Every year I try to make a mental list of things I want to accomplish.

That usually happens in the spring, after the snow has melted and I can see all the things I didn’t accomplish the year before.

It seems time goes by so quickly these days, it’s hard to get everything done.

Here on the farm, I’ve been planning to do lots of outdoor projects.

The big weed patch behind the house has been one of my ongoing projects for the past few years. I’ve spent countless hours pulling thistles, burdocks and nettles from the roots so they won’t grow back.

I worked on it again this summer and fall, and it’s looking much better now than it has in years. I’ll be spreading some grass seed in the spring to fill in the bare spots.

For the past few years I’ve been planning to get a dumpster so I can clear out some of the outbuildings. Things tend to pile up over time, and instead of taking things to the landfill, I’ve been stacking wood, metal and old farm stuff wherever it can fit. I even started stacking piles of miscellaneous stuff on an old hay wagon.

One thing I hate to do is start something and not finish. I started remodelling the side porch a few years back and got about 75% done. But the remaining work involves straightening a load-bearing wall - something I’ll need help with. So I put that off and went on to something else.

With a fulltime job, I’ve kept putting off projects that I know will take a long time to complete. It’s a little different now that I’m not writing as many articles each week. I have more time to spend on other things, and I finally decided it was time to get that dumpster.

That decision was made a bit easier when earlier this summer, the roof an wall of a lean-to on one of the outbuildings collapsed. It wasn’t because of snow. It was just old.

With winter just around the corner, I knew I didn’t have much time before the first snow, so I ordered a 20-yard dumpster last week. 

It arrived Wednesday. 

Under the agreement I had it for seven days - another motivating factor to get to work.

First I cleared off the hay wagon. It had lots of rotting lumber, bits and pieces of asphalt shingles from an older roofing project, and lots of wire fencing that me and my wife Rita had taken down years ago when we made our garden.

Then I went into the shed area where the roof had collapsed. There were two 10-foot long sheep feeders I had built over 15 years ago that used to be in the barn. They were the biggest things in there. The old shed door was half buried in the ground, so I had to use my reciprocating saw to cut off part of the door to get them out.

In the back of the shed were the original storm windows and screens from the farmhouse. I don’t know who put them there, but they were there long before I moved to Minnesota in 2000.

It would have been nice to save them, but some small creature had burrowed under the dirt floor and piled dirt on the sides of the windows. As I moved them, each one fell apart. I managed to save a few panes of glass that I can use to repair some of the windows on the house and other buildings.

It was amazing all the old things I found in that shed. There were two old rusty oil lanterns. A horse collar yoke that looked 100 years old hung on the intact wall. A piece of a plow was buried in the dirt. So were two tire rims, some old iron pipes and a metal brace from some piece of farm equipment

I got rid of everything but the lamps and the yoke, then had to carefully remove old plastic containers filled with used motor oil that were lined up on a broken shelf. They’re in the garage now until I take them to be recycled.

Once that shed was empty, I went into the barn, the garage and tractor shed and got rid of everything I could - saving enough space in the dumpster for the lean-to. That was  Saturday’s project when Rita’s son and grandson came down from Duluth to help with the demolition.

It took about five hours using the reciprocating saw, sledge hammer, grinder and rolling magnet (for nails), but it got done. With a little space left in the dumpster, we did some last-minute clean up and called it a day.

It snowed a little that evening and again Monday night. So we had just beaten the weather.

Now I can move on to other things on my list.