Mending Fences
As is so typical of our weekends, we got about half the stuff I dreamed of doing done. This isn’t due to laziness but due to my unrealistic expectations. I had a lot of yard work to do, we wanted to stain the new fence and I had hoped to power wash the deck. The deck will wait.
Jean and Bob took mercy on us and took Aidan Friday night. That means we started Saturday with a good night’s sleep. Bright and early I mowed the lawn for the first time this year and started a little raking before we headed off to the Borg (home depot) to stand in outrageous lines for two quarts of stain.
The fence is white cedar and while its nice, it’s also really bright. We wanted to make it a little less high visibility by staining it a bit darker. A few hours, a second trip to the Borg for more stain, and lots of mineral spirit cleanup later, we were done with the fence!
By then we were also done with Saturday. Sunday was a total yard workday. I dethatched the lawns with a spring rake, which will be the primary cause of the upcoming, violent, muscle spasms in my arms. If you’ve not done this before, and I like you, don’t try it. It was brutal. But, it was necessary to help the lawn. In the back it was important because I reseeded the whole thing after dumping and spreading 400lbs of topsoil onto the bare patches. My hope now is that the forecast for this week will come true. Normally I wouldn’t wish for rain everyday but if it keeps me from having to lug the hose out…
Finally I managed to put a stop to Julie’s Steve McQueen impression. She had been probing the yard’s perimeter for weaknesses in the defense. She keyed in on a gap under the gate and had been slowly, almost imperceptibly digging under it. She was slyly just trying to poke her head under, slowly removing dirt with each attempt. I dug out a little trench and placed some pavers in as a threshold to end that little scheme. Now she’s back to bouncing a baseball against a concrete wall.
