Liberation

I'm working around the yard, having found a very reasonably priced gentleman who is willing to do heavy lifting to rehabilitate this overgrown jungle. Now that the northwest corner has had all the garbage trees removed, I need to add more grass seed and applications of weed killer in spots, I have plants for over there and other things are happening.

Over the weekend, I had to cut back some more garbage trees because they encroached on the drive. In the process, I liberated the sundial.

I've had this piece for a very long time. It was a Mother's Day gift when Carole was small. It's solid concrete with a metal sundial and probably weighs a good 100 pounds. Years ago, I could heft this and move it to a new location, provided that location was, roughly, 100 steps or so away. Now days, there was just no physical way.

It was in amongst some garbage trees which I hacked back. Then I had to tip it over and roll/drag it out of the brush. Once out of the mess, I righted it and tried to pick it up, remembering all the times I used to do this. I knew it was heavy but was unprepared for the weight. It needs to go to the northwest corner of the house from the west side, south of the deck. I'm not going to be able to carry it, at all, and I shouldn't even try.

So, I tipped it onto a corner and rolled it. It's still an adventure because I have to let it fall if it wobbles. It's not going to get beaten up at all by falling over. We have this instinctive reflex to snatch at something which is tipping, but I have to greatly suppress that instinct or I'm going to substantially hurt myself. Every day I come home, I roll it a bit more. It's reached the north side of the deck stairs and about 5 feet beyond that. There's still about 25 more feet to go. Once it reaches its destination, I have to orient the dial so it reads the correct time. The question then becomes, daylight or standard time.

Beverage:  Earl Gray Tea

Deb

This Vexes Me #21

I'm rather enjoying mowing the lawn. The mower I bought will go through an overgrown lawn with relative ease.

That's what I had to mow when I returned home from my Minnesota vacation. It's a lovely green, but it's a good 4 inches tall. The mower made easy work of it.

The self-propelled feature is a godsend for me. I have mowed more area than the guy who mowed my lawn the last few years. He just sort of ran about and didn't really get into places. I like the end result when I do it.

There is one thing I dislike about this mower, however.

The handle pinches my thumbs. You pull down on the metal bar and then yank the starter rope. The mower starts usually on the first pull. Then, holding the metal bar down, you head off to mow. When you release the metal bar, the mower stops, almost automatically. The red handle is for maneuverability. But, it's not stationary. It moves. I have pinched my thumbs so many time when I'm mowing. Wearing gloves would probably make the pinch less painful, but I would lose the tactile feel of the mower doing its work, and I need that feeling.

It's certainly not a deal-breaker, by any means, but I'd like to mow the lawn without getting my thumbs pinched in the process.

Beverage:  Scottish Breakfast tea

Deb

That's About Right

Yesterday's word of the day.

Yeah. Totally. Once again, the sheer amount of work that has been coming through the office doors has us scrambling to get the regular stuff done, let alone add anything new. And not even the thought of a truckload of donuts makes it better.

Baby steps, I tell myself. Sit and blog in between tasks. Break things down. Slow. Slow. And it all gets done.

Breathe.

The lawn got mowed. The back was really long and the mower complained, but it got done. I needed to organize the plants. Everything was just left from when it was potted. I'd walk onto the deck and think, "I need to get these organized" and that's as far as things went.  Mow the lawn and organize the deck.

This is as much as I ever want, from now on. I have to pot the white geranium in with the geranium at the far left that is tipped over. It's white, too. The rose geranium is going in with another but I don't remember what color that one is. Once everything starts blooming, I will have a riot of color.

I can't remember if I'm to sheer off the pink flower for more blooms. It's going gang busters, that's for sure.

The alyssum seems to like this pot, as do the datura and the primrose.

I moved the cat house. Something is using it during the day. It might be the cat. I could see it being put out in the morning and not really having a somewhat safe place to go during the day. I can rest a drink on the top when I'm out there reading or crafting or just sitting. The pansies will die off during the summer but, for now, I love their colorful faces on the table. I need to get three more begonias for the pot under the chair. That pot is to go on the front steps.

I need to paint the front steps and waterproof the deck. I need to empty the dirt from all the pots I'm not using anymore, box them up and ship them to my cousin who said she'd take them. Pilchard was irritated there is only one chair to sit in on the deck so I need to figure out how to bring another chair up from the basement so she can sit near me when I'm out there.

For now, this is my peaceful place. Even though I feel whelmed, I have a spot to go to just be.

