Our neighbor Brian loves to wander over for a chat. Great guy, and he’s often bearing gifts like freshly picked morel mushrooms or homemade jam, but get him going, and suddenly five minutes turns into an hour. We’re usually in the midst of yard work and have to hit the pause button.
His wife, Linda, is good at keeping him in check. Recently, she came by after he’d been jawing on for a good 20 minutes. “Honey, unlike us, Team MarTar only has two days to get things done,” she said (they’re retired). “We should let them get back to work.”
Whew. Linda gets us.
Two days really isn’t long enough when you’ve got such a big backyard to tend to. Especially when you’re creating a new garden centerpiece. Which is why holiday weekends like this one are so welcome. That third day feels like a real treat!
Not that we spent all three days in the backyard. The weather certainly saw to that.
It’d been a few weeks since we’d done anything fun on the weekend (I had to remind Tara that shopping at Target and Menards in Janesville does not count), so Saturday, we set about changing that. We drove to Madison and hit up the Dane County Farmers Market, B-Side Records on State Street, and Memorial Union Terrace, where we kicked back with beers and appetizers for a couple of hours. The sunshine and low 70s were bliss.
Typically, we reserve Saturday evenings for cards. But I felt like shaking things up for a change, so I suggested Island Bar & Grill on the Rock River. This is the same place where Tara flipped me off when I was innocently taking pics a few weeks ago. It’s a great hangout, and there was live music and a tiki bar, so we whiled away a couple more hours there. The Island Margarita certainly helped. Why pay $8 for a cup when you can have a bucket for $14? That’s simple economics, folks.
The band wrapped up at 7 p.m., so after finishing supper there – they had a prime rib special, something I’m always down for – we headed home. Great way to kick off the holiday weekend, and we still had two full days for yard work.
Only we didn’t, because Sunday, it rained much of the day. That didn’t stop me from moving many wheelbarrows’ full of black dirt from the driveway to the beds. Luckily we’d covered the pile of dirt with a tarp, because the few exposed areas were a wet, soggy mess. Later that evening, yet another heavy thunderstorm rolled through, accompanied by yet another Tornado Warning. Geez Louise, this is getting ridiculous. There was a confirmed tornado that touched down near County Road N between Fort Atkinson and Whitewater, which if you look at a map is distressingly close to us. Just a couple of miles actually. Yikes.
I’d skipped mowing the grass last weekend, which turned out to be a big mistake. We had over 3″ of rain this past week, so the yard was starting to resemble a jungle. Hopping on the John Deere and getting it cut was the first order of business this morning.
(Err, second order of business. I did make myself a Bloody Mary earlier.)
Next up? The garden beds. When we bought our property last year, we inherited what can only be described as an overgrown mess. There were existing beds, but between the Parkinson’s, Lyme Disease, and West Nile – talk about a triple whammy! – poor Dick could no longer keep up. Brian told us, during one of his marathon talk sessions, the garden hadn’t been tended to in years. You could tell.
We got to work earlier this spring clearing all that out. We removed the raised beds, which were basically rotten; took down a couple of small trees; and dug or hacked up all that overgrowth. Including quite a bit of poison ivy, which is the gift that keeps on giving.
We’re not done yet, but after today, the whole area is looking a thousand times better. Just wait ’til there’s actual tomatoes and shit in there. I just asked Tara if she’s going to plant them next weekend, and she replied, “F*ck, I hope so!”
Subtlety has never been one of my wife’s personality traits.
So, every muscle in my body aches like a mofo after spending seven hours of hard labor – remind me never to murder someone and end up on a chain gang! – but we got a lot accomplished today, thanks to a break in the weather.
Honestly though, I’m kinda looking forward to going back to work tomorrow so I can sit on my ass at CheeseGov. Government work, at least, doesn’t require muscles and sweat.
Mark My Words 
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