Saturday was a beautiful day. I spent the morning cleaning the house, while Michael went to a few stores to run errands. When he returned I began mowing the lawn and he got to work on the concrete patching that needed to be done on the side of our porch.
By 1 we were close to being finished. I came inside and cleaned up little things that needed to be taken care of before our guests arrived and Michael cleaned the bathroom.
Luckily our friends were running late, so were we, everything was all together and friends were here by 4.
We had a nice evening, most of it just spent hanging out and talking. Around 7 I brought out the vodka and a few of us had some drinks. At 8:20 the bottle of Ketel One ran out and I went with
Sunday was another lovely day, so we decided to tackle a few yard projects.
In our front yard were a couple seemingly useless mounds. One had a decorative pole stuck in it, which we assumed had some sort of plant on it at one time. I removed the pole last year, and had intended to get rid of the mound of dirt it stood in since then. All I had to do with that was break up the dirt mound and haul the dirt to the back yard.
The other mound was covered with weeds and daisys (which I’m allergic to), we joked about it hiding a dead body because it was such an annoying to mow around useless thing. I started digging around it, pulling up the slate rock that were bordering it and yanking out all the weeds. Then I discovered what it was hiding. Not a dead body. A stupid tree stump! Damn them! I kicked it. It moved. I was able to yank the whole thing out of the ground, it was so old and rotted that it wasn’t too difficult. Yay! I rolled the stump into the garage to dry out, then went back to making piles for compost, slate rock (which Michael needed) and dirt from the mound. When I was finished I was hot and tired.
And we didn’t have a wheel barrel. We were pondering solutions to our wheel barrel-less problem, what else has wheels? Suitcases! Lawnmowers! The trash can! None of these were reasonable %) Neither of us wanted to drive all the way to the Home Depot, that always ruined a significant part of the day. That’s when I remembered a little garden store within walking distance of our house, it didn’t look like much, but I figured it wouldn’t hurt to see if they had some. I hopped in the car (sweaty, insect repellent covered, and dirty as I was) and drove down to the store. I was helped by a couple guys who were more than happy to find me a wheel barrel, they had three outside, a small metal one, large metal one, and large plastic, I got the large metal one. They loaded it into the Rav4, I paid them and went home. Yay a wheel barrel!
The wheel barrel made everything so much easier. Michael helped me load the dirt, weeds and rocks into it and roll it out back, once that was done I put down grass seeds on my now flattend mounds. Success! I then joined Michael in the back yard to help him with his projects.
He was cleaning out some areas in the back that were overgrown with weeds (planning to put mulch down for now, maybe plant more things later), and building a firepit (see his entry). He set the stones around the firepit and began digging, by the time I got out there he was ready for a break. I took the shovel and picked up where he left off, started digging. After a few minutes I hit something hard. Started cleaning it off, and it turned out to be the edge of some big, flat, rectangular metal thing. When Michael came back out I showed him what I had discovered and together we worked to pry the whole thing out of the ground. It was about 3 feet by 4 feet! Who the hell is burying this crap in the ground? Yeesh.
Then comes the burning! The firepit looks great, and we had so many sticks and leaves out back to burn, so that got it going nicely. Must have spent about an hour burning stuff until it started to rain around 4pm and I went inside, exhausted, to take a shower. The rain didn’t last long, so Michael stayed outside with it while I got clean and started to relax. He came in later and I made tacos for dinner, watched the newest Doctor Who episode.
I was in bed by 9.
Today I ache all over. Michael’s back in the yard, but it’s my vacation day dammit! %) I might head out this afternoon and help him, but for now I’m letting my achey muscles relax. Will probably read a bit too.