Yard Work

This will be a busy week (by my standards).  I'm completely taking apart my existing aquarium and cleaning it to start new after giving away my 10" plecostomus catfish (see yesterday's post).

Tuesday, a tree removal company (that I have good past experience with) is coming to remove the huge fallen tree in the backyard and 7 others that are starting to shade my garden.  I spent hours Sunday preparing a corner of the backyard and 2 other area to receive all the ground-up tree chips.  It will take several years for them to decompose, but I will have year's worth of great compost after that.

Yes, the tree company would haul the tree-chips away for free to the landfill (or maybe for sale somewhere, but I hate to waste organic material.  Eight trees will make several impressive piles and I expect that they will start to steam in the winter as they begin to break down.  And, for sure, I won't have to buy any mulch for the flowerbeds for many years!

I sure got plenty of winter exercise!  The corner of the backyard where most of the chips will go  used to be where I stored firewood.  It was so long ago that I had to push over old rotten wood and pry out cinder blocks buried in the ground from where I had upright P-T 2x4s to hold the firewood in place.  Carrying 10 cinder blocks 50' each is serious exercise when you are 62.  And then there were all the 12' 2x4s that supported the firewood across the cinder blocks

Plus, I moved stored hoses, removed hose supports, moved various planting buckets that have been sitting around for years, put boards over the pond runway so they wont puncture holes in it by walking on it or dropping tree parts on it (that liner is expensive), marked out areas where the tree removal crew shouldn't drag logs through (where plants were still underground but labels were above).  LOL, I even found my old compost sifter box and pried it out of the vines.

You never realize how much clutter you have around the yard until someone else is coming over to do something in it...

Three hours of heavy work!  I need them to move one bench that is too heavy for me to move alone, but other than that, I'm ready for them to arrive Tuesday at 7:30 am!  I can hardly wait.

It will be worth it for the greater sunlight when it is done!