Okay, distributed another yard of topsoil, focusing on by where the fence is getting replaced on Wednesday, then took the mattock and got the rest of the lower backyard bamboo from the Yard Task Updates. Not in pain or sore anymore, but God I’m wiped.
Got a new mattock with a longer composite handle and boy does it chop what remains of that downhill bamboo better than that old wood-handled cultivator mattock (whose handle dried and split), but I’ve still got some pectoral muscle tweaks from all that mulch pitching to rest off before I swing it more.
Okay, productive day yard-wise: fully planted and backfilled the lavender, mowed the lower backyard now that it’s finally squared away, realized there’s a better way to deploy the wood and composting greens with Blueberry Hill to still make use of them but just finish up the dugout shell by dumping topsoil from the landscaping yard in it.
So next might grab a load of mulch and refresh my beds and trees for the year, pot those annuals, but then finally on to secure the Blueberry Hill retaining wall and clear the last of the downhill bamboo patch, the last things from my winter Yard Task Updates.
Alright, tidied up the yards in preparation for mowing, mowed the side yard and dumped the clippings on the Blueberry Hill wood, FINALLY FINISHED THE SMASHING, noticed that the long grass had been hiding some seafoam that had progressed as far as the yellow spiky stage, did a pass for it, it was still warm after dark so put on my headlamp and found it made it even easier to make out characteristics distinguishing grass species and did some more filtering on that.
Have to finish mowing and seafoam hunting tomorrow, then… ah, fuck it, I’ll figure out later.
From last year when I was doing yard work all year long I have a pretty good sense of local micro-seasons and know the rain stops after May.
So, I’ll want to start tamping down any loose soil on the rammed-earth ramp sloping up to the backyard gate so I can get a few cycles to compress it to water- (and plant-) impermeable hardpack before it dries too much. Most of the pulled weeds and dirt this year I dumped to build a slope down a bit into the shell of Blueberry Hill.
So I want to use that ramp to get down and smash all of Blueberry Hill and refill it with new compost by late April to get wet some and start decay processes, maybe break wood apart in Strawberry Ridge too, also I want the grass to be a bit past medium-length then to trap moisture by the ground so I’ll cut it tight in a week or so and throw that in to get rained on and paste things together.
When it gets dry weeds stop sprouting, last year pulling them was full-time by now and afterwards I used the time to trim all the trees, it’ll still free up some this year I guess I’ll use to get the renovation started.
Uf, when I did some smashing yesterday after the epic day prior I appreciated once the periods where I had to go do something else for a while I could just take a few minutes’ break, the sets I used to need a break between I just needed to catch my breath again and the stuff where I once needed a breather I just readjusted my grip on the maul.
I also stopped in part cause I was actually getting sore in the shoulder and now waking up my core is tight in the way that means growth. But so no smashing today, though I might take the maul to split up some stumps.
Alright, got to those stumps, 3 I didn’t destroy but opened up the inside wood to the elements in a way that’ll rot them, 3 I cut last year a/o had a service come for two years ago are still too hard and intact and need another year or more of decay.
And that definitely exhausts my capacity to swing that thing for the day.
Okay, after that I got out the polesaw and took off some minor stuff on the pine that was just suboptimal and kept anything from filling in to fix, and then I was like “uf, that exerts my weary back muscles too much” so I moved on
Then I did a bunch of weeding until I was like “uf, all this bending over exerts my weary waist muscles too much” so I moved on
And then I moved stuff around in the backyard and checked through my firewood and most of it seasoned fine but I separated out the stuff that was getting insubstantial with rot or covered in fungal spores until I was like “man this is all just much” so I moved on
Then I pulled some wood off Strawberry Ridge to smash up to add to Blueberry Hill, clearing it off to walk it down compressed, then rinsed off the wheelbarrow I’d been mixing mud in and poured the muddy water into some dry pine needles I’m encouraging to rot and firm into soil and I was like “c'mon that’s enough” so I came inside and had a milkshake I had delivered
Yard Task Update
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Okay, Blueberry Hill has settled enough it doesn’t really need another flight of stones, so it’s not so much raising as shoring up the retaining wall, the unmortared stones placed two years ago are starting to bulge out, the original mud around them washed away.
So I dug up a bunch of dirt from the back yard where a ramp got filled in with decades of leaves, added water and mixed it with sand and dry dead grass, and applied it in the joints between the stones.
It was iffy getting the viscosity right but I found I could pour light mud fractions out into a pile of pine needles to solidify it and leave me with thicker stuff. Gotta get some more in between stones down the line then I drape a nylon net over it weighed down by the branches I got there, anchor it into the dirt between the stones with pairs of disposable chopsticks, cover the whole thing smooth over in more mud, and then plant Alpine strawberries in it so they send out runners across strands of the net.
And then stones being pushed out of place will be held in by the net that’ll be held in place by the network of runners that’ll be held in place by where they touch down and set new roots.
Okay, the snow’s retreated and it had pressed Strawberry Ridge down nice and packed, and Blueberry Hill enough I could take the parts that were already smashed flat and smash them super flat, so I did that for the ¼ on the perimeter I could teach from solid ground and hopefully those’ll bind as a solid base to start getting the rest tomorrow.
Realized that as of this last echo wave I can make do with 3 scoops creatine on waking/2 on sleep so I don’t get up in too much of a hole, but if I’m doing yard work I really need 4/2 or I get exhausted.
This 6 is a 3 scoop increase from before this wave, which had been 3 after starting at 4 last wave, but the *increased creatine demand* really includes about 2 scoop-equivalents my body makes itself every day, so while the last wave was really a 6 scoop increase in demand (and the original had been 10), this one was only 3, so it’s leveling off
Okay, more bittercress and other weeding today, all the stuff of interest rn is the very preliminary growth of stuff that’s tiny when mature so you’ve got to look real close.
