Before and After

Yesterday was a productive day as far as decisions are concerned.  I wanted to clean the weeds out of the new corner garden even though we probably will not be able to plant anything there for a while.  We need to have two trees removed from our front yard and then a literal truckload of black dirt delivered to re-contour the yard and to have enough black dirt to fill in the base of the corner garden.  In time, that will come. For now, though, I just needed to have the garden free of weeds.

The garden before we attacked it with shovels
and trowels.

The garden ready for clean topsoil and a
couple of beautiful plants.

Today we have lots of small errands to complete.  We talked more yesterday about pouring a patio/shed foundation and came to the same conclusion we had reached earlier.  If we want the slab poured the way we know it should be done -- complete with rebar on a well-graded base -- we still have to get it poured all at one time, and that means calling in a professional with a truckload of newly-mixed concrete.  So that project is once again on hold.

And that is OK.  We have lived this long with the back yard as it is, and we can continue to do so.  Maybe tackling the trees out front, the yard in the front and back as we distribute a couple of tons of black dirt, and a new little garden in the corner will be enough.  We still will have to see if our money will cover the materials for us to lay a paver-block sidewalk.  That, too, must wait until the trees are removed.

So where does that leave us?  With time to start to enjoy Florida.  We have projects here that we want to complete before Christmas, we have small festivals we want to attend, we learned of a local weaver's group that we may join, and the temperature and dew point both have finally dropped enough that we may be able to ride our bikes or enjoy other outdoor travel and activities.  Isn't that what a person is supposed to do in retirement?