Trees, trees, trees
This Labor Day weekend was, indeed, laborful.
Sure, Friday was Dad-at-home, taking care of the Squig, while Margie worked at the office.
And Saturday … well, that was a golf day. Labor, but of a pleasant sort.
Really, it was all of a pleasant sort. Sunday, post-church, Margie and I went off to CostCo and bought four Gorilla Racks. Came home. And started in on the basement.
Long ago and far away, we had a relatively open basement. Between the initial move-in and some organizing elbow grease from Margie and Ginger (Margie’s mom), it was in pretty good shape. A little cluttered, but not bad.
But time and tide have worked their toll. Progressive Christmases have left boxes of decorations and wrapping materials in disarray. Storage of large items such as Margie’s old loom, the crib and various other baby things, have filled up space. The sewer blockage had left the contents of that room stacked in the rest of the space.
And, of course, there’s Old Man Entropy, making disorder out of order.
It was becoming an intolerable situation, and Doyce’s comments that, hey, we should get it cleaned up so we can use it for gaming made that even clearer.
So that’s what we did.
Not entirely, of course. But it’s a zillion times better than it was. All four gorilla racks are set up, some with boxes on them. Several dozen empty boxes or boxes of trash are in our dining room and living room and back deck, waiting to be put out at the street tomorrow night for the trash men. Things are stacked in a relatively efficient manner.
The trick, of course, is finishing the project. Going down there and getting boxes really loaded onto the racks, things back up where they belong, etc. With a little nudging, maybe I can do that this week. Or maybe not. But at least there’s space to walk around in, which is light years better than where we were before.
A tip of the hat to Doyce, for helping me with the racks, and to Jackie, for helping Margie with the organizational stuff. And Justin, natch, for both trash carrying and babywatching.
That was Sunday. Monday, we tried to return the favor.
Doyce and Jackie’s yard is, to be polite (and as polite as I need to be, since they are the first to tell you), a “fixer-upper.” Heavy on the grass and conifers. Light on the aesthetics.
Jackie got a coupon to Arapahoe Acres for money off a tree. This led to an off-the-cuff “let’s get a tree” party. Doyce determined that one or more of the low pines by the front door needed to go. I bundled up a box of tools and headed over, leaving Margie while Katherine went down for a nap.
Speaking from the perspective of having removed several large, overgrown junipers from the front of our house once upon a time, said junipers being embedded in several inches of clay-cemented decorative pebbles, I was expecting this to be a massive effort. In reality it was a walk in the park. About an inch and a half of pebbles. Dirt that was almost sandy in consistency. A stump with few tap roots, and a pickup truck with a chain to do the actual yanking. And minimal sticky-pokey branches and debris. Not to mention a young helper to clean up the cuttings.
Then off to the nursery to find an appropriate tree. Fittingly, Margie and I purchased two trees (a dwarf apricot and a semi-dwarf Jonathan apple), while Doyce and Jackie got a semi-dwarf Red Delicious apple.
A little shoveling, a little shifting around of rocks, and, voila, instant front yard tree. And it already makes their front yard look better.
One weird thing in this was my taking on the Jim (Kleerup) role — being the Elder, Experienced Advisor, suggesting grand plans and decorating ideas for the yard. Doyce & Jackie seem to welcome the advice, but I do keep waiting for the one piece of it too many. It also worries me that I might steer them wrong on one of these ideas.
Still, it’s kind of fun having a blank canvas like their yard to “work” in. There’s a lot that could be done, limited largely by money (of course) and willingness to get out there and sweat. And if I can help, it’s a pleasure to do so.
And it was neat getting a couple more trees, especially since we just discovered that the aspen in the east side yard has completely died. Not sure when we’ll install the apricot tree there (nor the apple tree on the east side), given my folks coming out around this next weekend, and the need to get the house cleaned before that, etc. Maybe some post-work yardwork. We’ll see.