I Was A Dumb Bunny Last Night

Yes I was…so dumb.

As you know I spent hours in my backyard this past weekend.  Monday my body was complaining but not really with sore muscles, just with tired ones.  You also know that I was determined to get my Butterfly Bush in the ground last night before the weather turns soggy.

I succeeded…the bush is in the ground!

Before I could put the plant in the ground I had to figure out the new home for the second path, a conundrum that took nearly an hour.  I had to disassemble the old path, a task that involved using the steel rake to move bark mulch out-of-the-way, carrying stepping-stones to the fire bowl area until I need them and shoveling pea gravel into my wheelbarrow and wheeling it to its new home.  The minute I started using the steel rake my muscles reminded me how tired they were…

But, I persevered and the path location has been determined!

The blocks are just markers so that I could get the angle correct, I’m going to keep the same pattern as the first path.  I am in need of angled bricks, something I don’t have nor can I create thanks to a lack of tools, and more importantly, a complete lack of desire.  So, I’ll stop at both Lowe’s and Home Depot to see if they have any broken bricks I can snare.  Even if they don’t correctly fill the pathway, I can use pea gravel or sand in the (hopefully) small gaps.

I have no idea how I’m going to round the corner when I get to the wall, I’ll figure that out when I get there.

My outdoor work ended on a happy note – just before I went inside for the night I was serenaded by a little buddy…

…or maybe it was Mom lecturing me to REST for the next few days so that I can once again be a weekend warrior (I will ignore all urgings to play outside until Saturday, I promise!).

Unfortunately for me, my dumb bunny mode continued once I was inside – I work worked until 10:55PM!  Yes – I was awake and working until then, finally going to bed nearly 3 hours later than usual!!!  I was up at 4:45AM – the 5-3/4 hour sleep normally is fine, but not today.  My body is THAT tired…not sore, just tired.

Here’s hoping this dumb bunny proves that you can teach an old dog new tricks and that I listen to my body and spend the next 3 nights doing fun mental stuff not fun physical stuff!

Temporary Victories

I spent 6 exhaustive hours outside Sunday working on my backyard, and when I was done I had scored lots of temporary victories.  Why temporary?  Well, I’ve won so far in that 15 plants are now in the ground, but only time will tell if I really win as they’re now all going through their adjustment period.  If they live, I win…if they don’t, I get to start over!

The first and most difficult victory was moving the palm tree from the backyard to the front.  It was the only thing in the backyard that needed water and since I don’t have any sprinklers out back, the tree didn’t get watered as often as it should.  It was very happy back there, but I wanted it to move to the front where it would regularly watered by the sprinkler system.

It took me an hour to grab as many roots as possible, and included one face full (and eyeful) of dirt, but the tree is moved…

The tree looks great in its new home, especially when looking outside from in.  Here’s hoping the palm only experiences a minor adjustment period!

Here are some select pix of some of the plants out back.  Many are small so they don’t look like much, but hopefully they will be an awesome mix of texture, color, height and shape once they get larger.

See this Feathery Cassia bush?  It sits in the corner where the palm tree used to live.  The greenery behind it is ground cover from the outside of the neighborhood – it has inched into my backyard through the space in the block wall.  I’m leaving it for now but it may need a haircut soon.

Here’s the whole corner…

From left to right there are 4 other plants — a zig zag cactus, a desert spoon cactus, a Dwarf Bottlebrush bush and on the far right, barely visible next to the stepping stone is a fairy duster bush.  The flowers on this are AWESOME!  So awesome that I’ve got a close-up for you…

I can’t wait for this guy to get big!

Now here’s looking at the rest of the backyard from the above area…

Remember that most of the plants are small so you can’t really see them from this picture.  I’ll give you a tour…

This cactus container was labelled as Eve’s Needle.  After doing some research on-line I’m not sure if it is, but it’s definitely got character!  The pinky protrusions on the top will be flowers…soon…I hope!  This guy is near the block wall.

Below is a picture of my California Lilac (still smells awesome) with three mounds of grass in front of it.  I’m hoping that once the grasses get taller they’ll add lots of motion to the yard…

Here’s a Madagascar Palm…

As this guy grows the greenery will remain at the top and the trunk will be that gray colored, thorn filled tube.

I also bought a couple of succulents for good measure…they’re definitely small but they show up well in the red mulch!

I’m not sure of the correct name for the above, but I call it Crazy Hair!  The below is called Crazy Bunny according to the pot it came in.

Lastly, here’s the California Sunflower plant – it’s right in front of the swing and if it grows and spreads like it should the swing will have an awesome blanket of yellow in front of it.

