I was determined to prevent the problem I’ve had in recent years with the downstairs basement door (that opens into the garage). It swells shut every spring, because of the extreme damp, and I can’t budge it until fall. In past years I needed to keep that door closed, because mice were getting into the garage, so I wanted to keep them from the house.

But I’ve kept the door slightly ajar this year, so it didn’t swell shut this time. One small plus. I really hate the basement, and would like to clean it up. Its ceiling is one of those unfinished ones, so anything you leave in the basement — boxes, whatever — will soon have dirt and soot and plaster crumblings on top of it, shaken from the movement of the wooden rafters and floor above.

It smells awful too. A damp, awful smell has plagued the basement for months, so I opened both garage doors and then the connecting door to the basement, and set a big fan at the doorway to pull air inside. I left it running all day long so a complete air exchange could happen. This hasn't been possible most days, with all the rain.

The air downstairs is fresh now. I guess I’ll keep doing that, getting as much fresh air to the basement as possible, as long as it isn’t raining. Just have to make sure small animals don’t come in.

I wonder if I could rig up a screen or mesh curtain/barrier that I could put there, with an opening cut for the fan. I’d like to keep being able to open the basement and garage during the summer, but it would get buggy (and I do NOT want another mouse infestation).


Out in the yard, the Rose of Sharon bush (by the front door) and the wisteria (at the side door) look good — and it seems to be from the pruning I did last year. That Rose of Sharon bush grows so fast, and has to be chopped regularly. If I leave it too long, once the flowers come out it’s too late, because the millions of bees make it too dangerous to come near. And as I’ve seen, the bees do not go away immediately at sunset!

The rosebushes, unfortunately, both have black spot and the leaves are falling off. They’re covered with blooms— which will do miserably if they don’t have leaves. I think I already have some fungicide spray for it.

I will also have to heavily treat the blacktop driveway with weedkiller, because it has a big network of cracks that grow weeds and even moss. Here, it seems like the state of the verdure is: Stuff grows; other stuff rots. Rinse and repeat.