Muddy Monday

I got to spend another afternoon digging in the dirt- some of it was fun- others- not so much.  I got to plant some flowers in hanging baskets and started digging the trench for the border for the new flower bed along the South side of the house.  And V and I did some digging that was deck related as well.

The South flower bed seems to be taking forever to come together.  Saturday, I worked to rip out all the old landscaping fabric that had been put in there.  We think that it was either someone's failed attempt at drainage control or just lame-o landscaping. Anywhere, there was a layer of old landscaping cloth, topped with a few inches of sand, followed by gravel.  This, of course has been mixed in with all sorts of stuff over the past who knows how many years and was just awful.  But, the fabric has been removed and several bushels of compost, peat and topsoil have been dug into the sand mix.   Today, when on a run to the home store, I picked up some edging that will be going in next.  I would have worked on it more but I discovered a nest of very unhappy ants at about the same time V needed me for deck work so I stopped to let the ants calm down.   If the weather holds, hopefully we can finish both the flower bed and the deck this week.

This morning, while waiting for it to dry off outside I was catching up on all the household stuff I had been neglecting while playing in the dirt (read laundry and kitchen cleaning!)  Now I'm a bit more back on track with all of that and can refocus for the week.

The weather has been bizarre.  We were so dry for so long and now we have had nearly 7 inches of rain in the past 2 weeks.  It has been too wet to get into the garden for much so the weeds are really taking off.  I desperately need to weed my potatoes, kale and lettuce. Yesterday,  I think we hit 80 degrees.  Today, we barely made 70.  But at least the sun was shining and we only got 0.15 inches of rain overnight.  The forecast for the next few days looks dry so I'll keep my fingers crossed.

But I'm tired.  All this digging over the last three days has left me weary.  And I've got a huge bruise on my right arm that I'm not sure how I got....  

The next two weeks will be a blur.  This week we've got 2 band concerts- K12 tomorrow night and I14 on Wednesday.  I work all day Saturday, Sunday the 13th is the plant sale and I've got a student starting with me on the 14th.  That evening, we've got the Senior Recognition Ceremony, the 15th is J17's birthday and then it's wild and crazy cooking and cleaning time for the party on the 19th.  I'll be checking in regularly but I can't promise how often I'll be posting.