Beverage:  English Breakfast Tea

Deb

Affirmation

When you live with a chronic illness, as much as you try not to let it define you, it does. Because I have RA, I build my days based upon how much energy I think I will have, how I'm feeling. If I do x, will that completely wipe me out or will I have energy for smaller things later? Can I rest in between major tasks? I try not to be defined by my RA, but the reality is that every major event and even some minor ones, call up these questions.

The guy who has mowed my lawn for the last, at least, 8 years, maybe longer, is moving out of the neighborhood. His leaving is the reason I searched for a company to mow the lawn and, when that didn't work, bought a lawn mower to do it myself. You need to understand how important this is. I get tired. I have to pace myself. I have to plan for rests. Last year, and going back to 2010, I would never have considered mowing my own lawn. My doctor's advice and care combined with switching me to Humira made the prospect of lawn work not frighten me.

I started with the back, since that's where the shed is.

I should have taken a before photo. I mowed around the side and then realized I needed a break. An hour later, I went back out and mowed the front. Here is the before photo.

Here it is after. 

The mower is now stored away in the shed.

The next time I do this, I will need to wear tennis shoes. I wore my sandals, which are sturdy and lightweight, but they felt too light on my feet. The yard is rough in places and I could feel all the rough, kind of like "The Princess and the Pea" story. 

The mower was wonderful. It started on the first pull and it's not a strained yanking. It was easy to maneuver and I felt, very much, as if I was just walking along. The self-propelled feature with the wide wheels made the back and forth across the lawn easy. It was a bit of a chore to pull up and fold down the handle, but that will come as I get used to the mower. There are different settings for the handle, too, so I need to experiment with which one is the most comfortable. The grass wasn't very long so I don't know how it will deal with longer grass. We need rain. 

You have no idea how empowering this is for me. I've been having some problems with pain in my right hip and down my right leg. X-rays show severe arthritis in my lower back. I was stiff. I was sore, but I did it. I mowed my own lawn. Chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream to celebrate? Don't mind if I do.

Beverage:  Water

Deb

One More Clear

This year, for the first time in roughly 8 years, I have to handle my own lawn mowing. My neighbor, Zeke, has retired and as soon as his house sells, he and his wife are moving. I contacted a few lawn services, but they never returned my call. Therefore, I decided I would mow my own lawn. This is a huge decision because it means I'm feeling reasonably decent enough to take that kind of step. It won't take a long time to mow and it's good exercise. Lord knows I need that.

So the first step was to research lawn mowers. Several people pointed out I need self-propelled. If I have to do the physical work of pushing, I will overdo it which leads to an RA flare up. I'm trying to avoid that. Next, I needed big rear wheels to facilitate moving the mower over rough terrain or through taller than usual grass. I also needed it not to cost an arm, leg and spleen. 

As if the universe was looking out for me, Ace Hardware had a mower on sale over the weekend. I checked it out and decided it was the right mower for me. They had one on the floor that I could have and they put it in the Jeep for me. 

The next step was to clean out the shed. Since I don't have a garage, the mower has to fit in the shed. But in order to get it in there, I had to clean it out. 

This has long been on my "to do" list. I have so many flower pots. It's not organized. I can't find the things I actually use. Needing to buy a lawn mower fit right in with the tidying I'm doing gradually around the house. On Sunday, when the clouds cleared and the sun came out, I jumped into cleaning the shed. I would make a pile of 'save' and a pile of 'pitch'. 

Two years ago, when I was getting pots out for planting, I saw a mouse. I never saw any last year, but there was the unmistakable odor of mouse urine in the shed. Donning gloves, I slowly started pulling pots out, hoping not to see anything gray scurry away. I didn't, but I found the source of the smell. 

They had made a nest in this pot. I actually like this pot. It's heavy-duty plastic. So, I'm going to dump everything in the pot into a garbage bag, rinse out the pot and I should be able to use it. There were no other pots with mice nests in them. 

I found this guy on the floor of the shed. 

I wonder how long he's been in the shed. 

After some work, everything had been removed and I saw the floor was covered in potting soil. 

What a mess. I really can't tell you how old this shed is. I'm thinking I got it in 2000 or 2001. Carole and I assembled it ourselves. I'm fairly certain the dirt on the floor of the shed hasn't been there all that time, but I do know I haven't bothered to clear out old dirt when it spilled. So, I took the broom and swept it out. 

Looks pretty good. 

Now it was time to get the mower out of the Jeep. The guy at Ace said he thought the mower weighed about 50 pounds. That seemed kind of heavy to me, but if the salesman could get it into the Jeep, I could get it out. 

