smell the glove

I keep my work gloves in the shed, so they smell a bit musty. Must be very musty, since I can smell them while I'm working, and it's a windy day.

I wouldn't have bothered posting this, except that I thought the subject line was amusing. I'm sure you won't agree unless you get the reference.

Hell, even if you do recognize it, you probably won't think it's funny.

dirty day

The guy came to deliver my eight yards of dirt at about 10:00. I had him back into the back yard and dump it on/next to/around the chip pile. He put it exactly where I wanted it, but the truck left some ruts in the lawn. Not unexpected, since it's been fairly wet. If I'd realized they'd be that deep, I probably would have ordered more dirt.

It was a really big pile. I knew it would be, but it was still really big. I was starting to think maybe I ordered too much, like Cyn warned me. Or at the very least, wondering if it would take me two days to move around instead of one. I had a pretty good guess how much dirt I'd need, but when you see it all right there, you start to second guess yourself.

As soon as he left, I started digging. I put it into the wheelbarrow, moved it, dumped it and raked it out. I filled in a low spot on the far side of the patio. Then I went down the other two sides of the patio where it drops off steeply. I filled that in and made it a smooth slope. Then there was some kind of furrow in the yard on the other side of the shed. I didn't use as much dirt there as I expected. At that point, it looked like I really did order too much dirt. I filled in another low spot that I wasn't going to do unless it looked like I had enough dirt. Still had a lot, so I started to fill in the wheel ruts from the truck. I didn't realize until then how deep or extensive the damage was. So I filled much of that.

In late afternoon, about the time Cyn got home, I was down to the last bit, and trying to figure out just how much soil I needed for the garden. I had to figure out where the edges of the garden would be, and how much of this big pile would be needed to fill in the circle. I decided I still had just a little too much, so I took a few barrows out to fill in some more ruts.

This was a lot of work. Have you ever seen eight yards of topsoil? Or tried to move it all in seven hours? I bet I drank a gallon and a half of water. And I ate two big lunches. Fortunately, it wasn't too warm today - mid to upper seventies - and it was breezy. I wish I'd remembered the Gatorade earlier in the day.

After supper, I started putting the bricks down for the edging. I did part of a circle, then stood in it, trying to get a feel for what it would be like. It was so small! I had done a sketch or two, and there just wasn't room for what I needed. I pushed one side of the circle out. Then it started to look like I hadn't saved enough dirt.

The stuff that was there before the topsoil arrived, was mostly organics. It had been a pile of chips and dirt, and the chips were decomposing nicely. I didn't want to bury this stuff, so I had to dig some of it up. I'm putting a path through the middle, so I dug it all out from there, and moved the less fertile new soil into the hole. Being so late in the day, that was hard work.

And that's where I left off. Tomorrow, I need to place the bricks carefully, digging them in and setting a second layer on the low side. I want to get the plants in the ground, so I may have to buy some peat moss or something to amend it and give me more volume, if need be. I'd like to get flagstones down, but that would require making a trip to someplace that sells them. Not gonna happen this weekend. So after that, I just wait for my plants to arrive in the mail. And then wait until spring when I can get my hands on the rest.

You can see Cyn's post for pictures.