I'm ready for this summer to end! We simply suffer and survive this inferno each year here in Arizona. It's hot here from April to October, then it's paradise. We emerge from out air conditioned comfort and enjoy the out-of-doors. I'm working on getting the backyard in shape as well as my garage workshop to get ready for it.

“This shop is part of a social shopper marketing insight campaign with Weave Made Media® and Rubbermaid, but all opinions are my own. #weavemade #FallFixUp http://my-disclosur.es/RgFrEH”

Last weekend I cleared the backyard of the explosion of weeds sprouting with the monsoon rains (with a flame thrower!)*. This weekend, I attacked the piles of brush I'd been heaping up.

*OK, so it was actually a big propane torch, not a flame-thrower.

When I say, "piles of brush", I mean piles of dried cactus chunks with huge, sharp spines. We'd lost a massive saguaro cactus months ago, and I'd left piles of it to dry out. These spines are huge, tough needles that were able to pierce my leather work boot and my foot when I first started the clean up. That was an adventure.

When I tried to fill trash bags, the spines shredded them; I couldn't get the pieces deep in the bag. It was a frustrating exercise. I needed something tougher to get it out to the curb, something that wouldn't let spines poke through and pierce my tender flesh. I picked up a 32 gallon, Rubbermaid Roughneck , indoor / outdoor trash can from The Home Depot.

I used two short spade shovels that our kids use at the beach to scoop up the pile, since the needles would poke through my gloves if I started getting too grabby with them.

I quickly filled the trash can with the first of many loads of razor sharp cactus, flame-dried weeds, palm tree fronds (also with sharp spines), and sticks.

Roughneck enough for ya?

Dried out, the chunks were not heavy at all; I could lug them out to the curb without a hand-truck. Luckily, the tough Roughneck trashcan was able to keep the spines from piercing my back.

Workin' in a coal mine...

Out at the curb, I slid a large yard waste bag over the entire can and up-ended it.

It allowed me to fill the bags without ripping them up too much. Perfect! The City of Phoenix, bulk trash collectors will pick these bags up with their claw machine, no one will get poked.

I cleaned up the rest of the yard by 10 am, with temps already passing 100 degrees. 

A demonstration of first class rakes-man-ship.

All that's left is the large center-mast of cactus wood. I'm letting the sun keep working on that for a few months, then I might build something with it. The yard looks great. Now the kids can go out there without worrying about a spine piercing their shoe. 

Makes you want to frolic barefoot in this lush lawn doesn't it?

Retreating out of the sun, I headed for my garage workshop. I'm going to want to get into trouble out there when the temperatures finally drop this fall. Sawdust will be flying, my friends!

My regular readers have seen plenty of pictures of my workshop, but they've never seen the glorious mysteries of fourth wall. That's because it's embarrassing, a massive mess of toys, holiday decorations, DIY stuff, and crushed boxes. I have shelving, but it's overloaded and spilling out into the work space. 

Neat as a pin right?

We have cardboard boxes, some of them dating back to when I left my parent's house, a bazillion years ago. The worst of them have traveled the country with us and are full of books we just can't seem to get rid of.

I'd picked up a couple Rubbermaid Roughneck 18 gallon Storage Totes  when I was at The Home Depot.

They were a little too tall to fit on my existing shelving, so I decided to stack them. In went a ton of old books.

OK, I admit I put the cerebral stuff on top of the trashy novels for the photo.

Neither Sweetie nor I could bear to lose many of these beloved old books. Into the bins went sci-fi and romance paperbacks. Graphic novels, comic books and old school yearbooks piled in. Even college text books got saved. 

I'm glad I went through it though. There were plenty of items that will go to Goodwill. Plenty.

Nope. Done. Don't need this one. Nope. Nope Nope.

I really got rolling. You wouldn't believe how much you can fit in these totes. They were beefy too. I felt they were sturdy enough to be stacked higher, when loaded with a kajillion pounds of books. I headed back to the 'Depot to pick up a couple more totes. They're only about $7.00, so they didn't break the bank.

I don't have to worry about a water heater flood either. Waterproof-iness!

I picked up a lot of shelving space. I also picked up a heap of cardboard to cut up for the recycling bin as well as a bunch of stuff to drop off at Goodwill. Wow! I can even get to the thickness planer. I'm going to have some fun out here this winter.

The Tower of (Roughneck) Power