This is yard work week because we are having a birthday party for my daughter's birthday. I picked the second worst week to do yard work, next to last week, with temperatures over 100 every day. I believe they were over 105 every day last week. I'm praying for something, anything, to cool it down by Saturday. Anyway, I got some help from Hubby on these.
Here are the before pictures on my project. The grass and weed are growing up near the house were it is hard to mow and not really great to edge.
This sprinkler is too close to the house and angled too so 1/4 of it's spray hits the house.
I have trained my kids not to climb in the pile of rocks, some of them sharp, but don't want other kids to try playing here. It is time to do something about it. The rocks were all found from digging gardens over the years. I even had to dig a bit to get them all out since they have been there so long.
I used a pickax to break the hard, dry ground around the sprinkler and the side of the house. It's really good for working out frustration, too.
The sprinkler has a flexible hose connected to PVC pipe, so I was able to move it out where I wanted and turn it the right direction. It was set in place with rocks under the soil. I ended up putting them on top of the soil and that gave me the idea for the rock garden.
Here is the start. I left that plant there for now, until I figure out what it is, because it looks nice and is happy with heat and little water. 
About this time I had two thoughts, that the rocks are going to spread out and the weeds are going to grow up through them. I had some of this ground cover that lets water through which I'll put under the rocks. I also have some treated lumber left from when we removed the deck and I'll use that for a border.
Here is the after picture of the rock garden. I used mostly smooth stones so no one will get hurt if they fall in there. I'm going to see how this works for a couple of months before I extend it along the rest of the house. Anyway, I ran out of rocks. Maybe I'll find more when I till the garden extension.
And here is the place where the rock pile was. I used some of the flat stones to make a rocky area around the rain barrel. Anything that was too sharp for the rock garden and not flat enough for here was thrown out. I even found a sprinkler buried under the pile of rocks. 
Meanwhile, Hubby worked on removing the brush pile.
He replaced the chain on the chainsaw. I forgot to get a picture of that. Here is the end result. He used the chainsaw for the bigger limbs and made firewood. He used the chipper/shredder for the smaller stuff and made mulch for the garden. He uncovered a sprinkler too. He said there was a rat living in the brush pile and it ran to the neighbor's yard before the dog got it. They have a brush pile too. Sorry neighbors. We'll put a trap in the firewood pile and try to catch him. Hubby also made a dent in the dead limbs on the dieing tree, but not enough to cross it off the list.
Finally, here is a random fix that I did a while ago and forgot to include. This little hand broom was in a bad place in the garage. I lifted it up to grace by threading a piece of yarn through it so it can hang on the wall and be found when needed.I count 6 fixes today and $0 spent! I tried to fix the wheelbarrow tire so that I could use it to move rocks around, but I need to buy a new tire because it is cracked and won't hold air. It doesn't have an inner tube that I could patch. This is a new one on me. I wonder if I just buy the tire or the whole assembly. If it is just the tire then how to I get a seal on it to fill t up with air?
Day 79, Score: -16 (6 new fixed, 0 new broken, total fixed=63, list total 117), Funds: -116.76
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