Chez StanMinn Communiqués: Kraken

"Who on Earth would ever buy that place? Hahaha!"

Spring 2010

Just a quick one to show some recent improvements we've made to the place on the outside.
I know the four of you reading this have seen what it's looked like over the course of the last few years, so I'm not going to need to go digging through old pictures to illustrate those changes, but included are some to give you an idea of what was here before we bought it (nothing.)
Nothing!
Really. Who does that?
How can you live in a place for 6 years and do absolutely nothing to the yard?
No landscaping? No bushes? Let alone some simple flower bulbs?
And not to mention the owners before that.
The only additional plant it looks like someone bothered to put into the ground was an apple tree.
Just one.
So there's no fruit.
Morons.
However, they actually did us a favor, because we now get a blank canvas to work with and it's been CAM's personal mission to eliminate as much grass as possible.
I did my part recently and I am in a world of hurt.
Yardwork sort of sucks, especially if you're old and not used to it.
One of the strangest and hardest things I've found about this whole business is my lack of an inspired, cohesive, grand picture.
Finally, after all these years imagining, vision-boarding, sketching, musing, the works- I am absolutely stuck.
But since we need to be in a cycle of continuous motion on some level, I've maintained at least a little forward progress yearly, mostly by just cutting away a bit of sod at a time.
CAM runs the garden show growing foodstuffs in the back, while I try my hand at prettying up the front.
I have not been gifted with the family agricultural genes, so it's hit and miss.
A few of the better looking additions were presents, but mostly I throw seasonal 1/2 off bulbs from Bi-Mart, sometimes with fertilizer, into the dirt and cross my fingers.
But what I needed to attend to sooner than later was the uneven area between the driveway and porch down to the shed and chicken coop- it's not even remotely level and a real mess during the wet season.
There's one spot in particular scheming to break my ankle at any given opportune moment.
Of course, there's nothing like a looming visit from one's mother which will also make you reassess your property's appearance.
Rexius is a great local company specializing in recycled yard materials delivered to your very door.
So this time around we called up for both mulch and gravel, a daunting pile I went to work tackling right away.
For 10+ days I shoveled scoops into the wheelbarrow and distributed it along the front after I'd cardboard mulch layered first: it broke me.
Here's a little tip- when you release the Gravel Kraken, be sure to wear a bandana or such over your nose and mouth.
I failed this simple safety measure and something evil went straight into my core, so when I collapsed at the end of the task, I didn't get up for over a week.
(Hello, acute bronchitis.)
Always a work in progress, this is how it looks thus far.