yard work

Bug had no school today, so he and Carpool-Buddy played outdoors all morning while I did yard work. "Captain Snowy" has still not melted completely despite the temps in the seventies. He has gotten rather hairy looking now that all the pine straw and leaves are showing. Oh, and his head fell off last night. But other than that....

I raked piles and piles of leaves off one small flower bed. I left several inches of pine straw, but the oak and Southern Magnolia leaves never decompose well. The two lantana bushes by the garage needed to be cut back, so I did that too. There are three more I'll have to get to another time. I've also got liriope to cut with the string trimmer before it starts to grow much.

CD bought a blower last fall, spontaneously. I thought I'd give it a chance to prove itself by seeing if it could blow leaves off pine straw, leaving the packed pine straw behind, but it failed. A light touch with a rake works better. The blower does a great job on the driveway and patio, but I've never minded the adequate job the rakes and brooms provided.

We're do-it-ourselves yard workers, while most of our neighbors have services come weekly to do the work for them. And I like most of the work. There's a good exhaustion from working outdoors all day. And so I don't like the blower. It just seems like a waste of space in our garage. If I use it, I'd just have saved some time that I'd need to use by going to the gym. I'd rather rake.

Today:

Sunday: