Boy, do I ever have spring fever this weekend. This isn’t the first day in 2018 that we have hit the 70 degree mark, but this IS the first weekend day that I have gotten to enjoy it.
During the week, I get to work when the sun has just risen and I am leaving as the sun is setting. So, no matter the weather outside, I don’t really get to enjoy it during the week.
Yesterday I enjoyed a little pruning of the backyard. Sadly I got a little bit of a late start, since my washing machine needed a little TLC. Fortunately, my washing machine repair mechanic (aka my husband) was on stand by and we even had the spare part on hand! This is the second time we have had to swap out the drain pump. Ugh! The task was nothing he couldn’t knock out, but pulling the washer and dryer out of their normal resting places brings to light just how dirty your home truly is!!! Plus, one of the connection pieces broke, so we had quite the water clean up!! Upshot! The laundry room is clean and the washing machine is back in fine running order. $60 part and 2 hours of our day. I cannot express how wonderful it is to have a husband that has so many talents. I highly recommend!!! 🙂 THANK YOU Bert Deaton!!!
Anyhow, back to the yard calling my name from the kitchen window. All of the trees need to be shaped and the bushes are going to begin budding, so I need to get out there and knock a little bit out at a time. There is no possible way I could tackle all of it in one weekend. But I also need to make a mental note about the mosquitoes!! They were eating me alive yesterday and now I have all of these itchy little red spots on my feet. Yes, I was wearing flip flops while working in the yard. Doesn’t everyone?
With spring in the air, I have already started a few projects that will keep me busy for a quite a few weekends. Bert and I started the year off with cutting down one of our front yard trees. It was a Modesto Ash and it would loose its leaves at least three times a year. It had mistletoe pretty bad and looked like it might split right down the middle at any point. Not to mention it was wide enough that it hung over both of our front yard driveways providing the perfect perching place for birds. You know what comes with birds? Bird poop!!! On your vehicle!!! (insert big eyed emoji here!!!) We had trimmed it back quite a few times to make it last just a bit longer. You see, this tree shades our home from the southeast extreme heat of the sun in the Northern California summers. We had planted two Crape Myrtles in an effort to get them large enough to compensate for the Modesto Ash being cut down, but that back fired on us. The Ash was so large that it shaded the Crapes and kept stunting their growth, so we bit the bullet this year. Eek! I dread my electric bill this summer.
Cutting this, I don’t know, 40′ tree down has been quite the process. First off, what you need to know about Bert and I is that we are misers. If we get a quote for some work to be done, we always ask ourselves, could we do this ourselves and save a ton of cash??? The answer to that is typically “yes”. Bert got two quotes to trim this tree, one for $2000 and the other for $1500. Um….. you guessed it. We could do it ourselves!!!
I didn’t get pictures, but Bert brought a work van home that has a bucket attachment. You know, like the ones you see your local phone guy hanging out in while working on the phone lines? Yes, just like that. We may have moved that van around the driveways and the yard about 15 times, and the neighbors were watching very closely. Some out of concern, some out of wishing we were for hire and would come trim their trees too. 🙂 In that weekend we successfully got the tree down, but then the chainsaw that we had wasn’t big enough to cut the base of the tree into smaller pieces. Plus I had this idea about cutting the tree into wafers to use as a walkway/ground cover in our back yard. Once again, my husband being a trooper and helping me bring these visions to fruition. He is the BESTEST EVER!!!
Each weekend we have been out in the front yard chipping away at this process. And I do mean “chipping”. One weekend we spent four hours out there with the chipper shredder and created as much mulch as we could with the smaller pieces of the tree. Oh My Goodness, I could barely walk the next day. If ever you need to be reminded of how old you are, yard work will definitely help you with that!!! We did get enough mulch though to cover most of the flower beds in the back yard. It feels really good to reuse resources that we have in our yard, and not have to pay for the mulch to keep the weeds down and moisture in for our plants. Plus it is the perfect timing. Just because this weekend we are enjoying the 70 degree weather, does not mean that we don’t have one or two more cold snaps in our future. My plants are going to be so confused. Poor babies!
Next up we (meaning Bert) have been cutting the larger pieces of the trees into wafers. If you can’t see the vision, this is one of my inspirations.
Today, I need to get out in the sunshine and add some wood stabilizer and wood sealer to the wafers that Bert already has cut. I’ll get some pictures of what we already have accomplished and share next weekend. There are some rather large pieces, which means that will be a lot less weeds for me to tend to each year! Score!! LOL My back is going to be very thankful. Just an added note about getting older, I find that each year I am thinking further into the future and having to maintain our yard. It has become a mission of how the yard can be less mowing and just some trimming a few times a year. Not all of my ideas have been that great, but it is always a work in progress.
Well I am off to the back yard to let the chickens out of their coop, I can hear them yelling at me. I hope that you have a wonderful Sunday!
DD
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