Hardy on Display

Yesterday was such a typical New England spring day.  For the first time in a long time we had really good weather and in typical New England fashion people literally exploded out of their houses to work on their yards.  The weather has been so uneven recently that people were waiting but I think there was communal agreement that the last frost is behind us and the serious work on repair of winter’s ravages was to commence.

Toy on Lift

I started out the day with my appointment with the stalwart lad of Sears, something I was truly dreading based on my last experience.  My lawnmower required repair and its annual service and last year was such a nightmare (chronicled in this blog) that I was prepared for the worst.  Imagine my surprise when the technician arrived on time and quickly diagnosed the loud banging and uneven mowing – in something like thirty seconds.  I felt like an idiot because a cotter pin had come loose and dropped one side of the mowing deck.  I was looking underneath while the problem was sitting right in front of me. The loud banging was the support arm bouncing off the drive wheel.  The rest of the service went like a dream – the exact opposite of last year.  I noticed that the technician didn’t have Sears on the truck – maybe that was the difference. 

Shaggy Lawn Before



I take an unnatural level of pride in my lawn and I was thoroughly embarrassed that we had people over last week when it looked so shaggy.  It was so high yesterday that I had to mow it twice but I was extremely pleased with the result.

Carpet Back After

My wife spent the morning adding to her collection of plants and flowers that needed to be planted.  The weather even got her out of the house finally to start the process – this was very good weather.  Unfortunately she also decided to drop the big one on me – in terms of her ruthless garden expansion program.  The big garden at the small hill at the top of our driveway was about to become reality – the contractor – me.

Wife Outside Planting

We drove over to Home Depot which is when we noticed all the New Englanders out working.  Home Depot was mobbed of course.  We could only load about a third of the cement blocks that would be needed due to the weight restriction.  My wife did her disappearing act (only to reappear with four different kinds of hoses) while I loaded the car and tried to ignore the daggers being stared my way by the guy we fired last year and who recently lost his arbitration.  He looked good in his orange bib.

When we returned I got to work on the garden while my wife finally planted something in the raised garden bed I built for her a couple weeks ago.  Every spade full of dirt I dug involved the hundred of small stones that seem to have been seeded throughout my yard wherever I might possibly dig.  I was bitching about that when I ran into a truly large rock.  It was right in the middle of the course I had already started so it had to be addressed.  I first tried chipping it away with a rock chisel but it was good old New England granite so it wouldn’t go without a protracted fight.  I finally got a crow bar and pried the damned thing out.
 

It was very hard but satisfying work.  My son, the civil engineer, beat into me the importance of making everything level so much of the time was spent hitting the stones with a rubber mallet to achieve the bubble in the middle effect.  I just wished I had moved my hand out of the way a little faster.  My slow movement earned me a truly prodigious blood blister on my left index finger.  As my wife observed, it wouldn’t be a home repair project for me if I escaped unscathed.  I finished off the first load of stone and actually felt some sneaking sense of pride.

The Future Garden Spot

The Materials Positioned

The Big Ass Rock

End of the Day - 1/3 of the Way Done