Garden Project (Part III)

I am gonna keep this project update short, since it is just more of the same dismantling of the old garden stuff.

In my previous post I mis-identified the snakes I found as Southern Ringnecks.  They were Northern Ringnecks.  Sorry herpetologists - no offense meant.  In any case, "let God sort them out" was my thinking at the time.

Black Widow Myth: Discovering a Black Widow Spider while building a backyard garden will instantly cause you to fill your drawers from fear.  False: Actually, you only poop a little.

Yes, I found a Black Widow nestled between two of the stones I was removing from the existing garden wall.  Based on its size, I guess it was female (females are bigger).  I was able to suppress my first instinct which was to let out a sustained high-pitched scream while mincing around the yard and flapping my hands at the wrists, but just barely. 

Maybe if I lived by myself I would have ended the project then and there and just had the whole place paved.  Yeah, right.  Why don't I just live in a hot air balloon while I'm at it?  At this point in the project my startle reflex was worn down to the nub from lizards, salamanders, snakes, and other critters so I just squished it.

Maybe I should have left the snakes alone...

Here is where I left off today.  The last of the old garden bricks have been moved and the primary bounding trenches have been dug.  You can see where I have been playing Shawshank Redemption with the leftover soil, filling in the low spots in the yard where old tree roots are still decaying away.