Spring arrived a little under a month ago, and we’re well into the transition between Winter and Summer. The trees have almost completely leafed out, and Monday evening I dragged out the lawn mower, tuned it up a bit and crossed my fingers it would start. Lo and behold it did, and I was able to mow the lawn which was in dire need of attention. (When the wife suggests hiring a local farmer with a brush hogger to do the work, you know it’s time)
I was actually surprised that it started, as I’ve been told (and read) many times over the years how quickly gasoline deteriorates when stored. Which of course makes me chuckle every time I watch a post-apocalyptic movie, where survivors are still using gasoline and diesel engines up to 20 plus years after the catastrophic event that wiped out most of humanity. Even with proper care, once you hit the 3 year mark, all bets are off. Without a fresh supply, your gas engine is just a nice paperweight.
Anyway, I digress (which I do quite often). Getting out into the yard has made me notice a lot of the things that need to be attended to now that we’re emerging from our self-imposed cocoons from the long winter. The landscaping that we had done last fall needs some touch ups, since the mulch has been moved around by various animals as well as the rain that falls periodically around here. The wife has been marveling at how good a job the guy did in some respects, moving some of the plants we already had to different spots, and regrettably the work he did on the Japanese Knotweed didn’t pan out the way we were hoping. He didn’t use any herbicide last year; he wanted to try digging it out as much as possible before going the glyphosate route.
It was sort of a pie-in-the-sky hope, since our neighbor on the other side of the fence has a crop of knotweed as well, but….he’s cultivating his. When he moved in, I tried to get him to see that while it’s a pretty ornamental and it does grow incredibly fast, it’s also invasive. And since I’d been tring to get rid of it for the better part of 15 years, it would be appreciated if he didn’t torpedo my efforts. Yeah, it fell on deaf ears. As soon as I noticed he was making an effort to get his to grow, I knew I was doomed. Even the landscaper gave it a whirl, gave him a printout from the local cooperative extension saying what I had mentioned, it’s invasive, it’s better not to have it in your yard, the whole bit. I swear if it wasn’t completely rude, the guy would have used the printout to light his cigarette.
Anyway, Spring is here, and things are growing. Mowed the lawn for the first time, and there’s things that need to be attended to, and there’s also some items with the house that need to be addressed as well. At least we’re no longer paying into a mortgage, so we have an extra $8-10k (USD) to use every year for upkeep. And when you have a house that’s 187 years old, there are always things that need attending to!
Happy Spring.