Be gone!!

Okay, I had passed the point of moving and I had the fort in the backyard down. I was on track. I had my mental list of things to get done before the actual renovation. Here I was in the house just a few short days and one of those tasks was done. I don’t know about you but when I can strike an item off a to-do list it feels pretty damn good. This was of course not from my hammer but the brute strength and kindness of my neighbor. Still, it was accomplished.

Superman had left the four posts in the ground and the remains of the structure on my lawn. Now I had to figure out how to dispose of the hulking pile before me. Hmmm, I also had that unwelcome, big monstrosity of a wood fireplace insert to take out. I decided to call in the troops…“family and friends!”
I made chili the next weekend. Ralph, my Mom’s hubby, arrived with his trailer. We ate.
Hint: Making provisions is usually a good idea when people help you out. Plus, I was again thankful to have the aid of many hands.

The loading of the trailer began. Sounds like an event, doesn’t it? It was! Not only did we heave in the fort but also some odds and ends left by Rambo, like an old plywood trailer box, rotten wood, this and that’s made of metal….and lets not forget those Gawd awful curtains that were now retired from my sparkling clean, and I might add, single glazed windows. The task of the
4 X 4 posts in the ground was delegated to my daughter’s boyfriend, Kyle. We figured he had the brawn, experience and the age to dig. Two came out without too much trouble but the third just didn’t want to be taken down. Ralph, who by the way is amazing…. Here he is, about 70 years young and doing major manual labor. Ralph, not one for shying from work, decides to take matters into his own hands (literally) and wraps his arms around the post to wrestle it to the ground. They get into a battle of who’s stronger. I’m not sure who won here because the post snapped in half near the bottom and Ralph was thrown to the ground with the post on top of him. His head narrowly missed a nail protruding from one of the plywood pieces. Don't worry He was okay, less the wind knocked out of him. He was awarded hero of the day!
By the way, I made a quick decision and announced that the 4th post could stay. I would put a birdhouse on top of it. In my mind I was figuring it just wasn’t worth a death to have the final post removed.

Our first trip to the dump went without a hitch. No pun intended.
Second trip to the dump?, that’s another story. Apparently, we hadn’t broken the plywood from the old box trailer or some of the railing into small enough pieces and were not allowed to dump it into the bin. Well, breaking the railing was a fairly easy accomplishment . We did some amateur karate moves to get the pickets out (no, we didn’t bring tools. Why would we?) ….and…..Success!
But try as we may to break that plywood by way of twisting, jumping, levering and swearing, it just wouldn’t break. We would have to go back and use the chain saw to cut it down. It was getting late in the day. Would we have time to make another trip?
When we returned back to ground zero I looked online to see what time the transfer station was open till. Awesome! We had time. The plywood was buzzed down to manageable pieces and all remaining items were put into the trailer…including the giant fireplace insert. (I was going to try to sell it but decided I didn’t want to be bothered). Last call to the dump and recycling station and we were done, done, done. I had gotten my yard back and I was now ready for #3 on my lists of to-dos. A proper fireplace inspection because I wanted a gas insert put in.