Think I can make this the last year for it and even all the clovers but one, then tomorrow year will be last for the final clover and crabgrass (and that only so long cause I’m always giving it freshly-turned earth to establish in)
Then more Blueberry Hill smashing, first reaching in to remove the even-pressure-treated-still-rotting fence boards I used to frame it and then turning the loose-ish piles of brush into denser flats of branches and twigs, probably 2 more days of that then I gather up the last of the year’s leaves to pile on.
Then inside, everything’s done in the more peripheral rooms so I’m sorting the kitchen, emptying cabinets and drawers I haven’t addressed since move-in and restocking them in light of what I’ve learned of the room’s rhythms of use
Alright, got out and did some yard work for the first day in a while, smashed a good share of what’s left of Blueberry Hill to smash and dug up a lot of the bittercress starting to show – MUCH less than previous years – and dumped the dirt to tamp and further build up the hard-packed ramp to the fence gate
Yard Task Update
Task: Days Spent/Days Budgeted
tasks done this update in bold
(Completed tasks in parentheses)
Okay, done the polesawing. The mimosa needs some more stuff trimmed around power lines, I’ll have to get a crew out.
Yard Task Update
Task: Days Spent/Days Budgeted
tasks done this update in bold
(Completed tasks in parentheses)
Polesaw back in action, I suppose given all the trees are bare now and “polesawing” is still open it’s a judgement call to put today in “post-fall”, but it was stuff, mostly on the tree in the middle of the backyard, I had been waiting for a clear view on. I’ve finally trained that one to a leader, which involved cutting things in the right order for several years so the right branches filled in the gaps. Mostly been collecting leaves and dumping them on Strawberry Ridge, which as a “til there are no more to get” task didn’t have a time estimate.
Dumped easily 20 trash cans worth of leaves onto Strawberry Ridge. Since I stripped all the curbs on the block for Blueberry Hill last year they’re bare – no previous years’ leaves rotting to dirt and growing weeds to catch the leaves this year, so they all blow down to collect in big drifts that’re easy to gather up.
That along with the side yard work where that realtor 2 or 3 years back told me all my work had made my neighbors tens of thousands of dollars richer, and since I’ve started cleaning up my neighbors in each direction have I guess realized that they looked underwhelming in contrast and/or the area was classing up to the point of being worth tidying…
Like, my looking out the window 5 years ago and being like “ah fuck, I should pull those weeds” has apparently cascaded into making the entire neighborhood look much better. Yay me!
Yard Task Update
Task: Days Spent/Days Budgeted
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11/14/22
The roses were drooping and small bushes were dropping leaves so I trimmed them for the winter
Yard Task Update
Task: Days Spent/Days Budgeted
tasks done this update in bold
(Completed tasks in parentheses)
11/13/22
God sawing the “railroad ties” that had made up the sandbox walls took forever; they were really pressure-treated fence posts and each of eight 2"x2" ones took about 300 strokes.
Yard Task Update
Task: Days Spent/Days Budgeted
tasks done this update in bold
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11/3/22
The sandbox is almost done; I thought I’d have to pull each long nail individually but I found I could just use the prybar to pry the railroad ties forming its walls apart. I’ve got them up on sawhorses drying out, then I’ll saw them up for a bonfire and recover any metal from the ashes.
The polesaw I managed to unscrew the collars stuck together but I’m missing a pin to hold one collar to its fiberglass segment, but I can probably improvise something to last for all I have left.
For “trimming new growth” I just have to get the front roses + bushes when they drop their leaves now
Like, the bedroom, study, parlor, garage, basement, AND backyard are all in the best state I’ve ever seen, they each require a bit more attention to miscellaneous objects and then a sweep (well, parlor already got it), the outstanding “yard task” list outside, but like… that’s it
Kitchen’s weird cause it’ll be totally remodeled with new built-ins so there’s like nothing to move in and no point prettying it up, but aside from a floor that desperately needs mopping, it also looks better
Yard Task Update
Task: Days Spent/Days Budgeted
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10/31/22
The polesaw’s a little borked with the final segment with the saw pulling out of its collar which stayed locked to the 2nd, I actually have a replacement saw segment but it needs to screw into the 2nd (narrow-diameter) so until I can unstick the one there I’m hosed, WD-40 hasn’t done it so I’m looking for a metal rod to fit through these side holes to get better radius-leverage for it.
Also, found that some existing canes of the uphill bamboo were dead from exposure of their roots so just cut them all so it’ll grow back even.
Assembled a cold frame and indoor firewood caddy, guess should do the big wood rack now. Backyard’s impressively tidy.
Got stung by a bee for the second time in my life tamping down the side yard ramp up to the backyard gate, then assembled a cold frame and some other stuff
Yard Task Update
Task: Days Spent/Days Budgeted
tasks done this update in bold
(Completed tasks in parentheses)
10/22/22
Went out front with the polesaw and knocked almost everything out, last time had been a little slow cause a nut was loose and energy that shoulda pulled the saw was spent on bending the blade. Some dead branches off the mimosa central trunk but they’re either too close to power lines or in a sector I want to block up and use canopy shyness to keep anything else from wasting effort anyway, I’ll just let them rot to blow down.
Probably a quarter-day left to get like one branch and cut it up for Strawberry Ridge. Half a day if I notice stuff from the ground from the furthest-away branches of the side trees that I didn’t cutting from the higher ground inside the retaining wall. I’ll have to get professionals to clear up some stuff that threads through the power lines, though, I should do that this winter so it doesn’t waste growth elongating them in spring.
Also one-shotted a lot of twigs and waterspouts on the mimosa, but that was part of what I meant by “trim 2022 growth”.