We had planned to go skating, then borrow Terry’s truck, and today we’d get some progress on the taxes; but…
The lawn crew called up and wanted to strip the sod (which we have wanted done) so we can do what we want to do to the front lawn, to equal the Glorious Pond. So we cancelled skating and rushed to get ready.
Things never go smoothly. The crew had trouble with the stripper, so our yard now looks like the aftermath of one three-year-old using the dog clippers on his sister. It’s going to need a lot of work with the mattock, and for the first time, this lately-sedentary body registered its first strong aged-based protest about the mattock-work. Ow. Re-ow! Besides, it’s a blow to my pride. But slower and steady will still get it.
We also consulted with our neighbor about the property line—and our crew goofed and chewed out a piece of his lawn while we were trying to haul a wheelbarrow around to the back.
But—we now (sort-of) have the lawn out. No more watering the whole yard. No more mowing. No more fertilizer or anti-fungus treatments. Hurrah for that.
We didn’t get to to get the truck and get the weeping birch out of the store lot, but we did lay weed cloth between the houses and are going to have to get some mulch: this was part of the deal with the neighbor: we create a bark-bed between the houses; and then we set up so he can do a retaining wall, to join our future retaining wall in front. So I’m going to mollify our neighbor about the missing grass by laying the first tier of his retaining wall.
O OSG, there will soon be another truck dumping 7 yards of mulch at our place. If you would like another lawn party, with snacks and drinks by the Glorious Pond…heh…we will be game.
There’s always the asphalt and green paint approach….
At a certain point it may start seeming real attractive.
Omg you were in Brisbane. Cool. When did you come?
About 1982 or 1983. I flew from Oklahoma straight through to Perth (silly me, I had put Australia about where Hawaii is and didn’t realize what a long flight that is.) Then I toured about Australia, all under the auspices of the Australian national convention—I went to Adelaide, and Sydney, and Brisbane; and on one leg I shared a seat with Sir Patrick Moore, the British astronomer: he was going out to see Halley’s Comet from Ayres Rock. I got to see it from a telescope in in Perth. I so wanted to go to the Great Barrier Reef when I was in Brisbane, but my schedule put me in Brisbane on a day when transport wasn’t running, and there was just no time for it. But I did get to the rainforest (rainforests on hills in the middle of wheat fields is just too strange!) and got to see cockatoos flying free, just flitting across the sky as we were driving back from the rainforest. I learned why gum trees are dangerous (a big limb cut loose and crashed down in the forest while I was standing close enough to see it) and I got to see tropical plants that I know only carefully nurtured in pots growing absolutely huge. I loved it.