Status - 3 days to go

This has been a busy couple of weeks; not all of it railroad related.

Finishing up college applications with my daughter, dealing with the aftermath of my dad's passing, semester grades, yearbook. Lots to do; lot's been done.

So far on the module, I've:

1. Redone the roads and sidewalks using Walther's asphalt road system. It looks a lot better than the foamcore did. I slightly adapted them to fit the space that was there. Not perfect, but a lot better. Still have to add grade crossings.
2. Chose not to do foundations for the buildings; removed all the old foamcore. 
3. Made sure every square inch of wood (other than what the buildings will cover) has some sort of ground cover. I used dirt on much of the north side for parking lots. I'll detail it later this week.
4. Bought and prepared trees. I got a bag of inexpensive bottle brush trees from Amazon. Sprayed them individually with matte clearcoat and covered with ground foam, They look better and I'll install them later this week.
5. Painted and ballasted the track -- painting went ok, ballasting not so much. See note below :(
6. Thanks to Dennis at QCMRA, got the Cinch Jones plugs replaced with Powerpoles. Still have to install them but that can happen at the show if I don't get to it before then.
7. Have done some scenery refreshing; still more to do.
8. Fixed a couple of structures. 

Still to do:

1. Weather and detail the roads and sidewalks.
2. Add grade crossings.
3. Detail the scenery with bushes, trees and a couple more grass patches.
4. Paint the areas under the foundations black.
5. Clean up the track. Ballasting went poorly and I need to use a wirebrush to remove excess ballast to make sure that the track is usable. This could take a full night :( Lessons learned about being more carful when ballasting. I may need to repaint the inside of the rails and the ties. I'll buy Woodland Scenics markers at the show and take care of it there.
6. If time, repaint the sides of the module. The dessert sand color has gotten dirty over the years. I'm thinking of getting some dark green and redoing it -- at the least, redoing the visible sides.
7. Pack all the structures, rolling stock and whatever tools I'm bringing.

I'm sure I'm missing a couple of things, but this is fairly comprehensive. I'll post photos later tonight. I'm excited; first show with this module in at least three years.