feste_sylvain

I've got 20 likes so far. Have done 55 push-ups, but I'm done with that for the evening. I'll pick up again tomorrow morning.

I spent four hours this afternoon on the yard, and it isn't done yet.

But I couldn't go on, and it got dark. Well, dusky. Too dark to work.

Using a 30cm Irving saw, I was able to break down the large oak limb in the northeast side of the yard, and get the various branches hauled off into the woods. The main limb, that I had to roll to the border.

I also hauled out the pine limbs on the west side, and the oak on the southwest side. There are still two major oak limbs on the east and southeast sides, but they'll wait until tomorrow.

I also raked the north, west, and half of the south sides of the yard.

Despite this being the first SNL after Rick Perry's brain-freeze, I won't be watching it tonite. I'll probably record it for later.

I'll be lucky if I can keep awake past 9pm.

My shoulders ache.

When I came in, I discovered that my teenage daughter, whom I did not have assist me with the other rake in the yard because she has exams to study for, did not study. Now she'll have to do that tomorrow, and won't be able to help then, either.

But after exams, she's raking the whole yard. Don't tell her yet. I want it to be a surprise.

I did not rake during the week I took off for Thanksgiving. That's because it kept raining, every other day. Had it rained the first three days and then not rained the next three, I could have raked toward the end there. But it kept soaking the leaves, and soddening the sod.

Today, snow was forecast. So unless I wanted the lawn to steep in tea until spring, I had to get as much of the lawn raked as I could

(This may be a false prompt. I'm from Vermont, where, once it starts snowing, the snow doesn't melt until April. Sometimes May.)

So, after sleeping in too late considering what I wanted to get accomplished, I raked the west side of the yard (where the leaves are densest on the ground). I took care not to rip up the vegetation, but the main vegetation is broad-leafed plantain, which is all dead and gone anyway. This left a lot of exposed soil, subject to erosion. This is not good. We may have to spread some (shudder) grass seed.

About half an hour into that, it started to rain. And then stop. So I kept going.

The southeast corner is much easier to rake into the forest, because it's a tight curve around the house there. But the next step was getting leaves from out around the chicken coop, and they were somewhat matted up in there. And wet. The sporadic rain now has pieces in it. Huzzah, wintry mix.

I'm now getting to the parts of the lawn with scattered patches of lovely moss. It's beautiful, but fragile, so I am being more meticulous about how I rake. With the southeast corner cleared to the back deck, I now start figuring out where the leaves on the south side are going to go. I decide, reluctantly, that dragging the leaves across the back lawn to the southeast corner is the best bet. I sweep the rest of the leaves off the back deck onto the back lawn, and then rake leaves out of the sinkhole and into the woods.

Just then, the extraordinarily loud sound of the neighbor's leaf blower stops. I look up to see a man about my age sauntering toward me. He's dressed a bit more for the weather than I am, in a flannel shirt and faded baseball cap (I'm in a t-shirt, and sweating, despite the 35F weather). He introduces himself as "Doug", that he's my new (as of August or so) neighbor, and that we hadn't met yet. I acknowledge, give my name, shake his hand, and make a little weather-related small-talk. He goes back to what he was doing, and I go back to what I was doing.

I know that there exists a segment of our society which believes that we should all know our neighbors, socialize with them, and generally sign Kumbaya around campfires with them. I am not one of those people. I could have done very well without ever knowing Doug. If I ever meet him in a context where I care, that could well change.

I am now approaching the south-east corner of the yard, which means raking around the kids' swing-set. The kids are mostly too old for the swing-set now. But my younger still plays on it from time to time. Whatever. This corner is also under the two oaks which are actually in my lawn, rather than in the woods, so there is high leaf density here as well. It's heavy. I look at my watch. It's been an hour and a half. The rain gets heavier, then backs off again.

The moss on this side is very thick; it's like a carpet. It's gorgeous. And fragile, especially when wet. My shoulders are letting me know how much they don't enjoy heavy, meticulous work. But as I don't want the moss smothered until spring, I get this corner done as well.

Okay, the east side only looks covered towards it south end, thanks to the two oaks. It actually just looks wind-swept along the north. I pull the leaves away from the east side of the deck, and clear out the southern half of the east side. tamidon comes out with some leftovers which are now chicken-food. She proclaims the job I've done to be splendid, and that the rest can either be done or not. More wintry mixy stuff starts falling. I decide that I'm done for the day, after "only" two hours, and I come inside and have a beer.

Maybe a nap now.

Wii Bank: 30 minutes

One fascinating thing is that I didn't feel the jackknives in the Jackknife Challenge until the upper 20s. I bet this is a good sign. I'll try to remember how soon I feel them next time.

Wii Bank: 32 minutes

100 Jackknifes, and that was after the Lunges kicked my butt (as usual).

This t-shirt goes in the laundry, and I go in the shower.

Wii Bank: 30 minutes

Had to pass on "Lunge" and the "Palm Tree" yoga pose, as my left toe is still against the notion of supporting half my body weight.

Snow, people. Six inches of snow.

I left work, suffered thru slippery but manageable conditions, got home around quarter after two, and then shoveled out the driveway. I started by getting rid of the plow hump, then excavated enough driveway to get my car off the street.

The kids were little to no help. They pushed some snow around and trampled it with footprints and then went in after only twenty minutes or so.

And I had to re-shovel everything they did.

The whole effort took about two hours of my time. I came in looking like a yeti, thanks to the light dusting of snow that melted and then refroze in my hair.

tamidon made me Spanish cocoa, which is like a thick cocoa or a thin pudding. It is exceptionally yummy.

I'll putter on the 'puter for a bit, and then take a shower.

Yesterday, I spent two and a half hours raking leaves, and only got half of the yard done. This is distressing because it usually takes me three hours to rake the whole yard.

Trouble was, this was at least two weeks of leaf-fall, because I couldn't rake last weekend. I couldn't rake last weekend because it had been raining all that week, and all of the leaves were wet.

Then this week, we had freezing temperatures all week. Even at the height of day.

So much of the lawn had leaves frozen to it. Each pass revealed patches of white ice. I raked a large amount of leaves, but there is still many mats of leaves left.

Today, I finished the yard, and even returned to some of yesterday's mats which had been exposed to the sun.

Tuesday, we expect rain, and it should stay above freezing (during the day) until after Thanksgiving. So when I return from my mother-in-law's, I should be able to finish for real.

And really finish. Oaks usually try to hang onto a hefty amount of leaves to prove their macho by holding them up in the snow all winter. But the heavy rains from last week pretty much denuded the oaks, so there's nothing left to fall.

I started raking at 1030. First, raked around the chicken run to give them a couple of big piles of leaves to play with. Then the west side of the yard, down to the southwest corner, the south side, pulling most of it thru the little nook in the back behind the swing set, and then the southeast corner.

I started to run out of energy at 1230, when I realized that the only thing I'd had to eat was some Halloween candy. So I came in, ate leftover stew beef, finished the spoonfuls of egg salad, mopped up the stew juices with a couple slices of bread, and headed back out to finish.

The east side and the relatively smaller north side took another hour. So that's three hours total.

I feel like I've been hit by a bus. My arms ache, my feet are tingling, and the sweat is sticking my hair to my forehead.

Shower now, before my parents show up.

Wii Bank: 33 minutes

After a 27-day gap. This is pretty bad. I could feel that I'd been putting on weight, and sure enough, I'm up around 175 (which would not be a bad weight if more of it were muscle mass, but it's not).

I really need to figure out how to do this more frequently. After all, I've pretty much proven to myself that exercize works when I bother to do it.