There’s another Desert Spoon plant in this area along with 2 plants that I’m not showing you because, well, their survival is very iffy.  They weren’t too happy with their extended pot life so they’re not camera worthy right now.  There are also 7 more plants that need to go into the ground — I’m hoping to get at least 1 of them in tonight as we’re in for showers tomorrow & Thursday, cool temps for the week and more showers on Monday.  That’ll be perfect weather for transplants!

But, why am I hoping to get just ONE in the ground?

Two reasons —

1.  I have clay soil – that means I have to swing a pickax to break up the ground.  Honestly!  So far I’ve used 4-1/2 bags of the 5 bags of soil amendment I bought to mix with the clay so the new plant roots don’t get squished as the clay gets wet and compacts!

2.  In order to plant that 1 plant, a butterfly bush, I have to move this other path, or at least get it out-of-the-way…

The path that’s coming at you from the patio area needs to be straightened out and shifted to the right so that it comes off the main path at more of a right angle.  The butterfly bush is going to go where the solar light to the left of the yellow rope now sits.   The agave I want to plant will go in the vicinity of that brick sitting in the mulch to the right of the yellow rope, its position finalized once the path is marked.

And the final plant that’s going back there will be somewhere in front of the AC unit.  I’m not really worried about exactly where as I have a bigger problem then it’s location.

I have to figure out how to get this Golden Barrel cactus out of the pot without pricking myself multiple times!

The plants should all be in and the stepping-stones piled in the fire bowl area should all be in their new homes on Saturday.  The paths should be nearly done if, and that’s a big IF, Mother Nature dries us out for a couple of days.  The sand base will not spread nicely if the sand is damp and clumpy.

I can finally see the light at the end of this backyard overhaul tunnel and I’m beginning to believe that it’s not a train!  Once it’s done I’ll be able to move onto my next outdoor project — taming the morning glories that have gone wild…soooo wild!

To put a smile on your face, here is my front garden full of happy and bright gazanias.  Yep, this is them smiling up at the sun, each flower is about 3-4″ in diameter…

Waiting For Daylight

Yep, that’s what I’m doing – sipping coffee, typing this blog and waiting for daylight.

Yesterday was no where near as productive in the backyard as I’d hoped.  Of course, not getting started until 11:30AM, more than 4 hours after I’m going to start today, can put a serious dent in one’s productivity.

Why the late start?

I headed up to what I thought would be a great cactus nursery so I could purchase some plants and get some direction on which cacti compliment each other.  I was sooooo excited about this trip…

…until I made it.

I headed home sooooo disappointed!

They did have gardens to walk around but there was limited access without a guide.  They did have lots of kewl cacti to purchase too, a little on the expensive side, but the variety was large.  BUT there was no one around…anywhere!  After half an hour of meandering around I went back to the CRV and pointed the vehicle towards home.

A glimmer of hope turned into a great idea, and instead of getting off the freeway at my exit, I got off two further and went to Lowe’s.  I walked into the garden center and went straight to their native plants area without a cart, just in case.  I quickly went cart hunting then started putting plants on it.  When I pushed the cart to the check-out register there were 10 new backyard buddies ready to come home!!

Then the real work began…

I started by working on the pathway.  After a couple hours it was half done (yay!) but at that point I stopped.  Why?  I had just used my inner left thigh as a slide for a block and the scrape was burning.  Yes, I was wearing shorts thanks to the 80+ degree weather.  I long ago learned that when an oopsie occurs it’s time to stop what I’m doing.

Not willing to come to a complete stop, I moved over to the corner where my two palms are located, one dead and one alive.  I weeded that whole area then pulled out the dead palm.  With my trusty steel rake I pulled away the bark mulch from the side of the path that led to these trees, removed the stepping-stones then shoveled the pea gravel into the wheelbarrow and move it to the side yard.  When the wheelbarrow returned to the main part of the backyard it was full of bark mulch to cover the area where the path used to be.

Next up?  PLANTING!

By now it was after 3 and I wasn’t sure that I wanted to get into digging since the first project on that list was to move the living palm from the backyard to a garden in the front yard. 

Nope, not interested…

Instead I went back to the block pathway, poured a mess of play sand on top of it and spent 45 minutes sweeping said sand along all the seams between the blocks.  This fine sand fills these seams and stabilizes the blocks/bricks even more. 

I was in the shower by 4, jammies by 4:15 and vegging by 4:20.  Made tacos for dinner and was in bed by 9PM.

