The Elysian Fields

Stomach ich. I think it was just one plate too many of rice pilaf, at least I hope that's all it is.

Ate a slice of ginger, so we'll see if that calms things down.

~ ~ ~

In other news, I took some pictures (big surprise!) of leaves (big surprise!) but this time they were all in one huge-mungous pile, and then Rachel and Mr. B jumped into them and swam around for a while before I ground them a second time with the mower and then aequitaslevitas ground them a third time by picking them up with the lawn vac.

A couple cubic yards of finely ground leaf mulch now sits on the back bank, so it almost looks like it was planted on purpose!

I jest, partially - the area was destined for some bark mulch a couple years ago, but never high enough on the priority list to do. At first it was just a scattering of heaths and heathers, with bamboo sticks to mark their locations. After they got run over repeatedly (luckily not injuring anyone on the sticks!), we created a border out of locally available timber (i.e. fallen branches and small trees). Eventually, the area will be stone bordered and might someday see some of that bark mulch - at least until the heaths, heathers, and, now, native bearberries, have taken over and the yearly leavings of natural leaf fall proves enough.

In any case, I surrounded all the bearberries on the right side of the rock stairs with collars of leaf mulch in our first round of leaf pick-up; this time, I was able to surround the bearberries, the heath and heather, and the lavender on the left side and start filling in a bit more of the space on the right. One more leaf pick-up after the oaks finally let go should provide nicely to fill both those beds and provide some much-needed re-mulching around the foundation.

Anywho, I might get around to posting those shots later tonight or this weekend. =)

This morning I spent an inordinate amount of time trying to find out exactly what the voodoo was behind finding "stones - crushed." I looked under "rocks" (really, I did,) and "gravel" and "quarry" oh my! Finally, I tried an online search, and one of the hits mentioned the secret phrase - I looked in the local yellow pages and lo! this was not the quarry I was looking for. I finally found it in the online yellow pages - verified in the hard copy white pages.

And they didn't answer the phone.

I called the local nursery - out on Fairyland - and talked to an 8 year old. I think he took down my information, but I never got a call back and don't expect I will. Professional-type customer service advice: if you're going to publish your home phone as a business line, teach everyone how to answer it in a professional manner and *not* as if it was a home phone. Even better advice (50% off list price!) - get a separate phone line and send it to a nicely recorded machine if someone can't get to it to answer it in a professional manner.

I then called the masonry place out by Country Junction, and 9-10 tons of 2B (3/4") gravel will be arriving at 10:30am Monday morning. Scratch one long-standing item from the to-do list.

In this fit of phone calls, I also called the septic service, and the woman who answered the phone not only spoke in a professional manner, she knew her shit (and, by extension, that of other people.) With one and a half questions she verified we will have to expose gobs of the front lawn to get at the two openings on the septic tank, because she knew the large ugly cement opening down by the sandmound was just that of the dosing tank (full o' piss, maybe vinegar) and not full o' crap. She also knew this was not the best time of year to dig up ground just because we may want to suck that stuff out - in the absence of a bona fide overflow, the best bet is to wait for Spring. Grass will recover better to patch itself up if we wait, as well. She also arranged so that as soon as they are in the area - so we don't foot the bill for them driving over here - she'll call and schedule them to stop by and fix the beheaded washout pipe on the sandmound. Scratch another thing off the list.

Justin and I went to Evil*Mart to get some SAE 10W-30 oil, to check their stock of GE Frost Blue Icicle lights (3 boxes,) outdoor extension cords (need 4,) timer or light-sensitive power strips (two, with at least 4 outlets each,) a 223 battery, and milk. We wound up with the oil, some clips to hang the lights (which I had forgotten to add to the list,) and Justin's present for Rachel. We went across the street to Giant and got the milk and some Stash green chai. Still no battery. We circled around again because I realized maybe, just maybe Radio Shack might have the battery - and they did. Said hi to their pet box-bug that was crawling around the card reader.

