TheBanyanTree: A Saturday slightly north of BD

[Laura]

Our Saturday was much like yours, BD, but not quite so much hard work.  The
grass is just now starting to grow, but won't need mowing until next week I
suspect, so the husband lucked out for one more weekend.  The dog yard, by
virtue of the fact it gets more <ahem> "fertilizer" than the rest of the
yard, has grown a bit more, but we're gonna RoundUp* and mulch down the
whole shmeere anyway, so I just raked the mulch I had over the top of it and
left it alone.
 
We walked the people yard (dog free zone, as our emu boy would say), and
picked up the accumulated winter's trash and blown-in junk.  I noticed the
safety net around the trampoline was loose, so I got the tools out of the
garage and tightened up the bolts.  That, of course, required the boys to
jump on it and test it out.  That's a good thing, they both needed the
exercise.
 
I pulled some weeds out of the creeping juniper and tossed them out onto the
concrete drive to dry out before throwing them in the trash.  I pulled last
year's dried out day lily leaves off of the hydrangea, but chickened out
after I saw the new green buds on the stems, and covered it back up in case
we get a freeze again.  I really need to trim the excess foliage off  the
pampas grass, but that stuff is like juggling chainsaws - if you don't have
every bit of skin covered, you *will* end up bloody.  I always wait too long
because I'm afraid of the stuff, and I end up cutting off new growth.  That
s a bad thing, so I need to get my courage up and get it trimmed in the next
week or two.  
 
The neighborhood Bradford Pears are just starting to bloom, and the
forsythia are already waving lovely yellow arms at the sun.  The honeysuckle
have started putting out leaves, and the redbuds are in full bloom.  The
maple tree in my back yard has little red flowers on it.  Pretty soon I'll
be picking up tons of little helicopters off the porch and deck.
 
It was a perfect afternoon for being outside doing something, and my husband
and youngest son took advantage of the day to test out our new basketball
goal.  Our old one was a pole sunk into the ground in concrete. 
Unfortunately, whoever set the pole neglected to consider the effect of
rainwater accumulating in the bottom of the pole, and the darn thing rusted
through!  I ask you, who sets a metal pole directly into concrete without
leaving drainage at the bottom for the water to run out?  Sheesh.  Anyway,
it appears that you can't buy a pole without buying a backboard, so I sold
our backboard to a lovely couple with four sons who still had a pole, but
had broken the backboard.  Then we bought one of those kewl "portable"
basketball pole thingies.  It seemed to work fine during it's testing this
afternoon.  :)
 
After testing the basketball assembly, they decided that they needed to go
golfing, so they took off and did whatever it is that dads and boys do at
the driving range.  They seemed to have a good time, because they both came
home smiling.
 
Soon after that, we were scheduled to go get one of the boys' friends to
come over and play.  They had a wonderful time jumping on the trampoline,
and playing video games together when it got too chilly to be outside.  
This friend is also a homeschooled kid, and our homeschool group had a
middle school get-together this evening.  Pot luck, with lots of games and
socializing.  I took all three boys over, and the husband and I went out to
eat, and shopped a bit.  At the appropriate time, the friend's dad got him,
we gathered our own chicks back up, and we came home with a quick stop to
look for a new cool video game they had discovered at the get-together.  
 
We're finally home, and while it was a wonderful spring weekend day, I'm
ready for some R&R!  
 
Laura 
wolfljshus at insightbb.com
 
*RoundUp is a chemical herbicide.  Kills EVERYTHING.  If you don't want your plant dead, don't even wave the bottle at it.  I once tried to kill violets in the yard with it.  The violets got sick and died eventually, but the grass died for several inches all around the sprayed area.  So instead of having a few little non-grass weeds in the yard, I had great big brown spots.  <grumph>  It was my husband's idea.  I *like* the violets!  </grumph>