A pretty non-productive day but one that ended better than I thought it would once I got to the nursery!  And now it’s time for me to boogie…there’s a bit of light outside so I need to eat breakfast and get dressed so I can make up for yesterday’s lost productivity!!

Pix to follow in next post…after today’s progress.

Dimmer Switch or Flip Switch?

Are you a dimmer switch or a flip switch person?  No, I’m not referring to how you turn your lights on and off, but the switch analogy works for this post.

I finished yesterday’s post by sharing that after finally finding the book I wanted to read, I fell asleep on page 12.  I do that a lot, not only with books, but with whatever I’m doing while sitting down at night.  This happens without warning…it’s as if a light switch is flipped and poof, I’m asleep.  Rarely are there any droopy eyelids, cat naps, jerking awake, nodding head…nothing.  If I had those experiences I’d say that I’m a dimmer switch, but since my transition from awake to asleep is nearly instantaneous, I’m a flip switch (thanks for your sleep genes Mom!).

This never happens at inappropriate places or times, and never during the day, so there’s no fear I’m suffering from narcolepsy.  It’s strictly that I go-go-go all day and when my body/mind cry uncle, I’m asleep. 

The same thing happens in the morning.  Once I open my eyes I’m awake awake.  I may not want to chat with anyone, but I’m up and puttering around within minutes of opening my eyes. 

There are times when I sort of experience the dimmer switch transition many people have, and that’s when I wake up in the middle of the night.  Since I’m usually asleep by 8:30-9PM, I often wake up anytime after 2:30AM.  If the far left red neon number on the alarm clock isn’t 3 or higher, my mind goes to war with my body. 

Mind:  It’s not even 3 freaking AM yet — you need to get more sleep

Body:  I’m wide awake after sleeping for (insert correct #) hours so let’s get moving!

On those rare occassions when the mind wins this middle-of-the-night battle, the actual falling asleep is flip switch, it’s the war that is the dimmer switch.  But the body usually wins and my day is well on its way before the sun wakes up.

So, are you a dimmer switch or a flip switch?  Do you go, go, go then stop or do you go, go, go, then struggle to get to sleep?

Little Bits V

Martina McBride’s CD Shine

For the next several weeks I will be a commuting student of this CD.  It’s in the CD player in my car and will be the only thing I listen to should I need to fill my ears with noise other than fellow traffic and rushing air.

Why am I so dedicated to this CD?

My friend and I are going to her concert in July – the concert in support of this new CD!!!  Though the majority of the songs that will escape this incredible singer’s vocal chords will be her older songs, I want to be able to sing along with the new ones too! 

Hence my studying.

No Beach…

…but lots of sand!

These are 8 of the 10 bags of sand I bought last night on my way home from work.  The missing two are leaning against the house as they are fine sand, play sand to be exact, and will be used to sweep on top of the bricks/blocks to fill nooks and crannies between them.  The bags pictured above are not as fine and will be used underneath the bricks/blocks that will soon fill this pathway.

I literally moved a ton of sand last night.  I hoisted ten 50-lb. bags from the store shelf to the store cart, said cart to  my CRV, CRV onto my hand/utility cart and finally, that cart onto the ground.  10 bags x 50 lbs. =500 lbs. x 4 moves = 2,000 lbs, or 1 ton!

Today I have to pick up 38 bricks and six 16″ square blocks.

Care to guess what I’ll be doing Saturday morning (and afternoon)?

Pea-Shaped Fiber Stuffing

Calling all fellow crafters!!!  Have any of you ever seen this kind of stuffing?

I was completely unaware of it until I was unstuffing a latch hook pillow at work so it could be photographed.  Needless to say I yanked my hand out of the pillow VERY quickly when my fingers sensed the little balls!!  Once I knew my fingers were safe I gently opened the pillow a bit and peered inside.

As you can tell, I now think the stuffing is pretty kewl, definitely blog-worthy in a “Little Bits” post. 

If only I had something to stuff I’d track down a bag! 

Lazy Bones

This would be Scarpetto one day last week. 

He was laying next to me on the sofa while I blogged.  Before you think my wacky personality gave way to a really wacky sofa, please note that the polka dot object he is laying on is one of my bathrobes.

He kneaded it, sniffed it, scratched at it (he’s clawless so no harm done), circled it then deemed it an awesomely comfy bed and promptly plopped down on it.  He was sleeping until he heard the camera lens expand when I turned the camera on.

Then he just looked annoyed from being woken up.

