I Am Going to Die!
I am SO bushed. In spite of the fact that I am clinically obese, I am relatively fit. I can carry a 50 pound sack of feed more than 300 yards without getting winded; I can do 100 stomach crunches in a session, and I don’t shy away from hard work. But today’s about got me beat.
I came home last night and planted the two biggest shrubs: a flowering quince and a spice bush. Then I nailed four 2x8x12 boards together to make a sandbox for my darling boys. This morning, I got up at 7 and called the local landscape supply company. I had 4 tons of white masonry sand and 2 yards of black mulch delivered. Dad brought me some “corners” for the sandbox — pieces of plywood to nail on top of the four corners to strengthen the joins and provide a sitting place….though why they need a sitting place in a 64 sq. ft. sandbox (is that right? sq ft = length x width?), I don’t know. Sit in the sand. Anyway. I nailed on the corners and squared up the box. Fixed the kids breakfast and cleaned the kitchen. Sorted and started the laundry.
The sand guy came about 9, and was able to dump most of the sand into the box. However, in maneuvering his truck into the yard and over the box, he managed to (a) knock the box out of square, (b) break one of his taillights on the edge of the box, making a dented tear in the wood, and (c) knock one side of the box crooked, so that if I ever can get the sand away from it, I will have to nail it back again and reinforce it. Oh well. The kids have a sandbox, and I am trying to overcome my perfectionistic streak anyway. We spent about an hour shoveling the sand into the whole sandbox. (The delivery guy could only get to one corner, so there was a huge pile of sand in that corner, and we had to spread it to the other corners. There’s some outside the box, but I will need that for planting the iris and daffodils and to work into my herb garden and sunflower bed. So it won’t go to waste.)
The mulch guy showed up at 9:30, just in time to help guide the sand guy out of the driveway. I had him just dump the mulch at the top of the driveway. A longer walk to the flower beds, but no more tread marks in the yard and no dead grass — since it will take me at least a week to move all that mulch.
So I started planting shrubs again about 10:30. I finished at 5, with a two-hour lunch break from 1 to 3. I planted two forsythia, two bridal veil, and six “yellow rose of Texas” bushes and mulched them. I weeded my lily-of-the-valley bed, which was becoming overrun with wild strawberry vines. Where did they come from?
I am dead beat. I still have all the iris corms and daffodil bulbs to plant, but there is no way I can do any more tonight. If I bend one more muscle in my legs, back, or hips, my body’s going to leave me for a sane person. So I am going to rest for the evening, and go back to planting in the morning. And we are going to go to Captain D’s drive-through for supper.
Now I am going to sit down on the couch and fold laundry.