What A Beautiful Day

The Weather Channel online told us it was supposed to be rainy today, but it was really very pretty out.  A few random fluffy white clouds and really deep blue sky.  It was maybe a little chilly, but when you're working hard out there, it still feels pretty nice.  I got each plot marked off and they're a lot closer to the tree than I thought they were going to be (I guess I'm not that great at measuring) and it looks like we might not be able to get rid of that tree this year so I may need to plan around it better.  Shorten one plot and create another smaller plot somewhere else.

I really wish I could just get the tree cut down, because I'm not looking forward to picking up the crab apples that fall into my garden.  But we want to put up some fencing and do a few other things and even though our landlord is a really generous man, we can only ask him to pay for so much at once.  At least it's all improvements to the property that will benefit them if they ever decide to sell.  The house belonged to their parents, though, and Heather doubts they'll ever sell Grandma Stefen's home.  At least they're good enough to let us make all these changes!

Once I've got the plots figured out for certain, I'll take a picture before I do anything to it so you all can watch the progress from the very beginning.  Well, I guess not the very beginning, because I've already raked the area and pulled out all the weeds and chopped down a big ugly bush that was in the way, but still... close enough to the beginning, I guess!

I hurt all over, especially my ankles and lower back, but mentally I feel more like myself than I have in a very long time.  It's kind of weird because I always hated working in the garden when I was a kid.  Maybe it's like Rachel says and it's just the thrill of a new project, researching and learning and trying something new.  Unlike most of my projects, though, this one requires a lot more physical work than I'm used to and I think that might have something to do with it too.  It would really be nice if working this hard made me start losing some weight -- but I'm not going to think about that as a goal right now because I don't want the numbers on the scale to start taking over my excitement in the project.  It's just nice to think about.