Companions, even if we don't know each other in person to be friends, Susan!

Today I spent four or five hours emptying all of the crud that had been dumped and stored in the big plastic greenhouse in my friend's back yard. I took out the shelves and some supports and a counter and all of that is in the pickup and will be in the garage soon. I also brought some terracotta pots for the greenhouse and a few kitchen things to store in the house. Tomorrow I begin disassembling the building and stacking the panels in the pickup and making a drive back and forth a several times. I will put it in my back yard where the dog kennel is now and move the kennel over several feet.

As I cleaned and began taking it apart I thought about the various things that can go in there. With the shelves the way they are there is storage underneath on both sides and I'll be able to keep garage items like my mower and some of the bins of things (corn gluten meal, dry molasses, etc.) in there, and I have some gardening things in my sun room that will also go in there. This will be a lovely dedicated gardening shed that can double on one side as a greenhouse.

The inside of this thing was filled with animal signs - the doors have been open so squirrels dragged lots of pecans in there to eat and leave the shells. There are birds, and rats and mice in the neighborhood (there is a school across the street with a dumpster that is the source of the population) and there were things in there from when they had a pet rabbit. So tons of dusty stuff that isn't good for anyone. I tried to take it easy with the dust, and when I came home I used the neti pot and I gargled. If I feel at all like I'm catching something I'm heading over to my doctor ASAP.

I've been working on my decluttering for a long time now and have made great progress. My home looks light and airy compared to when I look at my friend's house and see all of the seasonal stuff - so much for each holiday that it is over the top - and all of the excess in so many things in that small house, crammed into closets, spare rooms, the yard, the garage, etc. I know I'm not bad. My friend's late partner was the borderline hoarder (collector of things that resulted in a hoard, at any rate). There has been a lot of packing going on and many trips to the storage locker for him, but a lot of it is going to goodwill, to consignment shops, or to the dump.

Ideally I'd like to race through the dismantling and bring it over here and simply put it back together on this spot without a piled up not-doing-anything stage in between. I need to trim around the kennel to disentangle the grass from the bottom of the cyclone fencing, and drag it sideways. And before I take this apart any more I'm going to photograph the inside and out so I have that to go with along with the booklet of instructions.

My weekend is going to be crammed full of stuff. I'll be glad to go back to work next week just to rest up!

SRS