On Lanscaping (the verb)

Last night I got home from work and was feeling edgy.  Usually that makes me either bury my face in a book or bury my brain in a game of Red Alert 2.  

I chose to put on some shorts and work in the yard instead.   It was such a good choice.  We were trying to get a major remodel done, and this week the loan was denied.  Not enough equity.  So we decided to put our energy into the back yard.  We have a very very very long list of things on the yard to do list, and it's high time the to-do list shortens up.  

I went to the shed, where I had stowed the stump-digging tools: an old shovel, a flat crow bar, a hand saw, and a sledge hammer.  Toting them off to the back fence line, I looked at the sky above and the mud below.  It was breezy, and the rain had been off and on all day.  I dug.  And when I hit a root, I'd clear the area with the crow bar (to dig with), and then saw through the root.  Then I'd whack the trunk with the sledgehammer and see what root needed attention next.  It's therapeutic.  And I'm starting to understand people who say that.  I still don't understand why, but it is.

In a little over an hour I had another stump out.  I carried it over to the hard debris bin, and now I don't have to think about that particular lump of twisted wood ever again.  Nice.  I've been thinking about those lumps of twisted wood for 2 years now.  

So now I've got the bug - 46 stumps to go, lots of roto-tilling, a fence to repair/replace.  Katrina bought a Costco play structure this morning.  We'll remove the old barkdust under our current play structure, redo the ground, build a play house, maybe put in a sport court.  Evening are sounding really pleasant.