leaves mulched, daffodils planted

This morning Mark, who works with us, came over with his mulching mowers to do something about the leaves. After the bag-a-rama last year, the much quicker and easier and more environmentally friendly mulching was worth every penny. All the leaves in the front yard mulched in really well. I just had to pick up some more catalpa leaves from the foundation beds.

The back yard went really well too. The entire area where I tried to grow grass along the side of the house is currently mulched catalpa leaves. Maybe it will help feed the dirt! I am thinking that in the spring I might put a layer of that seed starting soil down there and try again to grow grass.

Everywhere else looks great as well and as a bonus I got my grass cut as well. After Mark left, I worked getting some of the leaves off my beds where I have pansies and doing a little bit of weeding. I also decided to finally dig up the left yew and try potting it up to see if it could be saved. The roots around the outside edge seemed to not be in good shape, but the roots in the center and the bottom of the rootball look okay to me. I also cut back a few of the browned out branches to see if I could find any green wood. Not sure if I did or not. I am thinking about taking it in to Underwoods tomorrow to see if they have any suggestions or ideas.

I have been thinking a lot lately about the shack in the back yard, and my current thinking is that it might be able to be repaired. I wanted to know more about what I was really dealing with, so while I had Bobbie's crowbar, I went out to the shack and did a little demo on the inside. The wall that faces Curtis's yard and where there is a hole in the roof pretty much totally need to be replaced. A few of the framing boards might be okay, but the bottom boards are rotted. Along the front, most of the framing seems okay, but the bottom boards are rotted again. The back and side that face Norman, where the root is intact, seem to have good usable framing. I will have Neil give me a better opinion when he comes out, but now he can get a better look at what we are actually dealing with. My mom said it might be easier to just tear the whole thing down and rebuild it from scratch. I can see the advantage to that as well. If so, I might make it slightly smaller, maybe 10 X 12. And of course, Bobbie's greenhouse idea did get me thinking and I need to research that clear plastic stuff she likes. I was thinking that the small back section could be turned into a greenhouse, with the siding and roof being totally that plastic stuff, except probably the door. If wouldn't be heated, but it might work.

Since we had a little bit of rain, I figured it was time to try to plant the daffodils. I started out using the bulb hound, but at least in the area I was planting in, it was easier going with my trowel. I got all 80 (minus a few bad ones) bulbs planted, mostly along the road side of the ditch in front of the house. I would like to get some more daffodils to plant along the property line with Curtis's house.

I checked out the water heater hut and it seemed dry today, so my current plan is to paint it tomorrow morning and maybe try to get a second coat on in the afternoon. I think the OSB will probably take MANY coats to cover. We went to Big Lots today and finally got a box to put the peat moss in, so that is now under the house and out of my kitchen! I wasn't thinking about painting then, or I would have gotten a few cheap rollers to use on the water heater hut. I may need to run out to Lowes, depending on what I have in my painting box under the house.

I used my shark floor sweeper on the carpet again today and it does work well, but there are places/areas where I just really need suction, so I decided I really needed a dust buster type of thing. This evening we went to Kohls and got a Shark pet hand held power-vac. It has to charge for almost a day, but I hope it works well. As it was Black Friday and Kohls was having major sales, we also got some more things to help stay warm. Mom got a down alternative comforter for her bed and I got a microfiber throw for the papasan chair and a microfiber blanket for my bed. They also had some really neat 8 X 10 picture frames that I got for some more garden photos. Need to decide where I'm going to put them, then send the photos to Walgreens for printing.

It is currently 35 outside. BRRRR! It seemed much colder this afternoon that it was in the morning, too cold for me to do any work outside. We are supposed to get down to 29 tonight, so I hope it warms up enough that I will want to be outside to paint tomorrow. And I hope that the paint I got last year and left outside under the tarp all year is still good as well!