Ayesha in, laundry post out

I started off the morning by watering the entire yard, as our rain for the upcoming week seems to have disappeared. I seem to have only gotten about a days enjoyment out of my new hosemobile for the back yard, as while I was watering today I noticed that I suddenly had no water pressure. The small hose that came with the hosemobile, that I was using to connect it to the faucet had sprung a leak. I now have to try to locate another short hose. In other tool breakdown exictement today, I noticed that the one screw was loose on my pruners, then I suddenly noticed they no longer had any resistance. The spring had somehow come loose. Luckily I was able to find the spring digging in some dirt a little bit later. Tomorrow I am going to go to Target and pick up a pair of pruners (anything...) for 50% off.

I then decided to go work on clearing the area where I wanted to plant Ayesha. This of course turned into actually digging the hole and finally planting Ayesha. I also planted one of the "Elegens" hostas on the right side, as there was one already on the left side and then added the little Fire and Ice further left and to the front. All in all, I think it looks quite good.


I was about to go inside for lunch when I noticed the laundry pole that I had been working on digging out last week looked like it was leaning a bit. I was able to wiggle it around A LOT due to the recent rain and was able to enlarge the hole just by pushing the post around in a circle. So, it was back to this stupid post. I ended up digging, almost in the hole, with my trowel bringing up a bunch of red, clay mud. I was also able to confirm my suspicion that the post extended beyond the concrete. I got past the concrete and kept digging. Finally I found a place behind the post where there was already a big air pocket. At one point I thought I had found a stake that was holding the pole in place, but it turned out to just a piece of metal welded to the post. WHY WHY WHY...

Finally after more digging, I felt that I had freed most of the post. I leaned it as far over as it would go and using my leg for leverage, I pulled it out of the ground. I was actually quite surprised when I saw that it was moving out of the hole. Once I got it out of the hole, we laid it on the ground and I measured and photographed it. The post was set in 15" of concrete with an additional 15" of post extending into the ground past the concrete. All in all, the hole I dug was almost 3 FEET deep. YIKES.


Mom and I were able to get the post upright and with the two of us working and again using my leg as a fulcrum (physics folks!), we were able to get is out of the way and alongside the shack. Whenever the shack is torn down, the post can go away too. Right now it is out of my yard and out of the way. I can't believe how different the yard looks. I filled in the hole partway with the clay I had dug out today. Tomorrow I will fill it in more with the soil leftover from planting Ayesha. Tonight at Lowes I bought some seed and sod soil and that will be the top layer. Then I will spread some grass seed, cover it with straw, water and hope!



After all that it was finally time to eat and after 4 PM. There was a big bike race in town today and we got stuck several times in closed roads because of the race. Finally did get dinner, which was great as I had not eaten except for a bowl of Cheerios at 8:30 AM!