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This weekend wasn't without its accomplishments. But, my attitude is always to have a fleeting sense of success and a more constant, nagging sensation of what hasn't been done.
Saturday we were productive as I've said. After doing some necessary cleaning we went out to eat because we were both starving to death. After that we did our grocery shopping, which almost seemed pointless. Not sure if it was due to the fact we'd just eaten but we barely got anything for the week. I find it particularly difficult to "meal plan" for any given day/week because we just never know what we are going to want... if we are even hungry at all.
In the past we've had a tendency to buy chicken and more often than not, it either wouldn't get used at all or only half used, and then within a few days we've got rotting meat in the fridge. We have more success with ground beef, but even that gets thrown out every third or fourth purchase because we ended up not having a taste for it. Perhaps we didn't think this was a big deal in the past, other than wasteful, but with the cost of everything under Bidenflation we can't afford to be throwing money like that out the window.
We got back here and vegged on the couch. Quite exhausted from the day's activities. I actually found a YouTube channel that had old episodes of 'Queer Eye For The Straight Guy' and we have been watching those. They are not only entertaining, but incredibly nostalgic for me (there I go looking into the past again). Several years back we tried watching the new version of the show, which we both agreed was cringy and staged. The new "Fab 5" were anything but. They weren't funny. They weren't entertaining. And from the few episodes we watched, it all seemed laced with the usual "current year" wokeness and agenda. In two words: Total Garbage.
But, those old episodes, they are so funny. If they were to release the show on BluRay I would absolutely buy it in a second.
Sunday was another highly productive day. We did spend the morning shopping, but not without some goals. I'd needed to get a few more rubber mats for around the litter boxes downstairs. Unfortunately, Home Depot didn't have the same ones we already do. We also ran to Lowes to look at what was on the bargain racks. Sadly, there wasn't much to choose from. We killed some time and went to Meijer while we were waiting for Home Goods to open. There were a few useless things there we liked, but we ended up not spending the money.
We did a lot of Jeep ducking throughout the morning too. It continues to be a fun little trend. Though sadly, we never get ducked ourselves. Perhaps because I always park in the back of most lots.
We got home and finally finished spreading the mulch around the vegetable garden. We still have about a quarter of area to cover over. The giant pile in the driveway remains, which we eventually dug into in order to mulch over the hosta garden. Before that we finally planted several shrubs and trees we had in pots on the driveway since July. Well, three yews that were there we've had since May. They were left over from the wall of yews I planted along the fence line by the scumbag neighbors.
I'd originally wanted these last three to go along the fence by the back neighbors, but we went with the Sparrow's idea to put them under some of the trees by the road. The thinking is that a lot of the bushes and pine trees up there, closer to the house side are going to be chopped down. So, we'd want some kind of evergreen barrier to get growing in the space in between. And what with the shady conditions, the yews were one of our best choices. The only thing left to be seen is whether or not the deer will show up and butcher them. They don't bother this one in back that much that was there when we moved in, so I have slightly high hopes.
We had a St John's Wort and a low-growing juniper we also put closer to the driveway up there. And then we had one Eastern Red Cedar we hadn't planted, that we placed next to where the first one went. Back by the fence along the back neighbor's property. There's also some concern with this planting. It is a somewhat shady spot once summer gets going. The area has a giant evergreen to its left, and then oaks and a shagbark hickory to the right. It gets sun early in the day, but I don't think it'll be optimal for them or this blue spruce we planted there. By one or two in the afternoon at the height of summer I think it goes into shade for the rest of the day.
We'll just have to see. If they end up struggling there I think we can find spots at the bottom of the hill to move them. Though, that will still leave us with the issue of what to plant to create a screen across this portion of the property line. Currently there are two arborvitae right at the corner of the house that somewhat block the view of the back neighbor, whose back porch faces our master bedroom and sunroom windows. During the day it's no real issue because it is quit a distance away, but at night I get paranoid that they can see in. I just want total privacy. We don't even dislike these back neighbors, but I need some breathing room.
