Fountain of Youth

 

After getting the firepit dug out and the misplaced planter box cut up into three raised beds for my wife to move her strawberry plants to a new raised bed location, I ordered four tons of dirt which is a full load and had them dump it on my driveway to one side so I could still sneak around the pile with vehicles. I thought it would take me a few days to move the dirt. Seven days later, I still have a small pile left. If anyone asks, I'm telling them it was my test for a new reality show called the fountain of youth, where I, the star of the show, attempt to ascertain if I still have access to my youth or not. The alternative title is how many ibuprofen do I need to get through the rest of the day.

I moved maybe half a ton of the dirt into the three raised beds my wife wants for her strawberry plants, something to distinguish them from the rest of the garden so they don't get trampled on. I then moved another two and three-quarters of a ton to fill in the void where the firepit was. I would generally work first thing in the morning before it got warm out until I was gassed and then stop for the day to rest my muscles. Then I took nearly three days off for a seasonal cold that ravaged my immune system. Finally, still with a head full of mucus and a throat full of glass shards, I finished it ahead of some upcoming rains, spread the grass seed, mulched it lightly and gave it a good drink of water. It is nice to be done with the hard part of that job.

The leftover three-quarter of a ton or so of dirt is going to be spread out in our front lawn around the landscaping job we did several years ago. Preceding that was our home addition which tore up the lawn something terrible and I did spread some new dirt there afterwards and try to seed it down but for some reason, it never came up. What is there are sparse weeds and a low spot for rain to puddle. So I will use the leftover dirt to fill up the low spots and try to reseed it once again. Then, hopefully I can hopefully recover a few days more and start thinking about other projects.

[Postscript: The next day I suffered through it and got the rest moved into the low spot of the front yard, grass seed and straw applied, and watered it thoroughly. A hot shower and two ibuprofen later, I'm glad that job is over.]