Limited Computer Use

As I mentioned in yesterday’s post, my laptop is NOT a happy camper.  It keeps crashing complete with a blue screen warning about shutting down to protect itself.  I brought it into work yesterday as our I.T. guy was coming in.  Alas, he’s not coming until today – hopefully.

Anywho, I brought said laptop home and used it very minimally last night — fired it up for just a few minutes at a time, just enough to check e-mail to stay on top of a couple things.  This A.M. as I type this post I’m saving it every paragraph…just in case.

So, what’s a girl to do when she can’t play on-line and it’s dark outside so she can’t putter on her backyard project?

Read a book of course!!!!

I knew which book I wanted to read, one that came highly recommended by my friend Lois and my sister-in-law Carol.   

I bought the book last fall during a book buying binge, and for the longest time it was stacked on my buffet with the other books I bought.  Then came a one-day mad dash to clean my house before the January trade show and my post-show visitors.  I’m sure I’m not the only one who has temporarily shoved things in any available closed door location, confident that you’ll remember what is where when you need it again.

Except THE book I wanted to read last night. 

I found many of the other books from the binge, and lots of older books I already had but haven’t read, but none were the book I wanted.  As each location refused to yield my treasure, the frustration built to a level of near desperation!  I even scoured the garage and many other locations that I logically knew would not reveal the book.

I looked anyway.

During a final spin through my bedroom I looked on the nightstand on the far side of my bed, spied a tower of books then called myself a stupid idiot.

Yep, there it was, sitting on my nightstand exactly where it should be (this photo was taken in my family room this AM – better lighting).

I donned my jammies, turned off the light in the family room, filled my glass with water then crawled into bed for some great reading.  I couldn’t wait to delve into the book!!!!

I woke up a couple hours later, my hand sitting on the open book marking where I left off.

Page 12.

Technology Overload

Yesterday was the fourth work day in a row that was technologically overloaded.  Though most of it was yet again frustrating, there was one bright spot, humorous even.

Let’s start with the fun stuff first.

Early Tuesday afternoon Assistant and I were chatting about non-work stuff.  I mentioned that I had an e-mail notice from Facebook that cyber-friend Jane had sent me a message to let me know that she used my response to her tweet about what spring meant to me in her See Jane Run Show webisode on You Tube.

I’ve never seen Assistant with a more blank stare then the one she was giving me.  I bet it kinda looks like the one you’re giving your monitor after reading that sentence!

When Assistant finally responded it was something along the lines of “You got an e-mail from where and who about what?”

I repeated my comment in slow motion…  I had an e-mail from Facebook because Facebook/cyber-friend Jane had sent me a message, a copy of which was automatically e-mailed to me.  Last week she had tweeted that she was interested in knowing what spring meant to her tweeps (I am one of them – we follow each other on Twitter).  As usual I had something to say that fit within the 140 character requirement of Twitter.  She liked the response and used it, along with my Twitter name (leftturnlady) in her webisode, and sent me a message on Facebook to let me know she had used them.

Assistant looked at me a little less blankly then gave me her interpretation of what I had said.

“Your friend Jane has videos on You Tube and in her latest video she quoted you.  The quote she used was one you gave her on Twitter when you answered her question.  In order to let you know that she used your quote she sent you a message on Facebook.  That message in turn ended up in your e-mail inbox because that’s an automatic thing that Facebook does.”

By George I think she got it!

Yep – that’s right!

Can’t you guys just e-mail each other?

Uh…well…yeah, we can.  Thanks to our replying to each other’s blog posts (yes, we do that too) we do have each other’s e-mail addresses, but, well, e-mail is so “yesterday” in today’s social networking world.  We can send each other messages on Facebook and tweets or direct messages on Twitter so who needs e-mail?

Assistant shook her head and switched discussion topics to the tacos she made for dinner the night before.

Now the not-so-fun stuff…

My work computer had been getting slower and slower for weeks until last week it started refusing to open programs and I was getting constant reminders that I was running low on memory.  Twice the fateful blue screen popped up with warnings that the computer was shutting down to protect itself.  The end result?  I’ve now got a brand spanking new computer – complete with Windows 7 — a computer that processes faster than my fingers can type.

Before, during and after the computer issues the company has been in the process of leasing a new production level printer.  For reasons I won’t go into, this process took months longer than it should have, but in the end, a contract was signed for the new toy.

As luck would have it, the new printer and all its accompanying software arrived and were installed last Thursday morning.  My new computer on the other hand didn’t arrive until Thursday afternoon.  By the time our computer guru left, my new ‘puter was flying and the new printer drivers were installed.