So, after planting that stuff we did the hosta garden mulch and then also mulched around the new things we planted. There's still a massive amount of mulch left to move, but we have spots for it. Finding the time is the issue. With the mulching by the road I essentially created a bunch of little islands where one or more plantings are encircled, as well as mulch around all the full grown tree bases. The goal will be to eventually join all the islands so that the vast area up there is under mulch. I feel like we might be creating a lot of work for ourselves doing this, because obviously the mulch will need to be replenished every few years. But, in theory once the stuff grows more it'd start to really shade the ground and the weeds and stuff. Plus, we intend to do a lot of hostas, ferns and ground cover.
We also planted a bunch of crocus bulbs in the front lawn. We'd bought this tool that you push into the ground and it creates a nice hole while lifting a cylinder of dirt out. It made the task so simple we are debating buying a few more bags of bulbs. I kinda thought about doing so surreptitiously so the Sparrow would be surprised next Spring with the sheer amount of crocus that appears.
As far as what didn't get done. We still need to bring in a bunch of the summer yard decor, bird baths etc etc (which will also involve straightening out the shed. We never prepped any of the raised beds to be able to plant greens. And it's likely too late to do so now. We still need to find a way to move the giant tree stumps that were left in the driveway. I have ideas for them, but we literally do not have the strength to move the massive things.
I have to go to my client up north this week to finally get their new backup server in place. I have no desire to because the crazy bitch who sits in the office where the servers are just went through chemo and she expects anyone that comes into her office to wear a mask. So not only did she have cancer, but she's a brainless cultist who doesn't understand the masks do nothing. But, there's no telling a crazy liberal anything based in logic and science. They only believe "science".
That'll be a brutal drive up there with how traffic has been lately. I'd kinda hoped to maybe have dinner with the Doctor in tandem with this trip, since I'll be right on the edge of the city. But, he's going back out of town for work tomorrow so that plan is nixed.
As usual, it's Monday and I'd rather be doing any of a thousand other things than sitting at my desk dealing with work.
Saturday we were productive as I've said. After doing some necessary cleaning we went out to eat because we were both starving to death. After that we did our grocery shopping, which almost seemed pointless. Not sure if it was due to the fact we'd just eaten but we barely got anything for the week. I find it particularly difficult to "meal plan" for any given day/week because we just never know what we are going to want... if we are even hungry at all.
In the past we've had a tendency to buy chicken and more often than not, it either wouldn't get used at all or only half used, and then within a few days we've got rotting meat in the fridge. We have more success with ground beef, but even that gets thrown out every third or fourth purchase because we ended up not having a taste for it. Perhaps we didn't think this was a big deal in the past, other than wasteful, but with the cost of everything under Bidenflation we can't afford to be throwing money like that out the window.
We got back here and vegged on the couch. Quite exhausted from the day's activities. I actually found a YouTube channel that had old episodes of 'Queer Eye For The Straight Guy' and we have been watching those. They are not only entertaining, but incredibly nostalgic for me (there I go looking into the past again). Several years back we tried watching the new version of the show, which we both agreed was cringy and staged. The new "Fab 5" were anything but. They weren't funny. They weren't entertaining. And from the few episodes we watched, it all seemed laced with the usual "current year" wokeness and agenda. In two words: Total Garbage.
But, those old episodes, they are so funny. If they were to release the show on BluRay I would absolutely buy it in a second.
Sunday was another highly productive day. We did spend the morning shopping, but not without some goals. I'd needed to get a few more rubber mats for around the litter boxes downstairs. Unfortunately, Home Depot didn't have the same ones we already do. We also ran to Lowes to look at what was on the bargain racks. Sadly, there wasn't much to choose from. We killed some time and went to Meijer while we were waiting for Home Goods to open. There were a few useless things there we liked, but we ended up not spending the money.
We did a lot of Jeep ducking throughout the morning too. It continues to be a fun little trend. Though sadly, we never get ducked ourselves. Perhaps because I always park in the back of most lots.
