The landscaper came today to begin clearing my garden spot, but didn't get very far before he had to quit for the day. He sent me a message -- which I didn't get until my lunch break because we aren't allowed to have our phones --saying he was going to give the yard a couple more days to dry, then try again on Friday.
It was still very soft, and he didn't want to totally wreck my yard or get stuck, and when I got home, I saw what he meant. Some of the ruts he'd left were very deep. This one looked to be about a foot.
He told me not to worry and assured me he would fix it once the dirt arrives -- which we don't know when that will happen because the dirt man's dirt pit is full of water. As soon as it dries out enough for him to get a load of dirt into the truck, he'll bring it.
So now, we wait...
I'm not at all surprised. I knew the yard was squishy when I went to fill the bird feeder yesterday, and even the high spots were spongy. Not only that, I'd thought about mowing Monday afternoon, but there was still standing water in my front yard. This is why I hired the landscaper in the first place -- to fill in these low spots and give the yard better drainage. And to get my garden spot ready, of course.
He keeps thanking me for being patient, but I told him the weather does what it will, and all we can do is to deal with what we are given. It'll get done eventually. I mean, it can't rain forever. Can it?
On a similar note, all my little basil plants are adjusting well to being outside full time and have started growing again.
Even this little one that I wasn't sure would make it.
I know you probably can't see it in the photo, but it's putting out tiny new leaves. By late summer, I'm going to have basil running out of my ears.
While I was outside, I noticed my poor tomato plant was a bit droopy, so I gave it a good watering, and it perked right up.
I'm never quite sure how much water to give them, because I heard too much can cause the tomatoes to split. Let me do a bit of research on that...
Hmmm, OK from what I've read, I need to check the soil and water when the top inch or two feels dry, and water in the mornings for best results. I'll give that a try...wait! I just remembered I got a soil meter thingy with my mini-greenhouse. Let me go dig that out and see what it says.
Here, visit a bit with Marty Mac until I get back...
OK, I'm back. According to the moisture meter, the tomato plant is good. The needle was in the green section, so that's what we're going to go with. I'll check it every day for a while until I kind of get a feel for how often to water it.
Abrupt change of subject, I know I'm constantly joking about how my snakes seem to be immortal, so on a whim, I looked up the record lifespan for a corn snake in captivity. Thirty two years. Thirty two!
And a king snake was 33 years...It would seem my snakes aren't so immortal after all. I'd done research before buying them, and everything I read said they average around 15 years in captivity. Nowhere did I see 20-30 years. I didn't sign up for this! OK, yes, I did. But I think...well, let's just say if I only had the two snakes I intended to get, it would be a different story. I didn't want Slider or Blaze. Let me rephrase. I didn't intend to get Slider or Blaze.
Slider was only supposed to be staying with me until his owner found a new place to live (long story, not necessary to go into it at this point). That was in 2007, and he never came back and got the snake. Slider is a ball python, by the way.
Then Blaze was also kind of dumped on me in a way. I'd wanted to buy a bloodred morph, and found someone in a forum selling one. She told me she'd only sell me the bloodred if I also agreed to take another snake, an amel het lav. I know most of you don't know what that even means, but it's something to do with the different color morphs corn snakes have. I didn't really want two snakes, but I did really want the bloodred, so I somewhat reluctantly agreed.
I kind of feel bad, because I've never felt as close to Blaze as I have to Sunset and Onyx...but he's a snake. He doesn't care as long as he gets fed. Speaking of, I guess next time I order snake food, I'll order a few years worth. I can always sell what's left over if they die before they eat it all up.
All that to say, I won't be able to set up my spare bedroom as an indoor plant room quite yet. Although if I get rid of that massive computer desk that only serves as a place for me to pile junk mail on...
And finally, I was looking at my latest house note, and the principal balance is right at $40K. I've been toying with the idea of taking some out of my 401k and paying my mortgage off. Then I can take the money I've been paying on the house, and max out my 401k contributions, and the catch up contributions. That way, they'll be paying me interest, instead of me paying interest to some bank.
I don't know. Back when Cody was little and his father wasn't helping us out at all, I was so poor for so long that I've almost developed a phobia about spending money. I had to kick myself good and hard just to hire this landscaper, so taking that much money out of savings -- enough to pay off my house -- really makes me twitch.
Still, it won't hurt to just look into what it would take. Will it?
Now, if you'll excuse me, I think I'll take myself a quick shower and get back to work on that baby sweater.
Laters.
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