Thursday, Friday, Monday and Tuesday were less than fully productive, a really baaaaaad thing given how far behind I am (again, reasons I will not go in to).  Seems Windows 7 was less than pleased with a couple of my programs so upgrades were purchased.  I’m now trying to figure out the nuances of said upgrades since no interim upgrades had been installed.

Part of my job is spent doing instructional layouts in Quark.  I have to export charts from one program and import them to Quark.  Unfortunately, I had to spend a couple hours figuring out which format the upgraded Quark preferred - gif, jpeg, tiff, wmf, etc., and then the specific properties at which the charts needed to be set in the charting program in order to get the clearest possible result.

Even an icon color change from one program version to the next has been a problem — more than 60% of the time I want to open Quark by clicking on the shortcut in the task bar I end up on-line because I clicked on the Mozilla Firefox shortcut instead.  Quark used to be orange, now it’s green…Firefox is orange.

I think I’ve finally bested the program upgrades…please keep your fingers crossed for me!

Remember that new printer that arrived?  We haven’t been fully trained yet and our attempts to print have been met with extreme resistence.  Two co-workers are so beyond frustrated that they’ve given up.  Assistant and I had been doing okay with the printer as long as we didn’t need to print  on letter size paper.  Every other paper size printed fine, but letter size printing was met with the error code that paper needed to be loaded (this even though the drawer was full).

This little issue has been running around in my head since Friday…and Tuesday afternoon the lightbulb went off so brightly that I was nearly blinded.

I scampered downstairs to the printer and pulled open the drawer with the letter-size paper.  The length was horizontal in the tray and the guides holding it in place were correct.  I pulled out the paper, changed the guides then laid the paper back in with the length vertical.

Lo and behold it worked!  All I could figure was that when the printer was installed, the installer set the orientation one way and the paper was put in the other way.  No matter…problem solved.

Our warehouse manager had been complaining that he could not print much of anything.  His desk is near the production printer so I walked over and while he was on the phone I printed a document in each of the four sizes (letter, legal, tabloid and 12×18), grabbed the successfully printed papers off the printer tray then laid them on the warehouse manager’s desk.  I repeated this with the boss’s wife’s computer and my computer.  I stood over Assistant’s shoulder while she repeated this exercise.

Assistant and my computers were fine.  Boss’s wife’s had another glitch that I figured out quickly.  Her print menu had the “print to document size” button turned on which meant the printer was searching for 9.75″ x 17.75″ paper instead of using the 12″ x 18″ paper I was telling it to use.  Once I shut this button off life was good.

The only computer that has yet to run this test is the boss’s daughter’s.  She’s very anti-work and since the warehouse manager had given up on printing she hopped on that train of thought.  Before she comes in today I’ll do the print exercise on her computer to make sure it’s working fine too.

The good news?  We can all print!  The bad news?  I’m gonna be in so much trouble for troubleshooting the printer!  Honest!  The boss told me Monday morning that it was not my responsibility to figure out the printing issues, it’s the responsibility of the printer company.  That’s true, but if they’re not giving us our in-depth training until the end of the week and we need to print NOW…????!!!!!????  We’re not talking about me spending 8 solid hours on this issue, just a couple or three spread out over three days…but now we’re all printing!

To add to my technology woes, my laptop crashed while typing this post…blue screen warning – shutting down to protect itself - physical memory dump.  Yep, work computer shared issues or vice-versa and now laptop is just catching up.  Laptop was fine until it went to work last Thursday and was connected to the office network – on the flip side, no other office computers are crashing, so I’m not sure which computer screwed up which computer.

No matter…laptop now needs to go to computer doctor  

Are You A Shoe Person…

…maybe the next Imelda Marcos?

Not me, no way.  This is the full extent of my footwear…

The dress shoes on the top shelf and the four pair on the right of the lower shelf (loafers & closed-toed sandals) are stacked inside of each other, and the match to the single red shoe in the upper right shelf is currently the closet doorstop.

Lest I forget them, there are also these three pair that live near the front door…

As you can see I didn’t make any attempt to straighten them out.  That’s exactly how they look after I kicked off the green gardening cloggy things and they ricocheted into the other 2 pair.

When I buy shoes the purchases are practical in style, comfort and color.  Unlike some people I sort of know, you’ll never find me purchasing a pair of shoes just because they’re cute.  That works for others but not for me.

The really interesting thing about my practical and comfortable shoes is that I do not like wearing them…any of them…at any time.  I hesitate to say that I hate wearing them because they do come in handy, especially when I’m not in the house.  Stores and restaurants really frown on shoeless customers, ditto for the office (though I have been known to pad around in my socks).  And when doing yard work, foot adornments are a necessity in order to avoid the “eech, ouch, yikes” hippity hoppity dance across bark mulch, pea gravel and hot concrete.

