Did I write out my goals this morning when I first sat down? Nope. I had a few goals in mind, for the day, not just the overall goals that I have on hand…but I didn’t get to tell you what they were.
First and foremost—housework. I still have not vacuumed or filled the dish washer. E did empty the clean dishes from the dish washer, but I was outside busy at the time. Since then, I have had other things occupy my time. It is still on the list though.
I also need to move my lovely red, white and black wooly fuzzy rug. My darling son helped w this one. Every time he touches that rug, it darn near explodes w loose fuzz. This past week he decided he didn’t want to play on the ultra thick fuzz of the rug anymore, so he rolled it up. Before he could kill himself --or anything else-- moving said rug himself, I moved it out of the way for him. It will be going down into the basement here soon. The carpet in the living room needs to be vacuumed—badly—due to the fuzz.
I have, however, achieved a couple goals today. I looked at the weird spread of flower bulbs in the backyard that grow along the fence that Kendall is trampling to death in order to bark at the neighbor’s dog –which seems to be constantly chained outside—when she is not jumping the fence and visiting all the neighbors. The tuberous bulbs are pretty much through the surface. Not just the plants themselves, but the stuff that should be under the ground. I had E put some leaves over everything in the hope that I can protect them until I decide what to do w them.
R came over this past week-end and started to trim the pine trees for me. The big trim job I want done on the other trees needs to be done by a professional. So he did what he could on the pine tree, which is the stuff that it took two people to do since the limbs were over the neighbor’s fence. He left the pruners for me so I can finish up at my leisure. I did discover that the cut branches are enough to cover the side of the house where Princess digs—so I am not even going to worry about mulching or chipping or composting the limbs right now. Plus, with the smell of pine, it deters insects from around that side of the house. It also does not hurt that that is the side where we have that weird alley either—so no one can really see anything that goes on in that corner—hence, no one will complain about the brush pile.
Since it was too cold to do anything this week-end, I dug the side front bed out this afternoon. All the weeds are gone, but tell me—why do people put down that insipid plastic wrap, pile rocks and a little dirt over it-and then try to plant things on top of it? Not cutting through the plastic—but planting things in that 2-3 inch deep ground that is not really dirt due to all the rocks above the plastic. Do people really think that is a viable option? If you are worried about weeds—mulch around your plants—don’t put plastic down. Plastic doesn’t do anything. Weeds will grow no matter what. They don’t need as much as the plants you want to grow there need. And if you are too dumb to cut through the plastic when you plant things there, you ought not be out playing in the dirt anyway until you learn to think about what you are doing.
Apologies for that outburst. The plastic wrap under the dirt is the bane of my existence at times. I didn’t have to spend much time today pulling plastic out—the plastic was already shredded from all the darn rocks on top of it. It is because of the rocks, however, that I only planted half the bed at the moment. I am thinking of turning that bed into a raised bed. I think the whole thing will benefit from the experience. So, I planted some of our gladiolas there, on the not so rocky side, as well as some sunflower seeds. Fingers crossed on the seeds. I let E plant sunflowers along the fence line.
In the backyard, I dumped out the mint that we had growing in the kid’s old Halloween treat buckets. One of them looked completely gone, but the other was showing feelers and little plants. That one I planted alongside the house, behind the one rose bush. Add to my list of things to do to trim both rose bushes that are back there. I also made sure the not growing mint was close by—I didn’t plant it per se, but if it grows, it will have plenty of room. As in, I just dumped the dirt and plant near where I actually planted the other one and left everything like that.
I cleared out this area right off the porch where the former owner had piled…stuff. There were clods of dirt and grass that if it had been alive I might have said was sod. We simply broke those down and put it all back into the earth, in the yard. Beating on the big clods w a shovel made E happy for quite awhile there. I threw away some stuff. Even a comb and a piece of shovel that was under more of that darned plastic wrap for under flower beds. All into the trash it went. I also got rid of the pesticides that I had to use at the last house. We are not doing that here. Here I can actually practice some of my biodynamics in planting—and it will be that much healthier for both children and rabbits.
In the now clear space, I planted our Dutch iris bulbs. I like to be able to see things when they grow. If I were more certain about where we were putting beds in this yard, I might have kept some back. I also ended up planting my mother’s day mini rose bush not too far from where I planted the iris. I can see it swaying in the light breeze from where I sit at my work table in the kitchen.
I also cleared away some leaves and debris in other places, like along the walkway by the fence. Out back, I have a barrel to put our yard waste in until we know for sure where we are starting our compost pile. I have R hooked on the tumbling composter idea now…but if all I can do until he makes us one is have an area where we keep our compost, that will work as well. I sort of like that idea. I have been doing some reading lately, when my son gave me my laptop back during the past week. One idea is simply to block off a section of the yard with 2 x 4s and simply stick all your compost materials there inside the boxed off area. Without having to build a fence around it or anything. Something simple. I am all for that.
And so, there is my domestic bliss. Cleaning, inside and out. Preparing for things. Nesting. Getting more settled and more comfortable. I like that. It feels good.
More coming. Please stand by.
