Just call me Jethro.

When you build a carport, with a shallow roof pitch, under a huge pine tree, it’s a pretty good idea to clean off the roof more than once every 7 years.

I built it 7 years ago, and spent today cleaning it off for the first time.  There was a ton (probably even literally) of pine cones and needles up there.  The first step was to just rake them off the roof onto the ground.  Here’s what I ended up with:

As you can see, especially compared to the next picture, it was close to 2 feet deep.

The second step was to clean it up off the ground.  I hardly even touched it and my yard waste container was completely filled, so I decided to put it in the trailer.  That way it wouldn’t be piled on the side of the garage where any idiot flinging their cigarette butt out the window of their apartment next door could end up burning down my garage.  With all 3 cars inside it.

About 3/4 of the way through, I could see that there was more than my trailer could handle.  So I went to my spare wood pile, got out the saw, drill and some screws and increased the capacity of the trailer.

An old International truck bed with weather beaten spare pieces of wood.  As it started to come together, I started singing the theme song to “The Beverly Hillbillies”.  I like it, it’s completely functional, but it does have a certain Jethro look to it.

Now I just get to spend an hour or so every weekend moving it from there to the yard waste bin.  I could just pay the $10 and take the time to haul it out to the dump, but I already pay for them to pick up my yard waste, and I don’t want to pay extra for something they are going to end up selling back to people for mulch.

By the way, if anyone needs some pine cones for their Christmas arts and crafts, let me know.  I’ve got zillions of them.

Oh, and here’s the roof before I hosed it down.  You can (sorta) see the dirt on the shingles showing how far up the debris was.