For the most part I do not wear shoes.  They’re the last thing I put on before I head out the door, and when I get home, they’re the first things I take off once I close the door behind me.  This rush to rid my feet of shoes often leads to an adventurous exit in the next few days as I’m not quick to put the shoes where they belong – I much prefer to meander through the 1706 square feet of my house on a treasure hunt for a specific pair of shoes.

This does present a bit of a problem as I really do not like the appearance of my bare feet — I’m not a pedicure kind of person and though I put lotion on my feet at least once a day, the soles are still rough and less than eye-appealing.

So, if I don’t wear shoes, what do I wear to hide my feet?  In winter months my tootsies are buried inside two pair of fuzzy socks and if they’re still cold, I squish the feet, sox and all, inside fluffy slippers.  During the cooler seasons, spring and fall, the only thing separating the bottom of my feet from the ground and the top of my feet from others eyes is sox!

My favorite sox are white sox from Hanes – I love the gray toes, the pink strip at the edge of the gray and the pink Hanes on the sole.  But I think the soles should be gray like the toes, so I do my very best to grind in enough dust and dirt to make them match!

As for summer itself, or warm days in the cooler months, the piggies are totally exposed whenever possible.  Not that I’m happy with how they look, but the comfort of naked digits far outweighs their non-pedi appearance.  Besides, I just don’t look  down so all is good 

A Successful Sunday

I didn’t open my eyes Sunday morning until just after 7AM — a nearly unheard of late start to the day for me.  The good news was that daylight was waiting for me instead of me waiting for it!

I was outside by 8:15, iPod in my ears, gloves on my hands and said hands on my hips.  I looked around, sighed and wondered where to start.  I opted for eliminating the part of the one pathway that needed to disappear and within minutes I was hard at work, and sweating to prove it!  The sky was full of clouds which translates to humidity here in So. Cal., at least what our bodies out here consider as humidity.

I was momentarily distracted by this site, but fortunately, yesterday’s attention span was much more focused than Saturday’s.

Shortly after 10AM I swapped my iPod for my boom box and listened to the NASCAR race while I slowly made progress on the new pathway.  I spent 2-3 hours dragging a pickax through the ground to create a ditch for the bricks that will line the pathway and hold everything in place, and painstakingly placing each brick making sure that the bricks were straight and even.  And that was just ONE side of the pathway!  The second side took another 2 or so hours, this time making sure that the bricks were straight, even, and exactly 23-3/4″ away from the first row!  Then I had to scuff up the dirt in the middle of the pathway with a steel rake and pile the extra near the new home for my manzanita. 

But at least the pathway is all set for the final step — adding sand, bricks and blocks!

Once this main pathway is in I’ll figure out the placement of the off-shoot on the left side – probably this weekend.

Though I didn’t get every plant in the ground, the two largest are in.  And that wasn’t easy!

I had to use the pick ax to dig into the ground.  I have clay soil that is so hard even jumping onto a shovel doesn’t break it up.  I shoveled the broken clay into the wheelbarrow then used my hands to break up all the chunks of clay so that I would have a sand-like consistency.  I added lots of soil amendment to the clay crap so that it (hopefully) will not solidify again and pinch the roots of my new plants.

For the manzanita tree I built a mound about 2′ tall and 4′ across so the roots will have a good shot of surviving.  I did break up the clay underneath this mound so hopefully when the roots get that deep they’ll be able to wend their way through the clay.

The other plant I put in the ground was the California Lilac bush.  Its leaves were looking a bit unhappy but they plant still smelled fabulous so I’m hopeful it will do an about-face in the appearance department now that it’s in the ground.

The hole for the lilac took me 20 minutes to create…and it was my breaking point as except for a 20 minute lunch I’d been at this for 7 hours.  Though the sun only popped through a couple times, my new outdoor thermometer that was in the shade of my canopy told a story that made me VERY glad the sun had not been out!

Now here’s a view from the swing area looking back across the yard os you can see the plant placement…the blue litter box holds all the rocks I sifted out of the clay soil.

The best part of yesterday, besides the progress, was the awesome feeling I had!  Yeah, I was so exhausted when I finally stopped that I was near tears, but it was an AWESOME day!  I was outside all day doing physical labor, I listened to my iPod and for 4 hours, I switched to the radio and the NASCAR race, and not once did I pay any attention to the time.  I just puttered until my putterer was done!!

