Tag Archives: getting stuff done

There’s this clip from Malcom in the Middle where Hank arrives home to find a light bulb that’s out — so he goes to get a new bulb and the shelf is broken. So he goes to get a tool to fix the shelf and there’s something wrong with the drawer and every step where he tries to fix the problem there’s a new problem.

There’s a version of this that happens when the office is really busy. It also happened recently with the yard.

We had a string of hot days and I need to get my watering routine started.

When we got our fruit trees I learned about watering them with a bucket and I adapted that to other garden areas that didn’t seem happy with my “sprinkle water around for 15 minutes every fews days” method of watering.

I helpfully made arrows to point to the holes and somehow one of the arrows is not pointing at one of the holes. Too lazy to fix.

First, the sprinkler attachment had become fused to the hose so when I wanted to change to the sweeper I was stuck. We needed a new hose and new sprinkler.

Then when I went to get my bucket, it had cracked and as I inspected it a piece broke out. We needed another bucket.

I found an old bucket to take over slow water duty but I needed to drill the holes.

The drill was completely dead and needed to be recharged.

While charging, I ended up dropping everything to go to the hardware store. I bought an expensive hose but damn, it’s light and doesn’t get twisted up so I might replace all our hoses.

You know this funny hedge thing that I do every year and show before and after? Well since I so royally tweaked my shoulder working on the hedge last spring, I decided maybe it was time to pay someone to work on the hedge. I’m talking about the big hedge, photos below. But I also asked if they could do this little hedge.

Look how amazing it looks. I was all impressed and raving and the landscaper was like, aw shucks. We have lots of practice.

This is what it looked like last time I did it. I told him how terrible it looked when I do it and how I can’t reach the top and he said they used a ladder so they could make the top look right. He and his crew are my new heroes. I wished I had baked some cookies to give them.

Here’s the side. When the landscaper looked at it he went: WOW.

Here’s a close up of how out of control it was.

He suggested we whack it back more regularly. Like maybe annually. He told me if we do it more regularly they can make it look better.

And after: amazing!

This is what I look out at from my window. I have so much more light now. There is still some major growth on the neighbor’s side of the fence.

And here’s the backyard. Before. I considered asking them to take out that giant yellow thing. But I don’t want to deal right now. Maybe next year.

And after. Beautiful.

He seemed apologetic about how much he had to charge us. I thought it was completely reasonable. And there was a crew so it didn’t take too long. My yard has never looked better on this side.

***

We had a big wind storm and my compost bin blew over so I ran out to take a photo. The wind tore my glasses off. I looked around but it was blowing so hard the wind was groaning. I realized I could turn into one of those sad public service announcement stories about how not to wander around outside in a major wind storm so I went back inside.

The next day I found a piece of someone’s roof in our backyard and all the leaves were gone but no glasses. I’ll probably find them this summer. Or maybe my neighbor will.

Bob bought some stuff to put on the lawn to make it healthier and help with the weeds.

Wow. We call it Godzilla grass. It grows very fast, very green and very thick. He could mow it three times a week if he was so inclined. He is considering that maybe we don’t want a lawn that grows like this.

But I think the weather has helped. Lots of rain followed by lots of sun followed by lots of rain followed by lots of sun. The grass has no choice.

Future apples. The apple tree is a partner in the Godzilla theme if Godzilla meant a huge quantity rather than one huge fire-breathing out-of-control thing.

Berries are also looking very promising. The berry patch is a mess however so I need to get out there and do some work. I’ve also got sunflower volunteers everywhere and I really need to yank yank. I love them but they tend to takeover.