was plugging the downspouts out the other end. I aimed the nozzle down the hole, pulled the trigger, and it was like Old Faithful, only smaller, and in mud. Stuff shot high into the air and of course all over me. It was hot, the water felt good. The mud, not so much. I guess people pay a lot of money for a mud treatment. Hey, I got one for free! I also got rid of whatever was clogging the down spout. Both of them. Oh, please click on this picture so you can see just how muddy I was!

After many trips up and down the ladder, after fighting off killer frogs and most probably rabid insects, after being bitten about a zillion times by the ants, after crawling on my hands and knees on the metal roof to get the pine needles off, hoping all the while I didn't go crashing through, yes, after all this, the job was done!