Bachelor days have come and gone again

This past week, Bethany and the kids drove through Wyoming and back to Northern Utah to get to Bear Lake. The in laws had a big whooptie-doo together on the shores of the lake. Meanwhile, back at the ranch, I took time off from work and partied by myself at home. By partied, I mean I did back-breaking work in the yard and under the clothes washer.

So they went to the in law infestation Tuesday and got back Thursday evening. They brought with them a car full of sand, and a week's worth of laundry. They must have had fun.

Since they took the car, I was left defenseless and immobile, much like a newly born kangaroo. It is nice, though, to have the opportunity to not have to go anywhere.

As I mentioned, while they were away, I had plenty to do. I painted a section of wall behind the clothes washer that was just drywall. We had replaced a section of wall that had been damaged when one of our pipes started leaking last year and just hadn't finished the job. I also replaced the floorboard on the other side of the wall (through the wall). I mowed and trimmed the lawn.

But the big project for this week started when we had 7 yards of shredded bark dumped on our driveway Tuesday morning just after I was left to myself. We started a project last year that entailed spreading shredded bark over the planter beds in our yard. At that time we didn't have enough shredded bark to finish the job, and we didn't really do it right. We didn't put weed block down under the bark, so we still had to pull weeds every Saturday. Not this time. Tuesday morning through Thursday, I moved the existing bark out of the beds where it was, put down weed block, and then put that bark back.

When Beth and the kids got back, they couldn't park in the garage due to the huge pile of shredded bark in the driveway blocking the entrance. So the car had to stay on the street for a few nights. Friday and Saturday, Beth and I tackled the two big planter areas, I putting down weed block and she hauling the shredded bark from the driveway to the planter beds where I handily spread it about in a uniform pattern of random barkiness.

We'll get some pictures up of the end result. Sometimes it's hard to comprehend that this is my house and my yard. Most of the time it feels like I work as part of the maintenance crew at somebody else's home while the owner is away.

I should mention that shredded bark dust gets everywhere. I've been blowing shredded bark out of my nose this whole week. And sneezing all over the place.