Outdoor Life

I hesitate to say this but it seems like springtime is finally fighting back against the overlong winter. Two weeks ago, Sam and I were able to get outside and clean the leaves off of my alleged back lawn. These leaves had blanketed the backyard since late last fall.

Back in the fall, Sam and I were able to do an initial cleanup of the yard, but between the late falling leaves and the early fallen snow, we barely touched it. The bulk of the leaves came down throughout the winter and now, with the snow finally having melted, we were able to rake up the mess of matted leaves left behind.

This past weekend, we managed to build on the previous weekend's progress. We did more raking and weeding and planting and we had the added bonus of help from Rachael. (All of this yard work  is in addition to putting together a new grill and having the first semi-cook-out of the season.)

On Tuesday, Sam and I fertilized the new plantings (as well as the old) and we planted another package of bulbs we found hidden in the house. All of this was good timing, for once, since the steady rain came in on Wednesday and continued through the better part of yesterday.

A quick survey of the garden last night showed that the chipmunks have been hard at work digging up, but leaving, some of the bulbs we planted. In a couple of cases though, they had made off with the bulbs entirely. Sam was not pleased with the chipmunk’s deliberate undermining of our hard work ( “What's the matter with them!!??" ”Why would they do that!!???)

I’m thinking this war has only just begun.