Yeah, It's Been A While (Projects)

Still playing catch-up from not writing over the past two months...

Excavated my son's play area out back and put down mulch.   Now that he is getting old enough for increased autonomy out there I needed to make eventual falls out there more survivable.  It took a while to dig down six to eight inches in the oval you see but 14 cubic yards later I was done.  I am glad to have sweated out a couple of weeks of backbreaking labor so he and his friends can have a few years of non- arm-, back-, or skull-breaking play in the future. 

Also, I got rid of the useless monkey bars and used the leftover cedar to change the rockwall slope from 70 degrees to a more manageable 45 degrees. My kid is two years old and a human, see.  If he were a 5 or 6 year old human (or a 5 or 6 month old gibbon, I suppose) I would have just left the stock items in place.  Also, the baby swing is no more.

I am going to put in another slide or a cargo net on the side that formerly held the monkey bars, I am not sure which yet or when that will be. Before I do that I need to hit the playset with some deck cleaner to freshen it up a bit. I will probably take advantage of the rain to do that today. [Editor's note: Finished. Man, that deck cleaner really does the trick.]

Speaking of projects, the garden needed to be tilled before we could plant. For one reason or another it is a total hassle to rent a tiller around here. The closest place to do so (15 minutes away) has only one and it has never been in stock when I have needed it. I am beginning to suspect it might be made of Le Brouere cheese. The next closest, Home Depot, is 50 minutes away. They have a four-hour rental rate and a 24-hour rental rate. The four-hour rental is useless, and the 24-hour rental costs $57. I would burn about one gallon tilling the area and four gallons taking the thing for a ride making the rental cost closer to $77.

They had one at Lowe's for $200 – normally $300. It was a repair return. The carburetor was faulty, the thing was still under warranty, the previous owner got a new one and they fixed this one. Or so the legend goes. Normally I steer clear of “bargains” like that because they tend to be more trouble than they are worth but I figured that if this thing runs just three times it will have paid for itself. Plus it still came with a one-year warranty.

I suppose I could have just turned the soil over by hand for free... hahhhahahaha... Oh that's rich.

The weather held so I got out there ane tried it.  The tiller ran just fine. Lime and fertilizer and peat moss have been mixed into the soil real nice-like. If the weather holds a little while longer we may be able to get some plants in today.  That'd be cool.