Project Update

I spent most of the day today working in the "backyard."* The raised bed I'll be using for veg is built, lined, and 2/3 full of soil (I messed up the square footage calculation somehow and I have to go back to the hardware store for more dirt).

I also completely turned over the section of the "yard" that will not be a raised bed, and pulled as much glass and trash out of it as I could. There was a sizeable pile when I was done: slivers of glass, spark plugs, tiny pieces of plastic, bigger pieces of plastic (including the remnants of a set of venetian blinds), bottle caps, plastic coating from wires, a couple of unidentifiable rusty metal things, several juice boxes, a sock, and innumerable nails. I know there's more in there, but it's more than 6 inches underground, except for the glass shards, which I know I will keep finding every time it rains. And I pretty much just left the chicken bones, etc., because I figured they were feeding the soil. I was encouraged to find some grubs and worms and bugs (not many, but some) because that means the soil isn't completely dead.

As I was working the next-door neighbor came out to tell me that the reason one corner smells pissy is because the last guy who lived here pissed on it all the time. Also that he used to dump all kinds of things, including motor oil, onto the ground. Sweet. I try not to think about how much of that dirt I inhaled while I was moving it around.

So I raked it all level and put down two bags of cedar mulch (I think I will need two more). It's looking decent, I have to say. Like I might actually want to spend time in it. I can't wait until there are things growing in the beds.

While I was working my friend S from upstate came by to visit and gave me a fashion show with the free clothes she got from the church up the street. And she's lent me an 80's-tastic dress that I might wear to the prom I'm chaperoning next month.

I also got a genuine sunburn and have dirt embedded under my nails. It makes me happy.

*It deserves quotations because the whole thing is maybe 10'X10'. A mini "yard."