Small but Giant Steps and Losing Contact

I decided to take the whole lawncare issue a little more seriously, and that will entail a little more sweat and blood, but I think will have better results. Part of the process seems to be preparing the lawn for the assault. As I mentioned before, we had a huge weed problem last year, and wanting to avoid herbicides that will give us all diseases, we are trying to take a more positive approach and encourage the good stuff. Along these lines, I started to rake like crazy, and if there's one thing I don't enjoy, it's raking. And we have a lot of grass.

I know, I'm whining, and if my Mentor were here right now, he'd tell me to put a lid on it and be a real man, but I'm still learning here. How about a little sympathy? Either way, I did realize that there is one key to making the process more doable: music. The louder and more obnoxious, the better. I'd been listening to VPR while working the barn, and really enjoyed it, but when raking, you really need to shut off your mind and become a zombie. I managed to finish the front lawn right before the big rainstorm, which is a bonus because it's nearly impossible to water a lawn manually without sprinklers. Besides, nobody around here has sprinklers, it's way too suburban. I got the seeds and fertilizer down, and now the rains will feed them, and hopefully we'll get some results. I'm really curious about how this will go.

Also, even though we have about 10 cords of wood on site, I'm always looking to the future. If I can manage to at least block up the logs and move them, there will be space for another truckload. I know I'm being OCD about this (what else is new?), but it's nice having the wood here and then cutting it at my leisure. Plus, what better way to signal to the world that I'm a real man in training than having 7 cords of log-length wood sitting in your driveway? That way, when my contractor/lumberjack acquaintances visit, or other assorted real men (including my karate teacher and Mentor), I can point them to the pile and say, "Yeah, I'm going to cut that up and split it. No big deal." Then I can step back and see how impressed they all are. They might even ask me, "Are you a real man in training?"

As if you had to ask.

One quick side note, my source for tree length firewood is not calling me back. Not a good sign, and more fuel to fire my firewood neurosis. I may have to once again go searching for trees, but I'll let you know what's up with that.

Until the next time, thanks for reading, and thanks to Nicolas Raymond and Lysanne Ooteman for the pics.