all in all it was just a brick in the wall
After a rather large amount of rain a couple months ago, my neighbor's retaining wall that keeps his yard from sliding into my yard finally crumbled and fell down. This was bad, as it meant the annoying business of replacing it needed to happen on a more immediate timeframe. On the other hand, it was good, because that damn wall had been leaning and slowly crumbling ever since I moved in 5+ years ago, and this past summer it had cracked so much we deemed it too unstable for small children to play near. (You can see the lean in the small part still standing in this picture.)
As a result, for about October there was a bunch of minor construction from my yard, and at the end of the month they finally finished. It's a lovely new wall! The crew even did a reasonable job of cleaning up my yard, although there are a lot of dead spots where things were piled, which I expected. Unfortunately the stubborn fennel is NOT one of the things that died. Oh well.
In the course of all this digging, the construction crew finished up with a small pile of extra topsoil, which, as a result of some conversation I wasn't part of and don't remember much of, ended up left on an 8x10-ish tarp in a corner of our yard, to use in some useful way. That much topsoil doesn't seem like a whole lot, until it's sitting on a part of the lawn I DIDN'T want to die, and needs to be moved. Kind of like just ONE apple tree doesn't seem like a terribly awful amount of apples, until they all fall. Urgh.
I started digging at it last weekend, putting some in a large bin, only to realize that I then couldn't move the bin. Further realizations were that a) this needed to get moved somehow if I wanted that grass to have any hope, and that would take effort and time, b) not only that, but I still had cleanup to do in the garden to close out the year, c) also the lawn needed another mowing, if just to get some of the leaves, d) the last city yard waste pickup day for this year was in a week, and e) I was completely out of daylight hours before then, as it's near dark when I get home after work now. I did some math with my work calendar and decided it would be worth it to take a day off work to tackle some of this, which I did today.
With the help of a cheap wagon acquired this week, I succeeded in spreading some of the dirt around to other parts of the yards, and the rest of it moved to a new pile in a place where I didn't mind it sitting for a while. Between all the trips and the bin I used, I estimate it was somewhere between 15 and 20 cubic feet of dirt, not counting all the rocks and concrete bits and roots (and glass) I dug out of it. The googles tell me that a single cubic foot of topsoil can be estimated around 100 lbs. Sheesh. I, um, might be sore tomorrow.
BUT I got all the gardens cleaned up, and the lawn mowed, and when the jboys came home they helped me stuff three bags full of leaves for pickup tomorrow AND I made myself process a bunch of the apples that have been sitting out there for way too long AND I did a shopping trip and made three meals and cuddled a cat. (And stayed mostly off of social media since it's been making me vaguely unhappy lately.) I feel productive and accomplished. The list of things to do tomorrow is still reasonably long, but it's all much easier stuff. Also doing stuff helps motivate me to do more stuff. It's a nice loop, that.
As a result, for about October there was a bunch of minor construction from my yard, and at the end of the month they finally finished. It's a lovely new wall! The crew even did a reasonable job of cleaning up my yard, although there are a lot of dead spots where things were piled, which I expected. Unfortunately the stubborn fennel is NOT one of the things that died. Oh well.
In the course of all this digging, the construction crew finished up with a small pile of extra topsoil, which, as a result of some conversation I wasn't part of and don't remember much of, ended up left on an 8x10-ish tarp in a corner of our yard, to use in some useful way. That much topsoil doesn't seem like a whole lot, until it's sitting on a part of the lawn I DIDN'T want to die, and needs to be moved. Kind of like just ONE apple tree doesn't seem like a terribly awful amount of apples, until they all fall. Urgh.
I started digging at it last weekend, putting some in a large bin, only to realize that I then couldn't move the bin. Further realizations were that a) this needed to get moved somehow if I wanted that grass to have any hope, and that would take effort and time, b) not only that, but I still had cleanup to do in the garden to close out the year, c) also the lawn needed another mowing, if just to get some of the leaves, d) the last city yard waste pickup day for this year was in a week, and e) I was completely out of daylight hours before then, as it's near dark when I get home after work now. I did some math with my work calendar and decided it would be worth it to take a day off work to tackle some of this, which I did today.
With the help of a cheap wagon acquired this week, I succeeded in spreading some of the dirt around to other parts of the yards, and the rest of it moved to a new pile in a place where I didn't mind it sitting for a while. Between all the trips and the bin I used, I estimate it was somewhere between 15 and 20 cubic feet of dirt, not counting all the rocks and concrete bits and roots (and glass) I dug out of it. The googles tell me that a single cubic foot of topsoil can be estimated around 100 lbs. Sheesh. I, um, might be sore tomorrow.
BUT I got all the gardens cleaned up, and the lawn mowed, and when the jboys came home they helped me stuff three bags full of leaves for pickup tomorrow AND I made myself process a bunch of the apples that have been sitting out there for way too long AND I did a shopping trip and made three meals and cuddled a cat. (And stayed mostly off of social media since it's been making me vaguely unhappy lately.) I feel productive and accomplished. The list of things to do tomorrow is still reasonably long, but it's all much easier stuff. Also doing stuff helps motivate me to do more stuff. It's a nice loop, that.