We got home and finally finished spreading the mulch around the vegetable garden. We still have about a quarter of area to cover over. The giant pile in the driveway remains, which we eventually dug into in order to mulch over the hosta garden. Before that we finally planted several shrubs and trees we had in pots on the driveway since July. Well, three yews that were there we've had since May. They were left over from the wall of yews I planted along the fence line by the scumbag neighbors.
I'd originally wanted these last three to go along the fence by the back neighbors, but we went with the Sparrow's idea to put them under some of the trees by the road. The thinking is that a lot of the bushes and pine trees up there, closer to the house side are going to be chopped down. So, we'd want some kind of evergreen barrier to get growing in the space in between. And what with the shady conditions, the yews were one of our best choices. The only thing left to be seen is whether or not the deer will show up and butcher them. They don't bother this one in back that much that was there when we moved in, so I have slightly high hopes.
We had a St John's Wort and a low-growing juniper we also put closer to the driveway up there. And then we had one Eastern Red Cedar we hadn't planted, that we placed next to where the first one went. Back by the fence along the back neighbor's property. There's also some concern with this planting. It is a somewhat shady spot once summer gets going. The area has a giant evergreen to its left, and then oaks and a shagbark hickory to the right. It gets sun early in the day, but I don't think it'll be optimal for them or this blue spruce we planted there. By one or two in the afternoon at the height of summer I think it goes into shade for the rest of the day.
We'll just have to see. If they end up struggling there I think we can find spots at the bottom of the hill to move them. Though, that will still leave us with the issue of what to plant to create a screen across this portion of the property line. Currently there are two arborvitae right at the corner of the house that somewhat block the view of the back neighbor, whose back porch faces our master bedroom and sunroom windows. During the day it's no real issue because it is quit a distance away, but at night I get paranoid that they can see in. I just want total privacy. We don't even dislike these back neighbors, but I need some breathing room.
So, after planting that stuff we did the hosta garden mulch and then also mulched around the new things we planted. There's still a massive amount of mulch left to move, but we have spots for it. Finding the time is the issue. With the mulching by the road I essentially created a bunch of little islands where one or more plantings are encircled, as well as mulch around all the full grown tree bases. The goal will be to eventually join all the islands so that the vast area up there is under mulch. I feel like we might be creating a lot of work for ourselves doing this, because obviously the mulch will need to be replenished every few years. But, in theory once the stuff grows more it'd start to really shade the ground and the weeds and stuff. Plus, we intend to do a lot of hostas, ferns and ground cover.
We also planted a bunch of crocus bulbs in the front lawn. We'd bought this tool that you push into the ground and it creates a nice hole while lifting a cylinder of dirt out. It made the task so simple we are debating buying a few more bags of bulbs. I kinda thought about doing so surreptitiously so the Sparrow would be surprised next Spring with the sheer amount of crocus that appears.
As far as what didn't get done. We still need to bring in a bunch of the summer yard decor, bird baths etc etc (which will also involve straightening out the shed. We never prepped any of the raised beds to be able to plant greens. And it's likely too late to do so now. We still need to find a way to move the giant tree stumps that were left in the driveway. I have ideas for them, but we literally do not have the strength to move the massive things.
I have to go to my client up north this week to finally get their new backup server in place. I have no desire to because the crazy bitch who sits in the office where the servers are just went through chemo and she expects anyone that comes into her office to wear a mask. So not only did she have cancer, but she's a brainless cultist who doesn't understand the masks do nothing. But, there's no telling a crazy liberal anything based in logic and science. They only believe "science".
That'll be a brutal drive up there with how traffic has been lately. I'd kinda hoped to maybe have dinner with the Doctor in tandem with this trip, since I'll be right on the edge of the city. But, he's going back out of town for work tomorrow so that plan is nixed.
As usual, it's Monday and I'd rather be doing any of a thousand other things than sitting at my desk dealing with work.