When I took my sneakers/sox off before coming inside I laughed because the dirt had gotten inside my sox and covered my feet!!  I laughed again in the shower because of the dirt that covered me.  It was proof positive that I had worked hard as the dirt was so ground in that it wouldn’t come off unless I scrubbed it.  The water hitting me wasn’t strong enough to dislodge the dirt by itself.

Yeah, I know, I’m amused by some weird stuff…

Today I’m giving my body a break, hopefully this will keep a blister threatening to break forth from doing so.  After work I’m going to scoot up to Joann’s to get some fabric and then on the way home I’ll stop at Home Depot to pick up the bags of sand I need for the pathway.  I’ll haul those to the backyard when I get home then that’s it for me for today and possibly Tuesday night as well ‘cuz I need to finish up the family newsletter…

Saturday’s Progress

I started the day by spreading weed & feed fertilizer in my front yard (the only area of my property that has grass).  I know I’m going to regret doing this in a couple weeks when my lawn is growing like a weed, but that feeling will hopefully be offset by the deep green grass color and the disappearance of the clump of clover that has returned again this spring.

Then began the overhaul preparations.  I pumped up the tire on the wheelbarrow then pushed it into the backyard.  Next up was wheeling the large green yard waste barrel to the back.  Then there were the tools…steel rake, pick axe, square shovel, gloves, rolling tool storage/seat, water, camera, iPod and sweat towel.

Now it was time to start working.

I walked over to the side yard and sighed heavily.  No physical labor would commence until the painstakingly tedious weeding had been done.  No need to transport weeds from one area to another!

While weeding I did discover one nasty trait of mine…it seems I have the attention span of a gnat, at least when it comes to outdoor work.  Why I have come to this conclusion? 

Weeds became beautiful and photogenic…

…see the spines on the stem?  They HURT if one doesn’t wear gloves!  Fortunately I was so entranced with this weed I decided to let it live and see what happens so no pain for me.  Let’s call this experiment number one.

While weeding near the front block wall I noticed that a gazania plant that had routed itself in the backyard early last fall had grown tremendously, has a couple buds AND a baby next to the right of it!

There’s nothing really amazing about this except that the parent plant rooted from plants in my front yard that are watered all the time.  This guy in the backyard gets no water except what Mother Nature decides to give it.  I’m leaving the parent and the baby alone in hopes that they’ve adapted to the arid conditions and they’ll survive.  This is experiment number 2.

As I continued weeding I discovered that the 32 feet of ice plants gracing the garden along the top of my low block wall are ready to burst forth and create a spectacular carpet of pink!

By the time I weeded my way to the beginning of this greenery, the sun had been out long enough that some of the flowers were actually open!  No where near as full as it will be in the near future, but it’s a start!  BTW — a photo I took of these flowers last year is my avatar for this blog.

Now that I had reached the main part of my backyard I thought that my attention span would increase as the majority of what I had to do was now right in front of my eyes.

Alas, that wasn’t to be.  Why?  I spotted a bug moving around in the bark mulch and rocks that required all of my attention and patience in order to get its picture.

After getting this guy’s picture I stood up to stretch, looked over the fence and caught my breath.  I walked over to the patio so I could get a better shot of the hill in bloom.

That was the pretty shot, this was the ugly shot…

Unfortunately that’s not a bug, that’s a tear in the canopy over my table & chairs that is repeated on 3 of the four sides.  Right underneath each of these tears is a metal frame knob that rubs against the canopy.  I’ve already repaired 4 tears near the outer edges of the canopy by using iron-on patches.  I’ve now got to do the same for these 4 areas, one as a preventative measure, but this repair will be tricky since I can’t iron from the outside.  My brain immediately started stewing about this dilemma.

On the way back to where I left off weeding I discovered a nasty piece of evidence laying in the bark mulch.

A bird dropped this after taking it off the back of my swing.  I know this for a fact as I’ve seen birds tearing at these threads.  It was now time to see what damage had been done.

As if that wasn’t bad enough, I looked at the seat, or more accurately, what was left of it…

I am hoping that I can replace the swing cushions with two lounge chair cushions – one on the seat and one on the back – since they’re vinyl.  That would keep the birdies at bay.  The cushions tie on to lounge chairs so I’m thinking I can just as easily tie them to the swing frame – as long as the length is correct.  I know that the cushions will be hot, but once I make the canopy cover for the swing they will be in shade so not quite so hot (said canopy was destroyed by wind a couple years ago and its replacement has been on my to-do list ever since, the Sunbrella fabric already purchased and waiting).

