fiwit's blog: Lovin' that new wheelbarrow of mine....

Who knew that a metal wheelbarrow could become a new best friend? *chuckle*

Last Sunday morning, I treated myself to a brand-spanking-new wheelbarrow from a local big box store, to take the place of the rusted, battered, very-secondhand one I bought a couple years ago at a yard sale.  The old one had a flat tire, and there was no way I'd be able to ever undo the rusted nuts and bolts holding the tire to the barrow, so it was a primo excuse for a new one.

As you know from last week's entry, I immediately tested it, and pronounced myself satisfied.

Well, my new barrow and I have gotten quite a workout this week. First off, we had some stunningly gorgeous days that just begged one to work outside. Add in that I work from home, and thus can spend my before work time and/or lunch hours working outside, and you've just created a little bit of paradise for a yardener.

Last spring, one of my neighbors had some trees taken out, and the tree guy brought me an entire truckload of wood chips.

Old trusty-rusty wheelbarrow and I took that 25x10x5 pile and spread it around my yard in about two months.  Like any addict, I wanted more, so when the utility companies were having trees trimmed near power lines, I chased after the trimming trucks, giving them my address so they could bring me more wood chips. They complied, and brought me a combination of wood chips/leaf litter. It took 2 of their trucks to equal the one load my tree guy gave me, but that's ok. It was all FREE!!!!

I spread some of it during the summer/fall of last year, but then my trusty-rusty wheelbarrow got his flat tire, and I put him away for the winter with only about 1/3 of the new pile spread around. Right next to it, all winter long, was the pile of grass clippings from my front yard, courtesy of my favorite neighbor who has a zero-turn riding mower and mows as relaxation. I buy him a tank of gas once a season, and he keeps my front yard mowed if he's in town, and dumps the clippings behind my driveway for me to use at some point. For the last 9 months, I've used the pile of grass clippings to hide my compostables, adding in wood chips and leaf litter to provide the browns to my over-abundance of greens.

Last week, most of the grass clippings/fairly-composted compostables went into the fenced off section behind the shed. This week, the rest of the clippings that were easily grabbed with a pitchfork went into the beds in my front yard, along with a top dressing of wood-chips/leaf-mold.  I was making noticeable progress on the big pile, and I know that will please my one neighbor who is not as...bohemian...as I am when it comes to yards (this would be the neighbor who thinks no lawn should be more than half-inch tall. NOT the same person as the neighbor who mows my lawn for relaxation).

Anyway.. this past week we had some absolutely gorgeous days, with temps in the high 60s/low 70s. And I spent my lunch hours outside spreading woodchips with my new wheelbarrow, planting a Virginia Pine seedling I'd been given, and two Oconee Azaleas I bought last year and over-wintered in containers. I still have 5 azaleas to plant, once I decide where they're going.

This morning, while waiting on the Window guy to come and give me an estimate for replacing one window with a rotten frame, I grabbed my shiny new barrow and started moving woodchips again. I'm wanting my back yard fenceline to be lined with woodchips, because it turns into a muddy mess when it rains. Free woodchips/leaf-mold is a great resource for that, I think. And while I was working in the front yard this week, I found a spot where one of the beds could be expanded slightly, making it easier to mow around, and giving me a great location to add some day-lilies.

So after the window guy left, I grabbed my shiny new barrow again, along with some cardboard and newspapers I've collected, and headed out to the front yard. Soak the paper in a bucket of water, place it over the nasty weeds and pretty grass, use the cardboard to further delineate the new bed area, and dump 5 loads of woodchips/leaf-mold on it.

The new area is 16ft long and between 3-4ft deep. It will make a nice daylily spot, and they'll pick up after the spring bulbs have ended their show, so it should be perfect.  I found 2 spare landscaping timbers and placed them in front just to give it some definition, raked it mostly level, and then came inside to relax.

Except then I remembered I had promised myself I'd clean out the bluebird house today, so I had to postpone relaxing just that little bit longer until I could find the key to the back gate padlock, find the screwdriver to take the bottom off the birdhouse, and then replace it all.

So today, between 830-200pm  I've ... shifted ten loads of woodchips (6cu ft per load, minimum), marked out a new bed, mopped the kitchen floor, done dishes, cleaned the bluebird house, started doing dog-laundry, sorted out the little dog's beds to see if any could be salvaged (most were tossed due to her incontinence towards the end of her life), fed the birds...

It doesn't look like a lot written out like that, and I gave myself plenty of computer breaks along the way, but even so my back is telling me I've put in a good day's work for a middle-aged woman (is 51 middle-aged?), and so next up on my list is a long soak in the tub and a glass of wine (or two).

note: I forgot to take a new pic of the greatly diminished wood-chip pile, and am afraid to go back outside in case I find some other project that just has to be done right this very minute. LOL 

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