What my lawn means to me...
I am really enjoying being back home, in my own house. My first year in Minneapolis, the place I rented was very close to the Mississippi river. I enjoyed this immensely because there were paths everywhere. If I needed to get out of the house and take a breather, I just went outside and had a path I could take.
The second year was harder. I was much closer to the older boy's school, so we didn't have transportation issues like the first year. However, we were in the middle of an urban area and getting to someplace more remote meant taking a drive.
I don't know what it is, but even though I'm in the middle of town, I don't get so stir crazy. For the most part, walking through town is just as nice as walking out of town. On the other hand, there are a lot of great paths fairly close, so finding a more remote spot to go walking isn't too hard. (The primary problem is whether the river is high and the paths are flooded.)
The other thing I really enjoy but did not do much of the past two years was yard work and gardening. Mowing the lawn seems to be out for me because it is the one thing guaranteed to kick up my asthma. On the other hand, I've been spending nearly every weekend at home working on our yard. We've managed to move a bunch of plants, set up some rocked gardens around the house. This weekend, we spent some time getting prepped to replace our patio out back, and I finished putting the rock in some of our gardens.
I have plans for how I want the yard to look, but I suspect it's going to take 3-4 years to get there. I want my yard to feel like a place to go out and be in nature (even though I'm really not) with lots of places where I can sit and enjoy the view.
Each day I've been out working in the yard, I feel utterly exhausted afterwards. On the other hand, I feel like we're making some real progress, and I enjoy seeing how well our plans have turned out so far. It sure beats renting.
The second year was harder. I was much closer to the older boy's school, so we didn't have transportation issues like the first year. However, we were in the middle of an urban area and getting to someplace more remote meant taking a drive.
I don't know what it is, but even though I'm in the middle of town, I don't get so stir crazy. For the most part, walking through town is just as nice as walking out of town. On the other hand, there are a lot of great paths fairly close, so finding a more remote spot to go walking isn't too hard. (The primary problem is whether the river is high and the paths are flooded.)
The other thing I really enjoy but did not do much of the past two years was yard work and gardening. Mowing the lawn seems to be out for me because it is the one thing guaranteed to kick up my asthma. On the other hand, I've been spending nearly every weekend at home working on our yard. We've managed to move a bunch of plants, set up some rocked gardens around the house. This weekend, we spent some time getting prepped to replace our patio out back, and I finished putting the rock in some of our gardens.
I have plans for how I want the yard to look, but I suspect it's going to take 3-4 years to get there. I want my yard to feel like a place to go out and be in nature (even though I'm really not) with lots of places where I can sit and enjoy the view.
Each day I've been out working in the yard, I feel utterly exhausted afterwards. On the other hand, I feel like we're making some real progress, and I enjoy seeing how well our plans have turned out so far. It sure beats renting.