After this last discovery I did finish up the weeding.  Total time?  +/- 3 hours.  Time for a lunch…er…breakfast break (since I’d forgotten to eat before heading outdoors).

Once the break was over I set about doing the serious work, but that only lasted a couple hours.  I wasn’t physically tired, or mentally for that matter.  Nope, I was heat tired!  The sun was blazing, the temps were in the mid-80′s and the humidity level was in the teens.  For the first time doing serious yard work this year, those three things equaled a wiped out me sooner than I’d hoped.

I did make progress though and I didn’t so overdo it that I’ll be unable to get back outside today.  My goal is to finish shifting the mulch and gravel and to get the plants into the ground.  If all goes according to schedule I’ll be able to measure the length of the pathway I’m putting in then do some mathematical calculations inside.  That will allow me to stop at Lowe’s Monday on my way home from work to pick up bags of sand (for underneath the pathways) and any additional blocks or bricks I may need.

So, here’s what the side yard looked like post-weeding and pre-mulch/gravel shuffling…

(yeah, the ice plants need a serious haircut so the wall is visible, but that won’t happen until after bloom season is over)

…and here’s how it looked when I stopped…see all the pea gravel and the lack of bark mulch?

Definitely still a work in progress but some progress was made as it’s no longer all bark mulch.

Now, here’s the main part of the backyard at the beginning…

…and here’s what it looked like when I stopped (from the opposite side, sorry ’bout that)…

The path from the swing to the patio is almost gone, the bark mulch has been brought in closer to that terra-cotta pot and the mulch has been spread into many areas where the path used to be.  The swing area has also been closed off, the pathway used to meet it on the right but in the near future, will meet it on the left.

So, what is left to do? 

The path above that goes off to the left needs to be obliterated, the gravel moved to the side yard and the rest of that mulch moved to the main backyard.  The bricks and blocks from the pathway need to be added to the every growing temporary pile in the fire bowl area…

Where the terra-cotta pot now sits there will be a mound of dirt and soil amendment that will be the home of my manzanita tree.  At various other locations throughout the yard will be homes for the other plants I purchased a few weeks ago.

Then there’s the pathway issue.  I have to move the patio-to-swing path 5 feet to the left of where it was so that when the manzanita tree matures, its branches will not overhang the pathway.

There are more pathways to replace but if I can get the all of the above done this week I will be THRILLED!  And DRIVEN to finish the rest of the pathways.  The more I get done the more aggravating the undone gets. 

Time to exhale and complete keep expectations realistic…for now.

Weekend Preparations

I’m writing this post Friday night as my Saturday morning energy will be completely focused on the physical and my Saturday evening energy will be non-existent.  Here’s hoping my Sunday morning energy allows my fingers to chat before it heads outdoors to further progress on Saturday’s work!

Anywho…why are the weekend preparations needed and what are they (besides pre-posting)?

As you may or may not remember, I have this backyard overhaul project that has been stymied thanks to Mother Nature.  I switched to and completed the indoor project last weekend — the mysterious Laundry Room Project.  Mother Nature is being VERY cooperative now, so this weekend will be spent hauling bark mulch and pea gravel, creating pathways, planting plants, fertilizing the lawn and if ANY energy is left, doing garden spring cleaning.

Now that you know what I’m planning around, its time to fill you in on what the preparations were!

First and foremost I did my weekly food shopping on the way home from work Friday.  If you know me at all you know how monumental that is.  I so love doing this task around 7:30AM Saturday or Sunday when the only people I’m sharing store space with are the employees.

After unpacking said groceries I ran the dishwasher and once it was in the dry cycle I started laundry.  I didn’t do all of it, just enough that I could wear clean clothes to the office through mid-week (I’m hoping that my energy level returns and my sore body disappears by then so the laundry can be completed).

I scratched dusting, vacuuming and bathroom cleaning off the weekend to-do list.

So what other planning was necessary??  NOURISHMENT!

I made my weekly huge salads, whipped up some tuna fish (complete with chopped celery and onions) and prepared guacamole.  Those nibbles, in addition to the DiGiorno frozen Supreme pizza dinner (half Sat night the balance Sun night) and the oatmeal/raisins and cinnamon breakfasts, and this girl has all her meals prepared!

I also made sure my iPod was also fully charged and raring to be slid into my arm band.  Bottles of water were refrigerated, patiently waiting for their opportunity to become an integral part of my weekend.

 All that was left was falling into bed and a deep, restful and recharging slumber.  Did I succeed????  Only Sunday morning’s post, written Saturday night, will tell!