But first, let me just say I hate waiting on people. Today was the day the scrap metal people were supposed to show up, but as of this writing there has been no sign of them. Basically, I've been waiting all day, but I decided -- knowing how people can be -- that I was going to carry on with my plans as normal, and if they catch me with frizzy hair and no bra, then so be it. However, I didn't drag out the roto-tiller, because I didn't want to be covered in mud if they should happen to come.
And what exactly did I carry on with? I've been making a start on cleaning out my shed. That's why I have all this scrap metal in the first place, because the shed tends to be where I stuff junk to deal with later. There really isn't all that much in it, but it's so unorganized and haphazard, I can hardly get into the aforementioned shed. There is a guy here who does that type of cleanup, and he's on the list of people I need to contact, but as I said yesterday, I can't multitask.
I also made a start in putting out my Fall decorations, which means I hung one wreath.
I'll get it all done eventually, right now I'm just not feeling it. By the way, I only put this photo first because many of you won't click on a link if the thumbnail is ....a box of dirt.
Women's size 9 croc knockoff included for scale.
And where did all of that dirt come from? Well, I'll tell you. In cleaning out the shed, I found so many pots -- plant pots I mean -- that were cracked or otherwise unusable. I rounded up all of those pots, plus several that were still in good shape, and dumped all of the potting soil into this box. This is where my sifter things came in handy, because most of them had rocks in the bottom for drainage.
I don't know if putting rocks in pots is strictly necessary, but my mother always did it, so I did it, too. But then, my mother had such a black thumb she couldn't grow mold on month old spaghetti, so I might not do it in the future. On the other hand, once I get my raised bed garden set up, I probably won't have too many plants in pots anyway. I may give the other ones away, provided people actually show up to get them.
Speaking of, I got the side pieces of one of my raised beds and laid them out beside the fence, just to see how it would fit.
It looks like I'll be able to get three beds across that length of fence, once I get them all in place. Well, bought first, then put into place. I still need to level that spot out a bit more before I start putting beds together and all, which I would have done this morning, but....
Did I mention I hate waiting for people? Oh, and I have two stadium seats that have been waiting for ten days for someone to come pick them up, and I know by this time she's not coming, but I don't want to advertise them again because of the constant no-shows.
But I digress....
Look what else I found when I was cleaning? It's an old water bowl from one of the snake tanks.
I filled it and put it beside the house for now, but it will eventually go into one of my raised beds, as will these:
One is an aquarium ornament cave, and the other came out of a snake tank. I'm hoping they will attract toads to my garden, which will help keep the slugs down. Eh, now that I look at it, I might not leave the aquarium ornament in my bed, though. It's not quite the right look. I'll figure it out when I start getting stuff in place.
Another thing I found was some old garden edging, which I need for another project. I noticed that the ground my birdbath is sitting on isn't quite level, so the birdbath leans a bit. I'm going to take some of my red clay and level a spot for it. I wanted to make a ring out of something, to contain the dirt.
This old plastic edging proved to be just the trick. Probably one afternoon this week, I'll move the birdbath, sift some rocks out of the dirt and fill the ring up.
Speaking of sifting dirt, I finally finished filling in the first of the tire tracks the landscammer left,
and started on the second.
And I filled in the giant ruts left by the dump truck.
Those will probably need some topping off before it's all said and done, but at least the lawnmower won't fall into giant holes next time I mow -- which I thought about doing today, but just didn't want to. I'll have to mow at least one more time before it's all over, but the grass has already slowed down growing.
By the time I was done with all of that, I was hot and sweaty, so I sat outside in the shade for a while, but had to come inside because of the unwanted attention of a very persistent fly. I spent the rest of the afternoon watching Lost In Austen on Prime Video and knitting on the hat.
And finally, just in case you're interested, here are all the people I need to contact.
Is it any wonder I'm overwhelmed?
Well, all good things must come to an end, and that includes my extra long weekend. Yes, it's back to work tomorrow, and moreover, we're back to going in at 5:00 AM, so I guess this is good night for now.
Except I'm not going to bed right now. I'm just finishing up this blog post. I'm going to finish watching this show and knit some more on the hat.
Later, taters.
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