My Eavestroughs Up on Saturday Afternoon

Last Saturday, while I was digging up the last of my potatoes for the winter, Barry Larson, the man who was to put up new eavestroughs for my house arrived. He had brought his daughter Janeen, who worked with him all summer, but was now attending Kelsey College. She had this Saturday free, so they came to make and put up the eavestroughs I had been waiting for.

They needed an outlet to plug in their equipment, and I went back to my potatoe-digging. When I was done I went around to the front to see how they were coming.

To my surprise they had set up behind their tool trailer and were making the eavestroughs right then and there. There was a big roll of white and green tin in the trailer, and as they pulled it came rolling out as a formed eavestrough. I had never watched this before.

Janeen placed some brackets inside at intervals, while Barry formed the ends, and in minutes they were carrying it up on the roof. Janeen led, and Barry said she had climbed ladders since she was five months old. (Brr-rr! Not me! I'm not that keen on climbing ladders).

Anyways, while I went to clean my two rainbarrels and turn them over for the winter, Janeen was up on the roof, drilling screws into the brackets and attaching the eavestrough to the facia of the roof. Her dad was preparing the rain spouts.



Barry had suggested that he could bend the spouts so that they would go through the lilac bush and into a barrel I would set there so it would be easier to water the garden.

(Joe has suggested that he can drill a hole in the barrel to attach a tap and seeper hose, so that I can water the garden without carrying it by watering can; Barry said that would work).



This also clears the area close to the house so that I can walk there without circling around the barrel, and maybe I'll be able to turn it into a nice patio area since the lilac bush and the big tree provide such good shade there.

It happens at this time of year the leaves are falling here steadily, so there is no end of sweeping to do, but in the spring and summer this can be a nice, cool spot to be. It has a lot of potential. If only I'll have the time next summer to do the work.

At the other back corner of the house, Barry made the spout to go into the blue rainbarrel, but also gave me an extension so that when I have the barrel turned over, such as now for the winter, the rain will go out beyond the sidewalk and not form ice patches or puddles close to the foundation. Excellent thinking!

At the front of the house, he put a spout down on either side of the front porch. That means I won't have an ice patch on the steps like I did last winter, and my flower beds will benefit from the extra moisture.

I was pleased with their work and noted that they were done in about two and a half hours.

I mentioned that the old eavestroughs had been left behind by the roofer, and I had no truck to take it away to the garbage, so they cheerfully loaded it on their tool trailer and truck, to clean up my lawn.

When Barry was hunting for his invoice forms he mentioned that he had forgotten about this job for a while. Then he remembered, and called Janeen, and yes, she was available to help this afternoon.

"Wow!" I exclaimed, "Then this is an answer to prayer! You had said you would come the first or second week of September, and since it was past that point, I had begun to pray this past week, that God would remind you, without me having to nag you."

This just put a pretty curl in the icing on this treat. :)

Now I'm praying for the electrician to have time to come do his work next.

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