Whew! A Weekend of Work

I thought somehow that after retirement there wouldn't be these long days of work on the weekends. I planned to do gardening an hour or two a day instead of 6 or 7 or 8 hours a day on Saturdays and Sundays. But - the world slows down on weekends and the volume of emails demanding attention is much lower. And, Bill is home on weekends. He does the heavy work that I can't do, but asking him to do it requires that I participate - as project designer, consultant, gopher (go-fer), and that I basically keep working on something, whatever, for as long as I ask him to be out there.

Saturday was a gorgeous day. And we needed to get started on the new pond so that we could get the fish outside soon and so that we could have it done before stuff gets growing too fast. Digging a pond is spring work.

We started really on Friday evening, doing the weekend shopping and gathering supplies so that time wouldn't be wasted. Sat. am we started work around 8:30 or so, after reading the paper. The last rocks that I wasn't able to move were easy work for Bill that early in the game. As he did that, I dug up the plants that were too close to the edge to be saved, and the ones that might be in the way, making digging difficult. Some of them can take a week or so out of the ground if I take care of them in the greenhouse. Some really needed to be replanted elsewhere immediately. The clump of crocus, and the one of daffodils, needed immediate replanting. I also found homes for a divided clump of Stella d'Oro daylilies and a hosta that I think will likely do much better as three plants in a better location. I neglect division and relocation too much - and it is really the right time for that now.

Then we drained the pond and found the totally overgrown water lily at the bottom already sprouting new growth. We hauled it up in one huge piece and found a large enough plastic tub to submerge it in for awhile - it will not survive without being underwater. This week I need to research how to divide water lilies, I've never done that before.

Then we pulled out the plastic liner, and the under-layment and laid them out to dry. Some portions of these materials may be re-usable, though it was amazing how many roots had grown through the under-lining. Bill's work then was underway. While I looked around and found places to plant some of the rescued perennials, he dug the new pond. And then he tried to explain to me why having a level shoreline was so important - I am a difficult study when the subject is topography combined with physics, combined with the aesthetics of not seeing too much black plastic in the finished pond.

Some time in the middle to the work I noticed that the Juniper in the middle of the evergreen garden was buzzing with activity. A closer look revealed a flock of maybe 20 Cedar Waxwings devouring the ripe, overwintered juniper berries. They spend an hour or two then moved on.

We ran out of steam by about 2:30. But then noticed that the plastic tub holding the waterlily was leaking. A trip to Fleet/Farm to purchase a new tub was required. We intend to protect this one and not use it for holding dirt and being hauled around abusively. It only took a half hour or so to move the overgrown plant to its new home and fill the tub with water.

After all that, we dragged ourselves inside for a shower, a little dinner and relaxation and then dressing for the Fox Valley Symphony. It was wonderful, and sitting for two hours was just what the doctor ordered.

Sunday morning was different. We were expecting up to 4 inches of spring snow, and the weather website was still saying it would come. But it didn't. After reading the paper, and, I think, deciding that we didn't want to work any more on that blasted hole this weekend, I decided to go out and start moving all of the piles of cut bush that I had created last week over to the garden where it will eventually be burned. Bill came out and started snipping the water shoots off of the apple trees, but I stopped him and asked him to help me decide how to handle that this year. Should we just do a "buzz job", or should we do major surgery again? We decided on major surgery, and really cut them back. Very drastic, and it created a large pile of brush for the first pickup of the spring. I imagine that we will be cursed by the guys that have to pick up and shred that load. But the trees will be easier to deal with this year. And we may decide to cut them down entirely either this year or within a couple. Next time we'll plant dwarf fruit trees.

Seemed like a lot of work on Sunday too, though we were in by 1:00 or so for lunch and spent the rest of the day reading the papers and doing the laundry, etc.

Nice Weekend!