Got back, and added the headlight and usage meter to the DR, prepped the lawn deck, filled it with oil and gas, and fired it up for a leaf munching run. After reading a review, I expected to be tossed about by the differential - even on low speeds - so I took it very easy, but I did about half the lawn in third gear, after doing second for most of it. First gear was way too slow for the lawn. It took about a half hour, and I did a lot of do-overs, to try and get the hang of cornering around trees and so forth, just for practice purposes. After finishing it all off, I took a few spins in fourth, and expect I'll be doing most mowing in high gear. We cleaned the deck off, and then put it away, leaving the plow attached for spreading gravel on Monday.

We realized it was a bit darker than we'd like, as we wanted to put up the 6 strings of lights I picked up at KMart the other day (the last 6 they had.) We wound up putting only one of them up, and had to turn the lights on half-way through because it was too dark to see. This will be the "first string" - starting things out just a bit around the corner, basically where porch roof meets house. We had to shift the existing 4 strings over about two feet (they were starting along the front edge of the porch.) Tomorrow we'll finish the front, and maybe start to do the roof edge on the garage wall - although that part won't be lit until I can find a power solution. I want to do something automated so we don't have to yank plugs out of the wall before going to bed.

Justin finished off fertilizing the back lawn - we didn't have time for him to mow as well. We were discussing how many frequent mowings are better than letting it turn into a jungle and then hacking it down, and how it would nice if we had a new mower that could trim a little bit higher for healthier grass. He said my mother has her yard kept down to the lowest height, and thinks we need a new mower so we can trim at a lower height.

( Lawncare PSA: Most people cut their grass way too short... )

( Meadow planted! )

Justin and I just won best out of three - Rachel and Mallory won the first round of kubb when Justin nailed the king. We won the second game playing it through, knocking over all their kubbs, and then, in a bit of grandstanding, taking out the king with a tandem throw from the line of our field kubb - about a foot away. Third game was proceeding nicely when Mallory accidentally took out the king while going for one of our field kubb. Much fun!

WTF is I talking about? Kubb rules here.

Much, as I have said, fun.

Oh, and on the subject of fun: the front lawn is mowed. Mowing the lawn is, by way of contrast, not fun.

Much thanks to pete_wisdom - I was selected to receive a brand new copy of Glass Hammer's Inconsolable Secret, and it arrived Saturday morning. Wasn't intended for the purpose, but it works out excellently as a pre-birthday birthday¹ present, at least in my book! =)

This post will actually sit around for a bit, as it's done on the newer laptop, which won't be able to connect until Tuesday at work. I expect I posted yesterday (my tomorrow) on how the cookout went. If not, I wrote something else Monday night on this laptop, and erased this sentence, so You're not actually reading it now. One of the two, or something else, anyway.

A lot went on this afternoon and evening (that would be Sunday.) I roasted the poblanos and a clove of garlic as well. Whipped up a batch of Hair o' the Cow What Bit You, using the brand-new marinade container to flip them and soak 'em good. Reminder to me: the frozen burger *used* to be easy to cut when you were in your youth. For some reason, it's near impossible. Half-thawed is worse - it crushes and gets all messy on the outer inch or so, while the core requires tons of force, most of which is absorbed by the distortions of the outer layer. In other words, thaw it completely, then cut it.

After spending gobs of time on the burger, it was nice to easily put together a rigatoni dinner. I am officially a convert to roasting the garlic prior to putting it in the sauce. A world of difference in taste, although Justin wasn't convinced it was that much better (although he did say it was better,) and Deb said it was good but didn't stand out, while Rachel thought it was "okay." You can lead a horse to water, but you can't make him get excited about whether it's pure, icy cold spring water or chlorinated rusty-piped city water out of a garden hose.

After supper, Justin finished trimming around the foundation plantings, and I sprayed Plantskydd on the deer favorites. Discovered that whatever non-deer rodent that has been munching newly planted trees from the roots up made the silver maple on Bank Island its next victim. I looked for it to spray it - as the other silver gets hit regularly by the deer - and it was on its side, the vestigial leaves just gathering strength after a deer attack a few weeks ago were already shrivelling, and the "tree" ended just below the dirt, a mere stick stuck in the ground with nary a root in sight.

Came in and cooked up the bacon for the frasadillas, then did some cleanup.

Much excitement!

¹: Speaking of which (or typing thereof, which is slightly more apropos): elionwyr, what do you plan to do for our birthday? =)

Me, I'll be heading down to dinner at the Outback, and possibly visiting the Canalabration.