The Mind, The Body

Ok, those who live in the Midwest have had an awsome weather week. It's been warm, sunny, and thanks to the clocks jumping ahead an hour, the sun is out longer.

My mind sees all the beautiful bulbs I planted last fall, the grass turning green, and the trees getting ready to leave out. This put my mind into gear to start the yardwork. This past week, I've accomplished:

1. Taking out the tree in the front yard. You can see in the photo at the top of the page title that the tree is ugly as sin, and only shades the ground beneath it, not the house. How useless. In it's 35 year life, it's only provided an ample breeding ground for creeping charlie and chiggers that hide underneath its leaves. So, down it came! We had a guy cut it down, because we had powerlines to the south of it, the east of it, the house to the north, and other trees to the west. They used ropes to "guide" it's fall, and while it missed the lines, it landed on my cherry trees. Luckily, I have the trees supported with a heavy duty support, so it didn't affect it. We kept the stump for fire wood for our woodstove.

2. Next, to move the stump out of the front yard, so it doesn't kill the new grass. That was HARD. I can move up to a 12" diameter log, (hey, I grew up in WI, all us northern chicks can do that), but anything over that, forget it. Frustrated, I, like any other WI girl, just took a fence panel down, tied a tow strap around the hitch of our truck, and the stump, and just dragged it around the corner. The strap broke, but at least it did it around the place I wanted it anyway. Our friends also took down their tree, and we got their stump also.

3. The rest of our tree was chipped. We had the dump truck dump the chips to the side of our driveway, because we couldn't get it to the side of the house. I want to chip the west side of the house because our neighbors have trees that hang over the property line, and NO grass grows there. I only have mud. I'm very tired of the kids, dog, and husband tracking it into the house. So. I grab the wheelbarrow, a shovel, and get to work. I've stayed home from Karl's office the last two days, and have been working, moving the chips from 9am to 7pm. I want the chips at least four inches deep so they can't get kicked up or moved around. I had a really nice guy offer to bring his bobcat over to do the work for me (did I look THAT bad?), but I need the exercise.

4. My new perrenials are coming in by the day, and the biggest order of plants, the hedge roses, came in a few days ago. They shipped bareroot, so they can't be stored very long. They came bigger than I expected, and that meant digging 24, two feet deep holes across the front yard. Ugh.

Now, here comes the body part. This has been going on all week, and my body isn't thinking this is so cool anymore. This morning, I think it went on strike because my mind had to coax it out of bed. Come on, I still have the last 15 feet of chipping to do! There's more plants to be planted! More work to be done! Man, I'm just out of shape. I hope I lose some weight in this deal, because then it's worth it.

The kids have done well. My four year old son has taken over the parenting of our younger daughter, and he has been doing an excellent job keeping her out of trouble and from getting hurt. I never thought I could trust a four year old to do such a good job. Our dog got out, and he called him back. Cupcake wanted water, and he went in a got it for her (somehow, I won't ask), without help from me. On his own initiative. That's so sweet. It also REALLY helps me out, while I'm trying to get through this last leg of hard work.

Hopefully that ends today, and we can all enjoy the wonderful weekend (which means ignoring ALL the other projects this stupid house needs done), mud free. Saturday I have my good friend coming over so we can take Cupcake out for her birthday, and Kern's surrogate uncle and Karl are taking him fishing. Did I mention margaritas are on the menu, lol?