Turns out, it's not 50 pounds. It's more like 30 so it was easy for me to maneuver sideways and lower to the ground. That alone made me feel really good. 

I rolled it over to the shed. From a distance, it appeared the mower was 2-3 inches too wide. What would I do then? I shouldn't have worried. 

It fits perfectly. The handle folds down. It comes with a rear bag but I won't ever use that. The manipulation of the bag is not something I really want to do. It comes with a side discharge and I'm very happy with that. 

The bag will go into the basement for storage. They filled the tank with the gas oil mixture I need and gave me the bottle of oil so I can make sure to buy the same kind for the next fill-up. I need to read the owner's manual this week. 

Once this was done, it was time to finish sorting my flower pots and other stuff in the shed. 

I don't have a grill so I have no need of the charcoal starter. There is a small wire piece that's off the front arbor. I keep meaning to super glue it back on. The brown things are pot trivets. They keep flower pots off the deck proper and allow air to circulate under the pots. Half of these were used continually. I thought I had more, but could never find them. Funny how things show up when you're cleaning. The brackets are for the deck pots and the yellow sponge things are kneelers. I probably could give those away as I don't kneel while gardening anymore. But I hung onto them, figuring that I probably will need them when I stain the deck next month. All this stuff stays although I would be happy to sell the charcoal starter since I don't use it. 

All of this is going. This year, instead of going to the nursery and buying plants, I ordered plants from a catalogue. The company sells heirloom flowers and vegetables and I thought I would give some of their plants a try. Some of these pots are cracked and broken. I just don't use most of them. A lot of the plastic ones I can probably recycle. I'm going to dump out all the dirt and get rid of these. Yes, the hose is going too. It's cracked on one end so it won't hook up to the outside spigot. It's also about twice as long as I realistically can use. I'll drag it to the street on Wednesday and see if one of the scavengers who drives around on garbage day takes it. Otherwise, it will go into the garbage can. 

This is what's left. 

I have my art pieces, which includes the plinth with the cardinal directions. The three at the bottom are the ones I put on the front porch. I have the two that hang off the deck and 4 bigger pots, including the one that needs to be scrubbed. I also have all my geraniums which I overwinter. There is also one large pot at the base of the deck. I think this is plenty. I'll go to the nursery next month and get begonias for the front. Impatiens did not do well on the front last year. They were eaten to stalks by some bug. The begonias filled out the pots very nicely. I anticipate delivery of the plants soon and then, if I need another pot, I have it before getting rid of the others. The cat house will be emptied of bedding and put in the basement. I hope I don't have to use it again this year. 

I noticed my Easter Island head is cracked. 

I'm unsure if I should try to fill this crack with something. There is no drainage hole in the bottom so water and debris accumulate over the course of a summer. You plop a gazing globe in the head but I've just left him as he is. He looks kind of funny with a translucent blue globe in his head.

There are two of these in the shed. These are citronella torches. I have a bunch in the basement in various stages of use. All of them are cracked, horizontally, between some of the rings.

You jammed these in the ground and sat "near" them and they warded off mosquitos. We would put them around the perimeter of the deck or in a circle and then we'd sit inside the circle. I think the optimum distance between each was 6 feet. That was more than enough room to get through the circle of torches if you needed to go inside.

I don't remember how well they worked. They looked cool when lit, like typical torches, and burned fairly slowly. The hard part was getting them into the ground, particularly if the ground was hard. I should see if the shortest of these two will still burn. If it does, then perhaps I should take these to Virginia for the next guild meet up. We like to sit outside, even in screened porches, so warding off bugs would be a good thing. If it doesn't light up and stay lit, there's the garbage can and I won't feel guilty about chucking them. They've been in the basement for years. It's time to use them or pitch them.

Finally, I was moving stuff about and suddenly had a feeling I was being watched. It took me a bit to spot her.

She never moved, even when I spotted her. Could this be a nest? I thought they liked more cover than this, not that she's in real danger in my yard. She was there yesterday when I got home from work. Part of me wonders, because she hasn't moved, could she be sick? Oh that would be lovely, in a not so great way. I'll keep an eye on her.

After asking about, my cousin is going to take all of the pots I want to give away. The cracked ones I won't send her, but I'm happy to be rid of everything else. "Don't spend a lot to ship them," she said. It is worth it to me to spend $20 to get them off my hands. Now to set about emptying all the dirt.

Beverage:  Dr Pepper

Deb