Saturday, January 12, 2013

Mid-Winter Spring

We are experiencing an unusually mild winter (again).  Two small snow storms have melted away with temperatures reaching 50 degrees this past week.  Some of my plants haven't frozen yet.  
I took advantage of the warmth to do some spring chores a little early.  Last week I took down our Christmas tree.  This means cutting all the branches off the trunk and taking them out to the garden.  I lay the evergreen boughs over the pachysandra and other broad-leaf evergreens to shelter them from winter sun and add some acidic mulch as the needles fall off come spring.  I also dismantled the wreath I purchased and laid those boughs in the same areas.  The window box and pot that I had filled with boughs were also thawed, and I was able to put those evergreens into the garden as well.  I love recycling Christmas into the garden.
The job I am really feeling today is digging out the deck posts.  There were seven remaining posts that were remnants from the long gone pool deck/fort/canoe rack (in that order).  I dug, pounded, picked, and shoveled until I could leaver three of the posts out of the unfrozen earth.  Only four more to go.  
I finished the job by hosing off all the tools and cleaning a few windows with the hose I drug out of storage for the job.  I would have never anticipated doing this in the middle of January.  A hot tub and a cold beverage rounded out the day.  Back to studying for my upcoming test.

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