Cleaning up and a new project

The house is almost done being cleaned after being skunked.  Just about every room is back to normal except my bedroom.  It's getting there and I'm going to try to sleep in it tonight.  The room just smells musty but not the knock your socks off skunk like yesterday.  Anything that could go into the washer did.  All the bed linens, all the crib linens, the dog bed, even a couple of stuffed animals that were left in the room by some of the grandkids. 

After 24 hours of hanging, the comforter smells clean.  The sheets are back on the line because they still had a bit of an odor.  I washed the floors and walls again today.  This time in vinegar.  They've been washed in pinesol, sprayed with 409, dish soap, and now vinegar.  I'm so glad I don't have carpet! 

 

I did get a good recipe for getting skunk smell off dogs, although none of our animals got sprayed.  It is 32 ounces hydrogen peroxide, 1/2 cup baking soda, a good squirt of dish soap.  You mix this all together and put it on your animal.  Make sure not to get it in their eyes or it will sting.  Keep it on for five minutes and then rinse.  They should smell good.  

 

I was told about a product called Room Shocker that you can buy at Home Depot.  It's a chlorine dioxide that is supposed to work wonders.  It's supposed to get rid of any odor, smoke, pet urine, even skunk. Even if I buy this and try it out, that doesn't mean that I wouldn't have cleaned everything off.  The spray was a sticky yellow spray that got droplets everywhere.  Just because there's a product that removes odor doesn't mean that the stuff doesn't need to be cleaned off.  But, if the Room Shocker works I will probably stock up on some of them just to add to my future preparedness...not that I ever expect another skunk to enter my house. 

 

Oldest daughter's husband fixed my screen door by rescreening it.  Their oldest son was in trouble so he got sent over here today to do some chores.  Six hours of hard labor by a sixteen year old!  I gave him a project and let him pretty much figure it out on his own.  I did give advice and at one point had to say tear it out and start again. 

 

It's about 60 feet from the cement pad in front of the garage to the front door.  There is no walkway as it was torn out 6 years ago and never replaced.  I had plenty of landscaping timbers that I got for my raised beds in the garden.  I figured he'd need about forty for this project.  First he laid a ground cover fabric that's four feet wide.  He laid it really crooked so I made him take it out and measure from the edge of the house to his starting point.  He had to take measurements in four places.  He told me that at the start of the walkway he was 2 1/2 feet from the house but by the time he got to the end of the 60 feet he was almost 5 feet from the house.  After he pulled it up he measured and placed some wire stakes in the ground to show him where the 2 1/2 feet mark was.  He then rolled the fabric out once again.  He tried to use the wire pins to keep it in place.  The ground was too hard so he came up with an idea to use nails.  Good thinking. 

 

He laid the fabric out and I realized that it wasn't as wide as I'd like so I had him roll out more.  The walkway is now six feet wide.  He then placed the timbers over the edges of the fabric.  He drilled holes into the timbers and pounded 1 foot rebar into the holes to keep the stacked timbers in place.  It wasn't a perfect fit so he had to get out the sawzall and cut about 10 small pieces.  He took good measurements and only messed up on one small piece.  Then he started moving rock into the walkway using the wheelbarrow. 

 

He stopped for dinner but otherwise put in a good effort all the way until it started getting dark.  The project isn't done and he probably won't get it finished before I have to bring him home in the morning.  That's ok.  Even if I have to finish spreading the rock, or I have the younger grandkids spread the rock, every time he comes over he will be able to feel a well earned sense of accomplishment for installing a 60 foot walkway.