The first thing I did when I got home was drive one of those fence posts outside the fence in the stretch between the house and the lamp post for the backyard vapor lamp, which I'd tied the fence to. It was a little too long a stretch to go without additional support, and I always intended to put another pole in when I was able to buy more. While I was at TSC, I splurged and bought myself a really good pair of needle-nose pliers with wire cutter. These pliers have cushion grips, and spring action. Sweet. They made getting the fence attached to the new pole with fence clips so easy! Fencing the garden is going to take a lot less effort thanks to the new pliers.
Just as I was finishing the last twist of the fence clip my doorbell rang. Mom had arrived. She stopped by for lunch - and to drop off Daisy, so I could watch her for the weekend - on her way to my sister's house. Mom, my sis, and my brother left yesterday morning and drove to a suburb of Buffalo, to attend the wedding of the son of my mom's cousin. They're coming back today and mom should be home by early evening, but she's going to be too tired to stop and get Daisy so I'll be taking Daisy back to Mom tomorrow afternoon. I would have enjoyed going to the wedding too, but weekend trips just aren't do-able for me. Even over-nighters aren't do-able. When I'm finally earning enough money to pay a pet-sitter, and if I meet someone I can trust to pet-sit, I'll be taking a couple of small one- or two-night trips I've been wanting to take for a long time. I want to go visit with Elaine, and I'd like to be able to go down to Linda's for the weekend with Chris every now and then, too. Anyway, Mom and I had a nice lunch together, then she left for my sis's. Poor Daisy didn't stop looking out the window for her until yesterday morning. Daisy loves me, she gets so excited when I go to my mom's that she can't keep still and does zoomies in circles. But Daisy adores Mom (the feeling's mutual), and is desolate when Mom leaves her here.
I put Daze out into the yard with the Senior dog and the Youngster, got my 4-pronged long-handled cultivator out of the garage, donned my suede work gloves, and attacked the garden-to-be. I pulled up sod until I was dizzy, then took a break. I went back to it, and worked at it until I didn't have the strength left to pull up a single more clump. I didn't get it finished, but it's more than 2/3 of the way done. You can't see it in this pic, but in addition to the larger area I did a 2-foot wide strip along the fence to the front edge of the area I want to clear. That's where all the long grass was, the stuff that was really tough to pull up. So when I get back to it - hopefully tomorrow - I should be able to get it finished in one work session. Then I'll have to de-dirt all the sod clumps. (Most are in the garden area, but you can see a pile by the first green fence post, some of that is from the garden area and a little of it is from a thin strip of sod I cut out along the fence line from the first green pole to the second. I planted morning glories in that strip early last week, but they haven't come up yet.)
My forearms ached too bad yesterday to even attempt to get back to work on that project, so I did some other things instead. The "grass" in the patio area was getting pretty long, but I was still trying to decide on the best way to get it cut. I didn't want to use the electric mower, with its narrow deck and dull, chipped blades it doesn't handle thick grass very well. I would have had to bring the gas mower I got from Mom in through the house to get it into the patio area, and I didn't want to do that either. And there is still chicken wire under the dirt/grass in half of the patio, and it sticks up out of the ground in places. That would wreak havoc on either mower. I finally decided to use the weed wacker I brought home from Mom's when I got the lawnmower.
It did a pretty OK job, but it's not something I want to continue doing for the next 20 years. I've decided to pave the entire patio area with stepping stones, except for a flower bed at the end. I'll plant perennials there. (Chris has a perennial flower bed that's absolutely gorgeous, from the first crocus in the spring to the last mum in the fall. She's put years of work into it, I've watched it fill out gradually over the years, always wishing I could have something like that myself. When I was there Thursday, the iris were starting to bloom.) Now I've got the room and the time to make it happen; I'll put annuals in there this summer so I'll have color and blooms this year, and get started on the perennials by planting some bulbs there in the fall. I also found my Moonflower seeds at TSC on Thursday, I'll plant those along the fence at the end (maybe this afternoon) so I'll have blooms and perfume to enjoy when I sit out on the patio in the evenings.
I only have 4 plain stepping/paving stones made at the moment. While I'm out tomorrow I'll get a couple more bags of concrete mix so I can start making more. I decided I might as well get at least those 4 stones set, so I did that yesterday afternoon.
I need to adjust the stone on the right, to raise the lower left corner just a tad. That corner's a bit tricky - it's high where the threshhold blocks are set in, so I need to slope the stones down a little in that corner to meet the rest of the patio (which I'll level before placing stones in). I checked out the threshhold blocks to see if maybe I could lower them a little so they'd be flush with the patio and the yard, but they're really dug in deep and they're helping support the fence posts, so I think it's best to leave them as they are and just slope the paving stones to meet them. When the prior owners poured the cement patio slab (you can see the edge of it on the right) they didn't bother to level it first so, like all the rest of the floors in my house, the whole slab slants. In this case, it slants downward from back to front; I had to put some shims under the front legs of my glider so it would be level. I want to make sure the stone-paved area of the patio is level, so I can put a table and chairs out there eventually. I think it'll look nice when I get it done.
Then I spent some time rearranging everything in the roofed part of the patio. I took my 3 windchimes down from the end opposite the fence and moved them over to the fence end. Mama bird was off the nest but I still didn't want to do any more nail-pounding than was absolutely necessary, so I used medium screw hooks to re-hang the wind chimes. (By the way, I think mama bird is a titmouse. I got a pretty good look at her and her mate yesterday, I'll have to try to get some pics.) I left room for the big chime that I need to re-string when I get a chance to look for the pieces and get it done. I moved the bamboo shade over into that spot, and put the wider plastic mini-blind in the spot where the bamboo shade had been. At night, my neighbor's vapor light illuminates the sitting area on my patio, shines right in my eyes, and spoils the ambiance; the mini-blind completely blocks it out and the bamboo shade helps, so now I have a private little sitting area I can illuminate with luminariae and little oil lanterns. If I ever find my string of pendant star lights, I'll put those out there too. (I'm sure I bought two sets. I gave one to Chris last year for her little pool area, but I know I've still got the other set. It's probably in my box of Christmas decorations, but I'm not sure exactly where that is at the moment. I need to go out to the pole barn later and get a bigger crate for the Youngster, so I'll look for that box while I'm out there.)
It's partly sunny and cool today, it would be a great day to finish de-sodding the garden, but my muscles just aren't up to it. I think I'm going to try to get the gas mower started; I haven't had a really good look at it yet so I don't know if it's an electric start or if I have to pull a rope. If I have to pull a rope, it's going to have to wait - there's just not enough strength in my aching forearms to pull anything. If it's an electric start I should be in pretty good shape; I'll probably need to use a couple squirts of starter fluid, but I should be able to get it going. When and if I do, the front lawn is going down! That, and getting the Moonflower seeds planted, is about all I'm planning on getting accomplished today. Then I'll give Daisy a bath, and once she's dry I'll trim her. She's getting a wee bit shaggy. At least I won't have to start her schnauzer-type cut from scratch with 3" long fur all over her body, I'll be able to just zip along and it shouldn't take too long. Then she'll be clean and pretty when I take her home tomorrow.
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